Photo features Agnese with colleagues from Global Policy Insight team,
Arpit Chaturvedi (left) and Raj Kishor Tiwari (right) outside Rashtrapati Bhavan, the presidential estate.
As I’m writing this, I’m fresh from seeing ‘Rajesh and Naresh’, a play by James Ireland addressing love in the aftermath of the decriminalisation of homosexuality in India in 2018. ‘Rajesh and Naresh’ is also a story about discrimination; the journey of a young British man of Indian heritage discovering his roots in Mumbai, while fighting a discriminatory work environment and potential partners who block him on dating apps the very moment they learn he is Indian.
The dialogue with his new lover, a 40-something Indian man, whose life is established in Mumbai, spots the multifaceted essence of diversity and discrimination brilliantly. When the young Londoner talks about his struggles and the lack of community because of the colour of his skin, the Indian man observes that he has no idea of how that should feel. He, with his life in Mumbai, can tell everything about being gay in a country that considered homosexuality as a crime until very recently, and how things changed when consensual homosexual sex was legalised – the reference is to India’s Supreme Court Case of 6th September 2018 “Navtej Singh Johar v. Union of India” that limits the application of Section 377 of the Criminal Code to non-consensual sexual activity – yet, he knows nothing about being discriminated against in his own country because of his heritage.
The complexity of this issue is becoming more and more clear to me and it’s quite fresh in my mind, as not even a month has passed since I returned from Delhi, where I conducted research with a think tank, observing the developments of the election of the 15th President of India.
The link, which may appear less obvious to those who don’t follow Indian politics, is given by the identity of the now elected President in Office: Droupadi Murmu. Murmu, who already served as Governor of Jharkhand and as member of the Cabinet of Odisha, is a woman from a scheduled tribe.
Observing the developments of the election and talking to high profile stakeholders was a priceless experience for my ongoing commitment as election observer. All throughout, I also looked at things through diversity lenses, which have been given to me by working in equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI), and training and consulting to organisations, to help them become more inclusive. This is quite effortless for me. All of us, as humans, are complex beings and I don’t believe in reducing knowledge to silos based on whichever role you cover at a given time. If you’re aware of EDI, and the value such principles have in society, it seems implicit to me to look for such value everywhere, even when covering a role that doesn’t directly involve EDI.
This is why I described Droupadi Murmu as “a woman from a scheduled tribe” and not “a woman AND from a scheduled tribe”. We are all multifaceted and this is also, unfortunately, reflected in discrimination. The discrimination experienced by a woman from a disadvantaged and/or underrepresented community doesn’t equal the sum of these two types of discrimination, but will be a separate one, different in nature, requiring specific attention and not simplistic re-adjustment of pre-made, one-size-fits-all solutions.
What has interested me the most about witnessing the election of Droupadi Murmu is that this multifaceted new President offers an incredible opportunity for change:
-it enhances visibility,
-it has the potential to prioritise diversity on the political agenda, and
-it opens the space for discussion around caste and tribes.
Looking at the last point, Droupadi Murmu could promote such discussions and possibly move a few steps forward from the previous President Kovind. Kovind, who is a dalit, received unwelcoming treatment during his presidency, for example the scandal of the Jagannath Temple, which was deeply cleaned after the presidential visit, to remove any “impurity” caused by a dalit entering a sacred space, no matter if he is the President of India. More than anything, the election of Droupadi Murmu shows young girls from lower castes or tribes in remote areas of India, who may be dreaming of continuing their studies after primary school, that this IS possible, because the President of their country has done it.
I spoke about how implicit it becomes to look for equality, diversity and inclusion everywhere, but we have to be aware of how. For that to happen, we need to be aware of such principles and we need to value them in our vision of society.
What happens when these two premises are not there?
With a journey of over 4000 miles from India, but the closeness of facing the same pressing issues, the answer to that question is given to us by the current migration policy in the UK, made even more evident by the recent internal election of the new Prime Minister, Liz Truss. Indeed, in the current political debate in the UK, it seems that very few disagree with the idea that migrants should be welcomed by invitation only (a patronising and colonial, one-sided way of thinking). Possibly forgetting that when migrants were “invited”, it wasn’t really out of generosity, but out of need. “Windrush” should ring a bell, but is just one of the instruments playing in an entire orchestra, which we keep ignoring.
If we go to the core of it, without geography or time impacting the nature of the issue, we have the same problems. Opening dialogues and bringing everyone to the table is the key to finding a solution, a more inclusive society for all.
With that in mind, while still in India, I have been incredibly pleased to learn that the Diversity Trust has partnered with the India Diversity Forum. It brings me incredible joy to see how we can work together, to achieve the same goal, to build a more just and fair world for all.
This article was written by Agnese Cigliano, an Associate Consultant for The Diversity Trust.
You can connect with her on: Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn.
You can read more about our partnership with the Indian Diversity Forum, here.