Being political Hindus in the West #6: Multiculturalism in the West and the Hindus
18 Dec 2022 18:00:00
Multiculturalism! A bit of a mouthful if we’re being honest. A word tossed by western politicians to a great extent. Politicians from the right of the center to the extreme left cherish it and the extreme right admonishes it. The Hindu community in the west is a part of this larger multiculturalism process.
It is undoubtedly because of Multiculturalism that Diwali also gets celebrated in the White House and in #10 Downing street even before a Hindu (Rishi Sunak) occupied it. But is Multiculturalism all positive? Does Multiculturalism have any drawbacks? Is it ok to question Multiculturalism or does the mere act of questioning makes one an extreme right-wing supporter? And can every incident of violence between communities be blamed on Multiculturalism? In this article, we will try to find out the answers to these questions.
According to the Britannica definition, “Multiculturalism is the view that cultures, races, and ethnicities, particularly those of minority groups, deserve special acknowledgment of their differences within a dominant political culture.” It further goes on to say, “the acknowledgment can take the forms of recognition of contributions to the cultural life of the political community as a whole, a demand for special protection under the law for certain cultural groups, or autonomous rights of governance for certain cultures. The next part addresses specifically to the colonial past of many western countries and slavery of Africans and slaughter of Natives in the case of the USA, “Multiculturalism is both a response to the fact of cultural pluralism in modern democracies and a way of compensating cultural groups for past exclusion, discrimination, and oppression.”
It is this idea of multiculturalism, that has resulted in the massive waves and number of immigrants being accepted, especially in Europe. Of course, it can’t be ignored that this idea is an academic rationale to invoke White/colonial guilt among the European population in various countries, to support the immigration policies of various countries, which required cheap labor for their own economic interests. Having said that, the fact that it worked and paved the way for large-scale immigration can’t be ignored. The orthodox societies of Europe with religious zeal, antisemitism, xenophobia, puritanism, and in the case of the USA, the glorious idea of manifest destiny to add to the rest, have come a long way to accept an African American guy whose father was a Muslim, as their President in case of the USA and a Hindu PM in the UK. Even in the rest of Europe Racism, Religious zeal, and antisemitism have reduced to a level never seen before. Multiculturalism has played an important part in that.
But there are some issues with this concept as well. The recent riots and deaths in the aftermath of Morocco’s defeat against France are a glaring and latest addition to it. The immigrants coming to Europe after the Syrian refugee crisis of 2012-13 have ignited this situation to a large extent as well. The countries like Germany, Sweden, Denmark, and the Netherlands which accepted a large number of refugees are now facing massive social tension due to these decisions. Social activist and ex-politician, Ayan Hirsi Ali has written about this in her book, Pray, where she talks about the effects of open door policy on the refugees. She talks about how several cities in France and Germany now have ‘No-Go Areas’ (Not a novelty to us in India sadly.) She mentions the New year’s mass rape incident in the German city of Cologne, Hamburg, Stuttgart, and many other cities in 2015-16. She also refers to the ‘No-Go Areas’ of Paris, Lyon, and Nice in France. The interesting aspect that she has noted in her book is that an overwhelming majority of these refugees are Men aged between 15-45. These men live away from their families in faraway lands in relative prosperity which they never witnessed in their homeland which results in a massive hike in criminal activities.
The multiculturalism aspect of this issue comes in when many courts grant bail and treat such perpetrators differently, citing that, “it was part of their culture and we should respect their culture without enforcing our cultural values on them.” There have been several cases where rape victims, molestation victims, and pedophiles were granted bail citing cultural differences. This kind of differential treatment of others generates even more xenophobic sentiments within the respective societies. Which in turn gives rise to the Far Right political parties. Sadly, in such situations, the Hindu community gets stuck in a rock and a hard place. Where Hindus get labeled as ‘Brown people’ and get blamed for all the crimes by those refugees and other immigrants and yet later inevitably vote with those communities to keep the far Right away from power. In the next article, we will discuss, the grooming gangs and the implicit understanding behind Multiculturalism in the West.