Being a 'Chinky' in Delhi

Jenni *

Protesting for Justice for Loitam Richard at Delhi on 29 April 2012

The title of my article seems somewhat polemical however I intend to use it so as to come straight to the point rather than to beat around the bush. Recently, newspaper articles are filled with issues of racial profiling against North-East students, such debates being ignited in Manipur especially by the brutal murder of Richard Loitam.

Along with this, we have frequent incidence of various atrocities committed against our brothers and sisters from North-East ranging from verbal abuse to physical abuse.

History has great many examples of majority–minority syndrome whereby the term 'syndrome' points, at the very least, to the breakdown of basic trust and common understanding between the majority and the minority communities, accompanied by a vertiginous assortment of negative emotions. For a person from the North-East, living amidst the majority population in a big city like Delhi as a minority, would eventually be accompanied by certain constraints if we look at things through the lens of majority-minority syndrome.

I was quite ignorant about the effect of using ethnic slurs or ethnophaulisms in our everyday language until the day I landed in Delhi. The word 'Chinky' which is used to refer to people of perceived Chinese descent, and by extension for other East Asians and considered extremely derogatory is a very common lingo in Delhi as far as my experience is concerned.

Here in our hometown, I was taught to categorize a non-Manipuri with almond shaped eyes or pointed nose as 'Mayang' since childhood. As I grew up, my conscience started questioning and I pondered if it's justified to categorize people like that. But when I dwelled in Delhi, I became sort of 'Mayang' for the likes of 'Mayang' back at home.

The word 'Chinky' sounded and reverberated on my ears like an everyday language. Me and my friends even started referring to North-East people as 'Chinkies' on lazy days when we didn't feel like using the longer term 'North-East people'. Its not that we like the term but it became a way to turn an unfavorable situation to a humorous one, to take this very pesky word 'Chinky' on a lighter note.

We always felt that it's better to ignore such racist people though we felt dumbfounded and choleric on being showered with this pestiferous word by some grisly local bigotry on a bright sunny day. It's like some sort of Karma rebound, of we being in the shoes of 'minority Mayang' amidst the majority population.

We were narrated with lurid stories about racism and discrimination against North-East people by many of our seniors when we first landed in Delhi so much so that we were argus-eyed about such mishappenings in the initial years. In college, we were worried if the teachers would be biased or unfair owing to our ethnicity. However, our misconceptions vanished when we learnt that most of the teachers stood for quality, equity and punctuality.

There was this one small incident where a North-East friend of mine who was late for the class on the third day of college got this remark from a lady teacher," Aha, late night parties?" She was miffed by those words as she is a very simple and studious girl. However, she became one of the favorite students when the teacher got to know her better. It shows how such mindset and stereotyping exist in the minds of even educated people in Delhi and how we can clear such misconceptions by adopting proper behaviour.

Academically or personally, many a times, we may come across individuals who conceive the people from North-East and other parts of India as two peas in a pod assuring us that we the people from North-East are not misunderstood outside our home state. And there are times when we have to face people who stereotype us with a hostile attitude. It may be from the educated or the uneducated majority.

Questions like: Do you come from your state by a helicopter? What do you wear at home? Where is your state located? Do boys and girls live together before marriage in the North-East States? Why do you eat dry fishes with eyes wide open? and our comical answers to such whacky questions have become so humdrum that it's almost like an exchange of inane joke with an ignorant soul.

There are various instances where girls got their chains snatched away by speeding scooter drivers, where North-East girls got molested even while sitting on a rickshaw in broad daylight in the University campus, along with all the incidents of rape and molestation committed to them. Nowadays, it's quite common for North-East man in shining armour, protecting his North-East sister or partners to get beaten up by the local people. Such news and incidents makes us feel that it's high time for the North-East men and women to wear armour literally or to get acquainted with self defense mechanism like Judo.

On the negative note, it's quite common to see many North-East girls wearing skimpy clothes or walking on the streets stoned and drunk. The complaints from the masculine gender of North-East, of frequent sightings of North-East girls in discotheque engaging in inept behaviour with men from other parts of India or abroad or going out with them for some freebies cannot be disputed. However, the feminine gender of North-East feels that many of the North-East boys are equally at fault.

But on the positive side, we have many of our North-East counterparts toiling day and night to make the most out of their lives, excelling academically as well as professionally. And it's also quite common to see 'Non-North-East people' engaging in lousy behaviour even in public places like parks or adopting a skanky fashion. The only difference is that they remain obscured amidst the crowd due to their facial structure which is not so for the North-East people.

The bottom line is, should all the people from North-East be stereotyped and exploited because of few shoddy apples or due to what we are, where we come from or how we look like. Isn't it quite normal to have few flaws in this era or globalization, evolution and change?

After all, we are also trying to participate in this race for evolution and modernization. And as for those who wear skimpy clothes or engage in reprobate behaviors, it's a matter of personal choice. It doesn't mean that a girl or a boy from North-East is easy enough to be verbally or physically abused like some sort of meek powerless creature.

The alarming increase in the frequency and magnitude of such unfortunate incidents everywhere in India is quite appalling! While we are marching ahead in the fight for justice, equality and delving for a solution, it is generally agreed that for the North-East girls; wearing decent clothes, avoiding isolated places or strolling out late at night, a good dose of good luck and remembering mom's famous advice not to talk to strangers would prevent us from being victims of such unwanted incidents atleast to a great extent.

May justice prevail for one and all!