Racism With or Without Race
- Tragedies of fighting for justice apolitically -

A Bimol Akoijam *

Justice for Loitam Richard : Demonstration at Delhi on 29 April 2012

The social networking sites, which some sociologists termed as the "fifth estate", have been under the scanner of the state for some time. And rightly so, for whatever happens on these sites tend to spill over to the "real world". One such moment has been the widespread protest against the killing of a Manipuri student in Bangalore and the suicide of a student from Meghalaya. The protest that started on a social networking site, and further ignited by Meghalaya Chief Minister's allegation of discriminations against the students from India's Northeast, has come to make its presence felt in the "national media" as well as in the Parliament.

Indeed, in a re-rendering of the old saying, "pen is mightier than the sword", the "keyboard warriors" (as a research scholar from Manipur calls it) of the social networking sites seem to have jolted the Government and the ruling elites on the issue of discrimination against the people of the Northeast in this country. And as usual, a struggle for justice apolitically has been responded by double speak of a political class and its cohorts for whom "race" and "racism" within the country are nothing more than conspiratorial myths of vested interests.

Protest: Re-enacting Egypt or a style statement?

The wide spread protests marked by unprecedented numbers of members on Justice for Richard Loitam on the social network site surely catch the eyes of many, besides the fourth estate, political class and their adjuncts. I suspect, even the skeptics are at a loss as they try to explain away the enormity of the response. How do we understand this massive response? This is all the more intriguing if one were to see in the context of Manipur and its denizens.

Despite dismal life situation in the state, which arguably can justify terming "the little paradise" as the "wretched of the earth", no mobilization of this kind has ever happened with respect to any of the issues that afflict life so badly in contemporary Manipur. Before this mobilization, Manipur has never seen a re-enactment of Egypt on social network sites as a way of registering the resentment or protests against injustices and state of affairs in the state.

To think of it, despite their exposure to global sense and sensibilities and a fashion consciousness that may not be anything less than those of the Parisians or Korean stars in Arirang, it still seems ridiculous to expect our youths and students to respond like the youths of France who took to the street in 1968 or Korean students to came out on the streets in 1980 or thousands of Chinese students who gathered at Tiananmen Square calling for democracy in 1989, for that matter, their own earlier generation of students and youths of Manipur who came out on the streets in 1965; they more or less remain cynical or indifferent to the overall decadence and dismal state of affairs in the state.

One suspects that this mobilization is driven by personal sense of being implicated as many of them are located outside their home-states and the possibility that the fate of Richard Loitam can befall on them as well. Besides, a subconscious sense of experiences of having been marked out and/or treated differently, if not the experiences of outright injustice and discrimination, as people with a particular look and from a particular region by the people from the so-called "mainstream" or "mainland", has arguably played a significant role in shaping the present response.

Such an aspect is bound to acquire a political tone. And yet, ironically, within the "movement", there have been palpable expressions of not wanting to raise the issues of "racism" and "racial discrimination" in this fight for "justice". Such voices seem to present the protest as lacking political substance insofar as the outcry seems to be a transitory episode as its strength lies in a few seconds of clicking the mouse.

Contain Protest: Drawing the Lakshman Rekha

The political class in the country, perhaps minus those from Manipur, and the Government of India has been alarmed by the political implication of such a wide spread protest. Perhaps, there is a legitimate reason to be alarmed. After all, for a huge chunk of youth from a state (or by extension, a region) who are seemingly de-politicized ("apolitical" or "I hate politics" generation) and driven by aspirations of a good life to be defined in terms of a comfortable life under the neo-liberal consumerists culture and taste and lifestyles of the urban or metropolitan cities, the possibility of an identity consciousness and political expression based on the same is avoidable. Such a consideration, one suspects, has a role to play in the swiftness with which the political class has responded by bringing the issue to Parliament etc.

Incidentally, echoing the familiar refrains amongst the protestors, the Union Home Minister has categorically denied that there is "racial profiling" or "racial discrimination" against the people of the Northeast. Meanwhile, the Union Minster for Human Resource Development has called some of the protestors and representatives from the region to discuss the issue within the parameters of educational institutions. By denying "racial discrimination" or "racism" and seeking to confine the issue to the matters of "educational institutions", the protests and its implications are sought to be contained.

It must be mentioned that "race", "racism" and "racial discrimination" have always been underplayed, if not denied, politically and intellectually in this country. Nonetheless, various Dalits groups and movements have been raising this issue of "racism" or "racial discrimination" as a form of injustice and discrimination based on "descent" or "colour" etc for some time. Durban Conference in 2001 has been a crucial reminder of the same.

But irrespective of the denials, the fact is, "race" and "racial discrimination" with or without "race" are realities in the life of this country. From the 19th century nationalist like Bankimchandra Chattopadhyay differentiating Bengalis into "Aryan Bengalis" and "Non-Aryan Bengalis" to Sadar Patel talking about "pro-mongoloid prejudices" with regard to the people of the region, racial categories and orientations in political imagination and practice have been a part of our reality. The issues might have come into the public debate through the Dalits movements; but it has become shaper with the experiences of the Northeast people in this country.

And yet, the posture of being "apolitical" of those which has made them unfit to be called "a man" under the Aristotalian scheme of "man is a political animal" and those who suffer from a paranoia on the issue have threatened to perpetuate the indignity of life for a section of the population in this country.