New Delhi: A month-old scathing song against the racial slur used against people from the Northeast—‘Chinky’—is becoming an online hit. But its singer is too shy to embrace her newfound fame.
Kunja Khwairakpam, a PhD student at North Eastern Hill University, has no social media presence and prefers staying under the radar. It is unusual for a Gen Z singer in the digital age. Everyone is asking about the singer, whose powerful voice has given the one-month-old song its edge.
It is one of the strongest music tracks about the discrimination and harassment faced by the people of the Northeastern states.
The song, written by Sonu Baroi, is a heartfelt lyrical plea to be seen as people—beyond their Mongoloid facial features. It’s a bold song about the daily racism that people from the Northeast face in the rest of India. It all begins with the one-word slur ‘chinki’. It’s akin to the N word in Indian social vocabulary, but it is nowhere near being reclaimed that terms like “Chamar Pride” are.
“Chinki is what they say; still we shine; still we fight” is the refrain in the song. “You see my eyes, but not my heart” is another line.
Viewers are calling it the song of the summer, a powerful message, and a ‘kadak rap’ in comments under the music video.
The video features eight young women, donning the colourful costumes of the eight states of the Northeast, and lip syncing to the song. For songwriter Baroi, personal experiences with racism in Punjab and the rampant misinformation about the Northeast prompted the song Chinky, a song named after the racial slur used to target people from the Northeast. The toughest job was to convince Khwairakpam. While she was fond of singing, she had never done it professionally. But when Baroi reached out, she agreed to lend her voice.
“You see my eyes, but not my heart/India’s piece, don’t tear it apart,” the song goes, referring to how many tribes and communities from the region tend to have smaller eyes, which often becomes one of the targets of racial comments.
Chinky refers to a person of Chinese ethnicity, and used for people from Northeast. While it is used as a gender-neutral slur, women often find themselves on the receiving end of it, with other stereotypes like they have ‘loose’ morals, and are ‘easy’.
Baroi’s song was released across platforms and quickly gained traction, with its catchy lyrics and the costumes from all the states of the Northeast.
“I had this idea that we need to showcase our costumes, and how they are unique, and through that raise awareness about distinct cultures. I reached out to friends, asking them to send costumes, so that we could feature them in the song,” said Baroi, who was brought up in Meghalaya, which has been home to musical talents, like Lou Majaw, known for his Bob Dylan tributes, and the Shillong Chamber Choir.
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A silent revolt
This is not the first time the word ‘chinky’ has been used in a song. In 2022, Assamese singer Vreegu Kashyap’s ‘Naach Baby Naach’ used the word to describe a woman’s eyes. It was seen as offensive and pandering to stereotypes. Baroi’s song, however, is clear in its message. “Chinky, chinky, that’s what they say, But we kings, we don’t play.”
For the song’s video, everything was done through jugaad. The bootstrapped project was shot behind Baroi’s house in Shilong’s Laban. “There used to be a cucumber farm here, and it’s pretty lush and green. So we used my house as a changing room for the girls, and then we shot it. It took two to three hours,” said Baroi. After editing, he shared the song online, and appreciation quickly started pouring in.
“I have stayed 5 precious years of my life in the northeast, and trust me when I say that the people there are the warmest and it’s the most beautiful part of the country. Such a beautiful video. Kudos,” wrote one person on Instagram. Others have shared stories of their own experience of either staying or travelling across the region, and commending the song’s powerful lyrics and visuals.
The song was in the making for years, as Baroi observed racism dolled out almost casually in places he studied and worked. “Some people asked me questions like do men and women have sex in the open in the Northeast, and if we all eat dog meat,” said Baroi, who completed his post-graduation at Lovely Professional University, Jalandhar.
“You may think, what is the harm? But all I can think of is how a young boy from Arunachal was killed after they made fun of his hair. It’s things like that which stay with you, whenever you are outside the Northeast,” said Baroi. The songwriter was referring to 19-year-old Nido Taniam, who was killed after an altercation with a shop owner and his companions at Lajpat Nagar in 2014. The case had led to protests from Northeastern students, who called out the everyday racism they face in the capital—over everything from their appearance to the food they eat.
“Even after the recent murder of Raja Raghuvanshi, so many people had negative things to say about Meghalaya. But they do not see how people here came out and held a candle march, and the locals who helped police crack the case,” said Baroi, referring to the murder of an Indore-based businessman on his honeymoon in the state. When news first broke of his disappearance in May, the initial reactions were laced with racial slurs and sweeping claims about the Northeast being a dangerous place to travel.
For Baroi, the song became a way of registering protest about, and giving voice to how young people from the Northeast are using music as a medium to express themselves, and refusing to put up with any form of discrimination.
Descendants of the Sword
Baroi’s song isn’t an exception in Meghalaya’s creative landscape—it’s part of a new age of singers and artists who are writing and performing about their identity. In recent years, the hip-hop duo Khasi Bloodz and rapper Reble have also made a name for themselves, singing songs of identity and rebellion. Khasi Bloodz released a song titled, ‘Anthem for the Northeast’ in 2016, featuring the line: As a kid, growing up I hardly had shoes on my feet,/But I’ve seen bullet holes on church walls and a body in my street. The two singers, Donbok Kharkongor and Ritik Roy Malngiang, known professionally as D-Bok and Big Ri, also include Khasi words in their verses.
Baroi, however, sees himself more as a filmmaker, trying to blend music and words into videos.
“I write whatever I have seen and experienced, and watched others from the region face, I am not even being very poetic. I just wanted to share my thoughts, and put it out there,” said Baroi, who works with the planning department of the Meghalaya government, and has also completed his graduation in filmmaking from Assam Downtown University.
He also makes infotainment videos for Hello Meghalaya, the state’s first OTT app. One of his videos is on U SOSO Tham, a legendary poet, who secularised Khasi poetry. Baroi is currently working on an animated fantasy series on the freedom fighter U Tirot Sing, titled Descendants of the Sword.
(Edited by Ratan Priya)
What about the racism that mainland Indians encounter in the northeastern states (with the honourable exception of Assam)?
The only two communities in northeast India which don’t discriminate against Indians from other states are the Assamese and the Bengalis.
Every single tribal community in the northeast denigrates and demonises the non-tribal residents.
Be it Nagaland or Mizoram or Meghalaya, the non-tribal is the victim of xenophobia fueled violence and discrimination. But nobody wishes to talk about this issue.