The recent tragedy of Nido Tania sparked anger, reopened old wounds surrounding unsolved cases of similar deaths in other parts of the country, and provoked protests, both virtual and real, from Northeasterners and others alike. Social media saw many furious posts condemning the act and after much news coverage, articles and blog posts later, racism still stands tall. Unfazed.
Racism is still with us. But it is upto us to prepare our children for what they have to meet, and, hopefully, we shall overcome.
~ Rosa Parks
India ranks 10th among the World’s most racist countries, and this racism is not directed only against the people from the Northeast. This country has a bloodied record of rife racism, be it the cut-throat North-South superiority competition, Bihari xenophobia, or the Shiv Senas’ only aim being to oust people from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar from their land. Racism in India is multi-faceted and it has taken a lethal turn for worse by mixing with politics and religion, thereby putting secularism at stake. The perpetual Hindu-Muslim divide, Delhi riots of 1984, Gujarat riots of 2002, Assam violence in Kokrajhar in 2012 and recent Muzaffarnagar riots in august 2013 all show how it has continued to grow and morph into even more uglier forms.
The tragic night of January 29, when 19 year old Nido fell prey to his perpetrators, following his demise the next day, has set every Northeastern on this war for our identities. Developments show how the issue of racism in many metropolitan cities has escalated from mere eve teasing and name calling to physical attacks and now, deaths. How can we stay silent, when all our lives, we’ve been taught to be unique, different and celebrate our individualism, but racism has become the very enemy attacking these aspects?
While the fight to be recognised continues, let us stop pretending that racism does not exist among us, the Northeast. We have limited racism as to only being called chinky, chinese or nepali by “mainland” Indians, and overlooking the racism that we propagate. Do you recognise that familiar feeling of superiority that creeps into us when we meet someone who is a Manipuri Naga, all because he is not a “true” Naga, or another fellow Northeast who is not fashionably up-to-date, or cannot speak proficient English? Or for that matter, even in our daily encounters, when we (un)intentionally feel racially superior for being an Angami, Ao, Lotha or Sema over all the other so-called “backward” tribes.
The state now witnesses events, which are better forgotten, marked with underlying racist motives and inter-tribal fights for superiority. We pass remarks laced with racist connotations to one another to establish ethnic superiority and remind people their social standing. Let us not mistake these racial and ethnic superiority for anything else, because this, is also racism. And, before we continue to fight and blame the “mainland” racist Indians in the metropolitan cities, let us not ignore the racist within each of us. These racist attitudes of ours scarily make us like one of them. How, I ask now, are we different from them?
Until this philosophy in our heads that one race is superior than the other is changed and permanently removed, we will continue to practice racism, multiply it and pass them on to our children and them, to their children. There can never be any progress or growth of our people with such vices existing among us. We are only hypocrites if we continue to cry racism to those who hurl insults and blows to our people outside, while we practice the same amongst ourselves. Look at us trying to clean the plank out of another person’s eye while ignoring our own. Haven’t we become the pots who called the kettle black!
