The murder of a young man from north-eastern state in New Delhi has exposed the discrimination, intolerance and prejudice that many North
Indians suffer. A 19-year-old first-year student named
Nido Tania from the north-eastern state of Arunachal Pradesh died from injuries
he suffered from a beating allegedly administered to him by shopkeepers at a
South Delhi market who had earlier mocked him for his longish, stylized, dyed
hair, effeminate clothing and East Asian physical features (by reportedly
calling him 'chinki'). An autopsy report indicated the victim was beaten
with a blunt object. According to reports, Tania studied at
Lovely Professional University in Jalandhar in Punjab and was only visiting
Delhi.
Delhi Police said they have six
suspects in custody and are searching for at least three others. Tania's killing triggered a round
protests in Delhi by students from north-eastern India who demanded political
intervention. The students have
called for the government to enact an “anti-racism” law – asserting that the
attack on Tania was motivated by racial and ethnic hatred. The protesters
held up placards which read “Why are we treated like outsiders?” and “We are
Indians, too.”
The protesters, who have risked
arrest to highlight their cause, said they want the government and broader
public to become more aware of the discrimination that north-easterners face on
a daily basis in Delhi. Tania's parents have also said they will fight to
end discrimination on behalf of their martyred son. “Our son [will] never
come back again from his heavenly abode, but his sacrifice should never go in
vain,” Nido Pavitra and his wife Marina Nido told reporters. “We’ll be
going to Delhi soon along with a team of lawmakers led by Chief Minister Nabam
Tuki to press for enactment of an anti-racial law, installing his statue in the
national capital as a symbol of anti-racism and initiating all possible
measures to prevent recurrence of such incident in any part of the
country.” Tania's father, Nido Pavitra, happens to be the parliamentary
secretary for health and family welfare for the state of Arunachal Pradesh.
But given confusion over details
of the incident – and conflicting testimony from witnesses – there's some doubt
if Tania was a victim of a hate crime. "The details of the incident
were sketchy, and based on what one heard from eyewitnesses, the story looks
like a street fight which turned ugly,” said Kishalay Bhattacharjee, an author
has written about Manipur, a state in northeastern India. Nonetheless,
there is no doubt that the people of Northeast India – tens of thousands of
whom have recently migrated to Delhi and others parts of India to study and
work – feel isolated from the rest of the nation.
The seven north-eastern states –
located east of Bangladesh and bordering Myanmar (Burma), Tibet, Nepal, Bhutan
and China – have few ethnic and linguistic ties with the majority of Indians.
In fact, China has long claimed Arunachal Pradesh as a part of its Tibetan
territory. Many of the natives of Arunachal Pradesh belong to the Tibet-Burman
and Mongolian races, rather than the Aryans and Dravidians who predominate in
India. “The northeast is not included in the history curriculum of India,
the media ignores stories from the northeast unless they are of violence and
unrest, and the politicians show step motherly treatment towards the region.”
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