National Blindspot

The murder of a young man from the Northeast in a northern Indian city is not just a crime; it is a mirror held up to a society that still struggles to recognise all its citizens as its own.

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The shock lies not only in the violence itself, but in how familiar the conditions around it feel to those who come from India's eastern frontiers. The slurs, the stares, the casual questioning of identity ~ these are not exceptions. They are routine.

For decades, people from the Northeast have lived with a quiet, grinding burden: the need to constantly explain themselves. Where are you from? Are you Chinese? Are you Nepali? Are you even Indian? These questions are asked with a confidence that would be comical if it were not so corrosive. They reveal a disturbing truth ~ that for many, the idea of India still stops at the Siliguri Corridor.