THE BASKARO MANIFESTO
A Declaration of War Against Hate, An Urgent Plea for Our Mental and Collective Survival.
Part I: The Diagnosis: The Uncomfortable Truth
Dissecting the roots and realities of anti-Indian animosity to forge our path forward.
You are reading in Part I: The Diagnosis
1. Intro: The Coming Storm
BasKaro.
In Hindi, "BasKaro" means "Stop" or "Enough Now." But this isn't just a simple request; it's a declaration of war. It's the furious cry of a billion people, roaring against the endless, dehumanizing racism that has become a global game played at our expense.
For generations, we were told to be patient. "Toughen up," they'd say, even as their insults cut deep. "Just ignore it," they'd advise, as our children learned to hide who they were. We built successful lives, foolishly hoping our achievements would protect us. It was all for nothing.
The internet, supposedly our global community, has turned into a toxic swamp where Indian identity is "fair game." Slurs are casual greetings, dehumanizing memes are viral entertainment, and our children are constantly exposed to a poison that damages their self-worth. This isn't an exaggeration. This is the terrifying, documented reality, pushing us to 23:55 on the doomsday clock of our dignity. The hidden wounds of this normalized hate are piling up, quietly but severely affecting mental health.
BasKaro was forged in this fire of contempt by Indians across the diaspora who declared with every fiber of their being: NO MORE. We aren't a passive think tank. We are a digital army. A strategic data weapon. A global immune response to the creeping poison of anti-Indian hate.
This manifesto isn't a polite request for your thoughts. It's our clear declaration of what we intend to do. Our carefully planned strategy for survival. Our urgent demand for your support. The time for comfortable denial is over. The time for willful ignorance has undeniably passed. If not now, when? If not us, who?
2. The Core Truth: Hated For Existing
To defeat a powerful enemy, you must first truly see it. After carefully looking at countless acts of hate, from open attacks to hidden insults, one harsh, basic truth becomes very clear. This truth is the foundation of our India-Hate Theory, and it's a strong cure for blaming ourselves:
Burn this truth into the deepest recesses of your soul. This is not pessimism; it is the cold, hard battlefield intelligence indispensable for our survival. The hate is not a rational reaction to us or our actions; it is a grotesque reflection of them and their internal prejudices.
Your accent? Your culinary traditions? Your spiritual beliefs? Your hard-earned success? Ultimately irrelevant as primary causes. In fact, your triumphs often fan the flames of their deep-seated resentment. They don't despise our perceived flaws; they despise our very existence, our resilience, our refusal to be erased or to conform to their reductive caricatures.
To the hater, your Indian identity is the sole, unforgivable crime, and their prejudice the only judge and jury.
This realization is a weapon of liberation. It shatters the invisible chains of "What did I do wrong?" and frees us from the futile, exhausting dance of appeasement. It is the core of Awareness, understanding that we are not the problem.
3. Normalized Hate: Our Daily Nightmare
Why has anti-Indian racism become so sickeningly mainstream? So casually threaded into everyday discourse, online and off, that even our children are beginning to absorb it as "normal"? This is no accident. It's a carefully constructed (or negligently permitted) ecosystem of hate, a Spectrum of Hate we must carefully recognize:
The Impunity Plague & Overt Racism:
They attack because they face no consequences. Explicit slurs, hate speech, direct discrimination, and even threats become commonplace. Social media giants, with their hollow platitudes and ineffective moderation, are complicit. Legal systems often turn a blind eye. This "consequence vacuum" is a breeding ground for bigotry, a digital playground where our dignity is the piñata.
Microaggressions & Casual Prejudice:
The "everyday indignities": subtle snubs, backhanded compliments ("Your English is so good!"), questions like "Where are you really from?", or feigned difficulty with Indian names. Their cumulative effect is corrosive, reinforcing otherness and impacting mental well-being as highlighted in our understanding of youth mental health.
The "Model Minority" Mirage & Stereotypes:
Our success is perversely weaponized. It fuels envy while simultaneously gaslighting us: "You're successful, so how can you be victims?" This insidious narrative, along with caricatures like the "IT guy" or "Apu," silences us, invalidates our pain, and erases the daily torment of dehumanization. These stereotypes make discrimination seem more acceptable.
Media Defamation, Erasure & Algorithmic Bias:
Global media often portrays us as caricatures or renders us invisible. Social media algorithms can amplify hateful content. This void is filled with grotesque stereotypes, making it easier to hate what isn't perceived as fully human. This directly leads to the "Unseen Wounds of Normalized Hate" discussed on our mental health page.
We are not just fighting trolls. We are fighting a systemic, cultural gangrene that requires robust Effective Action. And the clock is ticking. It's 23:55.
4. The Enemy Within: Self-Hate & The 'Sepoy'
Our war against anti-Indian sentiment is perilously two-fold. Externally, we battle the racist hordes and systemic prejudice. Internally, we confront an equally dangerous foe: the insidious "Sepoys & Racists" dynamic – the heartbreaking self-sabotage that cripples us from within and fragments our potential for Collective Impact.
The "sepoy" of the 21st century isn't a uniformed soldier in a colonial army. They are the mentally colonized, individuals within our own community craving validation from the very external forces that often despise or patronize us. They are the "pick-me" Indians online, echoing racist tropes or stereotypes for a fleeting pat on the head, or badmouthing their own community to appease outsiders. They manifest as silent witnesses to our denigration, the apologists for our abusers, or those who internalize negativity leading to self-doubt as discussed in our Self-Preservation pillar.
This isn't merely an insult; it's their license to operate. It's the green light for escalated aggression and continued disrespect. Why should they stop, when individuals from our own community inadvertently (or sometimes, shockingly, deliberately) help them pull the trigger or validate their prejudice?
We are fighting global prejudice, compounded by a fifth column, sometimes unwitting, sometimes deeply troubling, within our own ranks. This makes true Awareness of internal biases critical.
We must eradicate this self-loathing and self-sabotage. We must foster a culture where pride is not a performance for others, but our intrinsic default state. The colonizers physically departed in 1947. We are in a desperate race to ensure their mental hold on any segment of our minds is fully vacated before it's too late – before 2047 becomes a eulogy for a fractured people. It's 23:55. This internal healing and fortification is not optional; it's fundamental to our survival and triumph.
5. Shades of Shame: The Colorism Cancer Within Us
Before we can even dream of unified, potent resistance against global racism, we must courageously confront a hideous, self-inflicted cancer devouring us from the inside: our own deep-rooted, pervasive colorism. This societal sickness, this damaging obsession with light skin, is largely a colonial relic that we have disgustingly nurtured into a cultural catastrophe, fragmenting our potential for Collective Impact.
Look no further than dominant sections of Bollywood and regional film industries, our supposed cultural ambassadors. For decades, they have often served as relentless propaganda machines for light-skin worship. Darker-skinned actors are systematically marginalized, typecast, or relegated to caricatures, while "fair and lovely" (or its equivalents) remains the grotesque, aspirational ideal. Song lyrics, casting choices, and product endorsements frequently scream a singular, poisonous message: lighter is better, darker is lesser. This isn't mere entertainment; it's mass psychological conditioning for self-hatred and internalized bias.
This self-inflicted wound bleeds into every facet of life – marriage prospects, job opportunities, social standing, and even daily interactions. It creates a hierarchy of shame within our own families and communities. It poisons the minds of our children before they even fully understand what race or prejudice means, teaching them to aspire to an often alien and eurocentric aesthetic.
Addressing this is part of Awareness, recognizing and dismantling internal biases that make us vulnerable.
Let this be seared into our collective consciousness: individuals and systems within the Indian community that perpetuate and worship light-skin supremacy are not just misguided; they are PART OF THE PROBLEM. They are unwitting (and sometimes, disturbingly, willing) soldiers in the army that perpetuates color-based discrimination, weakening our defenses from within.
This mental battle against our own internalized colorism is paramount. It is a foundational prerequisite to any meaningful fight against global anti-Indian racism. Until we can look at every shade of Indian skin with equal pride, love, and respect, until we can dismantle this hierarchy of hue in our own minds and institutions, our calls for external respect will ring hollow. Salvation for our people demands we first purge this poison from our own souls. The decolonization of our skin preferences is as critical as the decolonization of our lands, a vital step towards authentic Self-Preservation and unity.