People from northeast states have a very distinct culture of their own and they have distinct attributes too. They belong to a culturally rich society which preserve their culture and heritage. Due to lack of academic and career opportunities many from northeast states decide to move to other parts of India. We often hear news of somebody from northeast becoming the the victim of racism and discrimination for which our country stands the as the 12th most racist country in the world. Here I am going to take the situation of Delhi in this article. Wherever we see somebody from northeast we feel certain kind of feeling that portrays them to be innocent victims of racism. We often try to monitor our own words and take care in case it hurts their sentiments. But it would be equally interesting to look at both the sides of the coin and examine the situation accordingly. This article is full of assumptions and generalization only because its written against generalization and assumption that Delhites are racist. Basically I am trying to tell people that do not respect or force respect a set of people but respect all for the reason that they are human or maybe living organisms at least.
Is It Only In Delhi?
Bob Marley wisely said that “before you start pointing fingers, make sure your hands are clean” Delhi is not the only place where northeast people or somebody else faces racism it is in human nature of inclusion and exclusion that drives us into including a set of people into the super stereotype of “normal” and “other”, proper education though can help each of us to understand the worthlessness of such bordering and can eradicate racism. So another fact that we all must notice is northeast people might label Delhites as racists and most of us with logical ability would agree that the diversity of population has come with side effects as racism which is common, but at the same time the blamers must know that when a Delhite steps at the land of northeastern states s/he is welcomed with unpleasant stares and ill behaviour(as per one of our correspondent). One of my friend who lived there all his life told DU Times at the cost of anonymity that all his life (23 years) he has faced utter racism based on his skin colour. So before pointing fingers at others you should make sure your hands are clean.
Ethnic Troubles of NE
Northeastern states have been suffering from ethnic crises and they has been in constant struggle due to the hostility that they bear towards whosoever tries to earn bread and live there. It seems to the local people that the migrant has come to conquer the land. Reading the comments at the very famous page Northeast Today I personally felt as if all the “Muslims”(even those who comment) are Bangladeshi illegal migrant. The majority of the news appearing in this News portal stinks concerning racial pride, discrimination and ethnic issues. A wise man said ” the best way to end racism is to stop talking about it” though we are aware that there are always exceptions but this is all the news that most of us get to hear from the media that concern NE. Even here at our workplaces in Delhi we find them in clusters and there are very few who tries to mingle with other people. After all the struggle against racist Delhites now there is a law that you might get jailed for calling a Northeasterner “chinky” though you are free to call a Muslim “terrorist” or may be call a Dalit as “chamar”.
Lynching A Fashion
Under the name of justice mob killings and lynching has become a fashion these days taking example of Dimapur lynching case. A rape case becomes more treacherous crime that it drives the whole mob to kill the “accused” when it is committed by a person from another race or religion, otherwise if it is committed by the native nobody gives a f**k about it, nobody will even register the complaint, or may be natives never rape, Right! Oh wait all these while did we kill an accused? oh yes! and an accused is not a criminal if the crime has not yet proved. Something fishy, the scene seems like they killed the accused for something else. Is it?
My approach is not to state any person guilty of racism based on his/her ethnicity but it is pretty common to have good and bad people at in a particular area in question. Therefore instead of making some laws for a particular community or an area we should rather work on removing racism as a whole. I myself love the cultural treasure that is in northeast.
We should make love not racism.
