Debating Race in Contemporary India

A great deal of energy goes into strenuously denying that racism exists in India, or upon recognizing that it may exist, stressing that it is not as bad as in other countries. Yet in recent years there has been a shift towards recognizing and attempting to 'fix' racism as part of larger agenda of integration of India's rebellious frontier populations into the national folded The experiences of indigenous and tribal communities from Northeast India have brought race debates to national attention. Three murders and a mass 'exodus' of Northeast migrants back to the borderland from Indian cities are analyzed to track the shifts in race debates from denial to acknowledgement to high level government action. Duncan McDuie-Ra argues that, despite these shifts, racism experienced by Northeast communities is framed as a problem of metropolitan India not of everyday life in the borderland itself, subsuming the contentious politics of state-making and rebellion.