The increasing spate of hate attacks on Indians especially in the US after the coming of the Trump administration is being watched with much concern. When two Indian techies enjoying a drink in a bar in Kansas City were shot at by a man telling them to go back to their country we understood the xenophobia in that attack.

While Indians cry foul and play the victim card when their counterparts are subjected to racial profiling anywhere in the globe, they remain mute and blind when such behaviour is meted towards their fellow Indians -- the North East people.

 

Racism and racial discrimination of northeasterner’s in mainland India has been a burning issue and has been an unlikely unifying element when we talk of this region. Racial abuse of NE people is an ugly part of their routine life as soon as they pass this region. For countless North easterners who flock to cities across the nation for studies and work and their parents such incidents of racial attacks and profiling are unnerving.

 

However, does this mean that we, northeasterners are not to be blamed of indulging in racism ourselves?

For too many Indians (NE included) racism is a one-way street. We can be its victims but we are never the perpetrators.

There is a general point here to be made. As the philosopher Immanuel Kant argued, the roots of bad behaviour are ingrained in human nature. There is something about us, which almost guarantees that we will, under some circumstances, disregard moral laws about treating others equally and kindly. Whether it is overweening pride, addiction to power, or other malignant inclinations, our moral disposition is always liable to corruption - and it isn't always because of hate.

Quick to cry foul and shout discrimination and racism at wrongful incidents happening to us in mainland India; on a closer look we are equally guilty of practicing it. The migrant population on many occasions and at various levels have bore the brunt and treated with indignity.

 

 

We are quick to recognize it when it happens to us but civilized society must have no room for such intolerant minds. Racism must not just be fought because it is practiced against our own citizens but because it is wrong regardless of the origin of the victims.

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Kenter Joya Riba

(Managing Editor)
      She is a graduate in Science with post graduation in Sociology from University of Pune. She has been in the media industry for nearly a decade. Before turning to print business, she has been associated with radio and television.
Email: kenterjoyaz@easternsentinel.in / editoreasternsentinel@gmail.com
Phone: 0360-2212313

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