Why most Filipinos Discriminate Against Indians
Posted: Saturday, July 16, 2011
by Sujoy Mukherji
The Estore
Filipinos in the Philippines do not like people of Indian origin and have a strong discrimination against them. Discrimination against Indian people in the Philippines is growing very strong on a yearly basis and sad to hear that most Filipinos are not very educated regarding different countries.
If you are a person of Indian origin then get ready to face some hard painful reality facts. Most Filipinos are not very welcoming to Indian people and discriminate them with relation to their appearance and Non-Filipino features.
The reality here is that most Filipino’s generalise all Indian Nationals as Five Six or Turko(Five Six business, which is an informal not legalized micro-finance business were the Indians, especially the Punjabi Indians who are the money lenders lend some specific amount of money to the local Filipino shop keepers and take back that money with some interest at a later stage. It could be on a daily basis or on a monthly basis).
Imagine a whole nation like India being termed as Five Six or Turko by Filipinos. How sick can that get? India being one of the fastest economic growing nations in the world next to China and being one of the BRICK partners, a strong contributor to the world, especially the Asian Economy is characterised as a Five Six. Not all Indians indulge in Five Six, in fact most Indians here in the Philippines work in proper reputed companies and do well for a living. So, I think it is time for most of the Filipino’s to realize and absorb this fact that all Indians are not Five Six or Turkos.
Filipinos believe that most Indians are stinky and lack of body odor. This is the reason why many of the Filipinos refer to us as Bumbai (Bumbai is a tagalog word for onion, tagalog being the National Language of the Philippines).
The difference between India and Philippines is that most Indians know about world information including India with respect to country information, world affairs and are very friendly to all foreigners in India. But if you look at the Filipinos, they only know about their nation and don't care to know about other nations besides Western Countries and are not welcoming to many extent discriminatory to non-white foreigners.
Almost all schools here in the Philippines, do not teach world history or any courses about emerging economies in the world. The courses are focused on Filipino cultures and history, which is good but not learning about world history is even worst. If you ask a normal high school student about the world map or as to where is India, Africa, Europe or China in the world map, he/she will not know. They don’t even know how India looks like in the world map. How bad does this get? At least, most high-school students back in India know about the world map and information about different continents and capital cities/statistics of different countries. The education system here in the Philippines needs to be big time re-structured and implementation of world history and emerging nations needs to be enforced.
The reality is that most Filipino’s think that there nation is the best when it comes to Asian economy or GDP Growth rate. But the truth is, it is not. You cannot compare Indian economy and GDP or China’s economy or GDP standard of living with Philippines. India’s and China’s economy is in trillions and there are more millionaires and billionaires in India and China then compared to the Philippines. The people of the Philippines must accept this fact, we live in a world of globalization and the last thing I want is for the Filipinos to lag behind the race. The world has become more competitive than ever and Filipino’s need to understand this fact, learn from emerging nations in the world, and not by degrading implementing racism and discrimination against Indians or Chinese Nationals as poor creatures or treating us like second class citizens.
Just because of how Indian people look different from Filipino people does not give them the right to degrade us or treat us like beggars. I have observed that if I walk on the streets or take a public transportation here in the Philippines, most people, especially the middle and young aged people, glance at me with an angry stare. This is very sad, as this makes me feel more un-comfortable to live in the Philippines. It’s like they are trying to say, “You are not welcome here so get lost you Indian”. This is just utter discrimination and disgusting.
It’s sad but the word humanity has lost its place in this world. I love Philippines, the cultural tradition and the food and I want to make it even better if only these issues could be brought into focus and addressed.
The media, I would say is the biggest tool which could assist in addressing this racism discrimination problem against Indians in the Philippines. I have observed that most people here in the Philippines blindly follow the news and the media. So, why not address these issues and start educating the Filipino average people about Indian culture, tradition and its stance in the world economy. Filipino media like ABS-CBN news, TV5, GMA News would be great assets in addressing these issues.
In fact, there should be more implementation of Filipino-Indian exchange programs, like workshops, cultural exchanges, all these would definitely help. But what is the Philippine government doing?
India has so much to offer to the Philippines and in return Philippines have so much to offer to India, so why not make this work?
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Top-level comments on this article: (2 total)yes its true you cant compare the GDP growth rate of Philippines to india and china because these two countries are BIG (land size and population) countries than Philippines but why this two countries are poor compare to other BIG countries? stop comparing it will not help us to become rich.
I'm a Filipino residing in Manila and I do agree that a lot of my people are racist against Indians. I can't speak for every Filipinos' behalf, but I do want to apologize for any discrimination you may have encountered here in the Philippines. Not everyone is like that.
Also, I just want to say that not all schools focus on Filipino culture and history. I had world history in high school and college and I know where India, Africa, etc. are in the world map.
I don't think the Philippines is the best when it comes to Asian economy/GDP growth rate. Japan, China, Singapore, etc. are definitely more progressive than my country. Please don't generalize, because not all Filipinos are racist/stupid. Anyway, I think you can contact the Indian embassy to see what could be done about Philippine-Indian relations. Again, I'm sorry for the racism you experienced. Peace.m from india and i luv your country heard about philippines many times..... nywayz i jus want to know y u filipinos hate indians what's the basic reason behind..????plz let me kno ...... coz we indians dont have such feelings 4 any other nation.... ;(
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