People in India have been left largely amused and astonished that the Indian cricket team—we are told they were asked by the BCCI—bent their knee in support of the ‘Black Lives Matter’ or the anti-racism movement because racism is not really an issue associated with India.
So, what compels the Indian cricket team or the Indian cricket board to partake in this gesture? The Indian side is likely to continue with this practice for the remaining matches at the ICC event despite the criticism back home. Many have been left asking—Is this merely solidarity on an issue alien to India or is it an effort to appear woke?
Taking the knee is a gesture that brings into prominence how institutional racism continues to pervade, especially the US society. It was started by one American athlete who kneeled instead of standing for the American national anthem and flag, as for him they were a symbol of a country that oppresses African-Americans. This gesture was soon adopted by the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement after George Floyd’s tragic death at the hands of an American policeman.
Essentially, it is a symbol of the fight against racial prejudice in the US, adopted in parts by some other voices across the world.
But what is its relevance on the cricket pitch and especially for the Indian cricket team? When did it become the absolute and only acceptable and mandatory gesture for the cause?
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If human rights matter, and the sports field must be used as a medium, are there not better issues that the Indian cricket team could have chosen to highlight?
Just recently, the treatment meted out to minorities in cricket-playing countries like Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan has shocked Indians. Aren’t these people institutionally and systematically prejudiced and discriminated in these countries to the extent that many are routinely abducted, converted or killed?
Will the Indian cricket players take the knee for them? Do their lives not matter? Is this not an issue that actually needs awareness in India and across the world? Especially when you play against these countries? Are you not ‘woke’ for them?
Wokiesm today is categorised as a people, especially the young, screaming about various injustices—without understanding them, debating them or even offering cogent solutions.
They also believe, for instance, only a Black can truly define what/who is racist. A White person, who hasn’t faced that issue, can’t decide for them. Only those who have suffered an atrocity as a people are allowed to weigh in.
Then doesn’t that make the Indian team taking the knee just blind support? After all, Indians don’t have any lived experience of this kind of racism. Is it not an empty gesture then? What is the solution or change the Indian team supporting this movement can offer and to whom?
Economist Thomas Sowell, one of the foremost American voices on race politics and ‘weaponizing’ of race, has said this in 2020 about the BLM movement, based largely on white police atrocities on black men and women: ‘If not a single policeman killed a single black individual anywhere in the United States for this entire year, that would not reduce the number of black homicide victims by one percent. When the mobs of protesters declare “Black lives matter,” does that mean ALL black lives matter—or only the less than one percent of black lives lost in conflicts with police?’
That, in essence, is the criticism of activism, which is overtaken by wokeism. It is rather high-pitched, without nuance and balance, and without actual solutions. In the case of BLM, it is also seen as highly political, accused of being a campaign primarily against former US President Donald Trump.
But the problem of ‘woke’ don’t end there. It is also ugly and violent. Just over the last couple of years, woke activism has become associated with cancel culture and de-platforming, besides actual violence and rioting.
So a movement that aims to fight institutional prejudice has become problematically prejudiced itself. Instead of promoting diversity, it limits diversity of views. Anyone who disagrees is immediately targeted, tarnished, cancelled or physically attacked. Today there is a stipulated line that has to be adhered to or your career could be over.
The BCCI and Indian team must think if this is a movement they want to support.
Quinton De Kock, South African cricketer, refused to follow the diktat of the cricket board to bend the knee, made mandatory at all matches at the T20 World Cup. It was clear as daylight that his international and even league career might be over.
No wonder, he recalibrated and apologised, adding that ‘he is not racist’, just because he refused to bend the knee. But his statement raises many questions.
‘I felt like my rights were taken away when I was told what we had to do in the way that we were told,’ he says. ‘I know I have an example to set. We were previously told we had the choice to do what we felt we wanted to do.’ Is there actually no choice left anymore—if you want to display your support to a cause, and worse still, not even in the manner you want to?
De Kock also adds, ‘I didn’t understand why I had to prove it with a gesture, when I live and learn and love people from all walks of life every day. When you are told what to do, with no discussion, I felt like it takes away the meaning. If I was racist, I could easily have taken the knee and lied, which is wrong and doesn’t build a better society. I won’t lie, I was shocked that we were told on the way to an important match that there was an instruction that we had to follow, with a perceived ‘or else’. I don’t think I was the only one.’
These questions could come very close to home soon, for all of us.
There is so much pressure and fear of isolation today that it is a real question if people actually believe in the cause or ‘adopt’ and partake in the gesture purely to avoid any heat. Not to forget, that an entire generation, in India and overseas, seeks ‘liberal approval’, even if the movement is liberal only in stated cause, and highly illiberal in action.
Is this why the Indian team decided to take the knee—to appear woke? The answer is awaited as the Board has not explained its reasons.
In the meantime, the BCCI and the Indian cricket team must remember—now they will be expected to demonstrate their support to many more issues. Ones that actually matter to Indians.
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