Nonglik Claire Asem Imagine a photograph of a child cradled on his mother’s lap, a fleeting moment of innocence captured in a world falling apart. Now imagine that same child, not days later, found lifeless — shot in the knee and stabbed in the chest. This is not fiction. This is Manipur. This is India’s …
Mirabai Chanu – Bahujan, Brahmin or just Meitei?
Khakhlari How digital activism narratives around the athlete exposed structural racism towards the ‘chinky northeasterner’ When Mirabai made news as the first woman to score a medal at the Tokyo Olympics, people across several socio-political factions were quick to claim her. Her win evoked nationalistic pride and sentiments and celebratory posts poured in. A …
Racist mainland Indians were more terrifying than Covid
Chongtham Rameshwori My phone records 9:21 pm with the first picture of my favourite but unfortunate black T-shirt splattered with the thick pungent tobacco remains over my neck and chest area. On 22nd March 2020, after the nationwide curfew ended at 9 pm, I went outside with my friend to buy some groceries, to …
Some Thoughts on Manipur and Asad Haider’s book, Mistaken Identity: Race and Class in the Age of Trump
Jackson RK Racism is a face producing machine. It gives a face to the living things, non-living things, and, this time, to an entity that is both a living and a non-living thing at the same time: virus. As the world shrinks into private rooms in the aftermath of the corona-virus pandemic, racism succeeded …
The indigenous people are used to sharing, not distancing: Santa Khurai
Santa Khurai (SAVARI and Round Table India are doing a series on the Coronavirus pandemic) Santa KhuraiPhoto credit: Sonia Nepram Round Table India: Thanks for taking time, Santa. Could you share what is the situation in Imphal right now around the COVID-19 crisis? Santa Khurai: The situation has become much worse. The government acted …
An Enquiry Beyond Citizenship Amendment Bill
Veewon Thokchom The question of migrant population in the “Northeast” – Land of the rising sun, Land of festivals, Scotland of the East, Jewel of India – has always remained elusive in the popular discourse of the country, just as the question of occupation in Kashmir – a Paradise on Earth. These artfully contrived …
Story of Khudei
Thongam Bipin Khudei is traditionally a Meetei word for a piece of cloth which the Meetei men wear around their waists. It is worn on various occasions: when he is at home, sometimes at a family feast and other specific occasions. It carries value and culture and signifies a particular lifestyle. It also indicates …
Buried Stories
Veewon Thokchom As a boy who grew up in Manipur in the 1990s, living in gruesomeness had become a way of life. When I tell stories about those days I feel that telling stories constitutes an act of resistance, an act that reaffirms our existence. Why it is essential to tell these stories is because …
‘North-East’: A Myth
Veewon Thokchom In India the term popularly called the “North-East,” used by the White British colonizers to refer to a part of the then province (Assam) under its rule, Northeast Frontier Area (NEFA), later inherited by the new Brown Indian rulers post 1947, has become a brand, a manufactured decorative term, a spatial concept where …