[dropcap]I[/dropcap]magine a young man, a BA first year student, being beaten to death when he objected to some shopkeepers making fun of his hairstyle. The youngster, Nido Tania, was the son of Congress MLA and Parliamentary Secretary of Health and Family Welfare department of Arunachal Pradesh.
The number of harassment of students both male and female (who have been subjected to rape also) particularly hailing from the north-east region in general has increased exponentially over the past few years. To cite racism as the cause is a strong adjective but it is definitely applicable. Over and above that, however, is the decline in social and moral values of the people of Delhi in general.What is of tragic note is that not only people of the north-east India but foreigners as well have been subjected to indignity by people most of whom are not really original settlers of New Delhi but migrants from neighbouring states like U.P. Haryana and Punjab plus some from all other parts of the country.
What makes the northeasterners prime targets is straightaway through looks which ethnically are very different from those of Aryan descent and other extracts. Besides, we have different food habits causing a number of bigoted people complaining about ”smelly” (read Axone) food that Nagas relish but which the masala eating bigots cannot digest.
Another obvious difference is that the way we dress, say, jeans and all are also much craved for by the Delhi people but most of them feel a touch of envy when our young girls dress up fashionably. Do girls in Delhi not wear jeans and ked shoes also? Do they expect our women to wear salwar kameez or saris? These are matters of personal choice.
The trouble is that many non-Christian Indians are still rooted in parochialism with no less a percentage of male chauvinist pigs (MCPs). As India’s industrial and commercial growth increases so also the rural mentality of these MCPs find frustration for various reasons like less literacy, commitment to save for their dependents back in their villages or home states etc.
This is not to say that all males in Delhi are such bigots. The basic problem is that there apparently seems to be inadequate general knowledge about the north-east, its various communities, their culture and customs. In this connection perhaps, geography, or social studies, have NOT been properly imparted to the students and hence the grown-ups of other states? Perhaps sociologists should be encouraged to make study on this aspect forthwith before the people of N-E eventually arise like the proverbial sleeping dragon.
