North-east and Chinky: Countenances of Racism in India

Abstract

The issue of discrimination and violence experienced by the people from the so called North-East India recently had a brief rendezvous with major Indian media. However, beside few articles in journals and national papers, the issue again failed to engender rigorous theoretical discourses amongst academics. It is observed that without undoing the colonial and consequently the racial connotation of the concept North-East there is a proliferation of academic centres taking the name North-East. This article analyses theoretically the concepts North-East and chinky and brings out their racial characteristics. The growth of the concept North-East from the colonial administrative usage to its contemporary racial nature is captured in the paper.