Discrimination on the basis of one’s appearance : Incomplete idea of a Nation
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: Ocotber 17, 2014 -

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

Speak in Kannada, this is not China. Another damning evidence that the idea of India as a Nation is not all inclusive.

More often than not the idea of India as a Nation has been seen and experienced as something for or against and perhaps no one knows this better than the people of North East.

Often Chinky may be seen as a term to refer to the people of North East India, but this is something much more than the reference to the physical attributes of a people.

Not vocally spoken or officially acknowledged but this very term spawns a whole lot of divides that run deep. The notion of Us versus Them.

The divides can take various forms and sizes and it may range from the cheeky verbal reference to a group of people with oriental looks to plain racism, which if left unchecked can take violent forms.

What happened to a young man from Manipur at Bangalore in the night of October 14 was more than the question of a man being targeted and assaulted.

It was this and something much more.

Why should someone from the North East, or Manipur to be more precise, be directed to speak in the local language, which is Kannada here ?

Surely it could not have been the love of one’s language for language cannot be imposed on anyone.

Moreover where is the threat to a language if a lone man or some people, prefer to converse in a language which is not the local language ?

Surely Kannada is not so weak that just because some people prefer to speak in a different language, it would pose a threat to its survival.

A point which does not need rocket science technology to register in the mind of anyone.

Surely the attack or assault must have something to do more than a language and this is where the deep divides spawned by the term chinky become all that more palpable and dangerous, if one may add.

Increasingly it has become more and more apparent that to many, the term North East is more than just the geographical description of a place, but borders more on something straddling discrimination.

Not the first time that someone from the North East has been at the receiving end in mainland India and will probably not be the last either.

More than just some ignorant people flexing their muscles, for in many ways, the experience of the North East people will more than say that it is more than ignorance.

Tough to say how many people from the North East region have been at the receiving end once they cross the chicken neck, but it surely says something significant about how incomplete is the idea of India as a Nation.

There may not be a pattern behind the attack on a student at Bangalore, but it nonetheless says something disturbing and significant that he should have been told to speak in a particular language.

Would the man from Manipur have been told to speak in Kannada, if he had come from say, Gujarat ?

Not just a rhetorical question, but something valid, for it is not everyday that someone should be told to speak in a local language with the addendum that the place is not China.

That discrimination reigns in India on the basis of one’s physical attributes is a reality today.