On 22 February, three young women from Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur were subjected to all kinds of racial slurs, abuse and threats by a couple in Delhi’s Malviya Nagar. The reason? While installing an AC on their third floor rented apartment, debris fell on the floor below.
It was enough for the couple to unleash a barrage of hatred and the usual ‘you don’t know who my dad is’.
It’s another example of how Northeast Indians remain on the fringe.
North Indians are excited to eat at the ‘cool’ places in Humayunpur—the Northeast hub of Delhi—or get trendy haircuts and nails at salons run by migrants from the region. But when any inconvenience occurs, even the most minor one, it’s back to racial slurs. It ranges from calling people from the region Nepali, Chinese or “parlour wali”. A major chunk of gig workers from Northeast, do work as masseuse, or stylists. But the profession has now been turned into an insult, an insinuation of sex work.
The same momo Delhiites cannot get enough of, will be used as insults and hurled at people from Northeast. But momo is not a traditional dish from the Northeast. Its origins are Nepali and Tibetan. Of course, people from the Northeast enjoy it too, but it is yet again, an instance of clubbing everyone together.
Also read: DU’s Northeast students’ union fought prejudice with politics—now it’s pulling back at a price
The ‘exotic other’
Racism toward people from Northeast is a constant no matter what you look like. If one looks too ‘mainstream’, the question is, ‘why are your eyes not small and hair not straight?’. If one has Mongoloid features, the terms used are ‘Chinki’ or Chinese.
There is simply no escape from the racial profiling.
Delhi has possibly the biggest concentration of young people from the Northeast, who come to the city both to study and work.
With decades of insurgency, lack of adequate number of higher education institutions, young men and women from Northeast travel all the way to Delhi. The subsidised fees and sheer number of colleges under Delhi University has always been a strong attraction for parents.
The rent in Delhi and its suburbs are also relatively affordable compared to other metro cities, adding to the appeal.
One would think decades of migration from Northeast in Delhi, the recent craze for food from the region and even OTT shows like Paatal Lok (2025) and The Family Man (2025) or even the film Axone (2020) would have sensitised Delhiites.
One could not be more wrong.
Northeast is still the exotic other—a must visit on the travel itinerary, but not good enough to respect. Making jokes about eating dog meat to headhunting is still very much a prevalent trend.
Any ‘acceptance’ is merely on the surface level, constantly bubbling over and creating headlines.
From spitting at a woman after calling her Corona during the Covid-19 pandemic. to asking women partying at Hauz Khas Village their ‘rates’—racism forms the fabric of the city. Women are immediately seen as ‘loose’ or ‘available’ for their jobs or sartorial choices, and men are mocked for their appearance. One instance even led to the death of Nido Tania, a young man from Arunachal Pradesh in 2014. He was first mocked for his hairstyle, before being beaten with rods. More recently, a 24-year-old MBA student from Tripura, Anjel Chakma, died in Dehradun, after being racially profiled and attacked.
Racism is a problem for privileged mainlanders only when it’s meted out to them abroad. In their own backyard, it’s normalised as “I was just kidding. Chill yaar”.
Views are personal.
(Edited by Theres Sudeep)