Of being an Indian

Thangbiaklian Hangzo *

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It was mid April 2013, the Air Asia flight AK1241 had just touched down at Subhash Chandra Bose International airport. As it goes to a screeching halt, I got up to disembark from the plane. It was then that a young lady, accompanied by her mother, stood up behind me and politely asked, "Hello, is this your first time in India ?" I was dumbfounded ! Literally unable to speak and my mind went blank for a few seconds. Then I regained composure and replied, "No, actually I have lived and worked in Kolkata for more than 3 years now." Then with a tinged of sheepish grin she replied, "Ok, that's alright then."

This encounter led me to recall my former colleague who had casually asked me, "Do you consider yourself an Indian ?" During that time as well, I had the shock of my life and replied by pointing to the picture and interview of MC Mary Kom featured in the Times of India – before her Olympic fame, "Do you know this lady and do you consider her an Indian?" The fact was that my dear colleague had no idea about this lady who had won 5 international laurels for India already. There are lots of other cases where I have been asked, "Bhai, aapkaha se aarahahain?" or "Are you a Japanese?" or the "Chingchong" quip and the "Kancha" gesture from different quarters.

The fact is, I am the least bothered by these petty smirk or subtle indications. But what really bothers me is our understanding of India: its history, geography, ethnic and racial composition, and most importantly our idea of a nation.

No one has to dig so deep in order to know and understand how the nation of India came about. A dear friend of mine, who is from the overseas, mentioned that India should actually be 50 or more countries. And I could not agree more if I have to subscribe to a mono-ethnic and mono-racial idea of a nation. This was proved true by the recent announcement of Telengana state by the UPA II which spurts off countless number of demands for states.

Given the chance, many of the so called states of India may choose to have an independent existence apart from India. One must be reminded that India is a loosely and delicately coalesced union, in that, even its constitution has to accommodate the people group with the least presence or the lowest caste and end up being the most exhaustive constitution in the world.

Looking now at the North Eastern area, there lived groups of people who are mostly of mongoloid descent having their own distinctive culture, languages and dialects. Many of my mongoloid friends had expressed a sense of feeling alienated and discriminated just for the reason for being looking different. These were also proved true by acts of some mindless and unscrupulous, ill informed, bigoted and illiterate lots who think that they had served the nation by doing ill to its own citizens. It is no secret that there has been a lot of separatist movement in the North Eastern part of India.

A lot of them have genuine and factual interest in making a separate nation on the basis of ethnic lines. And there are also groups who fight for identity within the political framework of India. But reality differs, as much as India is trying its best to unify the North, South, East and West, one should not be blinded that the integration of the North East is only at the initial stage. Funds may flow, governance may be established and intersection of business may happen; but the people are far from being unified. This may be attributed mainly to the geographical isolation, racial and cultural differences, insensitivity and blunder of the GOI in dealing with insurgent movements and the ill-informed masses that are of the more hairy and browner skinned, and the narrow and racial-centrism of both.

The future of these two largely diverse regions will depend on the sensitivity and understanding of each other's differences. It is highly probable that there will be a fall-off between these two, nearer or farther down the line – the tie will either break or bind – naturally. There are things that one doesn't choose, take for instance – race – I didn't choose to be born with a yellowish mongoloid feature or my friend across the divide didn't chose to born a hairy and browner skin. If that is the reason for my being discriminated, I am not at fault; it was God who made the mistake!

And there are also things that one must learn as a citizen of a nation. In this instance, my brown friends are far lagging behind and are prone to assumptions. Many of them doesn't even have a fair idea of how and what the composition of the North East is, and that's a simple case, some of them connote the Hindi language as a "National" language! Which was not, and if it was so, I would be very much disqualified to be an Indian. A colleague of mine once pointed to sari clad North East colleagues, "You look beautiful in the Indian traditional dress!" Oh my, I was never informed that a sari is "the" India traditional dress, or a salwar shirt, for that matter. This implies an utter disqualification of folks from the North East for each of them has their own traditional costumes.

In speaking about race, if the idea of a nation is a mono racial entity, I would gladly disqualify myself from being an Indian. This is the perception of the case in many other countries as well. For instance, at a stall in overseas, I have to settle for one of my parents as being foreigner, not an Indian. If not, they were not convinced. But the sting is much lighter in overseas as they are very much unaware of the reality and composition of India, neither do they learn about all the people and the land. But there are instances when things are hard to swallow when you are ridiculed in a country that you called your own.

The government of India is also partly to be blamed for these imbalances. It was their idea to put parts of the North East under the Ministry of External Affairs for as long as till 1972. This clearly indicates a stratum of estrangement from the region. And, it was said, there is no inclusion of the history of the North East into the Indian history in the curriculum and text books of the Schools. There is also a grave danger for the Indian government in that, most of the areas have to be written as outside of India.

And the creation of DoNER as a department in the central government and installing NEC purely reduced the North East Chief Ministers and Cabinets to a mere Project Managers or Project Coordinators under the unnecessary bureaucratic layer. This allegedly has been an attempt for accelerated development of the area. But we do not hear any Eastern, Southern, or Northern area development department of which some of them are worse off than the North East.

Amongst many, these are few of the issues which might need to be dealt to ensure smoother interflow of socio-political integration of the areas in question. If not, the fall-out is ultimately bound to happen. If that is the case, it will not happen with a single ethnic entity of only the Nagas, Meiteis, Kukis, Zomis or Assamese alone. The people will look for their racial and cultural affinity in a deliberate attempt to withdraw from the futile effort of merging with the impossible.

In retrospect, there had already been a very strong counsel from the erstwhile Michael Scott to unify the highlands in order to form a Sovereign entity. The Zomi leaders were also allegedly advised of the same by the said sympathizer whilst he was called on in Robert Hospital by the former party at Shillong. If the North Easterners find it futile to integrate themselves into the browner area and vice versa; there will come a time when the people of the North Easterners realize the futility of playing the ethnic game and seek an alternative to their plight as a unified whole. And the browner skinned will also realize the futility and admit the reality.

Finding one's identity in a country like India is literally a muddle. One has to look for direct and indirect elements that define one's identity as a citizen. And I am not apologetic to say, "If India is about being hairy and brown skinned; I am not an Indian. If India is about being sari or salwarkamiz clad; I am not an Indian. If India is about speaking a particular language; I am not an Indian. If India is about my own choice; I do not remember choosing to be an Indian." As of now, I am a political Indian, mongoloid descent and a cultural fusion of indigenous and western. Of which I am and deny not.