So the racism in India has many layers, and its very complex and difficult to understand for outsiders. The most common form is provincialism.
I don't think I have seen that word used commonly here, but it is like people from NY looking down on people from Alabama, although they are both white. I remember the famous movie Mississippi Burning!
In India, my home state, West Bengal, (where Tagore is from, and my people are very proud of him), Bengalis look down on people from say Punjab (western Indian state) and say Sikhs are 'dumb' while Sikh or Punjabi people are very fond of Bengalis and lived in Calcutta for generations!
Bengali's (now they are called bongs, as rest of the India has caught up with our superiority complex!) looks down on our neighboring state Bihar (before it was Jharkhand and Bihar) and Orissa; and call them derogatory words 'bihari' and 'ures'; as they are un-smart and bit subhuman, while they are rather respectful of us Bengalis.
You see what I mean? All these superiority complex comes from the old fact that Calcutta was the British Capital and got educated in western education better than the rest of India, which were 'back waters'. Totally untrue by the way, but that was the perception. It served us well, as we lived in the past and rest of the India caught on and left us behind in education, industrialization, and standard of living. Yet Tagore's land still think about the days of Bengal Renaissance.
There you have it, Bengalis are traditionally self-critical too. This is the most honest review you can get :)
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