In the last one month or so attention has been drawn on the question of safety of people hailing from the Northeast region where incidents of violence or discrimination have been reported. Without going into the details of the recent incident in Delhi and Bangalore, the fact remains that there appears to be a systemic design to target people from the NE. Such incidents also add to the sense of grievance and alienation felt by the NE people. While it is true that people from the region and their physical appearance and socio-cultural ethos is different from those of the majority—the so called mainstream India, yet the fact remains that people from the NE region, they are looked upon with suspicion and made to feel unwelcome. The mainstream media has not helped either and continue to project the people and the region as ‘outsiders’. In fact the entire region is projected in a negative light and the only time when the media make a mention of the northeast is when it is related to insurgency and violence. So you see, this kind of narrow projection of the NE people obviously conjure up negative images in the minds of the majority—mainstream India. Against this backdrop, we welcome the suggestions to tackle ‘hate crime in India’ submitted to the Union Home Minister by the ‘Justice for Loitam Richard’ group. What is noteworthy is the novelty of ideas and concrete measures suggested. It begins by mentioning point blank upfront that the Government of India “must not fail to recognise... the phenomenon of racial discrimination... prevalent in India”.
Perhaps the problem as well as solution lies in educating, creating awareness and changing mindset among mainstream India about people from the northeast region. While the ‘Justice for Loitam Richard’ group has made several welcome suggestions, perhaps those that stand out are the ones related to long term measures. One of them includes enhancing awareness and education about the NE region and its peoples among the young generations of India. And this can be done, as suggested, by way of reviewing existing curricula of schools, colleges, higher institutions and technical institutions, universities including special institutions to train police and armed forces personnel in India with special attention to the inclusion of subjects about the history, culture and present situation of the communities of NorthEast region of India. The other noteworthy suggestion that we welcome is the one related to media’s role. In perhaps the first of its kind, which hopefully the Union Ministry of Information and Broadcasting will urgently looked into, the ‘Justice for Loitam Richard’ group has asked for making mandatory policies for the media (TV, Radio, Newspaper, Magazine, Internet, etc) to circulate advertisements, documentaries and films that reflect the multi-cultural and multi-racial composition of India. Accordingly it suggests that the media should acknowledge the issues faced by people of NorthEast India and implement means to positively change people’s perception towards NorthEast people and thus avoid the stereotyping and prejudice and consequent crime as a result of it.
Besides suggesting use of different media platforms to allow a positive change in people’s perception towards the Northeast people, another welcome step suggested is to make policies for the Outdoor Media (banner, posters, hoardings, etc) to acknowledge and reflect Northeast India and thereby allow a positive change of people’s perception to treat Northeast people with respect and dignity. It also suggested that important public figures (politicians, actors, dignitaries) can conduct informed campaign to improve the effectiveness of the goal to tackle racism in India. Another groundbreaking suggestion includes the serious concerns of what it termed as “mechanically superimposed Indian National Anthem which doesn’t reflect anything at all about the vast and vibrant Northeast”. Parliamentary level discussion should be done to discuss this matter, the report submitted to the Union Home Ministry states. What is sad is that for decades, communities from the NE have been looked down upon as ‘outsiders’ or an alien in their own country. One of the root causes has to be found in the State’s structure which has in fact failed to accommodate diversity although in theory India trumpets on its good feel mantra of unity in diversity. As mentioned above, the problems being faced by those from the NE region in places across India requires more than just law enforcement measures. It requires a new thinking of multi-cultural co-existence.
