What is in an appearance?
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: August 17, 2012 -

If face is the index of mind, then the largest democracy in the world is ready to go one up than this and give it a definition of their own.

Perceive someone or a group of people on the basis of their physical appearance.

Nothing explains this better than the systematic targeting of students and professionals from the North East region settled in some parts of the country, in the aftermath of the recent clash between indigenous Bodos and Bangladeshi migrants in Assam.

‘Don’t leave any Chinky’ and no we have not picked this up from the lanes and bylanes of the North East region but quoting a sentence from Inner Manipur Parliamentary Constituency Dr T Meinya, when he took up the issue on the floor of Parliament on August 14.

Ironic it is that an elected MP from the country had to quote this one day before the country celebrated its Independence Day.

But then it has always been like this.

India is a racist country, there should be no argument over this and in most cases, it is the people from the North East region who have had to bear this brunt.

What should be clear to Delhi and the policy framers of this country is the bare fact that even after 65 years of independence, the understanding of India and Indians continue to be exclusive and herein lies one of the biggest ironies of the idea of Indian Nationhood.

When Nationalism, as understood within the classical understanding of sovereignty, territory and the other essential hallmarks, continues to be exclusivist then it is a sure sign that something, somewhere has gone horribly wrong.

When an elected member of Parliament, Dr Meinya in this case, feels constrained to announce on the floor of the Lok Sabha, ‘We need to know one another,’ then it says something profound.

Nehru’s Tryst with Destiny stirred the conscience of the Nation but what has this really meant for the people of the North East ? Mary Kom won a Bronze, the first by an Indian woman boxer, at the recently concluded London Olympics and the resultant talks about ‘awakening’ the Nation’s consciousness to a place called Manipur told many a story, and went much more than a question of a remote place suddenly gaining ‘recognition’.

Something has to give and as we have maintained before, all the tall talk of India not being racist amounts to skirting the issue.

Denying racism is racism in a subtle way.

It is not surprising that after more than 65 years of India gaining independence the need to include the history, geography and culture of the North East region in the curriculum of all the schools across the country should be aired now.

Ironies and ironies.

It is more than a question of geography, history and culture.

It is about a mindset, which has been politically and socially nurtured down the years.

The big question is whether the Delhi mandarins and the political leaders of the North East are ready to acknowledge the harsh truth or not.

Period.