“On flights, they look relieved once I talk to them in Hindi,” says Tanya, a flight attendant from Hyderabad. “Or else, they immediately cover their face with a mask or handkerchief upon seeing me. The irony is, until now there are no cases of coronavirus in the North-East and here we are treated with suspicion.”

Following the virus pandemic that originated in China, people from the North-East are being targeted and harassed in other parts of the country because they look ‘Chinese’.

Racial harassment is not new to people from the North-East. They are taunted, subjected to snide remarks, called names such as Chinky, Momo, Chinese, Chow mein, etc. And now, because of their Mongoloid features, ‘coronavirus’ is a new addition to this long list of racist monikers.

“We had gone to have dinner at a place on Church Street. After dinner we were booking an auto when a passer-by shouted from his car “You coronavirus” and went away,” says Kim*, a student at Bengaluru’s Christ University.

“After that we were walking when two women passed us by and one of them started coughing on seeing us. Her friend asked her to cough loudly. When we confronted them, they laughed and said she was coughing genuinely. And when we told them how we felt, that many people do that to North-East people, they made a joke out of that as well. After we passed them, there was a guard who looked at us and screamed ‘corona’. Then we went to buy some chewing gum from a stall where a group of auto drivers started saying ‘let’s move 10 metres away, they might have corona’ and the shop owner started laughing at us,” Kim adds.

From being denied auto rides to being coughed at on their faces, hurriedly wearing masks after seeing them, pushed away in local trains to distance them, people from the North-East are being subjected to harsh treatment every time they step out of their house, even to go to the nearby grocery store.

“My friends and I went to the washroom at a theatre, there were these workers inside,” recalls Tina*, a third year student at Madras Christian College, Chennai. “The moment we entered, they saw me and said, “Oh my God, coronavirus!” After we came out, we talked to them and requested them not to do this. They then said sorry. Please tell your friends that people who look like us don’t have coronavirus. Please consider us also as human beings. We also have feelings,” she adds.

Some, like Abigail*, have resorted to covering their whole face when they go out, fearing harassment. But even then, she says, they are not spared.

“All these things are happening just because we look different,” says Tina. “The virus originated in China and because we have these Mongoloid features people think we are Chinese. Because of this I’m really scared to step outside my home. I’m not scared that people will call me coronavirus. I don’t know how to react. When I get super angry, I end up crying,” she says.

“This is very unfortunate,” says Wapang Toshi, President of the North East India Welfare Association, Chennai, speaking to TNM. “In a situation where we all should stand united, citizens are ignorant about our own country. Many of our own people don’t know that there are different types of people residing in India. Even though we look like Chinese, we are also Indians. After the government shutdown, there have been reports of racial discrimination towards North-East people in different parts of Chennai,” he says.

Further, the reduction in flights and trains during this time, high ticket prices and sudden shutdown of hostels are also making things very difficult for North-East people who work or study in other parts of the country, Toshi adds.

Kiren Rijiju, the Minister of State for Minority Affairs, had tweeted on Wednesday, “Some incidents of racial remarks have emerged in some parts of India in the wake of #Coronavirus due to cultural ignorance, prejudice mindset & lack of understanding. Matter discussed with NE Division, MHA. Strict advisory is being issued to the States.”

Some incidents of racial remarks against North-East people have emerged in some parts of India in the wake of #Coronavirus due to cultural ignorance, prejudice minset & lack of understanding. Matter discussed with NE Division, MHA. Strict advisory is being issued to the States.

— Kiren Rijiju (@KirenRijiju) March 18, 2020

* Name changed