Do We Belong To India?

By Leilah Zeenat

I first discovered that “we” (people from the North East India) were seen as “different” when we moved to Chandigarh.

I was 16, when we were visited at lunchtime by our neighbour who said, “Arre! You eat rice and dal?”

My landlady once asked, “Do people from Nagaland really eat dogs?” She failed to realise that she could be offensive.

She represents mainland India’s opinion about the “Seven Sisters” of North East India. (This patronising term reduced seven independent and diverse states into a single identity.)

At least she gave me a place to stay. Many other North-Eastern students have been turned away because they don’t “look like us”. The other thing is institutional. Don’t believe it?

Consider this.

“How do you guys contribute to the economy besides tea and a few bombs to seek attention?” said an educated, upper middle-class boy.

Of course, it didn’t matter that just one state, Assam, produces 55 per cent of India’s tea and a substantial part of its crude oil. He failed to name three out of the seven states and didn’t care to know the names of the capitals of the states.

“Have you been to the North-East?” I asked. “Are you nuts? Dude, you guys are like dangerous. I might get killed or abducted,” said this brave mainlander.

What happens when Shabana Azmi decides to fast for the rights of slum dwellers facing eviction? The media arrives and politicians make promises.

Within a week, Ms Azmi can return to her biryani. Meanwhile, Irom Sharmila has entered the eleventh year of her fast, protesting the indefensible Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) imposed on Manipur.

The Act allows the army to use force, arrest or shoot anyone on the mere suspicion that they have committed or were about to commit a cognisable offence. The imposition of such measures only speaks of the Centre’s failure as a governing body.

A journalist who has written extensively about the North-East and its problems says, “Physical isolation from the mainland has aggravated the already existing mental quarantine”.

So we don’t even exist and if we do we’re not part of India. What does it take to qualify as an Indian?

When Nehru spoke about our tryst with destiny, when Jana Gana Mana was adopted as our National Anthem, did anyone think of the North-East? Is anyone thinking now?

**The writer is studying social communication media at Sophia College