Are the North Easterners are India'outsider
Bhaskar J Nath
It was a chill winter of 2014 and I was travelling from Delhi to Assam by Rajdhani express, sat next to me was a fine well dressed gentleman. His postures and expressions radiated his fine sensibility imbued with intelligence and confidence. After momentary silence our initial conversation started as usual and after knowing that I belonged to Assam he expressed his wonder that how came I did not look mongoloid and wear cloths like others. I took some time to collect myself from the sudden shock of astonishment and our conversation began . Though I tried to dispel his clouds of misunderstanding North east , I was still confounded how much I succeeded in convincing him with my views of heterogeneous , multi cultural pluralistic aspects of North east. The incident may outwardly seem trivial or a routine experience of many northeasterners but it left an impression in my mind regarding the misunderstanding of North East by the mainland people as homogenous entity . The North East tag that attempts to club the heterogeneous eight states of North East as homogenous seems to be an artificial construct. It gave rise to my mind various questions . First is that North East is yet to be understood. Afterward many similar stray incidents resulting from misunderstanding the North East occurred team of college students were prevented from visiting Tajmahal on the pretext of their appearance resembling East Asian or Chinese. Later stories of Nido Taniam and Canine meat eating Delhi based Naga youths created ruckus in media. What came out after summing up of all these stories are far more shocking revealing and thought provoking. Now the question haunts me was what it means to be a north easterner ? Does north easterner mean outsider in the eyes of some of the mainlanders or is North East the India's other? Should we racially profile them just because of their distinct culture,ethos ,life style or food habits etc ? Connected to the mainland through a narrow stretch of chicken neck corridor North East shares the 25 of total 543 Loksabha seats and share three percentage of India's total population. Ethnically they are more closer to the East Asian nations than India. But should we overlook them because of their distinct culture pattern ethnicity etc. The genesis of all these problems lies in misunderstanding of North East .It is high time to include chapters on North East in school curriculum so that children treat North East as equal Indian Citizen when they grow up . As most tribes were very isolated and accustomed to live amidst tribal kinship society in their own hierarchy people of North East too did not highlight about their unique culture and identity earlier. Eight states of North East are not only geographically diverse but diverged in race ethnicity and culture too. Even a single tribe Nagas have seven different clans . It is to be understood that British Christianized North East as part of their colonized evangelical missions and started their evangelical missions from Sadiya because of its proximity to Burma (Myanmar) and China. Owing to the rapid Christianization and missing their root with the rich oral traditions later generations became fully accustomed to western ethos too which sometime mislead the mainlanders too. This region has given the country its fifth president Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, music maestro Bhupen hazarika writer Temsula Ao Mamang Dai Singer Papon Zubin sportstar Marycom .Manmohan Sing represented Assam twice as PM. Now a days mainstream Indian English writing also begins to explore the region for its richness and variety which earlier searched for political elements in the literature of the region. During the freedom struggle North East witnessed the sacrifice of its heroic martyrs like Kanaklata,Mukunda Kakati,Piyoli Phukan...... page-2It is regrettable why so many misunderstanding on the rise about the region rich in resources bio diversity natural beauty and culture.What it feels when one brother calls one of his sisters as chinki in her own homeland ? It denies the very basic foundation of constitution. we should not allow the people of this region to feel more alienated as alienation and indifference to the region also partly and indirectly contributes to the growing secessionist militancy in the area of which foreign elements take advantage of . Once we begin to realize the North East region with empathy it will dispel all the gloom of alienation and ostracisation of northeasterners and there by the slogan "sabke saath sab ka vikas"will translate to reality.India as a nation is not complete without the eight small but beautiful states of North East.bhaskarjnath@gmail.com
