Racism towards people with Mongoloid features -Tanya Gurung
30th May, 2020
Being a citizen of a country like India that brags about its cultural diversity and lingual heterogeneity, I thought this diversity was accepted and respected throughout the country. Perhaps, growing up I realised that this is just another statement from our textbooks that most of us know, but often choose to ignore it. Hence this ignorance makes path for racism. India’s Mongoloid looking people living in different parts of the country, especially in metropolitan cities like Delhi, face these acts of racism and racial discrimination. Indian Nepalese and the Northeast people have been the victims of this racism to a large extent. The people from the Northeast have been bitterly complaining about the prejudices they routinely face in the rest of the country for their Mongoloid looks. Every year thousands of northeast people migrate to Delhi and other big cities for higher education, jobs and better living standards. The eight states (Seven Sisters and Sikkim) are connected to India with a sliver of land that spans over the northern top of Bangladesh. But for some reason, the mainland Indians have a psychological disconnection with the Indians belonging to the Northeast. Harassment from landlords, employers and assaults towards northeast people on the street have become quite common. Women are treated as loose characters while men are depicted as drug addicts, dropouts and scumbags. Colleagues are rude and misbehave, landlords charge extra rents and are mocked for their unusual Hindi accents. So, who’s making them look like an alien in the society? A lot of India's north-eastern communities’ have campaigned for anti-racism legislation but as of now there haven’t been any laws that are efficient against racism, in India.
In 2014, Nido Taniam, a college student died from an attack in South Delhi market. Men shouted racial slurs at him and made fun of his dyed hair which resulted in a full-scale fight. The murder of the 22-yearold, who was from Arunachal Pradesh, triggered the Northeast Indians against this abhorrent act. Hence, they avoid confrontations and further arguments ever since Nido was murdered, with this fear that they might get killed too. The Tibetans living in the northern region of India face the same plight. All of this makes one conscious of their own race and results in isolation. The Indian Constitution consists of 22 scheduled languages amongst which Nepali stands on the 14th number along with around 2.9 million speakers in the country. The Gorkha soldiers are one of the bravest soldiers in the world with their traditional signature weapon, the KHUKRI knife. They first encountered the British in the Gurkha War of 1814 – 1816, which ended not just in stalemate, but with an abiding sense of mutual respect and admiration between the two sides. Impressed by the fighting skills displayed by the Gorkhas, Sir David Ochterlony, decided to make them a part of the British-Indian Army.