“Northeast communities — the population/s at the heart of race debates — are introduced and discussed in historical and contemporary contexts. Three initial claims about race debates are made. First, debating race has become more frequent at the national level. Second, the response of politicians has shifted from denial to acknowledgment to the desire to do something about it. Third, racism experienced by Northeast communities is framed as a problem of metropolitan India not of everyday life in the borderland occupied by the Indian armed forces and under a series of extraordinary laws and exceptional governance provisions. Debates are grounded in social, political, and economic changes brought about by migration from the Northeast borderland to metropolitan India, deeper concern about the image of Indian cities, and renewed emphasis on national integration as a solution for separatist tendencies in the Northeast.”

-Duncan McDuie-Ra (2016) “Introduction: ‘Let’s Stop Pretending There’s No Racism in India’” in Debating Race in Contemporary India. Palgrave Pivot Publishers, p. 1.