Between celebration and humiliation: The exhausting existence of Indians from the North East
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Two events that unfolded within days of each other tell a story that India has long preferred not to hear. At the BAFTA awards in London on Sunday, filmmaker Lakshmipriya Devi accepted the prize for Best Children’s and Family Film for her coming-of-age film Boong.
In that moment of triumph, she turned the spotlight not towards herself but towards her burning home state of Manipur and offered prayers for peace. India celebrated.
But back in India a few days before, three young women from Arunachal Pradesh in South Delhi’s Malviya Nagar had been subjected to racial slurs, humiliation and public intimidation by their neighbours. A video of Friday’s incident circulated widely: a couple confronting the women, demanding to know who they are, what they do and accusing them of working in a massage parlour.
These events are not unrelated. Lakshmipriya Devi’s recognition was real and deserved, but it was also conditional. She was welcomed into the national conversation through cinema, through something mainland India could consume and applaud.
The three women in Malviya Nagar had no such entry ticket. They were young, preparing for the civil exams, they lived in rented accommodation, they existed in the city without the shield of fame or achievement. The city met them...