India’s Northeast is a land of immense history, beauty and courage. Northeast India consists of 8 states: Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura. Together, these states are home to over 50 million people of India.
Despite being such a big and important part of India, it is oft-forgotten by India.
India attained freedom from the British over 70 years ago, but millions in the Northeast over multiple generations have never experienced freedom. Since 1958, most of Northeast India has lived under the draconian AFSPA{:target=’_blank’}. AFSPA is an act imposed by the Government of India that gives Indian Armed Forces unchecked power to arrest, shoot and kill anyone on mere suspicion that they have committed an offence. It also gives the Army unchecked power to enter and search any house. Withdrawn from a few states of the Northeast only recently, this draconian law continues to be in effect for the majority of states in the region.
The people of the Northeast have faced rampant systemic discrimination in their own country. In one instance, in 2014, this racism led to the murder in broad daylight of a 20-year-old student{:target=’_blank’} from Arunachal Pradesh, Nido Taniam, in one of the busiest areas of New Delhi. While this one incident was publicized by the Indian and Western media at the time, there are thousands of cases of killings and extrajudicial executions that have not received media attention or even any hopes of justice. In fact, media coverage of the Northeast is hard to find whether from Indian or Western media.
Many of these points were brought to my attention by Binalakshmi Nepram{:target=’_blank’}, a guest on a recent episode of the podcast Grand Tamasha{:target=’_blank’}. Bina is a humanitarian bringing issues facing the Northeast India to light. She advocates for peace and disarmament of the region. India needs more courageous people like her.
The people of India, old and young, need to uncondition themselves from the discriminatory attitude towards the Northeast drilled into their minds by the system and society. There is a dire need for India’s domestic and foreign policies approach to incorporate inclusion and diversity — two fundamental ideas that modern democratic India was founded upon. In the words of Ms Binalakshmi Nepram that will echo for not just the Northeast but also Jammu & Kashmir, “you cannot claim to love someone at gunpoint”.