NORTH EASTERNERS- ARE THEY NOT INDIANS?

WRITTEN BY:ANURAG SAHOO

The north east India consists of 7 states called the rainbow states. It includes Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Mizoram, Sikkim, Nagaland and Tripura. Also includes assam. The region is very beautiful and at the same time rich in heritage and culture. It has also have an added advantage of having high literacy rate. It shares its border with china, Bangladesh and Myanmar. I had myself been there and was simply awestruck by its beauty and people. But lately some facts really disturbed my mind.
I wondered what people and the government of the Indian Mainland think about these north easterners. Not much good or kind. People in orissa and even some of my educated friends still see them as foreigners just because of their appearance. The people in north India especially in metro like New Delhi which is supposed to be cosmopolitan address the north easterners as “CHINKIS” just as we saw in the movie Chak De India. Chinkis is a term mentioned for small eyes and moreover to Chinese.
This is the type of reaction the north easterners get from the people of their own country that is India. Economic development is nearly nil in those states as it appears to be in the same condition as it was decades ago. No road infrastructure, tourism infrastructure or utility infrastructure. Of course the establishment of Rajiv Gandhi IIM- Shillong was a welcome step but still that is not enough. It looks like the only thing that the government is doing lately is the exploitation of the oil fields at Assam. While India has planned to invest a whooping 2,00,000 crores INR by 2020 to built metro rails in cities like Bangalore, Mumbai, cochin, pune but it has ignored the fact that north eastern states need development. Another startling fact is that the budget of entire Manipur is less than the budget of a single administrative department of Andhra Pradesh. The only time the government shifts its focus to north east India is when china tries to infiltrate. While India is boasting of a robust economic future, it is alienating north east from the rest of India. Jackie chan is more popular than SRK in north east and rock music is popular than bhajans. That’s their uniqueness but it could be the result of isolative attitude which we, ignorant people, of the Indian mainland. I was also disappointed when I came through an article in the net by a north easterner in which the author wrote that maybe it would have been better if they would have been a part of china. It is not wrong in their part to expect something from India as the constitution of India states equal rights to all people. If India continues its step motherly treatment, then maybe that day is not far when China will try to take advantage and a revolt from north east would snap all ties of itself from India. As closing comments, the least I would do is extend my salutations to the beautiful people of north east India who call themselves Indians despite the fact that India has given them not much.