Opinion National Interest PoV 50-Word Edit

ThePrint On Camera Videos In Pictures

Society & Culture Around Town Book Excerpts Vigyapanti The Dating Story

More Judiciary Education YourTurn Work With Us Campus Voice

Opinion National Interest PoV 50-Word Edit

ThePrint On Camera Videos In Pictures

Society & Culture Around Town Book Excerpts Vigyapanti The Dating Story

More Judiciary Education YourTurn Work With Us Campus Voice

Support our Journalism

9th Anniversary: Free Tote & Mug

Bengalis helped build Shillong. Yet we are still treated as outsiders & attacked

Almost every part of the Northeast has seen violence against Bengalis. The vandalism of statues of Subhas Chandra Bose and Swami Vivekananda in Shillong seems a continuation of this trend.

Where are you from? It sounds like an ordinary question. In the Northeast, however, it can sometimes carry a second question: Who are you? And behind that can lie a third: Do you really belong here?

We are from the Northeast, and Bengali is our mother tongue. Over the years, we have learned that identity here can be more complicated than the address written on an official document. One can be an Indian citizen who has lived, studied, worked and built relationships in the region for years. And yet find one’s linguistic identity interpreted as evidence of being an outsider.

From Itanagar to Aizawl, Bengalis can be found everywhere in the Northeast. They run small businesses, drive vehicles, teach in colleges and universities, and work in banks and insurance companies. Yet they remain on the peripheries. It is almost as if they must survive on the sidelines to avoid antagonising the majority there.

A powerful narrative has long persisted— that Bengali speakers in the Northeast, both Hindus and Muslims, are Bangladeshis. And almost every part of the region has, from time to time, witnessed violence against Bengalis.

The 19 August vandalism of statues of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose and Swami Vivekananda in Shillong by activists of the Khasi Students’ Union (KSU) — during a rally demanding greater regulation for migrant workers, among other things — seems to be a continuation of this very trend.

Vehicles coming from Guwahati with Assam registration numbers were also targeted, but it would not be an exaggeration to say that, over the last four decades or so, Bengalis have borne the brunt of anti-non-tribal violence in Meghalaya more than any other community.

Also Read: To be proud or not to be — the question most Bengalis are wondering

How Bengalis became ‘outsiders’ in Shillong

The presence of the Bengali community in Shillong goes back to the colonial era, when........

© ThePrint