For an Indian on the street, it was a strange species of terror—not quite gripping, but quietly walking on past you. Waves upon waves of young men, having broken into the shops in Birminham's Bull Ring, the chic shopping centre, and having been dispersed by police, were now headed for the Jewelry Quarter, long synonymous with the manufacture of jewellery in the city. Choppers clattered in the sky, police cars and bikes, sirens blazing, raced to where the eyes in the sky spotted bands of troublemakers.
Another journalist and I were searching for refuge from danger, but all doors and gates were barred. The rioters—most were kids in tracksuits—caused us no trouble though; they simply walked or jogged past. They weren't to be bothered about the small pickings on the streets, when breaking into shuttered shops offered so much more purchase. These particular rioters were more like night-time shoppers who didn't want or have the money to pay. We found our way into a pub, which was still doing business behind closed glass doors. There was shouting outside and the sound of glass splintering. The owner, unfazed, calmly herded patrons to the garden at the back of the pub. The vandals moved away and an uneasy quiet returned to the now desered streets. Safe for pedestrians perhaps, but for the lingering fear.
Tensions escalated during the night of August 9, when three young men of Pakistani origin, out in the streets to secure their neighbourhood, were mowed down by a car, triggering fears that the riots could take on a racial shape. Not exactly unheard of in Birmingham, where the latent uneasiness between the two largest minority groups—South Asian and Afro-Caribbean—has a history of manifesting in race riots. But by all accounts, the murders were not racially motivated. Not so the tinderstick that lit the fire. In Tottenham, north London, Mark Duggan, a young Afro-Caribbean man, died of gunshot wounds inflicted by the police, who claimed he had fired at them. Duggan's family and friends did not buy it and protested. That sparked a local riot, which then spread in the city, and then set off flash riots beyond.
As it travelled farther, the reasons for rioting changed—Duggan, who? It was about looting, about the children of the dispossessed trying to get their hands on bling. But what triggered the unrest was most assuredly racial. Says Gilbert Achcar, School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), "We can't say race has not played a part. It played a prominent part at the start. Coloured people are upset over the everyday racism they encounter, especially from the police. Strong resentment is built up because of this." A contention backed by most Asians and Afro-Caribbeans Outlook spoke with.
The response to the unrest was racial too. In Southall, hundreds of Sikh men, with cricket and baseball bats at the ready, massed to protect their gurudwara. At the site, Paul Uppal, Conservative MP, said he was not unhappy with the vigilantism. "If the police is not there, tough luck. We'll take the law into our own hands. We are going to protect our community," said Ajit Singh, bat in hand. Such community-based action was also reported from areas dominated by Turks and Kurds, severely indicting the police for its failure to protect them, as darkness descended on their streets for the fourth day in a row.
As to the cause, Prime Minister David Cameron lay the blame firmly on criminality, saying: "There are pockets in our society which aren't just broken but, frankly, sick." Others like SOAS senior lecturer Subir Sinha see in the riots the immolation of Cameron's 'Big Society' conceit. "This generation, the youth, views mainstream politics as speaking past them," says Sinha, arguing that this demographic faces the most detrimental long-term impact of the Conservative-Lib Dem coalition's highly ideological policies: from the higher fees for a college education (for long the vehicle to social mobility) to cutbacks in youth maintenance allowances to the closure of job centres and cuts in programmes. "They are lashing out at society as a whole. In an age when democracy has become a plutocracy and Eton-Oxbridge-educated elites rule the land and blame the poor for the position they are in, it is a rejection of public authority. In that sense, it is not apolitical, but is beyond politics."
Gutting The defining image of the riots
Significantly, these, the children's riots, coincided with the school holidays, prompting Katherine Birbal Singh, a former teacher, to say, "We have been saying for years that something's seriously wrong with the education system. We tell the children too much about their rights, too little about their responsibilities."
Tottenham resident Emma Francis, of the University of Warwick, says the left wing predictably blames the unrest on poverty, while the Right's refrain about bad parenting is all too common. "But, in my view, there are clearly elements of both," she said. "I think a lot of these children are from one-parent families, and yes, there's a strong perception that the authority of teachers in school has been eroded, that the rights discourse is undermining the authority of parents. I would also add poverty to the list." She refers specifically to the now-abolished 'maintenance allowance' that allowed poorer youth to remain in school from 16 to 18. "When Ken Livingstone, the former mayor of London, visited Tottenham after the riots, the youngsters told him that they feared they would not be able to complete their education."
But even then, isn't mass looting anathema to British sensibility? Contends Achcar, "You don't see looting during protests in the rest of Europe. It's because of the low level of political consciousness here. Looting plays into the hands of the government, the far right, racists.... This is a reflection of the weakness of the social movement of this country." Whatever the causes, it is clear Britain has more soul-depth-plumbing to do, to rectify the failings behind one of the worst domestic conflagrations since WW II.
| ALSO IN THIS STORY |
 OPINION So thought Britain, till the hoods came out in London and beyond |
AUTHORS: ROHIT MAHAJAN
TAGS: CLASH | POLICE & SECURITY FORCES | PROTESTS | RIOTS
SECTION: INTERNATIONAL
PLACES: BRITAIN | LONDON | UK
Translate AUG 13, 2011 10:26 AM 1 | A word that defines the recent UK rioters is 'Ugly+Boys'. WHY they are so angry? They are FIFTY PERCENT less likely to be admitted for education than females, and THREE times as likely as females to be unemployed even if they do. This discrimination is perpetual for males of all race - Compound this at every step, from the time of education - and then employment - and even promotions. Combine this with no health schemes, earning for a family, no social sympathy - and they are even dying seven years younger on average! The anti-male groups and the media may deny and hide this fact, but the discontent among young MALES is getting more and more serious. Gender-casteism is a hidden discrimination, probably worse than all other Known forms of discrimination. Incidentally, the police which was brought to quell the riots were ineffective for the same reason. Since the police were forced to giving half their employment to females, now, only HALF the force is effectual in containing the rioters! A lesson for government reserving seats on gender. There is a lesson for the Indian government, which is seeking to disenfranchise males with female reservations, and the IT/ITES seats in TN this year were taken by 65% females - it cannot afford to suppress a gender! |
AUG 13, 2011 10:36 AM 2 | What has happened in the UK is about a sick and decadent society, where family breakup is rampant and divorce and broken homes are becoming the norm, sexual promiscuity among children and adolescents is rampant, drug and alcohol use is rife, teenagers and even young children are out of control of their parents, or else the parents themselves do not care about their responsibilities, and crime, violence and intimidation has become a way of life for many young people. The situation is not helped by a madcap system of political correctness which has nullified all authority, where parents and teachers do not have the right to discipline their children without facing prosecution, and a police officer has been tried and convicted for calling a black teenager "black". Economic deprivation, joblessness, a deficient state education system which even after ten years of school leaves 25% of the population technically illiterate, racism and class prejudice add to the mixture. David Cameron can talk as tough as he wants, but imprisoning the rioters will not solve the problem, as if you have a criminal record nobody will employ you and when you come out of jail you will be back to square one. The rot in British society runs so deep that it is difficult to see a solution. |
AUG 13, 2011 02:32 PM 3 | Some immigrants, their children, in fact, are breaking their part of the social compact. For the privilege of living in and then becoming the citizens of an enlightened, prosperous society, they have to bring to the table both talent and the capacity for hard work. Not necessarily of the order of Vikram Pandit and Indira Nooyi, but moving in that direction, not its converse. At a time when the West is struggling to maintain a welfare model that is becoming unaffordable, there will be little patience or sympathy for hooligans with a different skin tone. |
AUG 13, 2011 08:53 PM 4 | Welcome to the Third World! |
AUG 14, 2011 10:08 AM 5 | The foremost official policy of the UK Govt all along, irrespective of the party in power, is Multiculturalism. Unlike their next door French, who do not subscribe to Muticulturalism the British are proud of their policy. Hence, their offiicial approach to the non-whites in Britain is soft-soft and considerate. But this policy would yield dividends in practice, only when "Other things are Equal". These "Other things" are a growing and robust economy,rising employment opportunities, an uninterrupted spread of school and college education among all ,including the minorities, racial harmony and equal opportunities to all etc. If some of them are not satisfied, as is the case now in contemprary UK, an ugly underbelly to the society would emerge. The irony is that, in UK some sections of the society, DO NOT EVEN SEEK JOBS . They depend solely on the welfare benefits doled out by the Govt. Of course, they are a minority both from the white and non-white communities. There would be no problem if the British economy is doing well.Unfortunately it is not. Part of the reason is the world-wide recession bothering the Corporate Capitalsit system across many nataions. The other part is that during the earlier Labour Party Govts, politically Britain chose to run errands to the US by taking part in their nafarious and totally uncalled for invasion of Iraq. This was a big political blunder made by Tony Blair . This had its repurcussions within the British society, antagonising Muslims, the biggest immigrant minority group in the country. While economic bakwardness keeps bothering sections the African-origin people, political alieanation had set in among the Muslims. |
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