Unity in diversity has become a cliché. It has been widely and often thoughtlessly used in schools and colleges during debating and essay writing competitions. It has lost all its meaning. More so in the context of the recent mass fleeing of Indian citizens belonging to the North Eastern States — Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Manipur, Tripura and Sikkim. There is diversity, but, pray, where is the unity?
Fearing for their lives, thousands of them panicked and exited booming cities like Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad and Pune. Watching it on television would make anyone sad. Fear and anxiety was writ large on their faces. They waited in railway stations, they scrambled to find a toe-hold in jam-packed trains.
The tragic events were more curious than complex. There are several important facets to this problem.
Communal politics and violence
It all started with violent conflict between Hindu Bodos and Muslims in Assam. They have been fighting each other for several years now. The Bodos allege that most of the Muslims have come from Bangladesh illegally. The rivalry is over livelihood and political rights. Bodos fear that Muslims are cornering jobs and acquiring land. Moreover their population is increasing, which could make the Bodos a minority — unable to elect a person of their choice in elections.
Given their ideology of giving importance to Hindus and Hindutva, the BJP and RSS support the Bodos, while the Congress Party, which claims to be secular, is seen as being partial towards the Muslim population.
In July, once again, fights erupted killing over 75 people and driving out several thousand people from their villages. They are now living in inhabitable refugee camps. Television coverage and ensuing heated public debate heightened Hindu-Muslim tensions in other parts of the country.
A large number of Muslims in Mumbai came together to condemn the violence against Muslims in Assam (and Bhutan). Some of the speakers made angry and provocative speeches.
Soon an unruly mob indulged in violence — attacking police and setting vehicles on fire. Two died and several were injured.
Incidentally, all this happened in the holy month of Ramadan during which relatively larger number of Muslims gather in mosques for daily prayers.
Misuse of mobile and Internet technology
It has now come to light that social networking sites and other websites were used to spread rumours and exaggerated accounts of violence against Muslims in Assam. It was pre-planned to incite Muslims. Several Muslims were agitated about the violence. The Mumbai protest drew the nation’s attention to the Muslim anger.
In a surcharged atmosphere, emotions ran high and even outrageous rumours seemed believable. Several thousand anonymous SMSes and MMSes, targeting people from the North-East, were circulated. These text messages threatened violence by Muslims to avenge attacks on their brethren in Assam — “Get out before Ramzan. After Ramzan there will be violence”.
It is so easy to receive and forward these messages and soon everyone concerned had received them. So pervasive was it that it seized the minds of an insecure community that was living far, far away from home. The chain reaction resulted in mass fleeing from Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai and Pune.
Identity, alienation and discrimination
In fact, many were surprised that people fled Chennai. At least Hyderabad, once ruled by Muslim Nizam kings, has a large Muslim population and has been hit by communal riots. Bengaluru was the capital of Karnataka, the first Southern state to be ruled by the BJP and has been in the news for the activities of aggressive and sometimes violent Hindu organisations close to the BJP. But Chennai has had a record of being a secular and peaceful city where communal violence is rare.
Social analysts say that people from the North-East have distinctive features. That is, they have a distinct identity. Their languages, culture and lifestyle too are thought to be different.
Due to ignorance, intolerance and prejudice many Indians tend to look down upon and discriminate against people from the North East.
For instance, north easterners living in Delhi are often teased and taunted on the streets and even in elite educational institutions and corporate workplaces. Derogatory expressions are used against them.
No wonder integration with the Indian mainstream has remained a major problem. Many people from the North- East have said that they feel like outsiders in Indian cities.
In crisis situations like the one that India witnessed recently, this alienation, the sense of being an outsider and being discriminated against makes them vulnerable to attacks of anxiety, panic and insecurity.
Underdevelopment of North East
In the last few years there have been waves of migration from the North East. The North East has been neglected and has remained economically underdeveloped and backward. The region can not boast of many reputed educational institutions that offer quality education or large companies, industrial parks and factories that can offer jobs to locals. The North-East did not reap the benefits of liberalisation or government spending.
Naturally, north-eastern youth began to migrate to the four metropolitan cities (Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, and Chennai) and other booming cities such as Bengaluru and Pune as students and workers. The private colleges in these cities make a lot of money by offering seats. Similarly companies and businesses, especially those in hospitality and other services, too benefit from the cheap labour.
Beyond borders
The Indian government, its intelligence agencies and security analysts have been pointing fingers at Pakistan. For instance, Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde told the Pakistan that certain Pakistani elements were abusing social media to create communal disturbances in India. Shinde wanted Pakistan to take stern action. While rejecting India’s allegations, Pakistan government said it would take action if India provided concrete evidence.
According to media reports, India’s Home Ministry had identified a Pakistani organisation which was allegedly responsible for manipulating images and spreading them through the Internet. The origin of the bulk SMSes and MMSes is yet to be established. The Indian Government has ordered blocking of these pages and banned sending of bulk messages for a fortnight.
Government’s response
The Indian government took a number of steps to reassure the people from the North East and stop the exodus. Similarly, all political parties came together to support them.
“We must work together to ensure that people from other states do not feel threatened by rumour mongering and SMSes. We have to maintain peace at any cost,” said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. “All political parties must work together to give a feeling of confidence to all affected people,” he added. Putting aside differences, all political parties came together in the Parliament to assure total protection to the people from the North East.