Representation is often double-edged. Whom does Seung-Hui Cho ‘represent’ in American society? South Korea, Asia, the United States of America or some non-ethnic, non-geographical category of the dangerous and insane? Yet, the fear of an ethnic backlash targeting Koreans cannot be dismissed as paranoia in the aftermath of the Virginia Tech killings. But what is significant here is that the most explicit racism, in this case, has emanated from a website called Sepia Mutiny, used frequently by Indians living in America. A contributor to this site, calling herself Prema, has distanced herself, as a ‘South Asian’, from ‘East Asians’. According to her classification, Cho was a Korean and therefore an East Asian. There also exist derogatory stereotypes for this ethnic category that might be readily invoked to support such distinctions.

Prema’s attitude, if it is to be taken as representing a body of opinion in the US, is in marked contrast to the general attitude of rising above ethnic faultlines adopted by those on campus who have been directly affected by the tragedy. That India’s legendary ‘diversity’ does not always guarantee ‘unity’ has been proved many times in the country’s own recent history. Even when such hostilities do not take violent or socially disruptive forms, entire cultures of prejudice and typecasting exist within India among its different communities or regions. ‘Indian’ attitudes to the Chinese or Africans, or even to people from the North-East, can often betray deeply entrenched hostilities. To turn individual pathology, whatever its possible social ‘contexts’, into a basis for ethnic generalization is a dangerous habit of thought in any ethnically diverse, modern society.