How to end the tyranny of distance
and other civil society groups to take cognisance. We cannot also close our eyes to the fact that there are many incidents of discrimination in the North-east. Those who face it as the ‘other’ here are mainlanders or part of the mukhya dhara, the ubiquitous mainstream: Traders, workers, professionals and students. There has been abuse and attacks just as many from the region have faced similar problems outside of it.These experiences across the board underline the urgency to developing a new law against race and hate crimes, as the MP Bezbaruah committee urged last year.
We may recall the 2012 exodus from Bangalore of individuals from the Northeast, fearful of rumours of impending attacks. More than 30,000 individuals were said to have left the city. But what the media did not report and we did not get to know till much later was that many more stayed behind. And of those who left, many returned. Because they were largely white collar workers who needed the jobs to sustain families and livelihoods. That’s why they did not want to stay home — they needed to go back and earn.
People vote with their feet; our children teach us: we have to listen and hear. We are saying to Delhi’s face: We are here, we’re here to stay, whether you like it or not. The nazar is either way and it doesn’t have to be a buri nazar! Strangers have become migrants; they have become neighbours. They’ve even become colleagues. But have they understood each other, have they moved towards friendship?
This won’t happen with economic or political sops. One of the ways is to fiercely implement laws to deal with harm and injustice. But we have to go beyond laws, by influencing that most difficult and sensitive of tools: The human mind. This can happen by using multiple strategies: Curricula changes, sensitising mohalla and RWA groups, training police and administrators, MPs and political leaders. Another is to develop incubation centres where, to start with, students of the region who plan to study and live in metros, get an orientation of and introduction to the cultures and society they will be inhabiting. Too often, we still hear of those who are caught unawares and come to harm. The process of building goodwill and understanding remains a work in progress.