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.
Their famous motto ‘Kaphar hunnu bhanda marnu ramro’ means, ‘It is better to die than to live like a coward.’ ‘If a man says he is not afraid of dying, he is either lying or a Gorkha’- Sam Manekshaw; Field Marshal
Yet the Indian Nepalese or Indian Gorkhas are made to feel like an outcast in their own country. Why? We are often readily assumed to be from Nepal by the mainland Indians which just reflects their meagre knowledge about the diversity that exists Little do people know that large populations of Nepali Indians can be found in West Bengal, Assam, Uttarakhand, Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Maharashtra, Manipur, Nagaland and Mizoram and are very much CITIZENS
OF INDIA
Hindi cinema and series have stereotyped the Gurkha community by portraying men as “Chowkidars” and saying “Oh, Saabji” who are shown as funny and stupid characters. One latest addition was made in an Amazon Prime series called ‘Paatal Lok’ where a woman from the northeast was referred to as a ‘Nepali whore’. Now, if this isn’t perpetuating racism and promoting casteist slurs, then what is it?
Varieties of derogatory names have been linked with our communities like ‘chinky’, ‘chinese’, ‘momos’, etc. We hear these terms from people around us and guess what? from our own friends too, who expect us to laugh along with them because, “Mazaak kar rahe hai yaar, chill (We were just joking)” Most of us have become immune to this term now, so was I. Only to realise that ignoring this humiliation just adds fuel to the fire and gives opportunity to the racists to mock us more. And if you happen to get offended, you’re asked to grow a sense of humour.
Apart from these insulting terms, there have been statements like, “Are you from Nepal/China?”, “Do you eat snakes, dogs? “Oh, you’ve got small eyes, do you see everything small?” Or “Do you get a smaller radius of vision?”. Do these questions even make sense? These xenophobic insults and racial terms that people AND our friends usually mask under the name of a joke or a pun gives them the confidence to continue with this behaviour.
Amidst the worsening health crisis caused by the COVID-19 outbreak, there has been unprecedented upsurge of acts of racism and racial discrimination against the people with mongoloid features, along the length and breadth of the country. Rather, let’s just say that the ongoing pandemic raised the number of despicable acts of racism towards mongoloid faces. A new term has been added to the vocabulary of slurs i.e. CORONAVIRUS and are accused senselessly to be the carriers of the virus Quite a lot of people are being subjected to racist bullying on social media too
They are forcibly quarantined despite of showing no symptoms of the virus. A Manipuri girl was spat on and called coronavirus in New Delhi. Two Northeast Girls were threatened with eviction from their apartment in Ahmedabad. None wanting to share transport because of their looks. Made to leave restaurants in order to make others comfortable. On asking the victims that how do they react to this antagonism and racist insults, they often reply, ‘I feel helpless’.
Unless the government enacts strict laws against racism and racial discrimination, appropriate action against cases of harassment of people with mongoloid looks cannot be possible. Not just this, the usage of nasty and racially abusive terms such as ‘momo’ and ‘chinki’ are not defined as offences under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act of 1989
Therefore, I think it’s high time we speak up against these racist comments and enlighten their narrow minds that WE BELONG TO INDIA. And that it is NOT OKAY to call us chinky, chinese, NOT OKAY to blame us for the spread of coronavirus in India, NOT OKAY to make us feel like an outsider.
Lack of knowledge and awareness is the main reason behind this racism, so make sure to study the geography of your own country thoroughly and learn the facts that north-eastern states are not a foreign land but a part of India, and that there are numerous Nepali speaking people in the country, who are NOT from Nepal, and that ‘THEY ARE ALL INDIANS’. So, stop treating us like second class citizens and stop spitting out disgusting racist abuses. Learn to accept and respect the diversity of the country. You are nowhere superior if you were born in mainland India, all of us are a part of the same nation.
Jai Hind!