Thread by @tishya_saran

My conversation with Rashmi Samant: A Thread
I Had an extremely insightful discussion with @Rashmidvs
And had no idea of some of the damaging and toxic prejudices that so many British students (and students of Indian descent) at Oxford harbour about their colonial past. contd

... one notion that really shook me was how these students, who were active advocates against racism, sexism and transphobia, actually thought that the colonials did not stand for any of these values! They felt offended when Rashmi criticised Rhodes for his deeply racist views

On native indians and South Africans. When Rashmi tried ro explain to them and educate them on all the death and ruin that colonialism had left behind and tried to draw an equivalence between Rhodes and Hitler (because there seemed really no other way to make them understand)...

They actually called her anti Semitic! Is that really all it takes to be anti Semitic? These students understand nothing of what indians have been through pre and post independence. They don't understand the death and damage that colonialists caused us, the poverty,

The inferiority complex, the difficulties with brown skin, the attitude of servitude... And what's worse is they don't care! They don't care about the human rights violations that the colonialists committed, propagated, funded and encouraged. They know nothing about the

Jallianwala bagh massacre, the Criminal Tribes Act (when British judges, acting in their judicial capacity, vested in them by the crown, labelled transgenders in India as a problem and worked towards their EXTINCTION!!). They know nothing of the thousands and thousands of Indian

Lives lost during the second world war (A war that was never ours to fight, which we never agreed to fight, but we were forced to anyway). The fact that there is a memorial for dogs that lost their lives in the war, but not the 2.5 MILLION indians that fought this war they did

Not choose.
But being ignorant is not a crime. Remaining ignorant is.
So what happened when @Rashmidvs tried to educate these people about the atrocities committed against an entire civilisation by the colonialists? Did they accept their mistakes and try to learn from them ?

No. They called her transphobic. They called her anti Semitic. They called her a racist. These allegations were over a post she had made as a teenager. She didn't know better. So what did SHE do when they criticised her? She issued a public apology. She apologised to say

That she didn't know trans etiquette or Semitic etiquette, but she does now and she will do better. She never intended to hurt anyone, she only erred in nomenclature.
But what of their racist views? What about the fact that so many of these students believe colonialists

Did us a favour? What about the fact that while they criticised rashmi for making transphobic remarks, they said nothing of the Criminal Tribes Act, brought in by colonialists? What about the fact that while they spoke of racism, they said nothing of Rhodes' comments on treatment

Of native indians and South Africans? Instead they have scholarships and statutes in his name!! What about the fact that while they criticised HER for being antisemitic, they all came from countries and cultures that had persecuted jews, and ignored the fact that Hindus were

The only community in the world that NEVER persecuted the Jews? What about the fact that they while they called her a racist, they were all along putting her down for her racial and ethnical identity? It got so bad that a faculty member at @UniofOxford actually dragged her

Parents into this entire controversy!! He made a post on Facebook about how they didn't want a "sanatani" President??!
All this happened while the students at Oxford clapped and cheered, while only a small minority defended her. Where is their apology?

Not to mention the fact that these posts and comments suddenly came to light AFTER she won. And not while she was running for President. She was a democratically elected president who had WON the election but was bullied into resigning

The attitude of the students @UniofOxford has been nothing shirt of backward and regressive. But it reveals signs of a deeper problem, which is one of how the Brits view indians

How many years of independence will it take for them to view us as people? The jury is still out on that one.

Meanwhile all we can do is rally together to stop this nonsense.

For the entire conversation follow me @TMGmiddleground

#RashmiResponds #RashmiSamant