[Assam] (Assam): Racism in North India

[umesh sharma]

Bhuban-da,

i lived in college hostel of Delhi Univ 's KiroriMal
College and twenty percent of the hostelers were from
North East wih Mongoloid features. I had a good friend
Maryom karlo from Arunanchal pradesh in the history
dept and was quite sincere in studies. He was very
strongly built too and nearly all were expected to
have great skills in football, judo karate etc. 

It was an all boys hostel but it had a heavy traffic
of girls from North east . It was early 1990s and even
a few physical liasons made instant news . Now I hear
it is quite common in Delhi, Bangalore etc for
unmarried couples to live together - then only NE
tribals dared to lived together -or even in groups
-Western style.

Unlike Biharis who constituted 60% of the hostelers
and paying guests etc --NE tribals were not known for
their academic excellence --but for flashy clothes,
Japanese latest mbikes and rock music. My friend
Maryon Karlo was an exception -he had little money.
Further, he himself told me about remote Arunanchal
Pradesh -on China border --that it had 7 or 8 tribes
-and he was one of the few which behaved amicbly with
outsiders. Others were quite aggressive --and thats
the view most students had about NE tribals -always
ready to fight and take out their swords and other
stuff.

In college and hostel -introductions/hazng/ragging etc
NE tribals (and sports quota students in general) were
exempt. They never attempted to interact with the
local students -except for a minority (inlc Maryom
Karlo) . They led a singularly utopian and secluded
life -even while being in the heart of India. Most
likely they were neither good in spoken English nor in
local language --so barriers existed.

I guess the situation is the same still. However,
there were a few Keralites and Tamilians from South
India -who made attempts to learn the language and mix
with the locals. Even the Nepalis survive more easily
in North and Central India --since they learn the
language and are ready to "do in rome as romans do."

If one has to study or work in any place one has to
adjust to the local environment --or the locals
reject/oppress you. 

Thats common sense. If that seems reasonable then next
steps should be --how to acclimatize NE tribals to
North Indian culture OR --better --why not improve the
college education in NE -so that few have to come to
Delhi etc. Given that only Biharis come to study in
Delhi in larger numbers speaks a lot about NE's
college system.

Regards and good that you raised the issue.

Umesh


--- BBaruah at aol.com wrote:

> Dear Netters
>  
> The following letter from Aparna Pallavi appearing
> in today's Sentinel is  
> food for thought and reflection by all of us.
>  
> Bhuban
>  
>       Last updated : SATURDAY 16  SEPTEMBER  2006   
>  
>    
> Racism in North India  
> As  an undergraduate student at Delhi University in
> the early 1990s, Dr Renu  
> (Gupta) Naidu took little notice when her friends
> routinely referred to  
> students from the Northeast as ‘Chinkies’ or
> hurled obscenities or racial  
> insults at them.
> “Any Northeastern student entering a college
> campus  earns the epithet ‘
> Chinky’ on day one, and has to live with being
> looked  at as, at the very least, 
> an oddity, for the rest of her or his stay,�  says
> Naidu. “Students told me 
> about being asked questions like whether  they eat
> rats.� This racial hostility 
> comes unbidden from the  non-Northeastern student
> community.
> Naidu had herself faced  discrimination as a
> ‘non-Marathi’ student during 
> her post-graduation at  Nagpur, and it dawned on her
> that Northeastern students, 
> with their  distinctive ‘non-plainspeople’
> epicanthic features, behaviour 
> and dress  habits, were in all likelihood
> confronting far more discrimination 
> than  she had. In June 2006, Naidu was awarded a PhD
> for her work on the lives  
> of Northeastern tribal girl students in Delhi, with
> her research based on  
> interviews with 200 students from 10 colleges in
> Delhi University’s North  Campus.
> The first disturbing fact — statistics compiled
> from official  records of 
> various colleges in the city — that Naidu’s
> study has uncovered  is that the 
> dropout rates of Northeastern students touches 50
> per cent,  with more girls 
> dropping out than boys. The reasons for this trend, 
> according to Naidu, lie in 
> the intense sociocultural conflict, and the 
> resultant stress, that impact all 
> aspects of the lives of students from  the
> Northeast.
> “For a student from the Northeast, irrespective of
>  whether she or he is from 
> an urban or tribal background, Delhi is like an 
> alien land,� says Naidu. “
> The language is unfamiliar, the cultural and  social
> terrain is unknown. Even 
> getting a letter of introduction to open a  bank
> account is a mammoth task. 
> What is more, their distinctive physical  features
> immediately mark them out as 
> outsiders among the local  populace.�
> Being cheated as a matter of course is one direct
> fallout of  this situation. 
> Angom*, a Manipuri student at Miranda House told
> Naidu,  “Even 
> rickshaw-pullers, auto-drivers, vegetable vendors
> and bus conductors  cheat us because they 
> know that we are not aware of the price of things 
> here, and are not in a 
> position to drive hard bargains.�
> For girl  students, the situation is worse still: in
> the conservative Delhi 
> milieu,  their Westernized style of dressing and
> easy camaraderie with the 
> opposite  sex — owing in large part to their
> liberal tribal culture — they are 
> seen  as ‘fast’ or ‘of easy virtue’. This
> imperception exposes girls from the  
> Northeast to the worst sorts of sexual harassment,
> both within campuses  and 
> without. Diana, a Mizo student at Indraprastha
> college, said, “Delhi  men 
> believe that north-eastern girls are easily
> available. They look at us  with only 
> one thing in mind: sex. If we protest, they warn us
> to clam up,  because we 
> are alone and there is no one we can turn to for 
> protection.�
> The attitude of college authorities and the local
> police  to incidences of 
> sexual harassment and teasing is usually nonchalant.
>  “Incidents of this nature 
> are treated as routine, and often the girls are 
> blamed for them.� 
> Furthermore, she says, “Police stations refuse to 
> provide data on the sexual harassment 
> of Northeastern girls.� One police  official, in
> fact, told Naidu: “Yeh to in 
> ladkiyon ka roz ka naatak hai,  kahan tak complaint
> darj karien? Aur waise 
> bhi bina chingari ke aag nahi  lagti (This is a
> daily drama these girls play 
> out; how many complaints do  we register? Anyway,
> there's no smoke without a 
> fire).�
> The  vulnerability of the girls is underscored by
> the fact that most  
> Northeastern girl students live in rented
> accommodation. Nine colleges of  the 13 
> (three are women’s only colleges) in the North
> Campus have hostels;  only four of 
> these have girls’ hostels.
> “Rented accommodation exposes  girls to different
> kinds of harassment,� says 
> Naidu, “They are subjected  to sudden and
> arbitrary hikes in rent, and 
> threatened with immediate  eviction if they don’t
> comply.�
> Here, too, sexual harassment is  omnipresent. During
> their conversations with 
> Naidu, many Northeastern  girls confided to being
> harassed for sexual favours 
> by landlords and their  families. “The son of one
> landlord’s family even 
> offered a rent waiver in  return for sexual
> favours!� exclaims Naidu.
> Apart from sexual  harassment, Northeastern girl
> students have to face 
> discrimination at  other levels too, and this
> impacts their education adversely “The 
> general  impression is that these students are not
> good at studies and are 
> (here)  just for a good time. The stamp of
> ‘reservation’ sticks to them, and 
> the  resentment that comes with it has to be
> faced,� says Naidu.
> According  to her data, of the 200 students
> interviewed, only 10 per cent 
> said that  their classroom participation is high,
> while around three-quarters  
> registered below average classroom participation. A
> sizeable proportion  felt 
> that teachers’ attitude to their classroom
> participation was either  neutral or 
> discouraging. Of the 200 students, 111 said their
> participation  in 
> co-curricular activities was ‘minimal’; 107 felt
> discrimination during  co-curricular 
> activities; 58 felt ‘isolated’; 167 students
> registered  feelings like 
> helplessness, discouragement, irritation and stress
> in  academic activities.
> This overall pressure drives many students to drop 
> out, Naidu feels. Those 
> who stay on find it difficult to meet academic 
> goals burdened with so much 
> stress.
> Consequently, most Northeastern  tribal girl
> students are not particularly 
> keen on getting jobs in Delhi  after completing
> their education. “Coming to 
> study in Delhi, for most  Northeastern students, is
> a matter of prestige,� says 
> Naidu. “The unstable  political situation in the
> Northeast has caused 
> educational standards to  drop, which makes it very
> easy for Delhi-educated students to 
> get the best  jobs once they return. This, coupled
> with the fact that the 
> atmosphere  does not offer much by way of
> encouragement to reach out and mingle,  
> causes most students to see their student days here
> as just a  stopover.�
> Students told Naidu that social work interventions,
> such as  the presence of 
> social workers in colleges in enabling and
> facilitating  roles, and steps to 
> fight discrimination and enhance sociocultural 
> exchange between communities of 
> students, could help alleviate the  problems. But
> the single-most important 
> step that Naidu feels needs to be  taken with a
> sense of urgency is arranging 
> sufficient hostel facilities  for Northeastern girl
> students. “This one step 
> will go a long way in  providing stability and
> security to their lives and help 
> them concentrate  on their academic goals,� she
> says.
> This is why Naidu is currently  working on a policy
> paper to call attention 
> to the issue of this manner of  student
> discrimination, which she wants to send 
> to the ministries of  tribal welfare and social
> justice. “The problem of 
> Northeastern girl  students needs recognition in the
> right places,� she says. “At 
> present,  the different kinds of stress that these
> students have to put up 
> with is  impacting their studies seriously, and
> every effort should be made to 
> ease  the situation.�
> (* Names of all students changed.) 
> Aparna  Pallavi 
> (Women’s Feature  Service
> > _______________________________________________
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> 


Umesh Sharma
5121 Lackawanna ST
College Park, MD 20740 USA

Current temp. address: 5649 Yalta Place , Vancouver, Canada

 1-202-215-4328 [Cell Phone]
Canada # (607) 221-9433

Ed.M. - International Education Policy
Harvard Graduate School of Education,
Harvard University,
Class of 2005

weblog: http://jaipurschool.bihu.in/


		
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