By Shubham Ghosh
A TV commercial promoting national unity through a song 'Mile Sur
Mera Tumhara' achieved quite a popularity a few decades ago. Although
quite young then, I can distinctly remember that the commercial,
although promoted various parts of India, featured just a tribal dance
while speaking about the north-east (NE) except Assam. We still learn
about the nation-building process in our school and college days but
yet, all our efforts seem to be futile when we read about tragic cases
of north-eastern students losing their lives in 'mainland India' where
they had come in the pursuit of a brighter future.
The situation has been a
worrying one even for the central government. The home ministry recently
asked all states and Union Territories to charge anyone if he/she
commits any atrocity against people of the NE under the Scheduled Castes
and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. Even calling any
person from the NE as a chinki could invite an imprisonment for five
long years, for the term is considered to be a derogatory one!
But
why it took 65 long years to cover the distance between New Delhi and
the NE? Even now, not many are convinced that the home ministry has
taken a wholehearted step to curb an alarming domestic trend. The recent
deaths of three north-eastern students in Gurgaon, Delhi and Bangalore,
including Dana Sangma, the niece of Meghalaya chief minister Mukul
Sangma have created a uproar over the security of these people in their
own country and the government's tough stand could have been propelled
by public pressure.
The issue is a serious one. Making a law or
announcing strict punishment for belittling the north-eastern people
would only act as a desperate and temporary measure to keep things under
control but not eliminate it, for the reasons are deep-rooted
socio-economic one.
North-easterners are known for their migratory
tendencies. But an essential feature of their migration is that they
are mostly city-bound. The national capital region of Delhi might be a
popular destination, but other metropolis and cities of the country do
not lag much behind, either.
Such city-bound migration of the
people from the NE (primarily youngsters) point to the fact that these
people mainly move out in search of education and employment. The case
is very much unlike the other parts of the country, where other factors,
too, play important factors. But why the north-easterners ' movement is
propelled by these two specific reasons?
NE is a region which has
quite a high literacy rate compared to the national average. But the
unfortunate part is that the region does not have much scope for higher
education and training to equip the rich pool of talents for the market,
particularly that belonging to the new economy. They, thus, after a
particular stage of education, have no other option but to move to
developed urban centres of the country for a better future.
This
brings us to the second point. Since the NE is one of the most backward
regions of the country, thanks to geographical and historical reasons,
the young people who had once moved out of the region in search of
better education and training, find very little reason to come back.
This is unlike for, say a Mumbaikar or Delhiite, who return home after
receiving higher education degrees or training abroad and find
himself/herself a market. Poor industrialisation and economic
infrastructure and near-stagnation of state jobs mean the north-eastern
economies have little to offer for the new workforce. And when this is
coupled with the unstable socio-political milieu marked by ethnic,
communal tensions, army atrocities and other kind of disruptive
activities, chances of the sons and daughters of the soil returning to
make a living in their natives is almost nil.
This scenario holds
the north-easterners against a tough challenge. For them, the future
lies in surviving alien conditions with no much of the
generally-available second option to return home. 'Adjustment' is the
first blow they take, in terms of climate, food, dress, customs,
rituals. With this, arises the incompatibility problem with the local
inhabitants. Whenever the guests come into contact with the
inhospitability of the new environment, they feel more and more insecure
and as a result, try to remain in groups to protect themselves from
being lonely and helpless. Keeping together with communal colleagues and
families and observing and celebrating their own occasions in an alien
milieu make them more and more exclusive groups.
Another feature
of the people from NE is their fluency in English, hard-working and
peaceful and pleasant nature. These qualities, along with better
educational qualifications compared to some other communities, often
help the northeasterners bag jobs and occupational profiles higher up
the order. Moreover, these people display a very low attrition rate in
jobs, which make them all the more popular and suitable in the economic
circles.
All these features of the northeasterners, in a way,
invite trouble for themselves. First of all, their prolonged stay for
employment purpose is not taken well by the natives. Achieving success
owing to their qualities leave the local fellows often fuming and often,
this leads to foul plays at workplaces. The docile-natured
north-eastern boys and girls often find racial, sexually-offensive
remarks hurled at them or bad treatment meted out. In majority of cases,
these offences go unnoticed for the victims find them in a hopeless
minority to counter the majority onslaught. Many a time, they even feel
compelled to quit the workplace.
The physical traits of the
north-eastern people also act as a reason for their plight. Often in an
alien city, they are deliberately maltreated by the local people, be it
in terms of racial slur, economic exploitation, moral policing or even
social deprivation. There are cases where students from north-east are
forced to change their eating habits ('puritans' abhor the idea of
eating dogs as the diet of the people of NE) or denied basic facilities
like water or electricity. All these factors push the 'outsiders' to
form their own groups and more they do so, their exclusiveness is mocked
at by the locals more. "See, those
chinkis are so proud of
themselves. They always move about in groups and hardly talk to anyone,"
is a common statement one can get to hear in any major educational
campus in 'mainland India' at any point of time.
Such
discriminatory attitude towards the people from the NE has deep social
roots. The value system of the north eastern societies are markedly
different from those of north India and elsewhere. While the
north-eastern societies are more tribal and community based with a
matriarchal structure, those in north India are primarily casteist and
patriarchal. Hence, while the northeasterners display a more fair
treatment towards women and mingle more freely with them, the north
Indians consider it to be a cheap gesture. The Indian media too can not
escape its responsibility of furnishing the north-eastern tribal
societies as something backward, stagnant and lacking enlightenment. The
modern north-eastern youth presents a picture, totally different.
Dealing
the issue with a legal iron-fist would not solve the problem but only
could try to contain it. The former Mayawati government in UP and booked
over 6,000 people for humiliating people from the NE as against a
paltry 16 in Delhi.
The main thrust should be to strengthen the nation-building process
integrate the 'overlooked' NE more with the 'mainstream' by various
sensitising means. Or otherwise, the deaths of Sangma, Richard Loitam
and Samiran Saikia would remain ordinary waste of precious human lives.
The mind has to change, not only the law.
