Need for Anti-Racism Law
- Hueiyen Lanpao Editorial :: Ocotber 17, 2014 -
Protest ride by Bikers Against Racial Discrimination (BARD) at Bangalore :: 16th February, 2014
There have been several incidents of alleged racial attacks on the north-eastern people in metropolitan cities, especially in the National Capital Delhi.
The murder of Arunachal youth Nido Tania and other similar suspected hate-crimes against the people from the Northeast have prompted the need for an anti-racism law in India.
The Mongoloid people from the Northeast always have an intriguing question for their compatriots in the mainland whether they are ‘foreigners’ in their own country.
India often boasts of having unity in diversity.
However, majority of the Indians fail to acknowledge this very fact, and thus a chasm has been created among them. The maxim of ‘unity in diversity’ seems to exist only in papers.
When it comes to the reality, India is very much divided on cultural and ethnic lines.
The attack on some Manipuri students in Bangalore just recently for not speaking Kannada has once again brought the issue of racism in the limelight.
Many scholars and experts have opined that the alleged racial discrimination against the people from the Northeast can be reduced if the history and culture of Northeast India are made aware to the people of other regions.
As a result, the University Grants Commission (UGC) has recommended inclusion of history and unique culture of the Northeast in the higher education curriculum.
Also, a task force constituted by the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) to promote educational opportunities and the welfare of students from the Northeast, had made similar suggestions.
However, all these are just lukewarm actions from the Government to address the issue of racism in the country.
Considering the gravity of this issue, India seriously needs to enact a strict anti-racism law.
The culprits in such racial attacks against the people from the Northeast are often let off or convicted only for minor offences under the existing Indian law.
Even some political leaders from the Northeast do not want to term the attacks on the north-eastern people in the metropolitan cities as ‘racist’.
There have been serious debates among the intellectuals on the issue of enacting an anti-racism law in the country.
While many activists from the Northeast voice for the enactment of an anti-racism law in India, there are many other activists and intellectuals who feel that the demand for an anti-racism law is a redundant idea.
Those people who do not favour the anti-racism law are of the view that laws and reforms are necessary to tackle institutional racism, earlier practiced in the United States and South Africa, where the black community was denied the right to economic empowerment and the right to vote.
They contended that even after those historic legislations, the same communities, namely in the United States, face political and legal racism.
Yet, extra legislation and additional bureaucracy has never addressed such issues.
Those intellectuals also feel that there are many laws in the Indian Penal Code (IPC) that can effectively prosecute all crimes including discrimination.
The arguments put forward by both groups do have merits and demerits, but the main concern for the Northeast is how many more people like Nido Tania, Reingamphy and Richard have to be sacrificed from the region just because they look different from the rest of other Indians and they simply resemble the Chinese.
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