‘You are not in India’ – Vasundhara Oswal calls out racism and xenophobia in Switzerland in viral post | Today’s news
Vasundhara Oswal, the elder daughter of billionaire Pankaj Oswal, claimed her family faced racism in Switzerland after her Swiss neighbor demanded they turn off their lawnmower – “You’re not in India”.
She also urged her fellow Indians to reconsider spending their “hard-earned money” on tourism or education in a country she claims looks down on Indian culture.
Racial confrontation
On Instagram Reel, the Indian-origin heiress said that the local Swiss demanded that they turn off their lawnmower without provocation.
She said the confrontation quickly took a racial turn when the man allegedly told them: “You are not in India, we actually respect people here.
Vasundhara clarified that the incident occurred at 4pm on a standard working day, with “no public holiday, no law, no explanation”. “Just, ‘You’re not in India, we respect people here’.”
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Vasundhara Oswal challenges the ‘evolved’ mindset
The meeting made her question the basic definition of a developed nation. Vasundhara pointed out the stark contrast between Switzerland’s pristine infrastructure and the narrow-mindedness she experienced from its citizens, saying, “You’d expect a ‘developed’ country to have more ‘developed’ people, but in fact it’s the other way around.”
“Does a nation’s development depend on a country’s infrastructure or the thought process of its people? What makes a Western civilization so much ‘greater’ than an Asian one in terms of development when their own citizens behave like people who have never been exposed to different cultures?” she asked.
Aiming for brown success?
After living in Switzerland for eight years and building “one of the biggest houses in the country”, Vasundhara Oswal noted that racism in the country remains a massive but largely unspoken problem.
Specifically, she emphasized that xenophobia is often directed at individuals with “different skin tones who are better off than the average local population”.
The Oswals have lived in Switzerland for nearly a decade and are deeply invested in the country. A few years ago, they made headlines after buying Villa Vari, one of the largest and most expensive private residences in the country, for an estimated ₹1,649 million crowns.
Despite building one of the grandest estates in the country, the heiress’s contribution reveals that immense wealth did not protect the family from local prejudice.
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Switzerland vs UK and USA
To back up her claims, Vasundhara shared alarming statistics regarding racial discrimination and claimed that the situation in Switzerland is far worse than in the UK or the US.
Citing that 17% of people living in Switzerland say they face racial discrimination, she argued that the country’s local reporting system masks the true extent of the problem.
“17% of people living in Switzerland say they face racial discrimination, which is only 4% less than in the UK,” she wrote.
While the UK has a strict centralized hate crime tracking system, Swiss data is very fragmented. She pointed out that human rights experts have openly stated that official Swiss data represent only a fraction of actual racist incidents.
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Vasundhara warns Indian tourists
Vasundhara asked Indians who want to study, settle or even vacation in Europe to evaluate whether Switzerland really deserves the financial support of Indian tourists and expats.
“The next time you choose a country to visit, study or settle in, you will truly understand whether it deserves ‘Indian’ hard-earned tourism and other financial support when the locals look down on India, Indian culture and Indians,” she wrote.
“Even on an ordinary holiday – please think twice before supporting those who do not support your culture,” she warned.
