“Where are you from?” is a standard question from any person I am introduced to.
“I’m from India,” is the standard answer from me. I sometimes add, “Northeast India,” just to deflect their predictable response. Doesn’t work. I still do it, though.
“But you don’t look Indian,” they blurt out and are immediately apologetic.
Easterine Kire This is a typical exchange if you are from the Northeast. It happens regularly in most countries outside India but also within the sub-continent. Street urchins have followed me around in Chennai when it used to be Madras, chanting in unison, “Japani, Japani.” For many Northeasterners, if not all, this is a shared experience. It is tolerable, even amusing, if it stops there. Unfortunately, sometimes it does not. Race-based crimes against people from the Northeast reopen unhealed wounds. And yet, jobs draw them far from family and homes where corrupt local governments have destroyed the possibility of employment after graduation.
The visible and audible othering of people from the Northeast is a painful reality compounded by sad fact. It continues the outsider-insider perception. At the same time, it is also true that the Northeast is trending.
Last year, a little after some of the worst incidents of racist attacks against Northeasterners, it was impossible to miss a campaign that a popular food brand ran on television. It was a moving ad that showed a North Indian family adopting a Northeastern girl, the girl first being rejected by her sibling, and then the two quickly forming a bond.
This slow mainstreaming of the Northeast has been evident for some years now. Take, for instance, the number of eateries that have mushroomed in Delhi serving cheap, healthy, uncompromisingly Northeastern cuisine — pork with bamboo shoot, Vawksa Rep, Iromba and more. Customers include young North Indians who are quite happy with the novelty, prices and food quality — food is such a great bridge-builder. Other cities such as Mumbai, Bangalore and Chennai are also catching up. There are websites today that sell food products, ingredients and crafts that are unique to the Northeast.
Literature from the area is trending, in spite of resistance to including Northeast writing in many Indian universities. Dr. Veio Pou of Delhi University says, “It is just a token presence in some universities. If included, it is usually an optional course. Jamia Millia has started a course on Northeast writings in English. Delhi University has recently started a programme on archiving and translating with a focus on the Northeast. Ambedkar University is framing a course for Northeast writings. Hyderabad University has shown some interest…”
(The ad film that featured a family adopting a Northeastern girl. Photo: Special Arrangement)
But Northeast writing is also becoming fertile ground for research scholars from other States. This could lead to a natural inclusion of literature from the region. To educate the rest of India about the cultural practices and history of the region, nothing can be more effective than including its literature in school and university syllabi.
What Northeasterners need is also practical help to settle down and become part of the rest of India. For example, how about agencies in metropolises that guide them on good jobs and right salaries? A woman I spoke to talks of how the private sector is looking for Northeastern employees because their salary expectations are lower and because they are willing to work late and irregular hours. She recalled, “I worked once till 2 in the morning with three friends from Arunachal Pradesh and Assam. The office was empty except for us. We are paid less even when we work overtime. I realised we need an agency to connect us to the right recruiters and good salary packages.”
Aloli Achumi, a content writer in a Delhi company, says that agencies can also help Northeasterners find apartments at affordable rents. “People from our region end up paying more because they don’t understand the language and the small print in the contract.”
How do we get employers to treat Northeasterners fairly? How do we ensure they get fair rents? How can we make cities safer for Northeasterners? There are many questions that accompany India’s latest migrant population. And it doesn’t help that local populations in many cities are made to fear that their jobs and resources are being taken away by the new migrants.
“ Existing power structures need to have in-depth understanding of the customs of the Northeast people. ”
Existing power structures that dictate discourse — such as educational institutions, mass media, and workplaces — need to have in-depth understanding of the cultural practices and customs of the Northeast people and percolate this within their structures. This will be a major step to changing stereotypes. Public spaces such as subways, parks and cinemas are all good places to display factual information on the Northeast. Cinemas could showcase movies and documentaries from the Northeast.
One arena that can notably help here is the mass media. It has done a good job of featuring Mary Kom and the bronze medal she won for India at the 2012 Olympics. Naga designer Atsu Sekhose has put the region on the fashion map of India and beyond by winning the Red Carpet Glamour Award from Grazia . The Shillong Chamber Choir, which won first place at Indian Idol, has become a household name. So, in a manner of speaking, the Northeast has finally arrived.
But the media should also be cautious about telling people what to think. Prof. Paul Pimomo of Washington Central University talks about ‘Naga demonisation’ in the national media when it failed to feature Naga voices condemning the killing of an accused rapist by a mob in Dimapur. The responsibility for accurately representing the Northeast lies significantly with the media.
Much else can be done to bring the Northeast closer to the rest of India. For example, regular festivals of food, literature, music and dance which — although some critics will dismiss as constructed festivals that might continue the stereotyping of the Northeast as a place of ‘feathers and dances’ — can also be used to disseminate sound information on the region. There is a greater chance that by making the Northeast visible, old constructs can be replaced by new images. As is already happening with Northeast literature.
So what will help ease the Northeast into the mainland? It’s less complicated to tackle the practical issues, but there is more to it than just ticking off a logistics list. This is basically a human problem.
Getting human beings to trust and care for one another is a long-term project. But it is not an impossible objective.
To begin, we can learn compassion for one another. It is about learning to be human; looking at every other person as a precious container of life force and untrammelled creativity; being the first to show kindness to strangers, stretching out a hand in friendship, and helping without a second thought when someone is mistreated, no matter what his colour or language is.
Include, accept, embrace — that is the only way forward for India and the Northeast. Compassion empowers us to break every manmade barrier, and makes it possible for our humanity to come out on top. This is how peaceful coexistence can be ushered in.
Norway-based Easterine Kire is a poet, novelist, and writer of children’s books. In 2011, she was awarded the Governor’s Medal for excellence in Naga literature. Her latest book is When The River Sleeps .
