SunCorp

The photograph said it: Men and women, seemingly belonging to the educated middle class, mimicking monkeys as Andrew Symonds walked out to bat in Mumbai on Wednesday. Four spectators, including a woman, have since been arrested on charges of harassment and misbehaviour. BCCI officials have sought to underplay the incident. Prior to the Mumbai incident, spectators in Vadodara targeted Symonds in a similar manner and that city’s police chief, without a trace of irony, said they were invoking Lord Hanuman. For the lord’s sake, let’s not be apologetic about rotten eggs in our midst.
    Of course, not all Indians are racist, but there are many who openly display racial prejudices. They should be told in clear terms that there is no place for such behaviour in a liberal democracy. Australian bloggers have said they will take the cue from our fans when India tours Australia in December this year. That too is unacceptable, because racism, whatever the provocation, is uncivilised. Cricket Australia officials should take the threat seriously, since the South African as well as English teams had accused Australian fans of racism in the past.
    Is there any reason to believe that the racist acts in Vadodara and Mumbai were simply hostile antics, as BCCI chief Sharad Pawar has claimed? No, especially since the target all the time was Symonds, who is of West Indian origin. Yes, he was smashing Indian bowlers all over the park. But so did Matthew Hayden and Ricky Ponting. Even bowlers like Mitchell Johnson and Brad Hogg, who exposed the limitations of Indian batsmen, were not harassed. We wonder if the boors who saw a monkey in Symonds realised they were insulting one of the finest one-day players of all time, an all-rounder any team in the world would be proud to have in their ranks. The real ape — though apes may object to this — is the one who has not evolved into understanding that everyone has a right to respect and dignity irrespective of ethnicity and skin colour.
    Indian cricket fans are changing. They increasingly resemble football fans in European stadiums. Cricket, for them, is a carnival where ribaldry and raucousness have a free run. As long as it’s clean fun, it’s fine. But these fans are representative of a society which secretly admires fair skin. Just look at our matrimonial adverts. Many sociologists and political activists also say caste prejudice among Indians is nothing but racism. So, let us not be in denial, but recognise the malaise.