Stereotyping of Indian men

MS MOODLEY, your disclaimer aside with regard to your “Open letter to Indian men” in last week’s POST compels me to respond accordingly.

Despite my aversion to racial classification, my compulsion to respond is seated only in my dispute in the manner in which you articulated your “conscionable” need to make assertions that I consider both parochial and antagonistic at best.

Hence I would be remiss if I remain silent on what I consider to be a convoluted, if not obscure, generalisation and stereotyping of Indian men. And no, the cap does not fit!

I respectfully submit that the broadside against Indian men that you purport is a result of your “referenced past” and “craft” as a “published writer” is nothing more than scant palliation for an antiquated stereotype.

Whether you were compelled to level your allegations against Indian men as a result of your “journey of depression” or as a result of “messages from broken Indian women” or Indian men pursuing you in what I perceived to be a lascivious manner on social media, from your description thereof, your generalisations can only be construed as mischievous.

I concede that there are “stories” of abuse across the spectrum by men on women, and one cannot gainsay such abhorrent acts, but to relegate the “Indian” man’s so-called misconduct to a consequence of being raised in homes with “predefined” roles is an indictment on the countless families who have defied social norms and order to raise their children, sons and daughters equally, as respectful human beings.

Naturally, there will be aberrations and unacceptable deviations from such acts of goodness by Indian parents.

The basic construct of your arguments relies on the perceived notion that many Indian men were raised to repress emotions, not to cry, to adulterate the role of women as submissives – and that they were raised as misogynists.

However, you have failed to capture the essence of the world we live in. Indian women have, thankfully, realised that the world has space for their equality, as well as their social and economic mobility, hence dispelling generalised myths of their immurement as “secondclass” citizens, “doormats” and the like.

I hope my view is not construed by any manner of means as a defence of abuse or disrespectful behaviour of the “Indian” man, where applicable, but it is perforce an averment of the realities we are confronted with in the times in which we live.

NARENDH GANESH

Durban North