Manipur in China!!!

Chochon Haokip *

Protest ride by Bikers Against Racial Discrimination (BARD) at Bangalore :: 16th February, 2014

While the dust of Nido Tania's murder is yet to settle, another teenage girl from Northeast was raped by her landlord's son in Delhi. Two days later another two Northeast boys were beaten up by bikers and another boy and a nurse robbed in separate incidents in the National Capital. It's true that racial slur is only a day to day phenomenon and only the worst cases come to surface.

The murder of Dana Sangma, Richard Loitam, Ramchanphy Hongray and the list goes on not to mention the day to day happenings of eve-teasing & molestation of NE girls, foul mouthing, etc. Incidents time and again reveal that India is only a large landmass bound together by a political boundary and never a nation. Every migrant of Delhi or mainland cities experience some form of prejudice at least once during their stay.

Six summers ago I was a college boy in Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi. One day I was sipping coffee with a Laosian classmate nearby a coffee shop inside the University campus. A young boy who identified himself as an engineering student from the same university stared at us mindful of our distinct looks.

He asked me where I was from. I told him I was from Manipur. Curious, he asked me further, "Manipur? Where is it? In China?" Surprised, I jokingly responded him, "In America!" to which my shocked South-East Asian friend laughed. Amazing!

A friend of the same University, a post graduate student in Human Rights once curiously asked me whether Northeast people truly eat human beings. "It's true, especially the Bihari meat is tasty" I told him because he was from Patna. He looked confused. "I once ate a Bihari boy alive" I continued, to which he was in disbelief and appeared to have realized his folly to ask such a question. Interesting!

The same question was put to me again by a UPSC civil service aspirant friend from Bathinda. "It's true, my friend" I told him "Especially the Punjabi meat. Punjabis being huge they serve our purpose of meeting food for long time. Once killed a Punjabi man, the entire family don't have to worry for food for at least a week". In utter disbelief, we ended up laughing out loud. Wonderful!

Another friend also a civil service hopeful from Andhra Pradesh used to ask me the states and the capital cities of Northeast. Finding difficult to remember them, he insisted me to listen him whether he was right as he kept saying by heart.

Painfully, these are not the only questions. 'Do you need passport to come to Delhi?', 'Is it true that you eat snakes, dogs…?', 'Are you from Nepal?' etc. are some common questions posed to me during my six-and-a-half years' stay in Delhi.

In such a scenario how can we expect illiterate people whose India ends with Kolkata or Jalpaiguri to know what and where Manipur or Northeast is or what is the capital city of Nagaland? Why should we wonder about the racial discrimination towards the Northeast people when they don't even know how many states do India comprises of?

Thus, in spite of the influx of Northeast people in metros over the years, the mainland people could not accept the former as Indians if not equals. Perhaps the large number of Northeast people studying in DU, JNU, JMI, IIT etc. and working in Govt. offices, private companies, restaurants, hotels, BPOs, etc. are seen as foreigners staying in India with business visa.

Mainland Indians could not simply accept the Northeast people as Indians. This is inherent in their psyche. One long term yet effective solution may be to inculcate the sense of India as a country of diverse culture, language, race, religion, etc. and the spirit of tolerance to these differences right from childhood.

Schools syllabus need to revise so that children learn the truth about India. Apart from mere knowledge from the textbooks, students exchange tour programs may be organized in schools so that children personally see where the Northeast is and how the people look like.

This will reduce prejudice towards the Mongoloid looking brethren from the region thus acceptability increases and tolerance higher.