indigenousnagaland #6 - Racism And Race-relations In India, Whose Society Is Fairer & Why?

India ranked as world's number one in racism, according to global studies. With the Hindus making up 80 % of the national population, their caste system may have — to a large extent — put India on the global map for racial intolerance.

The Hindus are stratified into 4 or 5 castes, generally. However, there are 3000 castes and 25,000 subcastes in actuality. At elections, many caste groups still vote as a block. Even the language — especially the older languages — is not caste-neutral; they have to address someone as a lower or higher caste-based status.

CREDITS

Anti Caste Discrimination Alliance (ACDA) said,

“There is clear evidence from the survey and the focus groups that the caste system has been imported into the U.K. with the Asian diaspora and that the associated caste discrimination affects citizens in ways beyond personal choices and social interaction. There is a danger that if the U.K. government does not effectively accept and deal with the issue of caste discrimination the problem will grow unchecked”.

The land of Gandhi can never be racist, according to External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj. But unfortunately for Swaraj, Gandhi himself was a racist.

Deputy Prime Minister Sardar Patel, in his letter, dated 7 November 1950, to Prime Minister Jahawarlal Nehru, he practically accused the Mongoloid racial minority in India of what he called "pro-Mongoloid prejudices" without bothering to substantiate his sweeping statement, from his position of authority.

Gen VK Singh opposes deployment of Army to tackle Maoists, saying that "Army has to be deployed only when there is a threat to national security, particularly from any other country", but he has no problem in sending the Army, under AFSPA, to kill the Mongoloid ethnic minority.

Racism, A Daily Battle For People Of North East In India.

Racism Against Africans

On Indian society, Karl Marx writes,

"We must not forget that these idyllic village-communities, inoffensive though they may appear, had always been the solid foundation of Oriental despotism, that they restrained the human mind within the smallest possible compass".

He continues,

"We must not forget that this undignified, stagnatory, and vegetative life, that this passive sort of existence evoked on the other part, in contradistinction, wild, aimless, unbounded forces of destruction and rendered murder itself a religious rite in Hindostan. We must not forget that these little communities were contaminated by distinctions of caste and by slavery, that they subjugated man to external circumstances instead of elevating man the sovereign of circumstances, that they transformed a self-developing social state into never changing natural destiny, and thus brought about a brutalizing worship of nature, exhibiting its degradation in the fact that man, the sovereign of nature, fell down on his knees in adoration of Kanuman, the monkey, and Sabbala, the cow."

Karl Marx in the New-York Herald Tribune 1853

Nagas

Unlike the Indian society, Nagas are egalitarian in a classless, republican and democratic society since time immemorial. Nagas accommodated their enemy, the Kuki, very well. Kukis came to the Northeast of India during the British colonial days, especially between 1835 and 1840. The British used them against the native inhabitants, for colonial territorial expansions. After the British departure, India used the Kukis against the Naga indigenous people, particularly between 1992 and 1995.

A. According to Kuki historians, Nagas gave lands for the Kukis in-spite of the ethnic conflict between the two groups. In the Naga culture, lands are given only for someone they considered as a brother.

B. Women are safest in Nagaland while Odisha, Telangana and Assam ranked worst with the highest rate of assaults on women.

Sucharita Sengupta writes on her Nagaland experience,

Completely immersed in darkness, the road ahead was deserted, with no transport in sight. Aheli was unperturbed and helped me get an auto, which charged almost double to commute back to the hotel. Answering my protests to the increased fare, the driver said in Hindi, if translated which means, “It’s not safe here madam in the evenings, and you won’t find transport to take you back, so I am charging you double”. “Why”? I asked. “Things are much better now, so why do you say it’s still unsafe”? “Madam, there is no guarantee and the people here (read Nagas) always target the outsiders like us”. The auto driver, Shambhu, was a resident of Bihar. I reflected back to my conversation with Aheli on the same evening, some time back. Aheli is a Bengali by birth, and has been raised in various parts of India, which prompted me to ask, where does she situate herself in the state? Does she feel safe being an ‘outsider’ there? Her answer was, “Of course. More than I would in Bengal. There are no problems in Nagaland, especially regarding the safety of women. There is not a single problem that I have faced in my last three years in the state. I am happy with my work here. Only at times I crave to go back to the proper city life as everything is so quiet here”.

Indian women were not safe in their own society. Dalit girls were habitually ambushed and gang raped by the upper caste men. Sometimes, the poor people couldn't afford a toilet and their girls had to go to the open space, at sundown, to answer the call of nature. That's when they were ambushed and raped. But in the Naga indigenous areas, these girls felt safe.

Indian travelers would carry with them the idols of their gods and goddesses and place them under the tree or at the stream or waterfall. Even when left behind for years on indigenous property, their gods and goddesses were safe and intact.

C. James Johnstone, the colonial British political agent, writes on the Angami Nagas,

A strong built, hardy, active race, the men averaging 5 feet 8 inches to 6 feet in height, and the women tall in proportion. In colour they vary from a rich brown to a yellowish or light brown. They have a manly independent bearing, and are bred up to war from their earliest years. While the Kukis are monarchists, the Nagas are republicans, and their Peumahs, or chiefs, are elected, and though they often have great influence, they are in theory, only primus inter pares, and are liable at any time to be displaced. Practically they often remain in office for years, and are greatly respected.

...The Angamis when on friendly terms are an agreeable people to deal with, polite, courteous, and hospitable. I never knew any one take more pains or more successfully not to hurt the susceptibilities of those they are talking to, indeed they show a tact and good feeling worthy of imitation.

He further writes,

I predicted that, following the example of other hill-tribes, they would sooner or later become debased Hindoos or Mussulmans, and in the latter case, as we knew by experience, be a constant source of trouble and annoyance, Mussulman converts in Assam and Eastern Bengal, being a particularly disagreeable and bigoted set. My suggestion did not find favour with the authorities, and I deeply regret it. A fine, interesting race like the Angamis, might, as a Christian tribe, occupy a most useful position on our Eastern Frontier, and I feel strongly that we are not justified in allowing them to be corrupted and gradually “converted” by the miserable, bigoted, caste-observing Mussulman of Bengal, men who have not one single good quality in common with the manly Afghans, and other real Mussulman tribes. I do not like to think it, but, unless we give the Nagas a helping hand in time, such is sure to be their fate, and we shall have ourselves to thank when they are utterly corrupted.

...Properly taught and judiciously handled, the Angamis would have made a fine manly set of Christians, of a type superior to most Indian native converts, and probably devoted to our rule. As things stand at present, I fear they will be gradually corrupted and lose the good qualities, which have made them attractive in the past, and that, as time goes on, unless some powerful counter influence is brought to bear on them, they will adopt the vile, bigoted type of Mahommedanism prevalent in Assam and Cachar, and instead of becoming a tower of strength to us, be a perpetual weakness and source of annoyance. I earnestly hope that I may be wrong, and that their future may be as bright a one as I could wish for them.

From the above, we may conclude that the Naga society is fairer than the Indian society.

References

Was Mahatma Gandhi A Racist?
Sushma Swaraj's Remarks That India Can't Be Racist
Let's Talk About Racism
Map Of World's Least Racially Tolerant Countries
Caste Discrimination A Global Evil Says European Parliament
Stung By UN Report On Caste Discrimination India Hits Back
My Experiences In Manipur And The Naga Hills