A Night of Chaos Across the World:-
There was illegal fireworks in Edmonton and Canada that caused two fires, one home that burnt down. All across the UK, police and fire departments were receiving phone calls late into the night about irresponsible and illegal fireworks. In the US and New Jersey specifically, the police had to come in and hose down a street where celebrations happened well into the night. Up until now, the Indian community was deeply respected for its discipline, its hard work, and its success. But has that started to change? A few Indians are now making headlines and all for the wrong reasons? Illegal fireworks in Canada, noise complaints in London, streets littered in New Jersey. It brings us to ask the question today, have NRIs taken it too far? And it isn’t just about fireworks. When there’s irresponsible, you know, behavior of this kind, it damages not just public and private property, it damages the reputation of Indians overseas all over the world, especially the ones who have worked very very hard to build that reputation for decades.
A Community Under Scrutiny:-
There is a cyclone building over the Bay of Bengal, but we have the wind flying across the peninsula to us as well. And these are not isolated cases that are almost being done by almost always being done by small groups of sections of maybe new arrivals of NRIs who might not realize what’s normal in India is not okay in the rest of the world. So bursting firecrackers in the street or blocking a street for a for a barat or a procession is not okay in other parts of the world.
“What’s Normal Back Home Isn’t Normal Abroad”:-
So fundamentally in my opinion there will be three major outcomes of this behavior and we’ve seen people littering the rivers littering the streets we’ve seen people blocking streets with processions making a lot of noise you know causing a lot of inconvenience what will happen if this continues when it creates first of all tension within the diaspora itself it will divide groups of NRIs into two groups one the older people or the people who’ve settled earlier, people who’ve lived there for decades, who built a reputation of being responsible, of being honest taxpayers, who are now saying you are making it harder for everybody else because you are damaging that reputation. Some have even written online that if you live here, respect the laws. If you’re going to behave like this, then please go back home, back to India. The second, it feeds into racist and racial stereotypes. local residents will see noise, they’ll see litter, they’ll see chaos, they won’t say somebody did this, they’ll say Indians did this and they’re not going to be able to tell the difference between the kind of Indians who follow the rules and the ones who don’t. To them, everybody looks the same.
The Three Consequences of Irresponsible Behavior:-
Every hardworking Indian professional or new student who goes there trying to fit in will be given the same label. In fact, unfortunately, there was another incident in the UK that just came up in the last 24 hours of a woman who was raped or s*xually assaulted because of her skin color. Woman of Indian origin because of her skin color. So, this sort of behavior will actually make people more angry towards us. And third, it could even impact immigration policy. Now, every government keeps tabs on social behavior. Who’s causing trouble? Who’s flouting the the rules? the certain communities start showing up more often in police records and council complaints. The backlash comes in the form of stricter visa scrutiny and lower public tolerance for immigrants. The two Australian women cricketers who were molested in Indor on the streets of Indor and in response there was one member of the BJP who said they should have been more careful. They should have gone out with somebody else. They should have gone out with security. They can’t This was in the morning in broad daylight. They shouldn’t have just crossed the street and gone to a cafe on their own.
Global Perception and Its Ripple Effects:-
And a lot of people said if this is how people of this country behave, why are they being allowed to immigrate to Australia? So when one member of our community behaves badly, it tarnishes the image of the entire community and these are just comments and we can choose to ignore the comments but it builds up over a period of time and I think that that is what is actually you know sort of building up right now. So the intention might actually just be to celebrate our culture but the impact would be far more serious. It can affect how the next Indian is treated at an airport. or how the next Indian is treated at work by their boss or by their colleagues or by their neighbors in their own neighborhood. , we’ve already seen, you know, in parts of the UK or Ireland, there have been cases of racially motivated attacks. So, the question that then starts to come up is who’s actually doing this? A lot of the NRI groups that are currently having discussions on Reddit and WhatsApp are saying these are recent arrivals, people who have just come in temporarily or they’re visiting, they’re on temporary or H1B visas, they have not taken the trouble to sort of know the local laws, they’re celebrating. So basically a lot of times we see that these are groups of people. So when large groups of people come together, it’s very easy to give into this. We’re just having fun and to sort of not be so cognizant about the impact it’s having on the people around you.
Why Is This Happening?:-
But either ways what is the impact that that is having on the whole community? Is there a fix? one you know one suggestion is daspora associations and we know they exist u you know in different cities in different states in different countries. They can plan cleanups and actually do more social work to make themselves more visible. They can get permits for celebrations. They can educate newcomers on what is allowed and what is not allowed. better communication. Local authorities, Indian consulates should share clear guidelines around festival time on what is available, what is okay and what is not okay. And as individuals, every Indian going overseas should ask, would it be okay if a different community did this in my country? And if not, maybe it’s not okay to do it in that country either because cultural pride is one thing.And to be pride proud of your country and your food and your clothes and whatever it is. But there’s a dotted line at at at which point it starts to endanger other people. It starts to inconvenience other people or just annoy other people.
The Larger Question: Civic Sense and Cultural Awareness:-
None of these things are okay. We have to also stop for a second to ask ourselves as Indians, do we have enough what we call civic sense or empathy for others? Are we teaching enough of that to our children? Is that why so many of us are going overseas without a clearer understanding of how to behave? , and it’s not just mean the loud firecrackers, the dangerous firecrackers that are causing fires is just one point of it, but it starts off at people who speak loudly on trains and in airports. people who are disrespectful to public spaces, who litter, who you know wash their hands in public spaces or dp food into corners, who are not careful about segregating their garbage, who are not careful about rivers and lakes in other countries because we haven’t been careful about rivers and lakes in our own country. So where are we missing really as a country? Why are we missing that civic sense? Why do we not care about public spaces? Why do we not care about our own property public property like we care about our own property? These are questions that we have to ask.
A Call for Reflection:-
But right now, given the fact that we’ve had so many conversations on this channel already about racial attacks, about u you know the environment for Indians becoming more and more hostile, maybe it’s time for Indian communities to sort of ask what can be done to curb this.Indian who lives overseas what you feel about this. Is this something that you witnessed and how you think it can be curbed? And if you’re an Indian who lives in India right now, let’s ask ourselves how we can actually teach better so that people who go overseas do a better job of representing.