At home with prejudice

Chow mein, Nepalese or Chinese—that’s just some of the labels the northeastern community of Mumbai lives with, finds Sanghamitra Bhowmik

Standing outside St Xavier’s College,  Vishal Oinam-Singh, Danielle Jamir, Steven Sutming and their friends look like nothing more than a bunch of college kids — playing the fool, exchanging notes and making plans for “later this evening”.

But ask them about the recent incident regarding a woman photographer from Nagaland being denied access to Urban Pind, an upmarket Delhi eatery for not having the “right profile” and the mood changes. Besides the first reaction of shock, the group is divided in its attitude to such discrimination. While some react with anger, others respond with a shrug and a “So what’s new?” 

Despite the cosmopolitan image of the city, its north-eastern population is no stranger to prejudice. Men and women with oriental features who are studying or working here say they feel the heat of discrimination “always”.

“Mumbai is a city of experiences but one experience that refuses to go away is the feeling of being ‘different’,” says Rose Mary Iuncsunj, a Manipuri working as a captain with a South Mumbai eatery. Very often, she has to deal with people asking her what country she’s from. “If the person is educated they’ll ask: Are you Chinese? And if a person is uneducated they’ll dismiss us as Nepalis. Why is it so difficult to remember the north eastern states?” she asks.

Danielle Jamir, a first year student who has stepped out from her Shillong home for the first time, also often finds herself at the receiving end of slurs like ‘chinki’. However, she insists, “people in Mumbai are better than those in Delhi.”

Despite the presence of over 3.8 crore north-eastern Indians with oriental features across seven states and Sikkim, “people from the plains cant stop stereotyping us,” says Tim Tim Jamang of Nagaland. “I am often called chow mein, chilly chicken and hakka noodles. Do we look at Punjabis and scream butter chicken?”

While Iuncsunj and Jamang face such biases at their workplace, college student Eden Bhutia says her experiences started since she was a five-year-old. “But over the years I’ve realised it isn’t the kids fault as their parents themselves introduce these words and terms to their minds. Last week a woman on the train pointed to me and told her child in Marathi ‘Look that’s a Chinese.”

“Not only do people have a bias against us but the police, too, are biased.” Agrees Jimmy Mahung, “I live with a bunch of north-eastern friends and whenever we travel at night, the cops stop us and ask where we are going and why? I don’t see them questioning our other friends.”

For women, the situation is somewhat worse. “Men automatically presume you are an ‘easy catch’. The situation gets worse if you are at bar or pub. However, Mumbai is not as openly biased as Kolkata and Delhi, but there is a certain amount of suspicion,” says Stephane Deosing, student.

Little wonder that most prefer to live and hang out with friends from back home. “The fact is we are very far away from home so, we try and stick with people of our kind,” says Jamir. Others like Bhutia prefer to fight it out and teach some geography along the way. “Nepal is not in India, nor is Japan or China. Darjeeling, Nagaland and Mizoram are part of India.”

Sutming adds philosophically, “We can’t blame the people about these biases. People say such thing as they don’t know about us and our states and we must try and make them aware. The only reason everyone in India knows where Mumbai is, is because of what Mumbai is.”
b_sanghamitra@dnaindia.net