dna edit: Nido Taniam’s death shows the persecution faced by the North-East community

Nido Taniam’s death in Delhi will, hopefully, be investigated swiftly and thoroughly. The protests by the North-East community and media glare on the incident both put the spotlight on the tragedy; lacunae in the manner the law and order machinery handled the affair will in all likelihood be questioned. That is all to the good. From the 19-year-old student from Arunachal Pradesh being targeted as an outsider — a redundant concept in a metropolis like Delhi that plays host to so many migrant populations — and therefore fair game for casual racism to the repeated beatings that allegedly caused his death, there have been violations of both societal norms and the law that must be addressed, and the sooner the better. But as the protests show, justice being served in this particular instance is only one part of the issue. Taniam’s death is not an isolated incident. It is part of a larger pattern of discrimination against people from the Northeastern states that has claimed other victims before him.

The racism that caused Taniam’s death is endemic in every part of the country, nowhere more so than in the national capital. It manifests itself in multiple ways. The most apparent, of course, is when violence is involved  — particularly sexual violence targeting Northeastern women. Whether it is the 2009 gangrape and murder of a seven-year old girl from Nagaland in Delhi, the gangrape of a 30-year old Mizoram woman the next year or the Ramchanphy Hongray murder, this trend shows no signs of abating. The North East Support Centre & Helpline (NESCH), established in 2007, says that up to 78 per cent of the 200,000 North-East population living in the capital suffers various kinds of humiliations, ranging from molestation to beating, rape and murder.

But there are other less apparent ways as well — and more insidious ones for being so. This is the everyday racism that is so woven into attitudes towards people from the North-East that it is oftentimes invisible to the people who are practicing it. This is the kind of racism that led to the shopkeepers taunting Taniam about his appearance, triggering the scuffle; it rears its head every time derogatory terms such as ‘chinki’ are unthinkingly used or Northeastern students find it difficult to find accommodation to rent. It underwrites the casual assumption that women from the NorthEast are sexually available and is passed off as humour about Northeastern cuisine and other cultural elements. It provides the context and background for more overt, violent acts of racism and enables them.

Unfortunately, state institutions have often shown themselves unequal to addressing the issue. Worse, they have been part of the problem on occasion. Thus, when the Delhi police decided to address the security problems faced by the North-East community in 2007, it came out with a booklet containing tips for students from the region  — such as asking the women not to wear “revealing dresses” and how to prepare “smelly dishes” without “creating ruckus in neighbourhood”. This is victim-blaming at its worst, displaying a blindness to the real problems. Taniam’s death is an opportunity for the New Delhi government — and others in states where there are Northeastern communities — to face up to them. They must not let the opportunity pass.