Understanding the Complexities of Racism in Contemporary India: Challenges and the Way Ahead

Dawa Sherpa, Jawaharlal Nehru University

The continued and unabated rise in racist attacks on people from North eastern states and Darjeeling district of India has brought the issue of racism to the forefront in the country. This paper will evaluate complex issue of racism in India that is integrally connected with issue of ethnicity, underdevelopment, nationalism and caste. It is also argue that how the racism is institutionalized in most of state apparatus and gets reflected in the way state organs is operationalised. It will argued that the forced migration due to chronic underdevelopment of region of Northeast and Darjeeling, inability to accommodate ‘alien other’ in hierarchical caste ridden society and Hindu-majoritarian sense of nationalism are at the core of this issue. The paper will do the detailed case study of incidents of racist attack to substantiated the arguments and highlight the complexities involved in the issue.