Via @Miisaakan in The Psychic Lives of Statues by Rahul Rao
Hindu Indians have gained entry into ‘Whiteness’:
“One consequence of the entry of savarna Indians into whitenessis that they are then able and willing to become the face of the white supremacist state in the form of figures like Sunak, as well as successive UK home secretaries Priti Patel and Suella Braverman.” “In this capacity, they are able to deny the existence of structural racism, citing their own advancement as evidence of its absence while continuing to entrench it through their championing of policies that reproduce racial capitalist structures of exclusion.”
Hindu Diaspora uphold the Myth of Meritocracy:
“…savarna Hindu Indians – have enjoyed upward mobility, enabling their assimilation into Britishness and furnishing it, in turn, with proof of its putatively meritocratic inclusiveness.”
Diaspora Hindu Indians are seen as hypocrites, benefitting from Caste Privilege:
“…their eagerness to benefit from racial anti-discrimination protections won largely through the civil rights struggles of Black communities and their simultaneous distancing from those very communities by portraying themselves as model minority citizens embodying educational excellence, a strong work ethic and economic advancement.” “Central to this self-portrayal is the mystification of caste privilege and an active hostility to oppressed caste organising in diaspora including in alliance with Black and other racialised communities.”
Muslim Indians are Othered:
“Others – especially Muslims from Pakistani and Bangladeshi communities – remain racial outsiders who are viewed by the white British public through a series of figurations that index different moral panics: the terrorist, the bogus asylum seeker, the benefits scrounger, the groomer, the gang member, the jihadi bride.”
