Normalization of Racism Against Indians on Social Media - A Changemaker’s Perspective

Meet Sia, a bright and inquisitive 10th grader who is passionate about exploring the world around her. With a love for reading, music, and documentaries, she has a keen interest in understanding complex social issues and potential solutions. Keep reading to explore her curiosity and passion to make a positive impact on the world.

A troubling issue on social media…

During the past few weeks, I have observed a troubling rise in the normalization of racism and discrimination against Indians on social media platforms, particularly, X (formerly known as Twitter). These posts have come in the form of memes, or jokes, stereotyping Indians as dirty or ‘technology support scammers’. While some of these misconceptions have become popular throughout the 2000s, it has started to become much more normalized and has impacted the Indian community with such a hostile and unfair online environment. With the surge of this behavior becoming increasingly evident, discriminatory posts targeting the Indian identity have turned into a significant issue that requires urgent and mass attention.?

The details of the discrimination…

Firstly, various new derogatory comments have come up on social media, including new terms and slurs, such as ‘pajeet’, a derogatory term towards Indians and other people of South Asian descent, which mocks people whose names end with ‘jeet’, and baselessly questions their hygiene, jobs, etc. This slur has become quite common on social media platforms, particularly X (formerly Twitter). Additionally, it has become quite a common ordeal to make comments questioning the infrastructure and development of India, suggesting that the roads are unusable, traffic laws are non-existent and more. While a number of claims are based on some events that people experience in this country on a day-to-day basis, there are other methods of addressing or bringing out these issues and ones that would hopefully not resort to racism on social media.?

Screenshots are examples of racist tweets against Indians on X (formerly Twitter).

Why is it happening NOW?

Upon analysis, there are a number of reasons why racism against Indians particularly has become so prevalent in recent times. Overall, in the fiscal year 2022-2023, India’s GDP is projected to have grown by a staggering 7.2% (Source: HindustanTimes), and India has been involved in partnerships such as the G20 and BRICS. Due to India’s rapid economic growth (post-COVID-19), citizens of other countries may feel threatened by the fast pace at which it is improving. Additionally, India’s overall geopolitical influence has increased, which sets it as a leader and a strong country that has influence over the world.?

A peculiar similarity between India & China…

Moreover, the positive media attention to India’s successes recently (regional stability, tech, pharmaceuticals — vaccines during COVID-19, [COVAX], ISRO) could also have been something that led to insecurity among citizens of other countries (Source: McKinsey — this source clearly acknowledges India’s recent economic strengths and also outlines its potential). For context, similar patterns of racism against China were visible in social media during 2000-2010, while China was rapidly increasing its economic might. During the early 2000s, China was accepted into the World Trade Organisation, and this led to a boost of manufactured goods from China being shipped all across the world. Due to this, China faced a surge of racism on social platforms, specifically from Western countries, who began to view China’s booming economy as a threat to global trade. (Source: Time) This shows that this repeated pattern of racism is often targeted in a growing country.?

What can be done about this?

As a solution, I propose better moderation on social media. Platforms, while boasting ‘free speech’, need to draw the line between FREE speech and HATE speech. All platforms have clear guidelines which must be followed. Currently, most platforms boast a ‘no racism’ policy and have bots that can detect posts with slurs, or derogatory terms, and automatically require the owner to delete the said post. However, these bots are rarely up-to-date with modern discriminative speech and fail to recognize hundreds of instances of racism which is widespread across platforms. When these guidelines are broken, one's account can be restricted or permanently suspended. Making these guidelines stricter and more specific is something that will aid in reducing such racist comments against any groups on platforms such as X and Instagram. Additionally, certain organizations should hold educational campaigns in small groups, for example, in high school classes across countries (in order to prevent such behavior in the future from an impressionable generation).?

Closing thoughts…

In conclusion, the rise of normalization of racism against Indians on social media is a multifaceted sword, which could be driven by the increase in India’s geopolitical standing and growing economy. Such factors evoke insecurity among other citizens and lead to a mass amount of hate speech across platforms. As social media is something that is easily accessible and serves as a platform for free speech, hateful and racist comments can be removed while maintaining the site as a mode for free discussion with an effort from the moderators of social media platforms and a larger amount of awareness on the topic in small scales. Through the implementation of such policies, the future can hopefully reduce the prévenance of racism, and create a more inclusive and welcoming online environment, moving forward.??