[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he comment of Samuel Jyrwa, chairman of North East Students’ Organisation (NESO) suggesting for the inclusion of the history, geography, food habits and cultures of the people of North-East in the school syllabi both in Central and state educational boards speaks volumes.
According to the NESO leader, in the major cities in India, people from the North-East are often mistaken for foreigners by people. These mainland Indians have to be educated and the only option, according to Samuel Jyrwa, is to educate them by incorporating the history, geography, food habits and cultures of the people of North-East in the school syllabi. The NESO chief also said no law, no matter how stringent it is, can stop the racial attacks. The problem is in the mindset and it has to change, he added. The problem is also about people’s ignorance that there is an India beyond Bengal, Samuel Jyrwa said.It is a matter of great shame for a great nation like India that even after more than half a century of Independence the issue of learning about peoples of this large North East region crops up. The lack of interest of the Government of India in the North East region for over sixty years has been clearly displayed. Lack of knowledge on North East people and the region by larger chunk of the Indian populace is attributed to the ‘uneven focusing’ of the Government of India, if not the faulty policies. Most mainland Indians are of the view that people with Mongoloid feature are never Indians. This ‘wrong knowledge’ of the mainland Indians on the North East community and the region could have been done away long ago had the Government introduced right policies.
The Government of India has several world standard think tank centres. Huge amount of money is spent every month to run these centres. Sadly, these study centres are unable to formulate a right policy till date to address this discrimination on the North East people.
