TODAY -
We have let them down
TNN | Chetan Bhagat | 26 August 2012, 08:05 AM IST
Every time one visits the northeast, locals make a resounding request- please help us get attention. Please treat us like Indians and not as outsiders. Why do they feel this way? Why don't we listen to these seven of our 28 states better? Why does this section of fellow Indians feel isolated even in today's digitally connected age?
The northeast people are beautiful and attractive. They also have slightly different, more oriental physical features compared to the rest of us. Hence, the rest of us use it as a reason to ignore, mock or exclude them. It is shameful, disgusting, primitive and sick. Did our schools not teach us to be open-minded, or did our parents reinforce the racism? It is nothing to be proud of. It reflects poorly on us, the discriminators, rather than the northeast people. It is also worrisome. For if we cannot accept such superficial differences between our own people, how will we ever engage with the globalized world? Are we going to mock every foreigner who comes to India for business and is not white (for white people, we are automatically servile)?
Is this the nation we want? Where people look for differences rather than similarities? There is more in common between the northeast people and us than we think. The rest of India needs to reflect on how our shallow racist thinking has hurt not only the northeast people, but also ourselves. Meanwhile, they could take proactive, practical steps that will put the northeast back in the reckoning.
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* This Post is uploaded on August 26, 2012
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