-JAYANT MUNDHRA
A few days back Bengaluru witnessed an alarming case of racial
discrimination targeting the North-Eastern Indians. The daughter of a former Top-Cop,
Bengaluru’s Ex-Police Commissioner H.T. Sangaliana’s daughter , Rachel Sangaliana.
She was allegedly assaulted and racially abused by two women
at a Super-Market. Her hair were grabbed and pulled out of clamps, she was
abused and was told to go back to China, where she belongs.
Similarly, various such cases of Racial Discrimination against
our North-Eastern brothers and sisters have been reported by the media. Also,
many of us might have witnessed or been a part of such activities.
As, I attained my Senior Secondary education in New Delhi, I
witnessed various occasions when derogatory words like CHINKI , TRIBALS ,
REFUGEE , CHINESE , CHOWMEIN , CHOPSTICKS and NEPALI etc. were used to refer to
Northeastern people. Is it really necessary to brand the natives of a
particular territory in such an ill-manner ?
The question that arises is “Why are so many of us not ready
to accept the 7-sister states as a part of us? Why does physical attributes
matter so much to many of us that we end up telling them to move back to their
home nation, while they are just as
equal Indians as we are” .
About a few months back, a north-eastern guy was beaten to
death in New Delhi. At that time, above questions came to my mind. And, thus I
posted my question on Quora.com, which led me to some amazing answers.
I realized that the PROBLEM is with our EDUCATION SYSTEM!!
We people
(other than the North-Eastern People) don’t know a thing about their cultures,
rituals, diversity, traditions, languages, mythology and history. This is
because we never get to read about any of that stuff. Hence, we end up on a
totally different edge as they are totally new cult of people to us. As a
result, we don’t mingle up with them quite easily.
In the schools,
We are taught about the Mighty Empires of South : Cholas,
Pallava, Vijayanagar Empires etc. We are introduced to the legend and the history of
Bengal : Rabindra Nath Tagore, Subhash Chandra Bose, Swami Vivekanand. We
learnt about the great Maratha Warrior SIVAJI who bravely fought the Mighty
Mughals with his guerilla warfare techniques. We were taught about how Pakistan
and Bangladesh separated from India. We learnt about the ancient Harappa &
Mohenjo-Daro. For a whole year, we are simply taught about the British Rule and
the Mughal Empires.
Now, WAIT for a moment. In all the history, we are taught we
hardly read anything about the Northeast. Were we taught about How did the
Indus Valley prosper? NO. Were we taught about the various Kingdoms that ruled
over these lands? NO. Do we know about
any of their heros and legends? NO. Have we got any idea about their rituals, traditions,
cultures, languages or their mythology?
NO WE DON’T.
Even the Media does the same thing. You would never rarely
see news from Northeast Politics or the Separatist Movement or the Insurgency
Issues. They would show us the news from North, South, West and Central India.
But, when it comes to the East, you only get the news from Bengal and sometimes
Assam. So, how would the people come to know about these leftover territories?
And, that’s why many of us end up feeling that these people don’t belong with us as we
don’t know a shit about these people. These differences clubbed with the appearance(Small
eyes, White faces, Descriptive facial features, Genarally, short height), make
them a totally different cult of people.
They are one of us. They are humans. They do hear when you
call them CHINKI. They do feel the PAIN of being Isolated and Objectified.
Wearing a Being Human T-Shirt is not going to make a difference to this society
and the nation unless you become a human from within.
Create a better world to live in.
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