The coronavirus has opened the wounds that were hidden beneath the false image of social homogeneity in India. During the pandemic, a grim wave of racism surged against Indian citizens from the northeastern region comprising eight states: Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Tripura, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, and Sikkim. Indians from the region were called ugly names and suffered discrimination based on the misconception that they are Chinese or are spreading the coronavirus in India.
This form of racism is not new. Even before the pandemic, Indians from other states had the impression that the country ends within the border of West Bengal on the east. Many consider the northeastern region a part of China.
Strained relations
However, the racism experienced by India’s northeasterners may have worsened with the straining of relations between India and China at the start of the pandemic and even more at present. The coronavirus pandemic, and the labeling of COVID-19 as a “Chinese virus” by US President Donald Trump, has added more fuel to the fire.
Students from the northeast region are suspected of being Chinese. They have been publicly called “coronavirus.”
In February 2020, in the thick of enrolment activities in many universities, students from the northeast region experienced abuse in the city of Mumbai. They were publicly called “coronavirus,” suspected of being Chinese, or were unabashedly blamed for the spread of the virus, even before the nationwide lockdown was imposed. The degree of humiliation is unimaginable.
Things took a turn for the worse in March after the lockdown was announced. Two days before India went into a lockdown, a student from Manipur in the northeastern region was spat on and called “coronavirus” by a man on a scooter in New Delhi.
The young woman was traumatized. “I felt like I was a pile of garbage or a roadside drain where he could spit the dirt from his mouth,” she told The Caravan in April 2020. This incident was one of the first cases that were widely reported in the media.
Rampant discrimination
Meanwhile, social media was buzzing with news of the discrimination experienced by the Indians from the northeast region. Several workers and students from the region were forced to leave their rented lodgings by their neighbors or by the owners of the accommodations during the lockdown. They were feared to be virus carriers.
Doctors and nurses, frontline defenders against the virus, were also not spared the abuse. Some students were denied entry into a grocery store because they were thought to be Chinese. Others were forcefully kept under observation or, in a few cases, denied entry into the hospital under the false allegation of being COVID-19 positive. A few people were forced to evacuate their office premises and taken to quarantine centers, although they showed no symptoms of COVID-19 infection.
How did discrimination against the Indians from the northeast region begin? First, the Mongolian facial features shared with East Asian countries such as China raised doubts about the nationality of persons from the region. They have been called “chinki,” a reference to single-fold eyelids common among East Asians.
Secondly, there are misperceptions about the northeasterners. One police officer in Delhi reportedly said that they eat human flesh. In July this year, netizens called out a Delhi-based clothing store for selling costumes that misrepresented the traditional attire of the state of Nagaland.
A horrific death
As a result, “chinki/Chinese,” “junglee” (uncivilized), “human eater” and the like became common terms that are used to demean Indians from the region. “Coronavirus” is the latest addition to the list of hurtful words.
Such racism is not new in India. It led to the horrific death of Nido Taniam, a teen from Arunachal Pradesh in northeast India, in 2014. The student was teased for his East Asian facial features and spiky hair and was beaten to death in broad daylight on a busy road in New Delhi. His death highlighted the prejudice against Indians from the northeastern states. It was covered extensively in the national media.
Taniam’s death sparked public outrage in 2014. It led the government to form the Bezbaruah Committee tasked to recommend remedial measures to prevent the occurrence of such crimes in the future. In August 2014, the committee presented five key recommendations:
Six years later, most of these recommendations are yet to be implemented. The Special Police Unit for North Eastern Region under the Delhi police was established in 2014 as an immediate response to tackle issues of people from the northeast in New Delhi. A 24-hour helpline number, 1093, was launched under the unit. The unit works round the clock and deals with distress calls on a daily basis.
Bureaucratic foot-dragging
Apart from this unit, though, the Indian government has taken no coercive legal or policy action to eradicate the problem of racism across the country.
Dr. Alana Golmei, Ph.D., is deeply disappointed at the bureaucratic foot-dragging. “Enough is enough,” said the activist, lawyer, and member of the Bezbaruah Committee. “How many times do we have to fight against this racism in our own country?”
Dr. Golmei calls on the government to take immediate steps to remedy the situation. In September this year, she and other activists wrote a letter to Justice N.V. Ramana, executive chairman of the National Legal Services Authority. Amid reports of attacks targeted at Indians from the northeastern states, they demanded that the authorities enlist lawyers from the region to represent victims.
Back in 2007, Dr. Golmei founded the North East Support Centre and Helpline. During the pandemic, she dealt with numerous distress calls and messages. She said that almost 100 cases of verbal abuse and discrimination against citizens from northeastern states were recorded in the first week of February 2020. By the end of March, her phone and inbox were flooded with urgent appeals for help, making it difficult for her team to keep a record of cases.
During the lockdown, Dr. Golmei teamed up with the Special Police Unit for North Eastern Region, and formed the North East Task Force to tackle issues of racial abuse in New Delhi during the pandemic. She said that the task force recorded about 6,000 cases during the lockdown. Out of this number, more than 1,200 people were given food and shelter and were ensured security.
Union Minister Kiren Rijju, who hails from Arunachal Pradesh and is the only member of parliament from the northeast region in the Union Cabinet, had stated that the government does not maintain any record of cases of racial discrimination and harassment. He continues to be an active advocate for the rights of ethnic minorities from the region and opposes the racism that they endure.
Netizens did collectively speak out against the issue. They and other concerned citizens of India knew it was high time that the government of India took decisive steps to carry out the recommendations of the Bezbaruah Committee and protect the rights of their fellow Indians from the northeast states. ●
Ayushi Sharma is pursuing her Masters in Diplomacy, Law, and Business from Jindal School of International Affairs (O.P Jindal Global University). Since 2018, she has been involved in numerous social work and research projects under different non-profit organizations, including Action Aid Association. She hails from the state of Assam and has experienced the racial discrimination described in her story.
