I sat this morning and saw headline after headline of India and Indians being targeted abroad.
In America, Trump’s tariffs, visa upheavals and deportations hit businessmen and students. In England, placards scream against “outsiders.” In Australia and Ireland, fists and words are raised against Indians. And as I watch our community reeling under these blows, a verse from the Holy Scriptures ring loud in my ears: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”
Let me ask: who are these “others”?
Foreigners? Or our very own neighbors—those within our borders who today are being made to feel like outsiders in their own land?
I don’t think we have to search far for the answer. Look around. See the words of hate thrown at Muslims, the suspicion cast on Christians, the everyday cold shoulder turned toward those seen as “different.” Imagine being told—subtly and openly—that you don’t quite belong. And then, as if scripted by some cosmic director, Indians abroad now hear the same words. “You don’t belong here.”
The circle is complete.
It’s strange, isn’t it? We cry foul when our sons and daughters are deported, but remain silent when our neighbors are denied a sense of belonging. We raise our voices against unfair tariffs strangling our traders, yet watch as businessmen back home are boycotted simply because of their faith. We grumble about others treating us as second-class, yet fail to notice the second-class treatment we mete out in our very own backyard.
The irony is delicious, if it weren’t so tragic. We, the victims abroad, are also the aggressors at home. The bruises we now show the world are the very same we inflict on our fellow citizens. It’s as though history—or maybe God Himself—has arranged a mirror before us. “You don’t like being singled out?” the mirror asks. “Then why do you single out others?”
There’s a lesson here, if only we’d stop shouting long enough to listen: The Golden Rule is practical politics. It’s sound economics. It’s plain survival. Treat others the way you’d like to be treated, and you won’t need to send special envoys abroad begging for mercy. You won’t need to negotiate tariffs on bended knee.
Because justice will already be glowing right here.
So, dear leaders, before you unleash another wave of hate speeches or whisper another divisive law, pause. Think of that IT professional or student being sent home from America, of that trader struggling under tariffs, of that worker shoved in an Irish pub.
Their pain is the echo of the pain you’ve allowed to fester here.
And to you and me—ordinary citizens—it’s time we made the Golden Rule more than just a verse. Time we stretched it across caste, creed, and community, like a protective canopy. Because today we are seeing that the way we treat “others” is the way the world is treating us.
Treat this not as advice, but as prophecy…!
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Robert Clements is a newspaper columnist and writes a daily column, which has graced the pages of over 60 newspapers and magazines, from a daily column in the Khaleej Times, Dubai, the Morning Star, London, and in nearly every state in India, from The Statesman in Kolkata, to the Kashmir Times in Kashmir to the Trinity Mirror in Chennai.
All communities have treated each other badly in the past and same thing going on today in so called educated world.It seems we people in the world are not mature even if percentage of education has tremendously increased.So do not blame a single community please.
True, no single community has a spotless record history everywhere is filled with mutual wounds. But acknowledging that fact should not become an excuse for silence today. Education may have expanded, yet wisdom is still scarce if we repeat old patterns of exclusion. The article isn’t about blaming one group; it is about recognising hypocrisy. We cannot cry foul when Indians are targeted abroad while ignoring the very same injustices within our own society. If all communities have erred, then all communities must also rise higher. The real maturity lies not in deflecting blame, but in breaking the cycle by practising fairness and empathy, here and now.
What a powerful and timely piece. The mirror you hold up is uncomfortable, yet essential. We cannot demand dignity abroad while denying it at home. The point about the Golden Rule being more than scripture being survival is profound. It reminds us that nations, like individuals, reap what they sow. If we create an environment of suspicion and exclusion within our borders, we should not be surprised when our people face the same hostility overseas. This article is not just a call to empathy, but to wisdom: that justice and belonging must begin here, in our own streets, for us to expect them elsewhere. A wake-up call we can ill afford to ignore.
Thank you Bruce.