I’ve been a victim of discrimination in a country that is trying so hard to become the worlds leading super-power.

I must admit, that India has done a very good job of catching up to major world economies, and I am still in awe at the current standings of India being listed 3^rd behind America and China respectively. If you have ever been to India, you would understand my amazement.

This is a country of micro-entrepreneurial groundings and it merges as a country where everyone can be a businessman. Who needs the American dream when the Indian dream is a more real possibility considering the mere magnitude of growth this economy and country has seen.

I have had the opportunity of completing my undergraduate degree in this country. I was based in a city that is clearly becoming the future hub of the technological world. Being a foreign student in this country I find myself in a unique position to be able to judge the future of the people from afar without having too much sentiment attached to my judgment. Some call it unfair; I call it freedom of expression.

I forgot to mention that I am a South African mid twenty-something male who happened to have experienced the final stretch of apartheid. But I too have benefited from the fall of the discriminating regime, and have witnessed remarkable reform in what was previously considered an irreparable country.

This brings me to my point. India: a major world player and the future. As much as I stand as an admirer of this country, I have recently been disgusted by the sheer magnitude of discrimination that is found in this country. And I’m not talking about the caste system that has been written about over and over the world over. I’m talking about a blatant humiliation of foreigners whose effects of being here is the sole foundation of this countries growth.

Enough of beating about the bush. I was told that because I am from Africa, I am a murderer, a drug-dealer and a terrorist.

“Because of your presence, no-one in the suburb is safe!”

“Nigerians and South Africans are the same, and they are always bad news!”

“With all the bomb blasts happening in India, I fear for my family because you are from Africa!”

The irony in this comment is that I am of Indian origin, and my family name is much respected in India.

But, I am from Africa. And I hold a South African passport. Does this make me an instant terrorist? Does this make me a drug-dealer? At first I smiled at this idea, but when I was told that I am not welcome in a building/suburb because of this, it found a certain rage inside of me, a rage that has the potential of turning me into the terrorist that I am being accused of being. Then I find myself smiling again.

A retired army general residing in South Delhi, has found it necessary to victimize me because I am from Africa. He looks the part of a very respectable Indian gentleman in society, and considering the level of his achievement I would have assumed that he was educated enough to understand that discrimination could start a world war.

Infact, maybe I should use my newly found terrorist status to start a world war. And look, I’m smiling again.

But is this amusing? Or should I be worried that even though this country has achieved so much, and it has the potential to achieve so much more in the near future, and it could even find itself ranked as the world’s most powerful economy, India could find itself hitting a solid wall of resentment for everything foreign.

And could this resentment soon build up in the rest of the world as a reciprocal to the raised-eyebrow that foreigners are given here?

This has the potential to turn nasty. And India should be warned that this kind of judgement is no longer acceptable. As the Americans would say, “Get in line or else!”

Maybe Bush and his barracks of marines should visit. Maybe Nelson Mandela should be informed.

Retired military general or not, that should make him rethink his sentiments.