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Friday, March 29, 2024

White UK bizman apologises after Dr. Ranj Singh slams his racist joke at British ‘Curry’ Awards

British businessman Charlie Mullins has apologised for a racist joke he made at 2022 British Curry Awards, which was slammed by Bharatiya-origin NHS doctor and TV presenter Dr. Ranj Singh, and drew sharp reactions from the community.

The 70 year-old founder of Pimlico Plumbers, London’s largest independent plumbing company, had attended the annual ceremony as a guest, alongside the likes of Chris Tarrant, Merlin Griffiths, Nina Wadia and Dr. Ranj Singh.

“Why has India never won the World Cup? Because every time they get a corner, they build a shop on it,” Mullins said at the glitzy event, also known as the Curry Oscars. He was awarded one of UK’s highest govt. honors, OBE (Order of British ‘Empire’) in 2015 for ‘services to plumbing’.

Soon after this, Dr. Ranj Singh took to Twitter and called out the racist joke “Paraphrased slightly, but this is a joke made on stage at the @BritCurryAwards by a white person tonight: Why has India never won the World Cup? Because every time they get a corner, they build a shop on it. I’m sorry but how is this OK?.”

The British Curry Awards is an annual awards dinner dedicated to the British ‘curry’ industry, which also raises money for charity. The word ‘curry’ has its roots in British colonialism, and is believed to be a distortion of the Tamil word kari (கறி) which is a general term for gravy/stew-like dish eaten along with rice.

After the advent of the British East India Company, ‘curry’ soon became popular as an umbrella term in UK to refer to Bharatiya/Indian food. It is now considered an offensive stereotype by many such as food blogger Chaheti Bansal who said, “this umbrella term (curry) was popularised by white people who couldn’t be bothered to learn the actual names of our dishes.”

The “caste, cows, curry” stereotype is often used to mock Hindus. Even during a cricket test match in UK earlier this year, some British fans hurled abuses like “curry c*nts”, “Paki bas****s” at Bharatiya fans, reducing some women to tears.

Dr. Singh also called out the irony of people from the Bharatiya subcontinent being sidelined in an award ceremony that is held to honor their cuisine. In an open letter, he said that he was not the only person who felt uncomfortable at the awards ceremony.

“I cannot stay silent… Dear @BritCurryAwardsa please, let’s talk about this… when the host is white, the judging panel is entirely white, the performers onstage are over 90 per cent white, are we really representing our community fairly?” Singh asked.

“And to top it off we have a racist joke on stage, and are auctioning off a piece by Winston Churchill, whose relationship with India (and Bengali people specifically) is problematic?” he added in the open letter.

Winston Churchill, considered a hero in Britain, held explicit imperialist and racist views. The late British PM once said that “Indians are a beastly people with a beastly religion.” He is widely believed to be responsible for the deaths of around 4 million people during the engineered Bengal famine of 1943. He was also a staunch proponent of the use of ‘terrorism as a weapon of war’, and once remarked “I am strongly in favour of using gas against uncivilised tribes, it would spread a lively terror.” Just like the Nazi leadership, Churchill too was a keen supporter of eugenics.

Singh, who appears on the British daytime show ‘This Morning’, concluded his letter by saying: “We are better than this. We are a magnificent people. We have done so much and still have so much to offer. Let’s do better together.”

He added that he is proud of his Indian heritage, the Indian community and those who came to the UK before him, which is why he cannot stay silent on such things. “We are not beyond criticism (and that includes me). But we are open to learn and grow,” he wrote with a heart emoji.

Former Crimewatch host Rav Wilding also took offence at the joke, he said: “Ranj that’s just made me so angry. That’s not ok at all.”

When another Bharatiya-origin Brit Paul Sagoo, an OBE to boot just like Mullins, tried to play down Mullins’ joke, Dr. Ranj responded by saying, “I agree we have many battles to fight… but perpetuating racist and outdated stereotypes shouldn’t be one of them – especially at events around us. It is not up to us to apologise, make allowances for, or educate the people that do this. But it is up to us to call it out.”

Many netizens thanked Dr. Ranj Singh for taking a stand, and expressed how this episode struck a chord with them –

“Oh WOW. Flashback to being told a variant of this “joke” by a little sh*t in my Reception class in 1981. Really curious as to what the reaction was in the room at the time…,” tweeted Chantal Santhiapillai.

“A disrespectful joke at the best of times, but in that setting it’s being deliberately insulting too. I trust the person who came out with that did not exactly get a warm round of applause after it, or much by way of laughter at their attempt at being funny,” tweeted Iain Watret.

“No, that’s absolutely not OK – now, then or ever,” tweeted Dr. Shola Mos-Shogbamimu.

“You are so right! There is a lack of Asian representation on British television & it’s incredible that you’ve pointed this out about award show,” tweeted Karishma.

While Bharatiya-origin Brits are fighting against racist stereotypes of their community, we have a mentally-colonized English-speaking class in Bharat which is ever ready to gaslight Bharatiyas about their lived experiences. Most journalists working in Bharat’s English-language media fall in this category. So it was no surprise to see news agency IANS playing down the story by choosing to put the term ‘racist joke’ in scare quotes. IANS has earlier tried to whitewash Grooming Jihad/ Love Jihad and indirectly blamed Hindus for their own persecution. It has also often toed the Pakistani line by terming Baloch freedom fighters as ‘terrorists’ and often labelling Islamic terrorists operating in Kashmir as ‘militants’.

Yet, such is the paucity of non-Hindupbhoic news agencies in Bharat, that even we at HinduPost have subscribed to the IANS news feed!

(With IANS inputs)

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