The glaring hypocrisy of North America (once again)
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The North American hypocrisy found in the developing Canadian immigrant policies against Asian migrants and disgust at Hindu marital norms is extraordinarily blatant in both Ward's and Shah's essays. The governments forming these 'Asiatic Alien' land laws and caps on influxes of immigration seemed to have forgotten their colonial, land theft roots. While this is obvious, While this is obvious, what makes the hypocrisy even more egregious is the simultaneous celebration of Western values like 'democracy' and 'freedom'. These governments constructed a narrative of moral superiority, positioning themselves as beacons of civilisation, claiming, in the case of the Canadian government for example, that these rigid policies were beneficial for the populations of the Global South. Ward's analysis sheds light on how the Canadian government’s strategic framing of Asian immigrants as economic threats and cultural outsiders served to reinforce a national identity predicated on white supremacy. Similarly, Shah's exploration of Hindu marital norms uncovers a mirrored dichotomy, where the so-called 'progressive' Western institutions viewed themselves as saviours, yet imposed moral judgments on practices they barely understood.
These policies not only ignored Canada’s settler-colonial origins but also vilified unfamiliar cultural norms, casting them as backwards to legitimise barring. The rhetoric of cultural superiority dominated the discourse around immigration, while their own theft and violent appropriation of Indigenous land were swept under the rug. In Shah's work, they preach about American 'liberalism', as if the United States were a model of ethical governance and individual freedoms (136). The condemnations of Hindu marriage rituals as 'repugnant' ring shallowly when you compare the American state-condoned marriage between Soledad and Jubala / Jawali, from the barely 16-year-old bride to the advanced pregnancy on the day of their wedding (121). All this to say, the moral high ground claimed by these Western nations is undermined by their contradictions and hypocrisies. Practices deemed ‘civilised’ by the West are not without their own deeply embedded moral failings. The selective application of morality, where the West condemns non-Western traditions while excusing its horrific customs, lays bare the hollowness of the claim to moral superiority.
Ward and Shah illustrate how the language of ‘freedom’ and ‘democracy’ was wielded as a weapon, not only to marginalise and exclude Asian and South Asian migrants but also to obscure the ongoing violence within their borders.