In exactly one week, on the 15h of August, India celebrates 60 years of independence from the UK. Incidentally, Pakistan celebrates the same occasion on the 14th, though in my view this is a cause for sorrow and not for joy.

I feel a distinction between being Indian-British and being a descendent of Indians. The latter, to me, can be a source of pride, whereas the former has been a source of shame since I became a thinking being.

I have elaborated enough on my disgust at British Asians already. I shall take only a little time to point to a recent survey that reveals that 44% of young British Asians would only marry somebody of their own race, compared to 9% of young whites. 56% would never date somebody who was black, just because they're black. 44% think homosexuality is immoral, compared to 8% of whites. These are the kind of backwards attitudes to race and sexuality that Western Europe abandoned half a century ago. I suspect that the true figures are in fact higher; people often lie on surveys due to social desirability. Certainly the number of mixed-race wedding between Asians and non-Asians is far less than 56%. What also disturbs me is that white society doesn't seem to know about this. Asians are completely respectful and polite to other races on the surface. It's only when you pierce into their home life that the ideas of Asian cultural/racial supremacy reveal themselves. Incidentally, this is why I have absolutely no sympathy for Asians who claim to be victims of racism. They cannot demand respect and equality if they are not willing to consider whites and blacks as respectful equals.


Okay, that was a bit of a rant. Back to topic - India. My view of being, in some way, an Indian, is completely different towards my attitude to being a British India. It is, of course, always a temptation to see one's ancestral homeland, as one's current homeland, through rose-tinted glasses, but I think that India really is one of the most wonderful nations on the Asian continent. It is far, far easier to commend India than China or Pakistan or Myanmar. That said, it has a long way to go. It is far from what it could be. India arouses feelings of joy and pride, and despair and shame in me all at once.

India is the nation that destroyed Western colonialism, and of this I am immensely proud. At the same time, a million people were murdered in religious genocides. 60 years on, some refugees, fleeing after finding themselves in the 'wrong' country, still live in refugee camps in India. It is a secular democracy, but religious opinion shapes politics, as indeed it must in religious democracies. It was a nation founded on ideals of socialism, where communists can form local governments, but it is now being consumed by a capitalism that is darker and far more putrid than even the West has dreamed up - a capitalism built on caste. I feel that one of the best indicators of a country's modernity is its attitude to homosexuality, both legally and on the street. Gay emancipation is the great civil rights struggle of our time. India still considers homosexual acts a crime.


My problem, perhaps, it that there are two Indias, one in which I have pride and one of which I am ashamed. There are the educated elite, secular and open-minded if not outright atheistic, whom I admire. Of their ilk is Jawaharlal Nehru, the man who, with Gandhi, liberated India. With him stand the great figures of Indian life - writers, actors, and academics. Meanwhile, the uneducated masses hold detestable views about caste, religion, race and homosexuality. In a country where education is so poor, the tenet that people are stupid holds truer than ever.


I am still proud, in the context of the rest of Asia, of India. It is a beacon of light in a sea of tyranny. But I much prefer Europe. I'm not sure whether India will get better of worse as time goes on. I think the laws on homosexuality will be repealed in the next couple of decades. Society will get richer. But the caste system looks set to continue for a long time yet, and with the embracing of capitalism comes a disgusting rich-poor divide. *shrugs*