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10. India



Racism, prejudice and xenophobia are rampant in India. It’s a strange mixture of prejudice, ignorance and centuries-old discriminatory practices, when communities kept to themselves and there were dining taboos based on caste. You couldn’t eat with people not of your caste or marry into their communities.

India is always a mystery. It is a country which is so huge that practices from Kashmir to Kanyakumari  are as different from each other as Scotland is from Greece or Russia. Each state is like a different country with diverse languages, cuisines, clothes, customs, climate. Punjabis, for example, are closer in terms of their food and language to Pakistanis than to Tamils and the Hindi.

All these differences have made people suspicious of other cultures.  These closed communities are naturally full of prejudices towards other communities and to those they see as “the outsiders”.  Every state considers itself superior. There’s a huge North-South divide too. Yet, in pre-colonial times, India was a haven for persecuted people. We gave refuge to Jewish people, Parsis from Persia, Armenians and later Chinese who ran away from the Revolution, and Tibetans who fled the Chinese. These people kept their distinct, separate identities but they prospered and loved India.

Caste System

I’ve only read a few articles on the philosophy of race and critical race theory so I’m not sure about this area of philosophy; however, it seems that the question of whether the caste system of India ought to be classified as a racist institution needs to be seriously addressed. It would obviously have large implications morally and legally for a large swath of humanity if it is deemed such.



The caste system dates back thousands of years and divides the people into specific social and economic groups; the Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaisya, Sudra and Ati-Sudra. These groups range from the Brahmin, which consists of those who are considered the highest caste, to the Ati-Sudra, who were also known as ‘untouchables’ and seen as the inferior caste. The two lower castes, the Sudra and the Ati-Sudra, currently make up the majority of the population, but are subject to discrimination and segregation due to their status.

At a 2009 meeting the United Nations Human Right Council, to the much dismay of HinduFascist groups (Hindutva), a resolution was passed equating the Hindu caste system with “discrimination and violation of human rights”.

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8. Germany



For those who think anti-Semitic and eugenics feelings died along with Hitler, the contemporary German neo-Nazi ideas could come as a rude awakening. These groups think along the very lines of the Fuhrer himself, of a United Germany with its glory restored. Amid the constant backlash from the government and the United Nations, these groups have taken to underground activities.  The National Democratic Party of Germany has been accused of tacitly propagating Neo-Nazi or Neo-Fascist leanings while many other organizations face legal issues.  Some, like Volkssozialistische Bewegung Deutschlands/Partei der Arbeit, Action Front of National Socialists/National Activists, Free German Workers’ Party, and the Nationalist Front, are all indefinitely banned.



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6. Rwanda



Rwanda and genocide are often two synonymous words due to the ghastly repercussions of the civil war of April and June, 1994, which left 800,000 Rwandans dead in the time span of a mere 100 days. Most of the people who were brutally murdered belonged to the Tutsi ethnicity while the perpetrators of the crime belonged to the Hutu tribe. Rwanda had witnessed ethnic brutalities in the past but this particular event left even the native Rwandans almost annihilated.

Tension between the two factions remains to this day. After the genocide and the Tutsis regained control, about two million Hutus sought refuge in Burundi, Tanzania, Uganda, and the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where much of the focus of Tutsi-Hutu conflict exists today. Tutsi rebels in the DRC accuse the government of providing cover for the Hutu war criminals.



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4. United Kingdom



Do you know where the Joker got his scars? He had different theories to justify ‘em, but what the epic villain sported in the movie was a ‘Glasgow smile’ also known as ‘Cheshire grin’. Back in the 60’s hooligan firms were intolerant towards foreigners especially Americans which were mockingly referred to as the Yankees. The most common crime was to give an alien the Cheshire Grin. One need not forget the ghosts of apartheid which are still prevalent. In the year 2004, 87,000 people from black or minority communities were said to have experienced a racially motivated crime while 92,000 white people also fell victim to racial typecasts.



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2. South Africa



Racism is still a big part of life in South Africa. The end of apartheid might have removed the legal framework allowing institutionalised racism, but racism in South Africa both predates and encompasses more than just the institutionalised racism of apartheid.

In July of 2012, Dr. Gregory Stanton, head of the nonprofit group Genocide Watch, embarked on a fact-finding mission in South Africa. He found that there is a coordinated campaign of genocide on white farmers, known as Boers.   The number of farm murders, or “plaasmoorde” as it is called in Afrikaans, is staggering. Over the last decade, it is estimated that at least 3000 Boers have been killed. Estimating the number of murders is necessary because the ANC has banned crime statistics from being published, claiming they scare off foreign investment.





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