Bangalore to Gurgaon: Here's why racism in India should be dealt with an iron hand

A day after a Manipuri engineering student was attacked in Bangalore for not speaking Kannada, reports emerged of another shameful racist crime in the National Capital Region where two youths from Nagaland were beaten up and assaulted by a gang of seven in the Sikanderpur area of Gurgaon.

The two boys were being brutally beaten up by bats and sticks.  According to Times Now, the attack was racially motivated as the attackers told the two boys, “Tell your Northeast people to leave Sikanderpur”, before letting them go. One of the victims also told the channel, “They said that if we were from Manipur, they would kill us.”

These incidents, and many more of them, occur despite the protests that Delhi saw earlier this year when Nido Tania, the son of an MP from Arunachal Pradesh, died after an attack on him. Nido was attacked with iron rods by shopkeepers in South Delhi’s Lajpat Nagar market after an altercation. The shopkeepers had allegedly mocked Nido’s hairstyle and he had in turn thrown a stone at the store.

Candle light vigils were held, leaders including Rahul Gandhi visited the protest site and promised action against the perpetrators of the crimes. However, all of that amounted to nothing constructive.

The media focus shifted to other stories and along with that public outrage too fizzled out. That’s exactly what happens whenever such an incident occurs. But even as the public and the media forget about the issues faced by those from the northeast, discrimination continues against them. Be it the clothes that they wear, or their hair color, they are discriminated against and if they retaliate they are attacked and beaten up. While some of the incidents make headlines, most of them go unnoticed.

Al Jazeera quotes Kim, a call centre worker from Manipur, now working in Haryana as saying, “Men in Delhi treat us as if we are loose women. Just the other day, I was standing at the pickup point for my office cab to take me to Faridabad. There was another woman next to me from northern India working for a tech company; we both were in formals. A car pulls up and the man asks, ‘Madam do you need a ride?’ His look and his voice made it clear what he was looking for.”

She complains that landlords even charge them higher rents just because they are from the north east. Another incident of harassment by landlords told to Al-Jazeera by D Yirang Jimbe, a call center worker in Haryana, is nothing but shocking.

“The landlord and his son came to our room at midnight to ask for rent. They kicked our door, so when we went out they beat my brother. ‘All we said was why are you asking for rent at midnight and we have never been late in paying.’ But we had to be quiet because our sisters were with us; we were scared they would do something to them,” he said.

There are many such shameful incidents that show how blatant racism actually is in India.

In July this year there were reports that a couple from the north-east was attacked by four men in Nathupur, Gurgaon.

In May, a girl from Nagaland who was studying to be a law student in Delhi University was molested by another lawyer at a metro station. When she went to court to in connection with the case along with three friends, they had been beaten up by a gang of lawyers. The mob had threatened her not to pursue the case any further.

In February this year, two Manipuri women were assaulted by men who hurled racist abuses at them in South Delhi’s Kotla Mubarak area. According to the police, the women, identified as Tharmila Jajo and Chonmila, were beaten up by a group of men, who were in their late 20s.

It is not just Delhi. Bangalore too has a shameful record with respect to citizens from the north-east. In 2012, there was a mass exodus of North-eastern students from the city, after an SMS threatening them began being circulated.

The incident prompted a debate in both houses of parliament, and both the ruling UPA and then opposition BJP vowed to ensure that no incident of the sort would be allowed to take place again. But the incidents only seem to be increasing in frequency.

Phurpa Tsering, who is a member of the Northeast India Forum Against Racism, tells Al-Jazeera that the solution to the problem lies in enacting laws that are stringent and fast track courts to deal with cases.

“Our demands are the enactment of the anti-racism law and that the pending cases of violence against northeasterners be put in fast-track court. We recognise that there is racism in India not only against northeast people but also against south Indians, adivasis (tribals). That is why we want a cohesive and comprehensive law that addresses racism in the country,” he says.