Thursday, May 03, 2012

The "China" in My India

The past few days have been rather disappointing. Actually, disappointing is not even close to what I feel, but my limited vocabulary is to be blamed as I am unable to choose the right word for how I feel.

Within a span of a couple of days, I heard news of Dana Sangma comitting suicide, Loitam Richard being brutally murdered in Bangalore, and a Manipuri girl being molested in the NCR. Well, molesting women from the North East region of our "diverse" nation is nothing new. It sounds so nonchalant when I say that in my  head. "Molesting NE women is nothing new"... sigh.. Not wanting to sound  like a schmuck, i should clarify why I'm so indifferent to news of molestation and rape cases of our north eastern women. I will...

The suicide case of Dana Sangma does ring an alarm and the cold blooded murder of Loitam Richard, a first year architecture student in Bangalore, has made me  to think on a very radical ground. (No, I am not advocating any mass murder or genocide). Sadly, the  authorities of Richard's college have gone out of their way to make sure they painted him as a drug abuser as a means of hushing up the case. I have no idea what the police has done to aid solving this murder case. And whom are we kidding...? Do we really think that the police  has it in them to actually solve the case???!!! Divine blessings also can't put them on the right track... but I'm not writing this to tut-tut the police.

Now let me touch upon all that is going on in my smaller-than-a-pea sized brain... As there are too many things, hence I shan't worry about the order in which I blabber.. We have been "free" for over 60 years now. And even in that span of 60 years,the dream of national integration is a far cry from what our founding fathers had envisaged. Till today, the North East of India is unknown to many of us.. the Main Land Indians!! For most, anyone with East Asian or Mongol features is a CHINESE!! My Manipuri friend who had joined me during my post graduation course was condisered to be some guy who had come down from China, who ate funny, talked funny and looked funny. My class mates went out of their way to let this be known to him... and it was naturally expected of him to be some kung-fu champ. People would make fun of him when he talked to his family over the phone in his native Maitei language. I wonder why it was so funny??? For people who don't understand the language, what right do they have to mock the language?? Maitei may sound funny to people in Karnataka, but why mock the language?? I'm sure if they speak Kannada in Manipur, the Manipuris will find that funny. But I doubt they'll make their bewilderment so obvious.

For people in South, the only place of concern for them up north is Delhi. For many in North, it's only Chennai and Bangalore that matter... and for most in mainland India, North East does not matter!!Most of us don't even know what all states we have in the North East. There are no education hubs there.. there are no big industries there.. no big software companies.. and weirdly, many feel that you actually require a visa to visit any part of the North East. I don't blame people for their ignorance. Ignorance is bliss. We live life like a frog in a well is a great life indeed. Limit ourselves to our self imposed walls.. enjoy safety.. ridicule the other frogs who live in their wells.. fighting over which frog has the best well.. spend all our life jumping from one lily pad to the other, raising our tadpoles.. We live like we're never going to die.... and we die never having really lived.Ok, I don't know why I wrote the  previous few sentences about ignorance, but.... lets go with it.

There is my junior in post graduation, who hails from Manipur. One of the very senior professors told me she hailed from Sikkim. I said, "Ma'am, isn' she from Manipur??". Her reply was," Yes Yes.. Manipur.. Sikkim.. same thing for me. All of them look the same to me!!". She was not bothered that Sikkim and Manipur are sooooo different.It didn't bother her that inspite of she being a professor with a Phd degree, her awareness about anything outside Udupi was as good as Manmohan Singh being aware of him being the prime minister of India. (No pun intended). I think she must have said Sikkim, only because she must have been aware of the constituent college of the Manipal group.. Sikkim Manipal University. Had that not existed, may she'd have said "I think the girl is from China!!". Can people really NOT BOTHER?? I have for long said that we Indians are racists!! I mean.. Racism is ingrained in us!! By profiling everyone from Manipur to be a sikkimese, and vice versa, because my Phd professor doesn't care about either Manipur or Sikkim, is another proof how racism is inbred in us.  It was hillarious when Delhi police rounded up NE students in Delhi, thinking they were Tibetan protestors. 

The next thought is.. why do we believe that every North Easterner is a drug abuser/user/peddler?? I have no answer for that. Drug abuse is a major problem afflicting the whole wide world. Do people in Delhi not do drugs? Do some in  Bangalore not buy and sell drugs?? Isn't cannabis also a drug which we so happily use in our thandai during Holi? One of the best weed in India comes from Kerala. So, why the belief that people from Assam or Manipur or Nagaland or Sikkim are junkies??

Now coming on to women molestation. We Indians have the worst record across the world when it comes to domestic violence. Domestic violence of where women are tortured, beaten,raped and what not... by the men folk. So, anyway in our head, we men believe that women should be subservient to us. And the minute it comes to North Eastern women, they become PUBLIC PROPERTY.. just like one treats a public bus, they treat the women. I wonder why the macho men in NCR, on suddenly seeing a girl of East Asian features think that she must be a prostitute.. must be one of extreme low moral values. ???? They don't bother to understand that the culture she belongs to bestows a lot of freedom on these girls. A sort of freedom which no girl in their family enjoys. They mistake their openness to be a sign of immorality. Why?? Who is to blame?? OUR MINDSET I guess... Earlier in my post, I had said I had become indifferent to such news of molestation and rape. Sadly that is the truth. What is the end result of raising my voice against such blatant abuse of human rights and equality?? Nothing. Just another signature campaign, which will reach the President, who is too busy dreaming of her palace which the Congress is gifting her, built on Defence Land. If she does find time to understand the campaign, the reaction will only be.."My sympathies for the rape victim." Whom all should the police target for such cases?? How many men will they arrest?? The prisons in India are anyway over crowded, and if thy begin investigating all rape and molestations cases, then maybe they'll have to convert our Rashtrapati Bhawan as a make shift prison. 

I have no answer to why we are like this. Why so biased? Why so racist?? But sadly, we are.. and that is the truth. maybe we should have Visa to visit the North East.  Rather than changing and educating the mainland population about NE being a part of India, we should rather  give the whole of North East to China... cause anyway we don't care. We are only bothered about exploiting the natural resources and filling up our coffers. We in Mainland India are incapable of change, incapable of appreciating the diversity that exists in our nation.  If that were to happen, I'd certainly be the saddest man on the planet, but .................... who cares?!! Goodnight.

PS:Just incase there are readers wondering what part of India I am talking about..  North East India is... Sikkim, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram , Meghalaya, Nagaland, Manipur and Tripura.