New Delhi: The youth from the Northeast have chosen irony over outrage after three women—two from Arunachal and one from Manipur—allegedly faced racial slurs, abuse and threats recently by a couple in Delhi.
Young men and women from northeastern India have clapped back at the incident—whose video went viral—and the accused’s ‘Northeast people are shit’ comment with a unique take, teaching her about the region and its culture. They have ditched anger and instead resorted to sharing reels on Instagram, dressed in ethnic attire, showcasing the rich cultural heritage of the region.
An air hostess, who goes by the name Pohena, showcased clips of her in uniform, along with a montage of visuals from her trips and traditional attire, with the cheeky caption “When aunty said Northeast people are shit, she meant ‘fine shyt’”. ‘Fine shyt’ is an urban Gen Z slang which means an attractive or appealing person.
A content creator from Nagaland, Akuminla Ajem, shared glimpses of herself in a traditional attire of not just her tribe in Nagaland, but also mekhela chador from Assam, in various setups like a wedding, on Chsritmas and a temple. The caption in the video was the same as that of Pohena’s.
The reels are not just restricted to showing one’s ethnic identity.
A creator named Yashraj Godwill Shaw posted a reel to showcase the natural beauty of the region and wrote, “She called Northeast people shit. In real, Northeast welcomes the world with open arms”, referring to how tourists are always welcomed in the region, irrespective of their religion, caste and ethnicity.
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Persistent issue
On 22 February, the three young women were allegedly subjected to racial slurs over a dispute about electrical work. While installing an AC at their third-floor rented apartment in Malviya Nagar, debris fell on the floor below, and the woman and her husband reportedly unleashed a barrage of hatred and racist comments.
The incident comes barely two months after a 24-year-old MBA student from Tripura, Anjel Chakma, died in Dehradun following a racial attack. Racial discrimination against people from the Northeast has continued to be a persistent issue through the decades.
But what has emerged are reactions that have moved beyond protests. Information and satire are the instruments of change for the newer generation.
One Instagram video posted by the username livyaxassumi shows a group of men and women in a kitchen, seated around a fireplace. The voiceover from the original video plays, they get up to dance, and a series of bulleted points appear on screen. The highlighted text points out how dowry culture does not exist in the Northeast, and neither does honour killing, which is rampant across many parts of North India.
It also lists other points like a higher literacy rate, matrilineal systems in some communities and how women participate actively in public and social life. The video ends with the powerful quote, “Different does not mean inferior.” The reel has 1 million views and thousands of reshares.
One carousel post by the Naga page Hunishe Club starts with the video of the woman unleashing her barrage of insults, and follows it up with data. The second slide shows how the population of the Northeast has 8 states with more than 20,000 ethnic groups that were all clubbed together.
He countered her racist statement in each slide, showing data that shows her uninformed bias towards the region and its people.
(Edited by Saptak Datta)