New Delhi-based Dalit thinker Chittibabu Padavala says: “Their indigenous, non-vedic and liberal culture combined with the ease with which they have embraced western modernity has made the people of the northeast more vulnerable in the mainland. It is tragically ironic because it is these exact factors that should have empowered them further.”
He says that their unique markers such as clothing, the knowledge of English, and gender equality don't fit into the narrow conception of Indian nationalism that continues to revolve around the concept of Hindi-Hindu-Hindustan.
