Shilpa Shetty Row

So the 24-hour news channels have got another story to rant about!!

Shilpa Shetty is being victimised by her housemates in the British reality show 'Big Brother'. They are tormenting her. She is being made to suffer by all kinds of filthy words and the rude behavior against her just because of the fact that she is a non-white (or an Indian). Almost all the newspapers and news channels are broadcasting the story with full vigor.

I fully support the news channels on this matter for airing the story continuously. Its pretty natural that when some one from your own country is being victimized outside the country, it will provoke strong emotions from the chauvinist citizens of the country. And that is exactly what is happening in case of Shilpa. We have already seen many such incidents in the past. Agreed that there are other more important stories to broadcast (like the skyrocketing of inflation Its touching an all time high 6.12 percent in the last week), but this story is also no less important. After all it’s a matter of our dignity to the outside world. We should leave no stone unturned to make them believe that they cant treat an Indian in the same way they have been doing in the past. We must not go even a single step back in expressing our anger in such cases.

Now the question here is, are British really racist? Is Britain a country where racism still prevails? I do not think so. I would like to put some points in this regard. Firstly, based upon the behavior of a single citizen of a country, we cannot label a country racist on the whole. It was the organizers of the show, who themselves are British, who invited Shilpa Shetty to participate in the show. It shows that they have full respect and admiration for the actors from Bollywood. Otherwise they would never have invited some one from Bollywood to participate in a show, which is watched only in Britain. Hence if we see a racist person in Jade Goody (the lady who tormented Shilpa the most), we must say that the organizers are just the opposite breeds.

Having said that, I must add that it’s very natural to treat any thing, which is western or related to white, superior than others. This feeling prevails not only in the west but also in the east. We all want our kids to be fairy white, we all want to live like west, eat like west and what not. In all aspects of life we are ready to go to any extent in aping the west. We cannot think of the westerners to have a much different mind set. They too harbor a similar feeling. They too think that they are superior to non-whites. The extent to which some one thinks in this way may vary from person to person. But it definitely exists among all.

Jade Goody is an example of a lady whose mind is full of such superiority complex. The way she was shown shouting at Shilpa shows her attitude towards a person of non-white origin. And now that she has been thrown out of the house of Big Brother, it is evident that even in her own country a majority of people do not support and share the same feeling as hers towards a non-white person.

Another question that suddenly crops up in our mind at this moment is how much are we justified in protesting against the racial slur against Shilpa? In today’s newspaper, I read that some people believe that as there is a great deal of racism in our own country against our own people in the name of caste and creed, we have no right to object against the racism being practiced against some one. But in my opinion, something that is wrong is always wrong, in our own country or anywhere else. If it is wrong to discriminate against some one based upon his caste, creed, skin color or origin, it should be condemned everywhere. we should not accept such behavior in any part of the world.

Finally, the eviction of Jade Goody from the house makes me believe that a majority of people on this earth share the same thought as me.

Jai Hind!!!!!