The Problem Without a Name: Comments on Cultural Difference (Racism) in India

Abstract

This paper is about race and race relations in India with a focus on the experiences of violence and discrimination that people from India’s Northeast face in mainland India. This has become a ‘problem without a name’, generally articulated as a problem of cultural difference. The paper argues that the emphasis on cultural difference elides the issue of racism faced by India’s north-eastern subjects, whereby culture is a mere substitute for race. Institutional approaches to racism tend to rely on a biological understanding of race. The paper demonstrates the racial formation of the category ‘north-eastern’ through the processes of colonialism, nationalism and counter-insurgency. This approach shows the ways in which racism, classism and sexism work together in constituting the racialised, gendered and classed north-eastern subject.