I think racism came to be recognized as unacceptable as a matter of law only after WW II. The human rights convention - UDHR, ICCPR, ICESCR - helped as did the judgments from the Nuremberg/Far East tribunal. Prior to that it wasn't uncommon to find discriminatory language in legal text thereby institutionalizing discrimination. Not surprised that anyone raised in that environment would have some biases, regardless of how egalitarian their views may otherwise have been.
Sent from BlackBerry® on Airtel -----Original Message----- From: ss <[email protected]> Sender: [email protected] Date: Sat, 21 Jul 2012 19:02:34 To: <[email protected]> Reply-To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [silk] outdated words in "Indian English" On Saturday 21 Jul 2012 11:29:15 am Charles Haynes wrote: > The fact that Gandhi described Africans as having no ambition and as hunter > gatherers lends credence to the idea that he also held racist notions. I am certain that this is an accurate assessment. But he was essentially "British"" in character at that time - and he was 24 years old. Looks like he gradualy changed his views when he came to India and "found" himself. The education is important and Gandhi and Nehru were "Westernized Oriental Gentlemen" - or "WOGs" in oher words. They were equal but discovered that they were inferior. Not sure if Gollywog derives from the term WOG. As a little boy in the early 60s I enjoyed Enid Blyton's "Noddy" books which featured a "Gollywog" - and Blyton is the highest selling author of all time. 700 million books. Imagine the number of people who never saw Gollywog as racist. shiv
