The recent brouhaha about 12 Indian passengers who were arrested and taken off a Northwest Airlines plane in Amsterdam for fear that they were terrorists has made headline news in the last few days, with India complaining to the Dutch that the manner in which this group was treated was not “in conformity with the friendly ties between the two countries” and “could lead to presumption of (racial) profiling”.
While, perhaps, the airline and the Dutch did overreact, there is another aspect of the episode that needs to be considered, and this is the generally discourteous and inconsiderate behaviour we Indians exhibit whenever we make a journey. In the Northwest Airlines case, co-passengers on the flight confirmed that the 12 had been rude to the crew, that they walked up and down the aisle when they were not supposed to, that they refused to switch off their mobiles when asked to, or fasten their seat belts when told to. None of this was necessary, or for that matter, acceptable, and the explanation that “we were just having fun,” as one of the 12 said, does not appear to be sufficient excuse for their behaviour.
I recently read an article in a foreign newspaper about stereotypes amongst travellers. It spoke of the ugly American stereotype, something that has prompted an American non-profit organisation to produce a code of conduct for American businessmen overseas. I remember, years ago, when, on a visit to Japan, our guide described to us the beauties of the Katsura palace, taking particular pride in its antiquity and the fact that it was made entirely of cedar wood that had lasted several hundred years. While the rest of us were duly impressed, the only concern, stridently and brashly expressed, that an American woman in the group had was whether the palace had running hot and cold water!
Stereotypical attributes exist for various nationalities. We are given to believe that the French are haughty, the British are autocratic, the Germans are rigidly inflexible. While it is patently absurd to make sweeping generalisations, one cannot help wondering whether we too have not earned a national image — that of being inconsiderate and indisciplined travellers. Take the matter of queue crashing at airports, of treating air hostesses as though they were your personal servants, of not straightening your seat even when a meal is served, so that the person behind you is in danger of his meal tray sliding on to his lap; of pushing your way on to a train irrespective of whom you hurt in the process...
While one has sympathy for the 12 passengers who underwent their ordeal in Amsterdam, one cannot help wondering whether we too don’t need someone to produce a code of conduct for Indian travellers.
