Indians are pathetically weak in History and Geography. Especially, mainlanders might think Tawang is in China. Had it not been for the tag of the place which gets the heaviest rainfall, Cherrapunji would have been in Thailand on the mainlanders map. The bottomline is, they find it hard to reconcile with the reality that there are such lands, people and traditions in India which do not resemble anything with their established picture of India in their minds.
No, no, you can’t force your traditions and the way of living onto us because you are the majority. We worship the Sun and the Moon, we worship our ancestors, we worship spirits also, we go to church, we pray to the Buddha and we even have our own brand of a queer mix of Hinduism with medieval sorcery, we don’t require any outside tuition on how to clean our hearts and connect with the almighty. Okay, we do look like brothers of Jackie Chan and Tony Jaa but thats none of your business. We are fairer than you and you brush up your anthropology first. I still haven’t forgotten how they took me for a Japanese on my first visit to our national capital. I know about all the states of India, its capitals, main cities, towns, its people, histories, communities, traditions, economies and current affairs. I can speak better Hindi and English than most of you and almost understand most of the regional languages. And you don’t know even where Anini is and who the hell are the Noctes? Of course, knowing the North East is absolutely not necessary for you to get a job or lead a contented life. But at least, we hope, you have heard about something called the Constitution of India? It gives equal rights to every Indians and bars discrimination on grounds of physical features among others.
No, no, you can’t force your traditions and the way of living onto us because you are the majority. We worship the Sun and the Moon, we worship our ancestors, we worship spirits also, we go to church, we pray to the Buddha and we even have our own brand of a queer mix of Hinduism with medieval sorcery, we don’t require any outside tuition on how to clean our hearts and connect with the almighty. Okay, we do look like brothers of Jackie Chan and Tony Jaa but thats none of your business. We are fairer than you and you brush up your anthropology first. I still haven’t forgotten how they took me for a Japanese on my first visit to our national capital. I know about all the states of India, its capitals, main cities, towns, its people, histories, communities, traditions, economies and current affairs. I can speak better Hindi and English than most of you and almost understand most of the regional languages. And you don’t know even where Anini is and who the hell are the Noctes? Of course, knowing the North East is absolutely not necessary for you to get a job or lead a contented life. But at least, we hope, you have heard about something called the Constitution of India? It gives equal rights to every Indians and bars discrimination on grounds of physical features among others.
Yes, we are different and we are happy and proud with that. Please try to accept us as we are. Please respect our ‘alag-ness’. We are also Indians who goes ga ga over a Virat Kohli sixer or an Arijit Singh number. Our mothers and sisters also love Hindi serials and try to learn to cook paratha and biryani at home. We celebrate Holi, Id and X-mas with the same fervour and it never occurred even in our dreams that we were celebrating something which are not ours.
Hum aapke bhai hai, sirf mohabbat ke bhookhe hai.
Words- Shankar Tayung
