Alienation of Northeast India: Reforms and Strategy

Siddhanth Goel
Christ (Deemed to be University), Bengaluru

Introduction:

India, a country known for abiding by the principles of secularism, fraternity and justice is a quintessence of unity in diversity. India has 22 official languages enshrined in the seventh schedule of the constitution but it is home to around 19,500 languages. India is a country with more than 130 crore people following more than 6 religions and different traditions and practices. But are all of them treated equally? Is India as secular a country as it claims? The answer is unfortunately in the negative. There are people who fall prey to racism and stereotypical tendencies on a daily basis in our country. The people living in the northeast are treated differently. They are discriminated on the basis of the language they speak and their physical appearance. Why is this division in the society?

Constitutional Provisions:

India has something called as “special provisions” in its Constitution which deals with 11 states out of which Jammu and Kashmir was one state. There are other 10 states out of which 6 of them are northeastern states of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Manipur, Nagaland and Sikkim. Part XXI of the Constitution consists of Articles 369 to Articles 392. In which articles 371, 371A, 371B, 371C, 371D, 371E, 371F, 371G, 371H, and 371J define special provisions with regard to a specific state or states of India. They mainly talk about safeguarding their religion, traditions, customary laws and procedures and their minority community from the rest of the world.

Need for Reform and Strategies:

The people of northeast are known for their hospitality and politeness but they are not treated and given the same treatment whenever they visit other parts of India. It’s been seven decades since India became independence yet, the people of northeast are seen as separatists and haven’t been able to win the heart of those who sit in the New Delhi office. The government sitting in New Delhi have been making policies based on their preconceived notions and assumptions, which is the root cause of this problem. Instead of assuming things, if they invite the leaders from the northeast to decide on the issues, then this problem could be solved.  But this is just not a one-way issue. There are several insurgent groups there which have an ideology based on the premise that if they are not treated as Indians then why should they treat India as their country and this problem continues to move in a vicious circle. To solve all this the people of northeast should be invited for policy-making and try solving this issue and even the people in northeast also should remove this thought of not being treated equally from their minds.

Though it won’t be easy to remove this thought from their minds because somewhere deep down, this is true. It does not matter which field we talk about but somewhere or the other they are treated unequally. In cities like Delhi and Bangalore, there have been cases where the people from northeast have been beaten to death for a very simple reason that they look different or they speak differently. They are not even given equal opportunities in the sports field due to very simple reason and that is the rest of India has got such a huge population and even they have talent, so why select people from there. People deny them a place to stay just because they do not look Indian enough. This is not the case always and it would be wrong to say that everyone treats them in this manner only. No, there are people who give them the same respect and treat them with the same kindness as they would do in case of any other Indian. But this does not solve the issue.

The main problem lies here that we never talk about their culture, their language, traditions, ethnicity, their food and whatever we need to understand that they are a part of India and they are no different from us. If they can learn the languages that the people in the north or the people in the south speak, then why can’t we learn their languages? Very few people cared to ask this question. Northeast India is still unexplored and there is a lot that we all need to learn about them. Has anyone judged you on what you eat and how you eat? People living in the north-eastern part of India prefer more of non-vegetarian food (even pork) over vegetarian food. So, how does that make them any different from us? Even people living in north India have different eating habits from the people living in south India. So, does that mean only one of them is Indian and the other is some outsider?

Conclusion:

Till now, these special provisions have been protecting them from the rest of the world. But after the revocation of Article 370, they have started feeling unsafe in their home itself. Isn’t this country their home? They feel protected by some law and feel insecure without the laws. Is it so difficult for the people of India to protect their traditions and culture without the law? It isn’t difficult, its just that people don’t want to learn and open themselves to it. They refrain to accept this. If you are eager to learn about them, accept them as they are and let them be the part of your society then surely this problem can be sorted out. The other issue in our society is illiteracy and lack of education which becomes the barrier to accept the social changes. There is a message from a Zen art which says that if you want to learn something you need to empty your brain with the preconceived notions. If it’s already preoccupied with other stuff, you won’t be able to learn.

REFERENCES:

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