'We have the same kind of prejudices towards the African Americans and other minorities'
THE UNWELCOME INDIAN
Message Board views are edited slightly
Name: Bhupendra Sinha
Email: bsinha@bigfoot.com
Message: Hi.
Lot of people on this forum complained that it is because of our Indian govt that Indians as people need a facelift and what not. The point is we as INDIANS have failed to rock together as a nation? Isn't it? Please do not blame the govt. BTW if u carefully compare the contentious (tu-tu-main-main) nature of our politicians and ourselves, you would be surprised to learn that we all are SAME.
Simply stated we are BEST SPINELESS LACKEYS in the world.
thnx
Name: v mani
Email: vijimani@satyamonline.com
Message: Indian govt is perceived as weak abroad. Also Indians are perceived as dishonest and crooked.
To change this perception
a) Indian govt. must act firmly and effectively
b) Indians living abroad, Indians visiting foreign lands and Indians doing import/export business must demonstrate honesty and goodwill
Name: Hemant Koorich
Email: hkoorich@hotmail.com
Message: I strongly feel that the countries which express friendship for us, particularly the USA and the UK, favor our enemies more than us and their portrayal of being our friends is mere facade. In reality they are jealous of us, of our immense talent which is quite evident in the field of software and medical profession to name a few and try to come across as our friends just because THEY NEED US AND OUR MASSIVE MARKETS and not the other way around. The reason they are able to get away with whatever they do to us is because we, the Indians, are very selfish and short sighted and often forget things very easily. Let us wake up to the situation and for heaven's sake our government should come across as a body CAPABLE OF TAKING AND IMPLEMENTING DECISIONS be it in the country or matters related to outside it. These two countries, the UK and USA should be made to realise the mistake in no uncertain terms and unless we have a strong government run by capable individuals and not insipid bureaucrats, our citizens will continue to suffer.
Name: Shailendra Khurana
Email: shailendrak@yahoo.com
Message: I think this was a ridiculous move by the US. There could have been other ways of enquiring the professionals.
At least they should have some professional ethics. I really would like the Indian govt. to take an action about this act.
Name: Bharat Deshi
Email: bharatdeshi@indiatimes.com
Message: After getting your basic education in India, you ran away to another country in search of greener pastures. Unlike the resident Indians you did not serve India that has fed you till you ran away to the USA. Don't give me the usual crap that you didn't find a suitable job here. Your prime motive was money, lucre & luxury. No sooner you land up in the USA, you NR Americans are ready to criticize your mother-country and all its shortcomings at the drop of a hat. Now that your host country has hand-cuffed you, bear it with a pinch of salt -- why do you expect the Government of India to help you? Serves you right for deserting your country.
Name: Sirish Venkatagiri
Email: sirishcv@hotmail.com
Message: Successful Indians (eg, Sabeer Bhatia) should return to India for good and with their entrepreneurial zeal, ideas, (and money!), transform the landscape.
The return of successful entrepreneurs to India after returning their US citizenship will be a wake up call to INS (what do they mean by proposing to collect $95 from international students?!).
Name: Partha Gogoi
Email: partha_gogoi@hotmail.com
Message:After going thru all the posted reactions of our esteemed users, most of us seem to straight away attack our government for lack of COURAGE under FIRE. Most of us seem to think that racism exists only in the US...... that only Indians are discriminated against... most of us want to retain our identity as Indians... most of us refuse (or shall I say, cannot) to merge with the culture here.... that there is black sheep only in the US... we want to be like the WHITES but are unable to do so... And we hate the blacks.....
If you look at the history of immigration in the US, you will find most of us couldn't have come at a better time... you and I didn't have to embark on Ellis Island (the entry point for all sea -faring immigrants in search of the land of opportunity).... History has also showed that a powerful race always dominates...but when it is no longer the dominant -- most of these differences disappear.. he point I am trying to make here is -- Indians are a developing society... fault lies more with us than with them...we need to introspect....
1. No doubt we have a great pool of scientific manpower -- but in the work place, are we able to mix up with our American counterparts??? When it comes to discussing an NFL football game, we are totally at sea. When we just blankly stare when they refer to Dan Marino... our hearts don't miss a beat when they talk about Goldie Hawn.. we are very obsessed with BOllywood or Chiranjeevi and the lot but how many Hollywood stars do we know of in this land for 5-6 years or even more?
2. Some one has referred to BO (body odor)... many of us will dress up just like the way it used to back in India...? what are they??
3. How come names like Reddy of Berkeley figure in the INS lists these days?? Are we not circumventing the laws built up here??? A minority may be doing it but innocent victims will suffer.. who are remotely connected to I (message incomplete -- editor)
Name: VR
Email: vr_73@yahoo.com
Message: Racism exists, although for the most part it is not obvious.
For starters, I think the Indian govt should have a strong stance against what they perceive to be unjust acts against their citizens in foreign lands. The immigrants, on their part, should try to attain a judicious mix of Indian culture and work ethics of their adopted land, whichever that is.
But let us face it, we have been walked all over because we let them. We have a fascination and servility towards anything white.
Unless we rid ourselves of this attitude, there is probably never going to be any solution to this problem.
Just because we get a salary for an honest day's work, doesn't mean we have to take out any injustice meted out. We didn't come here to sponge off. Nor are we here for a free lunch. Since when was the desire for a better work environment and good technology, a license for lousy treatment from the employer?
We pay our taxes like everybody else, so why should we be the recipients of such behavior?
Come on Indians, get some gumption and while you are at it, go get a backbone!
Name: Pracheng Hazarika
Email:
Message: It is interesting to see so many Indians
blaming racism to be the motive behind this particular episode.
Isn't it a fact that these people broke the law working
at a place/firm different from what the visas stated.
As for racism, I have spent several years as a student in Delhi.
I have met people from different parts of India (mostly in academia). From my
experience, all I can say is that of all the people that I have met from around the world,
Indians are the most racists. I have in working in the US for about a decade now, in academia. I also went to graduate school here in US. In all these time,
I have never been discriminated against just because I am an Assamese. As long as I did my work well, I was always welcome. I wish I could say the same thing about my experience with Indians. They always seem to have an opinion about me as an Assamese, even though I might be the first Assamese they have met. I don't know what it is called in your culture but I call it prejudice and its is nothing but racial bigotry.
My experience is very limited in scope as I have mostly dealt with urban young Indians in academia or other professional fields such as. engineering. I do not claim to know much about the rural Indian population. I have only heard that racism in the name of "caste" system is quite prevalant. Caste system to me as an outsider does sounds like an institutionalized racism.
Name: XYZ
Email: XYZ@hotmail.com
Message: It should not have happened (the INS raid). All Indians in US should form a union and as a protest do sth about it, like taking protest leave from their jobs for some time (a token day, or even half a day), just to let them know about it, otherwise I don't think anyone much even cared or even came to know about such a terrible thing. And I think some enterprising type could come forward initiating such a thing. Is any Indian Bill Gates out there?
Name: Kumar
Email: mar@hotmail.com
Message: Hmm.. at last people are coming to terms with the way things work in the US of America. You might have read in history in history books that America is founded on the principles of freedom, liberty and justice to everybody. It only meant to that it applies to only certain people. Look at what happened to African Americans till the end of '60s there is segregation and this country used to preach and still preaches to everybody about equality. This country is filled up with loads of hypocrites and it is foolish to listen to all the nice things that 'White' people say. I felt bad and very sorry when I heard about what happened to those 40 people on H1B Visas. But I know a lot more sob stories about Indian Americans who abused the H1B program and who made lots of people miserable.
Yes, what INS did is wrong you can see the racist attitude, but hey.. you are living in a country where every other day you see and hear racism, prejudice and hatred. So you should better be prepared to deal with it. As to my fellow Indians who are living in America the less said about them will be better. We live in a isolated world we do not want to mix with the fellow Americans we do not want understand their culture and most of the times end up doing things they dislike. Better not forget we have the same kind of prejudices towards the African Americans and other minorities. Most of us always retain the same mindset that we had in India. We kiss the people who are white but we show our prejudices to people of lesser colour. What happened to the huge Indian community with their influence that I hear about all the time? Who came to these people's rescue. India is not a nation so the Indian community can never offer any support or for that matter any sympathy to their fellow Indians unless they belong to their cast or religion or state
Name: Sameer Kuppahalli
Email: sameer_kuppahalli@hotmail.com
Message: The agenda of the US govt and its citizens is alike. "Use and throw". I was listening to Clinton's "State of the Union" address. His thrust of the speech was investment in education, scholarship for students to be increased from first 2 years in college to all the 4 years. Nothing wrong there. But that is a pointer of things to come. Some 15-20 years down the road, immigrants will be more unwelcome as US will have a sufficient pool of indigenous human resources.
For now, it's true that Indians carry the back-bone of technology in Silicon Valley and other places. But that may be short-lived. We, as patriotic Indians should concentrate on taking the technology back to our country and develop on our pool of resources. The Indian Govt on its part should leave no stone unturned in facilitating this.
We also must be prepared to give up some luxuries that we have in the western world. If we are not welcome in an alien nation, we must be prepared to go back.
"Api awarnamayee lanka, name lakshman rochate. Janani Janmabhumishcha, swargadapi gariyasi".
Name: srinathananth
Email: srinathananth@hotmail.com
Message: Indian government should dictate to the US and UK not to ill-treat our citizens. If they don't get any answer from them the Indian government should do the same to the US and UK citizens.
Name: Lal
Email: sreelac@mailcity.com
Message: I think we, Indians are also responsible
for this. There was a time, H1B people
came with fake credentials and
forced to send back. It is right
for the law to decide where to
work. If the documents say we should
obey that. So-called Body shoppers offers lot of stuff
at the time of hiring and later forget all
that. These 'Body Shoppers' to be punished.
Since cost of living varies from place to place,
LCA makes sure that the H1B employer gets
higher salary than the citizens. But if the body shoppers
get LCA for low cost area and place the
H1B person in a high cost area
without paying the prevailing wages, it is against law.
In USA from young children to 100 years
they handcuff everybody. There is racism
in that. Is it right or wrong congressmen and people
here will decide. We can not question that.
Why they did not arrest the employers?
Why the employees? Question that?
Imagine our cop would have treated us, with
verbal abuse, physical torture and
bribe.
Are we treated badly?
No. We are responsible for our
sufferings. No point in accusing somebody else.
Mother country is great! We can not
get the freedom we get in India.
Thanks
Lal
Name: Sri Allu
Email: SALLU432@AOL.COM
Message: No mater how loud we scream or express our outrage eloquently on message boards. How many of we are really committed to improve our image?
I think, the real problem is low self esteem, lack of mutual respect, self-isolation (it happened to them and would never happen to me) and honesty. We don't even have a collective voice.
What do you think if it happens to Cubans in Miami!
We make money (we also start companies), get green cards get citizenship, make couple of trips to home. Of course we show off there as if (you know what). But as soon as we come back we don't get respect, attention then we complain, moan and groan but as soon as the moment passes we have several things that keeps us occupied with envy, jealous and mutual disrespect. The bottom line is we don't like ourselves and we don't respect us. How in the world do we think others going to care who you are?
Name: G-man
Email: ga@yahoo.com
Message: I guess we need to be more aggressive, have to blame our government for not supporting our people here and take stronger stand like China. China though with its bad human rights can still stand up against US whereas we even for small mistake have reap heavily.
It will be interesting to see what or where would US IT industry would be if for 1 week all Indian software engineers/programers decided to take vacation?????
Name: Yogesh Datta
Email: datta@eisa.net.au
Message: Sir, I put the blame, entirely, on the shoulders of Indian Govt, Indian babus and Indian journalists. In Australia the government has systematically eliminated Indians from grants and subsidies. Tourist promotional work in India is done only by white people. Now jobs will be offered to white Christians only. India buys 4 billion worth of shoddy goods, like inedible apples, from Australia but in term Australia spend only couple of hundred dollars in India. The Australian deputy prime minister in a letter to me has indicated that 'Australia can do without Indian trade, students and tourists'. But Government of India and state governments are bending back words to suck up to their white masters. If anyone is interested to see these letters I can send copies. My appeal is direct to Indian public - DO NOT BUY ANYTHING IMPORTED FROM AUSTRALIA. Teach the white thug a lesson.
I do not consider Australia is white man's country, it's illegally occupied by white Anglo-Saxons who call themselves "Australians" (whatever that may mean). This is my country also and I need the help of one billion Indians.
Yogi Datta, Canberra.
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