Indi — I love the sentiment. I think there’s a conflation here though that undermines your point.

I have traveled to over 100 countries, mostly on my Canadian passport. Though I went to the majority of them without a visa, many of them imposed ludicrous or expensive immigration regimes upon me, designed to extract money for my presence, and not much else.

Any country is free to impose visas on any other country, even when the “balance of power” shifts in favor of the colonial. Brazil and Argentina have — for a very long time — imposed expensive, cumbersome visa requirements on North Americans in retaliation for our government’s visas. They are priced identically, and require an almost identical level of documentation.

India’s visa regime has only been optimized in the last 18 months, as you are probably aware. Prior to this, in order to get an Indian visa, you had to fill out a form that was DELIBERATELY DESIGNED to get you to say that you were formerly in the Pakistani military, and they would ROUTINELY deny visas for people based on an incorrectly filled out form. Hardly an example of “white is right” at all.

As countries have wised up to the potential of tourism to bring $$, they have made the system easier. A great and welcome trend is the increase in e-visa systems available to tourists from around the world.

But make no mistake — the reason Sri Lankans need a lot of visas isn’t solely because of racism or a history of visa overstaying. It is partially because Sri Lanka has EXPLICITLY CHOSEN to not seek more visa free travel for its citizens. There are plenty of examples of “non-white majority” countries with vast swaths of visa-free/visa-minimum travel around the world (see: Singapore, Japan, Brazil). While you have a valid complaint, if you want this to change, start in Colombo.