No diversity beyond North East

P Kham Sian Muan Zou & Ningthoujam Sanjit *

Map of North East :: Pix - TSE

Once we walked under the fetid, relentless, and enervating heat of New Delhi's summer at Chandani Chock, hardly far away the famous Mughal monument called Red Fort, we were unnerved by what we have encountered there. Predate to this, we were deeply lacking about our common identity.

But when three heartland Indians made us sense about our common identity – ignorantly judging our unique identities which have been pervasively and strictly maintain at our hometown - it made us mutually furious in the first instance and also forced us to think logically about our former mindset. We used to think of ourselves as predominately different communities – Meitei or Chingmi (hill tribe).

Notwithstanding such mindset we had earlier, our experience at Chandani Chock forced us to rethink about our uniformity. To reiterate, the three dull Indians racially referred us as "Nepali" or "Chinese" and demanded us to please them with vegetable momos – a typical food sell commonly by some individuals from Nepal or mainland India. We replied nothing and walked off swiftly. The message was quite awkward and humiliated us alike. Nevertheless, we were also urged to reconsider our common identity. It is clear, our identity in New Delhi or other cities is surprisingly below a non-reasonable animal, says a cow.

No matter how hard we draw a cleavage between us at home such projects are futile beyond Northeast India. We might be proud of our constructed identities, but not surprisingly, such efforts are worthless than a four footed animal in Delhi or elsewhere beyond Northeast. Are we the first to encounter about such racial incident, we (both the writers) asked to each other? But the answer was rather negative. We continued our conversation and it went deeper and deeper. We find that hundreds of reports were recorded at various police stations predate to our experience and such racial incidents have been proliferating than ever.

Furthermore, as the incident at Lajpat Nagar suggested, some individuals had paid their life due to Tibetan-Burmese identity. Thus, in mainland cities, to be a Tibetan-Burmese origin is to be a victim to racial prejudices. Various organizations and associations from Northeast made efforts for equal identity and government indeed initiated towards the demands. However, it seems the efforts were rather negative and futile. For instance, latterly the Times of India recorded that racial discrimination towards the North- eastern people has mushroomed manifold in compari- son with the previous year.

By now, as the number of Northeast migrants increased in mainland cities such as New Delhi, it is demanding to reconsider our common identity and urged the government for better status which is equivalent with that of the mainstream Indians have enjoyed. Such initiative is not a rebel but a mandatory law or fundamental as strictly highlighted in Part III of the Indian Constitution.

If racial discrimination continues to proceed and show no sign of abating it would be quite contradict to impose the right to equality in Part III of the Constitution. And it is important to consider that whether equality should be labored individually or should be guaranteed by the government.

We live in a modern world, where racial acts are deeply condemned and considered immoral or inhuman. To the world, India may thinks of herself as a peace loving democratic modern state – promoter of world peace, equality, and modernization. However, the internal conditions suggest that it is rather opposite to what India has sown about her image to the world.

While equal dignity is conventional to almost every society in all over the world, India still remains with her classical social stratification system. There is an urgent need to reconsider about unique diversity of India. India is hardly homogeneous society, but heterogeneous with diverse faiths and racial origins. A swift action is needed to protect the minority communities before the majority population – constituting about 80 % of the entire population in India.

The hour has come for rethinking our similarity. A German philosopher, Johann Gottfried von Herder, said: 'No two leaves of any one tree in nature are to be found perfectly alike; and still do two human faces, or human frames, resemble each other'.

Notwithstanding the varieties of their looks or faces, they still are the leaves from a common tree or human being with common origin. As such, no perfect resemblance could ever be found among the various communities in Northeast.

However, a common platform is always possible for urging our liberty which remains impediment thanks to our racial origin. After all, we conclude our conversation by mutually agreeing that there is little diversity for Northern people beyond our hometown.