It was the rarest of spectacles, an alignment of political
stars that no astrologer could have predicted: Rahul Gandhi, Narendra Modi and
Arvind Kejriwal, all lending their support to a single agitation. Even more
unexpectedly, the agitation in question was one being staged by students from
India’s Northeast region.
For decades now, that region and the “mainland” of India (to
which it is connected tenuously by a land corridor 22 kilometres wide at its
narrowest point) have had a troubled relationship. Differences in culture, religion
and food habits, and even in physical appearances, have deepened the sense of
alienation felt by many from the region who made the journey to India’s
bustling metropolises in search of education or jobs.
It was his appearance that sparked off the fight that seems
to have led to the tragic death of Nido Tania, a student from Arunachal
Pradesh, in Delhi’s Lajpat Nagar. Police records and the testimony of his
friends show that Tania was severely beaten up by a group of youth after he
broke a shop’s display window. He had stopped to ask for directions, and been
met with a racist taunt, which infuriated him.
Such taunts are “par for the course”, says Nicholas
Kharkongor, a writer and director of mixed Naga and Khasi descent who lives in
Delhi. He’s been in Delhi and Mumbai for 20 years now, and has learnt to blank
out these taunts, he says. His forbearance has meant that he has not found
himself in “any sort of extreme situation”.
“If in a place you have a singular exotica, a few people
from elsewhere, you will be nice to them. If there are a lot, fascination will
give way to xenophobia. Delhi has a huge Northeastern population,” he says.
The size of this population came into notice in 2012 after
rumours circulating on SMS sparked off an exodus of people from the region who
live and work in cities such as Delhi, Pune and Bengaluru. The incident drew
the attention of Prof Sanjib Baruah, an authority on the region who teaches at
Bard College in New York. In a paper for the January 2013 issue of Himal
Southasian, Prof Baruah noted the presence of at least 2 lakh Northeasterners
in Delhi.
In an email interview, he wrote that while he was very
disturbed by the Tania incident, he saw a silver lining. “I am glad that Kejriwal
and Rahul Gandhi went to the protests. The political establishment appears to
be taking this incident more seriously than previous racial incidents. I hope
the discussion leads to the recognition of such crimes as hate crimes,” he
wrote.
Watershed moment
These protests could prove to be a watershed moment given
the recognition from all major political parties that there is racial
discrimination being faced by some Indians in India, a fact that has long been
ignored or denied. It is also a watershed moment in the very vocal
identification by the protesters from the Northeast of themselves as Indians.
The region has been home to numerous separatist insurgencies down the decades
since 1947, and the Indian identity was not something everyone from the region sported
easily.
Borkung Hrangkhawl, a rap musician from Tripura who lives in
Delhi, is the son of a legendary insurgent leader from the state, Bijoy Kumar
Hrangkhawl. His father gave up the gun after 10 years of armed struggle, in
1988, and took to politics. Asked whether he feels Indian, Borkung paused for a
moment to say that it was a loaded question before answering “yes”.
“A lot of us don’t feel Indian,” says Kharkongor, but adds
that he is not among those. “I feel very Indian,” he says.
Prof. Baruah, who authored a seminal text called India
Against Itself on the politics of nationality, says, “Northeasterners are
seeking integration as equal citizens, which is not the same as assimilation”.
The younger generation of writers, thinkers and musicians
from the region seem to agree with this view.
Ankush Saikia, an author who divides his time between Tezpur
and Shillong and lived in Delhi earlier, says “focusing on differences rather
than factors that bring us together is harmful for everyone in the long run”.
He agrees that it is a difficult and complex matter, and
says, “We need to look at the treatment of people from outside the Northeast in
the Northeast itself, and the many opportunities available to and availed by
people from the Northeast in the rest of India.”
Perhaps the worst sufferers of the periodic bouts of
violence against “outsiders” have been the Bengali minority who scattered
throughout the Northeast for generations.
Sonali Dutta, who now lives in the United Kingdom, recalls
an incident from her college days in Shillong.
“It was during Durga Puja and I was walking back home from
the pandal with my boyfriend just after dusk. As we approached a quiet, poorly
lit stretch on the street leading down to my house, six Khasi boys surrounded
us. One of them exposed a knife in his inner leather jacket pocket. While they
were busy punching and kicking my boyfriend along with profuse racial verbal
abuses, I managed to slip out of their circle to look for help. In the
meantime, my boyfriend broke out of their loop, caught my hand and yelled,
‘run!’ I threw my handbag and we ran for our lives.”
There’s a sense of xenophobia in the Northeast, says
Kharkongor. “It needs to go…I don’t know what can be done about it,” he says.
The situation there is “more grim”, he adds.
“Bridges need to be built between this region and the rest
of the country so that there can be understanding and interaction, and
ultimately, mutual respect,” says Mitra Phukan, the Assam-based president of
the Northeast Writers’ Forum.
Mary Therese Kurkalang, director of the Cultures of Peace
Festival, is at the forefront of efforts to build such bridges. She left
Shillong to live in Delhi in 1998 and has been there since. “I consciously
choose to live in India’s capital that is not always known for being kind to
women or minorities or to anyone at many and various levels,” she says, adding,
“There is also much that this city offers. I came to this city with `5,000, a
suitcase full of synthetic clothes, a Class 12 Pass certificate, and a great
deal of hope! After 16 years, I can look back and say, ‘Delhi you didn’t let me
down!’ I run a company of my own, know thousands of people (and not just on
social media), I have a wonderful Punjabi landlady in whose flat I have lived
for 11 years running! I celebrate Christmas, Id and Diwali with equal gusto. So
every now and then, if someone asks me ‘aap kahaan se ho’, I patiently explain
to them where Shillong is, starting from Kolkata, then to Assam and a 100
kilometres up to Shillong — the capital of Meghalaya ‘the abode of clouds’
where perhaps a bit of me always floats.”
Source: Deccan Chronicle, Hyderabad 11/02/2014
BENGALURU — A
Manipuri woman was allegedly assaulted by three men here in Indranagar on the
night of 21 June 2018.
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