Is Racism against Indians just a case of Hinduphobia? [Part 1]

The recent spate of racist sentiments in Singapore against Indians, is not new. While many may of us may shrug it off with the typical Indian nonchalance and claim these are just words and actions of a few, these have very real consequences on our material well-being. In fact, a Hindu male is 10x less likely to get a call back for a job than a Chinese female. Housing portals have hundreds of such listings where they state “No Indians allowed”. You could be a CEO of SGX’s most successful company for the last 10 years and your credentials will be called into question in Parliamentary sessions.

While we may want to ride on the global narrative that racism is rife, and that this has nothing to do with religion, we contend that it stems from Hinduphobia. What is Hinduphobia? It is simply an attitude or a mode of thought which is informed by and which reinforces the colonial view: that Hindus are followers of primitive cults and that their civilization is replete with irredeemable ills. Until this primary belief is challenged, the other expressions of racism will never go away.

While you may never have been explicitly mocked in your face for “worshipping cows and snakes”, it would have been more subtle; you would have had been told to “go eat grass” on the Vratam days that you’re vegetarian, told that your Pottu is the best way to make you explode or accused of being an idolator or casteist as in the video above. We might characterize it as racism , but being vegetarian, observing fasts and murti-puja are Hindu practices.

This colonial worldview has sadly persisted well into the modern era, prompting crude depictions of Hindus as demon worshippers in popular culture such as the movie Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Singaporeans are not spared from this, and implicit in this bias is that nothing of good can come out from Hinduism. It takes a large amount of mental gymnastics to dissociate modern movements in Mindfulness and Yoga from its Hindu roots.

To understand Hinduphobia, we must first delve into its origins. The Hinduphobia phenomenon is rooted in the Eurocentric theory of historical progress, where human society is conceived as moving through several successive stages, ascending from polytheism to monotheism before finally culminating in scientific rationalism. It is a notion which disregards other concepts of progression and which dismisses civilizations that do not fit into this mould as superstitious and barbaric. So when this skewed discourse was applied to India during the colonial period, quite naturally, a highly racist and pejorative narrative then arose, in which “Pagan Hindoo” society was condemned as backward, morally inept, and lacking the scientific temperament of Europe. As a result, the White colonialists thought it their moral duty to help Hindus develop a capacity for reason, blatantly ignoring the fact that India had no necessity to usher in what they thought would be the Indian equivalent of the Age of Reason.

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Dharmic creeds are experiential — they do not command their seekers to rely upon authority, but rather their own sensory-experience and intellect, for knowledge (which explains why Hinduism boasts a myriad of concepts ranging from monism to polytheism; from monotheism to atheism). Europe, on the other hand, was under religious tyranny until the 17th century, where any idea or belief that defied central authority was condemned as heresy; in this context, the Age of Reason can be seen as a necessary development arising out of uniquely European conditions and therefore, unnecessary for India.

The rise of 19th century scientific racism further fuelled Hinduphobia as many European Indologists incorporated dangerous racial theories into their scholarship, thereby painting Hinduism — with its assumed irrationalities — as a mark of the Hindus’ racial inferiority. An example of Indological racism would be the words of famous 19th-century German Indologist, Hermann Oldenberg, who coldly remarked: “Buddhism has disappeared from its Indian homeland. What has triumphed is the power we call “Hinduism”. Its gods are misshapen, wild, cruel, lascivious. Mixing with the dark-skinned aborigines transforms the invaders, causes the Aryans to turn into the Hindu.”.

Oldenberg was certainly a man of his time; for it was not uncommon in the colonial period — and even today, to a certain extent — to deride Hinduism as dangerous degeneracy which could potentially cause even the superior Western civilization to fall. Thus, the colonial administration of India made it part of its civilizing mission to enforce capitalism and European-style education on Indian society so that it could converge with that of Europe. In a way, colonial schemes to ‘civilise’ Hindu natives were tied to the strong urge to alleviate white supremacist anxieties about civilizational downfall.

Now, some may argue that colonialism has ended for good and therefore, Hindus have no reason to feel victimised anymore. However, three contemporary examples below show that the spectre of the “White Man’s Burden” lingers still, controlling Hindu narratives and brushing aside our perspectives of our own faith.

(To be continued in Part 2.)

Contributed by Vidya, edited by SgHindu team

Vidya is passionate about dismantling colonial narratives of Hinduism and Hindus. She hopes to bring to more nuanced perspectives on issues affecting/concerning Hindu society.