Strangers Within

India likes to celebrate its diversity, but the everyday experience of many citizens from the Northeast tells a more uncomfortable story. In cities such as Delhi, Bengaluru and Mumbai ~ places that pride themselves on cosmopolitanism ~ people from states such as Manipur, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh and Tripura often find themselves treated not as fellow citizens but as outsiders. The problem is not new. In 2014, the killing of 19-year-old Nido Tania from Arunachal Pradesh in Delhi shocked the country.

More recently, another violent attack in the capital ~ this time involving a woman from Manipur assaulted by teenagers in a public park ~ has again exposed how easily prejudice can escalate into brutality. The details differ, but the pattern is painfully familiar. What begins as casual stereotyping often becomes something more serious. Northeastern Indians routinely report being called “Chinese” or “Nepali,” mocked for their appearance, or questioned about their food habits. These remarks are sometimes dismissed as harmless jokes. Yet they reveal a deeper problem: many people still see citizens from the Northeast as culturally foreign. The prejudice extends into everyday transactions. Young professionals and students arriving in metropolitan cities frequently struggle to find housing because landlords assume they are unreliable tenants or morally suspect.

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Women from the region often face an additional burden of sexualised stereotypes. Even those in positions of authority have spoken publicly about encountering such biases. Part of the problem lies in ignorance. For decades, the Northeast has remained geographically and psychologically distant from India’s political and cultural centres. School textbooks devote little attention to its history and societies. Popular culture rarely represents its people with nuance. The result is a vacuum filled by crude assumptions. But ignorance alone does not explain the hostility. There is also a deeper failure of civic responsibility. When acts of harassment or violence occur in public spaces, bystanders frequently choose silence.

This indifference allows prejudice to flourish unchecked. Governments have occasionally responded after high-profile incidents. Committees have recommended stronger legal protections against racial discrimination, and police units in cities such as Delhi have been tasked with addressing crimes against Northeastern residents. Yet laws and official advisories cannot by themselves change social attitudes. The real challenge is cultural. India’s idea of nationhood cannot remain confined to a narrow image shaped largely by the mainland. The country stretches from the Brahmaputra valley to the hills of Mizoram and the mountains of Arunachal Pradesh.

Its citizens speak dozens of languages, follow different customs, and look different from one another. That diversity is not a threat to national unity; it is its foundation. Recognising this requires more than slogans about “unity in diversity”. It demands everyday respect ~ in neighbourhoods, workplaces and classrooms. Until Indians learn to see people from the Northeast as fellow citizens rather than curiosities or outsiders, the promise of a truly inclusive republic will remain unfinished.