REVIEW OF URBAN AFFAIRS
The ‘North-East’ Map of Delhi
Duncan McDuie-Ra
Migration from the north-east frontier to Indian cities
has increased rapidly in the last decade. Limited
livelihood prospects, changing social aspirations and
sporadic armed conflicts push migrants out of the
region. Experiences of racism, violence and
discrimination are crucial in shaping their lives. But this
paper challenges the notion that north-easterners are
solely “victims of the city”. Instead it analyses the ways in
which they create a sense of place through
neighbourhoods, food, faith, and protest. This
“north-east map of Delhi” allows the migrants to
survive the city and to construct a cosmopolitan
identity at odds with the ways they are stereotyped in
the Indian mainstream.
Duncan McDuie-Ra (d.mcduie@unsw.edu.au) is with the University
of New South Wales and author of North-east Migrants in Delhi: Race,
Refuge and Retail.
Economic & Political Weekly EPW july 28, 2012 vol xlviI no 30
M
igration from north-east India to large metropolitan
cities like Bangalore, Kolkata, Mumbai, and more so
Delhi has increased rapidly in the last decade. Lim-
ited livelihood prospects, changing social aspirations, and
armed conflicts (in certain areas) push migrants out of the
region. The transformation of Indian cities through neo-liberal
reforms have led to rapidly expanding employment opportuni-
ties in the retail and services sector, labour recruitment, and
growing networks based on clan, kin and ethnic ties pull mi-
grants to particular jobs, neighbourhoods and colleges. The
migrants’ experience in these cities includes racism, violence
and discrimination.
While these experiences are crucial in shaping their lives
this paper focuses on the ways they create a sense of place for
themselves in Delhi. In doing so it challenges the notion that
the north-easterners are solely “victims of the city” and in-
stead analyses the ways migrants create a sense of place
through neighbourhoods, food, faith, and protest. This is re-
ferred to as the “north-east map of Delhi”: the collection of
places where north-easterners live, worship, socialise, cele-
brate, and establish everyday patterns and rituals. This allows
them to survive the city and to construct a cosmopolitan iden-
tity at odds with the ways they are stereotyped in the Indian
mainstream. This does not make racism and violence less real,
but puts emphasis back on the agency of north-east migrants
in creating small spaces of their own in Delhi.
This paper is the result of ethnographic fieldwork carried
out in Delhi in 2010 and 2011. It also builds upon eight years of
ethnographic research in the north-east itself. During my field-
work I had conversations with north-east migrants every day for
almost three months. Some of these conversations were brief.
On a university campus I would meet a north-east migrant and
ask where they were from, what they were doing in Delhi, and
how they experienced it. That would take a few minutes and
we might never meet again. Other migrants I saw almost every
day. If they lived in my neighbourhood we would talk while
passing in the street, while cooking, or when I went to their
flat in the evenings. There were all manners of interactions in
between these extremes. There were people I met three or four
times and with whom I had very unstructured conversations
and others I met once but spoke for an hour around very spe-
cific topics. I also travelled to parts of Delhi where north-east
migrants were working. I was able to meet them while they
were at work and often outside work. This extended the neigh-
bourhoods I visited and expanded my contacts in the city.
As an Australian, I was seen as a distant outsider, removed
from the tensions between north-easterners and Indians,
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enabling respondents to speak openly and frankly to me
about their experiences. Furthermore, I was not associated
with any particular ethnic or tribal group, and this was an
advantage when discussing intra-migrant issues and ethnic
tensions from home. More often than not I benefited from
having known a respondent’s relative or flatmate back home
in the north-east or from having visited their hometown. Re-
spondents would often express surprise to meet a foreigner
who knew of their home place, and this helped friendships
form quickly. My gender played an interesting role in the
research. I often met with female respondents one-to-one in
public and where they lived. We would frequently go out to
eat or wander around shops and markets. People would stare
at us, sometimes passing crude comments in Hindi and
sometimes in English. Both men and women indulged in this.
I also spent a great deal of time with the men hanging out on
the street and in parks, and inside flats, playing cards, or
listening to music. As can be expected when respondents were
among friends with whom they were comfortable, they talked
more openly – this was not obviously determined by gender
but did seem to rest on ethnicity. All of the respondents
quoted in this article have been given pseudonyms.
North-East Migrants in Delhi
Migration from the north-east to Delhi has increased dramati-
cally in the last decade. While there are more migrants leaving
the north-east than ever before since the mid-2000s, aca-
demic and media attention to this factor is scarce. Scholars
have long focused on migration into the region from other
parts of India and neighbouring countries seen as fuelling
ethno-nationalist politics and insurgency (Bhaumik 2009;
Hazarika 2000). Migration from the north-east to Delhi has
taken place since Independence, yet given the distance
between the north-east and Delhi most tribal migrants mov-
ing to urban areas chose towns in their own tribal areas or
within the north-east region. Historically, those migrating
outside the region went to Kolkata and Siliguri in West Bengal.
With the top universities in the country and also the promi-
nent preparatory courses for taking the Indian Administra-
tive Services (IAS) exams, Delhi attracted the wealthy and
educated from the north-east. This group of migrants continues
to come to Delhi but it is the dramatic growth of migrants from
other backgrounds coming for work in retail, hospitality, and
call centres that is most remarkable and visible to residents
and visitors to the city.
As migration to Delhi does not cross international borders
and as most north-east migrants do not own property or capital
in Delhi (though this is changing) their population is not
accurately recorded. A survey released by the North-East Support
Centre and Helpline (NESCH) in early 2011 puts the number of
migrants outside the north-east at 4,14,850 (2011: 10). The
same report cites a 12-fold increase in migration out of the
north-east from 2005 to 2011. Of the migrants leaving the
north-east, 48% migrate to Delhi, making for a population of
around 2,00,000. Survey figures are likely to be underesti-
mates, as movement back and forth between the north-east
70
and Delhi is constant and periods of stay vary dramatically
from a few months to several years.
The majority of the north-east migrants come to Delhi after
secondary school without their parents, though some migrate
with siblings. Both men and women migrate to Delhi in more
or less equal proportions. The majority of them working and
studying in Delhi are in their 20s. Older respondents in their
30s and 40s include those who came to Delhi in their 20s and
stayed, those who came to Delhi from other cities such as
Bangalore or Kolkata or from abroad for work, and those who
came directly from the north-east to work in public and pri-
vate employment. There is a small but growing number of
migrants who have partners and children with them (some of
the latter born in Delhi), though the majority leave their fami-
lies back home. In sum, migrants include those who have come
to Delhi to work, those who have come to work and study,
those who have come only to study, and those that began do-
ing one but have now started doing the other. There is also a
smaller group doing neither.
In interviews and conversations migrants gave a number of
reasons for leaving the north-east. For instance, respondents
from Manipur often cited ongoing violence and insecurity as
reasons to migrate, while for respondents from Arunachal
Pradesh this was not an issue. Similarly, respondents from the
same location might give very different reasons for migrating.
With limited space to delve into these variations the following
general reasons for migrating were given: refuge from con-
flict, changing attitudes towards Indian citizenship, poor edu-
cation options at home, and better connectivity between the
frontier and metros. However, virtually all migrants discussed
the availability of work in retail, hospitality, and call centres as
the major draw. Job opportunities in the north-east are limited
by insurgency and by a number of associated difficulties such
as corruption, low levels of investment, capital flight, and the
proliferation of illegal and semi-legal economies. Alongside
work, the opportunity to study outside the region is a major
impetus for migration. The availability of work means that
migrants from the north-east can support themselves while
studying, or support family members to study. With limited
employment prospects, education is sought after to gain an
edge in labour markets back in the north-east, especially in the
public sector, and to meet changing aspirations and consumer
desires. Furthermore, as north-east migrants have begun to
create a niche in certain labour markets in cities, labour
recruiters are travelling to the north-east to offer jobs in call
centres, restaurants, hotels, and spas making compelling cases
to leave the region and normalising migration as a rite of
passage for the region’s youth.
The neo-liberal transformation of Delhi, often critiqued for
excluding the working poor and minority communities, has
created opportunities for north-east migrants. The latter covet
the employment opportunities in the spaces of neo-liberal cap-
ital, and employers in these spaces desire north-east labour –
especially in restaurants, shopping malls and call centres. As
Brosius’ study of consumerism in Delhi has shown, malls are
designed to satisfy the desire of the upper and aspiring middle
july 28, 2012 vol xlviI no 30 EPW Economic & Political Weekly

classes to “live abroad in India” (2010: 65). To truly experience
this kind of status-driven consumption consumer spaces
serving these classes are designed to project a global aes-
thetic; an aesthetic reproduced by north-east migrant labour.
North-east migrants find work in clothing stores, sports stores,
spas and cosmetic stores. In restaurants, they work as wait
staff and maître d’, as well as in kitchens. In restaurants and
spas seeking an east Asian aesthetic, they are dressed in
cheongsams, the tight fitting Chinese evening dress, hanbok,
the Korean traditional dress, or a pastiche of east Asian cloth-
ing styles. The highly orientalised labour force constructs a
space that is in Delhi but not of Delhi; perfect for the “world-
class” aspirations of the middle classes. As a 23-year-old male
migrant from Nagaland put it, “for Indians it is like going to
Bangkok for shopping. We look the same but some of us can
speak Hindi.”
Call centres flourish in Delhi, especially in Gurgaon and
Noida (Dupont 2011: 541). Mirchandani’s (2004) research in
Delhi call centres serving North American voice-to-voice
clients shows that workers in call centres are trained to “neu-
tralise” their accents and conduct “locational masking”. North-
east migrants are well equipped to play the neutral role. Most
migrants from the hill areas attend English medium schooling
and literacy rates in tribal areas are high. English is also the
lingua franca between different ethnic groups. Many north-
east migrants do not have typically Indian accented English. In
addition, many of them are unmarried and without children
enabling them to work shifts timed to serve Australian, Euro-
pean, and North American business hours. As such they have
become desirable as a “flexible” and well-qualified workforce
for the call centre industry.
North-east migration also gives insight into the growing
private education industry in the city. Delhi’s private IAS
coaching schools are advertised heavily in the north-east.
There are similar coaching schools throughout the country but
there is the feeling among respondents that the ones in Delhi
are better. Some respondents came from the north-east espe-
cially for these tuition schools, while other attended IAS tui-
tion while studying at university or while working.
Racism and Violence
North-east migrants experience high levels of racism in
Delhi. They are seen as racially distinct from other groups
that make up India’s diverse citizenry and physical appear-
ance is central in interactions with members of other com-
munities. Features denoting Tai, Tibeto-Burman, and Mon-
Khmer lineages mark them as separate. In fact, race routinely
leads to the nationality and citizenship of migrants being
questioned by other city dwellers. India contains many com-
munities earmarked as “others” based on religion, caste, and
even ethnicity, yet the nationality and origin of these commu-
nities are not questioned at every turn. They can “blend in” to
the heartland (rarely completely) in ways that north-east
migrants cannot. This is not to argue that these “others” do not
face discrimination and violence; rather, north-east migrants
feel their experiences of racism are distinct. To put it simply,
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REVIEW OF URBAN AFFAIRS
they look different from the other peoples of India. They are
not viewed as yet another ethnic group in the vast Indian
milieu; they are an exceptional population. As such, they are
subject to different perceptions and treatment than other
groups. This makes it “difficult for them to escape from their
ethnic identity if they wish to” (Eriksen 2002: 6).
For most respondents racism in Delhi is expressed by the
epithet “chinky”. They are constantly subject to the epithet as
they move about the city, in their workplace from colleagues,
from other students in their classes at university, and even
from friends. Importantly, “chinky” is not used by north-
easterners to refer to themselves or each other. In other words,
they have not claimed ownership of the epithet. Other groups
are subject to this derogatory term: Bhutanese nationals,
Burmese refugees and migrants, Chinese nationals, Ladakhis,
Nepalis from certain ethnic groups (Limbus, Magyars and
Rais), and Tibetans. All of these groups are present in Delhi.
They share some of the same places of work, education, and
neighbourhoods as the north-east migrants, but for the most
part they occupy different niches in the city.
Epithets matter because they reflect embedded stereotypes
about north-easterners. Their stereotyping is layered. In other
words, the stereotypes that north-easterners are subject to in
Delhi have multiple layers, multiple effects, and multiple ori-
gins. Stereotypes are not always negative and have enabled
the growth of the labour niche for north-east migrants, yet
north-easterners do not have control over the ways they are
represented whether positive or negative. They are cast as
backward and exotic. Colonial era classifications have been re-
produced in the systems of governing the north-east region in
contemporary India (Barbora 2008; Zou 2009) and in popular
representations of north-easterners – especially tribals – in
museums, tourism campaigns, guidebooks, schoolbooks, and
national parades (Patil 2011). In almost all of these cases trib-
als are represented using the three “un” myths discussed by
Echtner and Prasad (2003): “unchanged”, “unrestrained” and
“uncivilised”. This carries over into everyday life in the city
and tribals must constantly challenge notions that they are
from a premodern society “untouched” by modernity. Further,
they are cast as anti-national. Reporting on violence and
“terrorism” in the north-east is one of the only times that the
region and its people are mentioned in the mainstream media
(Hasan 2004, 2009). Here the backward frontier-dweller
meets the violent anti-national separatist bent on destroying
India. Most significantly, they are cast as immoral. This affects
north-east women and men in different ways. The women are
cast as loose in morals and sexually promiscuous. Many of
them work in highly visible occupations where their sexuality
is emphasised. They live in shared houses, most are not yet
married, they move about the city for work without male chap-
erons almost always on public transport, those who work have
some financial independence (subjecting them to speculation
that they achieved this independence through “immoral”
means), most of them dress very differently to (certain) Indian
women, and they socialise with friends of the same sex
and opposite sex. North-east men are also subject to some
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of the loose and immoral assumptions but are also cast as
heavy drinkers, unpredictable, and potentially violent
(McDuie-Ra 2012).
Racism manifests in discrimination, harassment and vio-
lence, as well as limited access to justice and recognition of
rights. Violence is the most telling manifestation of racism in
Delhi. It is imperative to recognise that the problem lies not
only in the violence itself but also in the way the police treat
violent incidents, and the ways in which the discourse around
violence blames the north-easterners for inviting violent
encounters (Puri 2006). In the infamous pamphlet Security
Tips for North-East Students/Visitors in Delhi issued by the
Delhi Police, north-east women are advised to act and dress
more conservatively. The pamphlet reads: “Revealing dress to
be avoided. Avoid lonely road/bylane when dressed scantily.
Dress according to sensitivity of the local populace” (Delhi
Police 2005). Respondents found this pamphlet and its senti-
ments amusing but also instructive of the ways they are
viewed. North-easterners, and especially women, are held
responsible for the sexual harassment and violence they
endure while the perpetrators are largely ignored.
Respondents are adamant that the day-to-day violence that
characterises their time in Delhi is continually downplayed in
the media, by the authorities, and by non-north-easterners.
Delhi has a reputation as a violent city. One of the difficulties
in discussing violence experienced by north-easterners in
Delhi is the counterclaim that Delhi is a violent city and no
community is immune. When considered from the perspective
of north-east migrants such an argument is weak. As one
respondent from Nagaland put it, “they will always go on
about Delhi being unsafe. They think it is not different for us.
But it is. We are walking targets.”
Beyond Victims: The North-East Map
Discrimination, harassment, and violence combined with dif-
ficult economic circumstances, particularly related to inflated
housing costs, make life in Delhi very challenging. Nonethe-
less, it is important to go beyond the notion of north-east
migrants as solely “victims of the city” to focus on the ways
they exercise agency to navigate, negotiate and ultimately
survive and even thrive in the city in ways that are mostly
invisible to other communities. The concept of place-making,
drawn from Henri Lefebvre’s (1991) dialectical approach to
everyday life and the social production of space, provides a
loose framework for analysing the ways north-eastern
migrants create place from the bottom-up. Place-making
occurs when a material space is inhabited and allows patterns
and rhythms of life to develop. It is here that the landscape of
Delhi is being reshaped in small and subtle ways. North-
easterners have a presence in the city beyond simply serving
the economy. They occupy a set of overt and concealed places
where they live, pray, socialise, celebrate and establish every-
day patterns and rituals (Freidmann 2007). The connected-
ness of these places form the “north-east map of Delhi” simply,
the north-east way of knowing the city. Obviously, there is no
single north-east map of Delhi. However, it is possible to sketch
72
a rough map that most north-east migrants will recognise
even if the locations are imprecise. It must also be pointed out
that the north-east place-making is far from harmonious. Ten-
sions between different ethnic groups, between different
political positions, between migrants from different class
background all manifest in Delhi. However, the shared experi-
ence of the city and of the mainstream society cultivates a
shared sense of place, which despite many cracks enables the
reproduction of difference and a shared identity among north-
east migrants.
The north-east map is a way of knowing and seeing Delhi
based on a very specific experience of the city. North-easterners
work in certain occupations, live in certain neighbourhoods,
eat certain foods that most other communities do not, practise
minority religions (for the most part), and experience security
and safety in certain ways affecting mobility and everyday
decision-making. Many other people in the city share some of
these things, but only north-easterners navigate through all of
them. In other words, you may find a non-north-easterner
working in retail and going to church, but he/she unlikely to
live in a north-east neighbourhood and roam the city seeking
bamboo shoots or spend their weekends practising dances for
aoleang monyu.1 There are four main components of the map
(excluding workplaces and places of study): neighbourhoods,
food, religion, and protest.
(i) Neighbourhoods: Arjun Appadurai (1996:183) conceptual-
ises neighbourhoods as localities that are relational, contex-
tual, and also fragile. He posits that “neighbourhoods are in-
herently what they are because they are opposed to something
else and derive from other, already produced neighbour-
hoods”. Thus for Appadurai, neighbourhoods require “the con-
tinuous construction, both practical and discursive, of an eth-
noscape (necessarily non-local) against which local practices
are imagined to take place” (1996: 184). In other words, place-
making in neighbourhoods depends upon the construction of
both locality in a certain space and the recognition of a non-
local space outside the locality inhabited by others. For north-
east migrants, this means that creating neighbourhoods de-
pends upon place-making in that particular locality as well as
recognising the difference between that locality, other locali-
ties and the city more broadly. In effect this means creating
places that are “not like other parts of Delhi”.
North-easterners live in north and south Delhi, and in
smaller numbers in east and west Delhi. The north is mostly
home to students, while the south is home to those working
and studying, though this distinction is dissolving as the
demographic profile of migrants shifts. In the north, migrants
live in the neighbourhoods around Delhi University and close
to the GTB Nagar metro station. In the south there are a range
of locations. Green Park, Munirka, Safdarjung Enclave, and
Safdarjung Development Area are close to Jawaharlal Nehru
University (JNU) and the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT).
Duala Kuan, Moti Bagh (south), and Shanti Niketan are popular
areas close to Delhi University’s south campus. Other areas in
the south include Kotla Mubarak and South Extension I and II.
july 28, 2012 vol xlviI no 30 EPW Economic & Political Weekly

Munirka has become the main hub for north-east migrants,
especially new arrivals. Their growing presence can be tracked
through the opening of shops selling food, clothes, and air
tickets run by north-east migrants.
The lines between public and private can become blurred
in these neighbourhoods. Flats are small and many are win-
dowless, so the space between flats, landings and stairwells,
and the streets and alleyways of the neighbourhoods become
the spaces of encounter, especially in the very dense alley-
ways of Humayanpur and Munirka. In fact, parts of Munirka
see so little natural light that a small open space where a
number of alleyways intersect has been dubbed “the airport”
by migrants because you can see the sky. Migrants move be-
tween each other’s flats without knocking and many leave
their doors unlocked when they are inside. It is just like
home. While it may be argued that all neighbourhoods pos-
ses these characteristics to some degree, this blurring of
space needs to be understood in the context of the enclosure
of space in middle and upper class Delhi neighbourhoods
where gates, security guards, and cars are the norm
(Baviskar 2003). It is not just north-easterners resident in
these neighbourhoods but friends from other parts of the city
that drop by, socialise in the square, and wander between
apartments. Though clichéd, the neighbourhoods effectively
function as an extension of the village and neighbourhood
life back home. North-east migrants are very rarely homeless
or live in illegal dwellings. Kin, clan, familial, and ethnic ties
ensure that migrants have a place to stay even if they have no
money. Family members back in the north-east will go to
great pains to ensure that their relatives can afford accom-
modation, even if it is very modest.
For a community racially distinct from the Indian main-
stream, a sense of place comes from seeing north-east people
in the neighbourhood. Where they are physically present in
the public spaces, the character of these neighbourhoods
evolves. North-east businesses are starting to open in these
neighbourhoods: butchers, restaurants, DVD shops, clothes
shops, hairdressers. This gives a sense of permanence or at
the very least a longer term view of north-east migration to
the city. Along with this comes a sense of safety. Alongside
this sense of safety is a sense of belonging. Importantly, the
sense of belonging is not to Delhi itself, but to the localities
within Delhi, where a little piece of home is recreated. Home
is not recreated through material space – which barely
resembles anywhere in the north-east, even its most dense
urban areas – but through the lived experience of north-east
neighbourhoods.
Neighbourhoods also contain ancillary places – what
Friedmann refers to as “spaces of encounter”, that is public,
private, and semi-private places where people come together
and “the daily rituals of life are performed” (2007: 272). In
Humayanpur, for example, the market square is a vibrant
space of encounter. The space itself is not a square in a planned
sense; it is just an empty area. It is enclosed on one side by the
back of a school wall. On all other sides there are small shops
at the base of apartment buildings. Alleyways lead off the
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REVIEW OF URBAN AFFAIRS
square in different directions. Vendors peddle vegetables from
carts parked along the back of the school wall. Residents sit
around the square on low concrete walls of different heights,
plastic armchairs, and wooden stools. A few autorickshaws are
parked at the end of the only alleyway leading out to one of the
feeder roads. North-east migrants spend time hanging out in
the market square. It has become a meeting place, a place to
stop by on the way home or the way out, a place to gossip, to
kill time, to buy provisions, and to meet new arrivals from
home. At first glance there is very little to designate this as a
distinctly north-east place. There are usually a few north-
easterners buying vegetables, eating at the Bhutia restaurant,
or visiting the mobile phone shop. Yet as one becomes more
attuned to the rhythms of the neighbourhood it is clear that
the square is busiest at night when migrants return from work
and wait for friends, buying food, or using the internet cafes.
On Sundays the square fills with north-east migrants socialis-
ing after church, men in shirts and jackets and women in
dresses and high-heeled shoes. In the early mornings, migrants
meet in the square chatting with one another while they wait
for colleagues to join them before setting off for work at the
call centre. Once a group is assembled they walk to the main
road to wait for the bus to collect them to travel to Gurgaon
or Noida. A similar scene is repeated for the night shift work-
ers. In warm weather, migrants spent more and more time
outside, as flats are poorly ventilated and boiling hot, espe-
cially on the upper floors. Men wear short pants and women
wear short pants and skirts. During field research a number
of migrants said they would think carefully about wearing
these kinds of clothes outside the neighbourhood as they
would likely be harassed, but in this area they felt com-
fortable doing so.
(ii) Food: North-easterners cannot get by in Delhi without
access to food from home and because this food is so distinct
this involves skilled navigation of the city’s markets. North-
east food is far closer to food found in Burma, and in China
(Yunnan). Respondents would constantly mention the centra-
lity of food to their life in the city: lack of certain food is what
respondents missed most about home, being unable to get
food is what they hated most about Delhi, sharing food is
central to friendships, and being a Hmar, a Khasi, or a Nishi in
Delhi means being able to eat the food of home. Thus, know-
ing where to locate food is fundamental to north-east knowl-
edge of Delhi. Veterans of the city build this knowledge over
time and pass it on to newcomers. One of the enduring rites of
passage for young migrants in the city is learning where they
can find pork, beef, and bamboo shoots as well as the language
and bargaining skills to locate food.
North-east food is varied and it is important not to over-
look the core differences, particularly between the cuisine of
the valley areas and of the hill areas. However, it is equally
important to iterate that north-east food is very different
from food found in other parts of India – taking into account,
of course, the dramatic diversity within the country. To avoid
constant qualifiers, the general eating habits of migrants
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living in Delhi will be referred to in this section. Ahom and
Meitei migrants are exceptions to some of these habits, yet
Delhi is also full of “food rebels” from these communities
breaking taboos when they migrate. North-easterners eat a
lot of meat. Pork is common among all hill communities in
the region and among many Ahoms and Meiteis. Alongside
pork, an essential part of most cuisine is bamboo shoots, as
well as chilli, fermented fish, yam, garlic, and ginger. In
several hill areas, people eat dog, much to the consternation
of others in India and farther afield. Hunting is an important
part of village life, and thus all manner of wild animals are
included in the diet from time to time. Snails are also
widely eaten.
Central to the north-east map of Delhi is finding meat ven-
dors who can supply fresh pork, beef, and sometimes buff and
mutton. North-east migrants know the Malayali-speaking
pork vendors in the Indian National Army (INA) market, the
beef vendors in Nizauddin, and the other north-easterners
selling meat from small shops with giant freezers in Munirka
or Humayanpur. For many migrants, being able to navigate
through these different negotiations and transactions is an
immense source of pride. Travelling from one part of Delhi to
another, entering neighbourhoods, bargaining in Hindi, and
calling friends on the phone to inform them of where to find
the freshest meat on a particular day is important to demon-
strating knowledge of Delhi’s diversity. As Zana, a 25-year-old
male migrant from Nagaland noted, “You see, most people
don’t know you can get all these things in Delhi. But we tribals,
we have to know.”
As migration has increased, there are several restaurants
serving north-east food in Delhi run by migrants. None of
these would classify as fine dining; most are a few plastic
tables in a small shop. There are a few exceptions like the
“Naga Kitchen” in Green Park and a few of the more expensive
Himalayan-themed restaurants. North-east migrants also
know where to get Korean, Japanese, and Tibetan food. Many
of these places employ north-east migrants and this helps
them to locate them in the first instance. As eating out is
relatively expensive, cooking is important. In north-east
neighbourhoods where housing is crowded and the living
areas are labyrinthine, neighbours get to know each other
quickly and often this begins by sharing food, cooking space,
and recipes.
(iii) Religion: Discussing religion among north-east migrants
encounters problems similar to food choices. All major reli-
gions are practised in the north-east along with indigenous
faiths, some of which are practised in tandem with major reli-
gions. In the hills, religion is not necessarily simple, but most
communities in the hills have been at least partially converted
to Christianity over the last century and a half (Brekke 2006;
Thong 2010). The notable exceptions are Arunachal Pradesh,
where different tribal and ethnic communities follow different
faiths including indigenous faiths – most notably donyi-polo,2
and Mahayana Buddhism – and Sikkim, where Hinduism,
Buddhism, and Christianity coexist and in some cases overlap.
74
In the valleys, all major religions are practised, though among
the Ahoms and Meiteis Vaishnavite Hinduism is more promi-
nent. Christianity is making headway among the Meitei along
with a revivalist movement of Sanamahism and the persis-
tence of lai worship.3
The north-east map of Delhi contains places where faith is
practised and religion serves social and welfare functions.
There are scores of these places around the city. Most promi-
nent against the backdrop of Delhi are churches. The size and
membership of churches varies incredibly. Large churches
function in very similar ways to churches in the north-east.
The services can be fairly conservative, established denomi-
nations have their own premises (sometimes engulfing large
parts of city blocks), and services are held in north-east
languages and thus cater to a specific ethnic or tribal commu-
nity. Ministers in these churches are usually sent from the
north-east, and the increase in migration makes Delhi an
important extension of home congregations to be supported
and watched over.
This is in contrast to the many small churches operating
throughout the north-east neighbourhoods of Delhi and close
to the university campuses. Their services are held in existing
churches shared by other communities, in schools, in commu-
nity halls, and in rented rooms. Many of these small churches
represent denominations less established in the north-east.
Some of these churches started as breakaway churches from
larger entities and in some cases from other small entities.
Some of these new churches hold services in English. This
gives them a pan-north-east congregation and also attracts
other Christians in Delhi – most notably African migrants,
dalits, Nepali Christians, and Christians from Burma (mostly
Chin, Kachin, and Karen refugees). The “new” churches are
the antithesis of the established churches and are chara-
cterised by casual clothes, younger preachers, live rock music,
and lots of social events.
Another place-making phenomenon of note is the launch of
new churches for small ethnic and tribal communities in
Delhi. In 2011, the Mara community, a tribal group in Mizoram
and across the border in Burma numbering about 1,00,000
people in total, opened the Mara Evangelical Church in west
Delhi with a congregation of between 150 and 200 members,
including Mara from India and from Burma. For small ethnic
and tribal communities, making their own space for worship is
an important part of establishing themselves as a distinct
group in Delhi. They are also places where communities
divided by international and internal borders join one another
in a new place.
Places of worship dot the Delhi landscape with small spaces
that are (almost) wholly north-eastern. They enliven a sense of
belonging and an untethered link to home. As spaces of
encounter, places of worship help to reinforce north-east iden-
tities, as with the Mara church, and fashion new ones, as with
the pan-north-east evangelical churches held in basements in
Moti Bagh.
Alongside spirituality, these places of worship are also sites
for networking and support. The role of religious communities
july 28, 2012 vol xlviI no 30 EPW Economic & Political Weekly

among migrant and diaspora communities is well studied and
understood. Religious communities help newcomers find
work, housing and contacts. As most north-eastern migrants
come to Delhi without their parents, religious communities
provide support for migrants when they are sick, when they
have been subject to violence, when they have financial diffi-
culties, and when there are problems back home. Respond-
ents related incidents where churches helped raise money
for surgical operations, emergency housing in the case of
domestic violence, alcohol rehabilitation, post-traumatic
stress counselling, and for funerals back home. As few mi-
grants are members of labour unions and personal insurance
is still a new concept in India, religious communities provide
a pool of resources, albeit often stretched thin, that enable
migrants to endure unexpected events in Delhi and back
home. Religious communities also provide moral guidance
and in many cases moral policing – though not always wel-
comed by migrants.
(iv) Protest: Given the divisiveness of politics back home,
many migrants actively avoid engaging in politics, while
others are politicised during their time in Delhi. In fact being
in Delhi allows divisive politics of home to be tempered, allows
solidarity among north-easterners to be articulated, and most
importantly, allows Indian citizenship to be enacted by mak-
ing claims on national, state, and city governments. Protests
capture the moments when migrants step out of small dis-
tinct places and make claims in the less bounded spaces of
Delhi’s public sphere. Protests by them in Delhi are becoming
more common, suggesting a growing level of confidence
among migrants in voicing their discontent and advocating
for justice.
Most tribal and ethnic communities have their own associa-
tions in Delhi. For example, Mizos have the Mizo Student
Union Delhi, the Mizo Welfare Association, and the Mizo
Christian Fellowship. Some of these associations are branches
of larger associations from back home. Some migrants are
members or associates of larger apex groups, such as the Naga
Students’ Union Delhi, and then of smaller groups around
their tribal affiliation, such as the Zeliangrong Welfare Asso-
ciation Delhi. These associations carry out important func-
tions. They host political leaders from back home when they
visit Delhi, organise festivals and rituals, underpin support
networks for migrants, and they mobilise migrants to protest.
Two issues create solidarity among north-east migrants:
opposition to the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA)
1958 and opposition to racism and violence in Delhi. Anti-
AFSPA protests are held several times a year, usually following
an incident in the north-east or a political deliberation in
Delhi over the Act. Irom Sharmila, a peace activist from
Manipur who has been on a hunger strike in protest over the
AFSPA for over 10 years, has become a leading symbol in the
protests. In April 2011, a protest organised by the North East
Students’ Organisation – itself a reflection of north-east soli-
darity – featured huge banners of Irom’s face and protestors
covered their mouths with black cloth. The protest included
Economic & Political Weekly EPW july 28, 2012 vol xlviI no 30
REVIEW OF URBAN AFFAIRS
members from across the north-east community in Delhi
including members of tribal groups from Arunachal Pradesh
and parts of Meghalaya who have had little direct experience
of the Act. This is different from protests in the north-east
that are usually contained in one location and feature only
members of a particular community. This is reconfigured in
Delhi and reveals an emergent pan-north-east solidarity.
This identity is territorialised in a broader way. For migrants,
the AFSPA is a draconian law used against their region, not
just their tribe or ethnic group. Individuals will protest
against the AFSPA even when it does not affect their particular
home area or tribe, but because it affects some part of the
north-east.
Another example is unity in the face of racism and violence.
Respondents often discussed the ways racism brought them
together. Chen, a student from Arunachal Pradesh, summed it
up nicely by saying, “North-east people don’t bond so much.
But if you get a Nishi, a Khasi, and a Mizo in a room, all you
have to do is talk about racism. We all experience it every day.
It will get us together.” Nani, also from Arunachal Pradesh,
made a similar point. She said few things bring north-east
migrants together, “but if there is violence, especially rapes,
then we will all come and protest. Our student unions usually
organise it. They link with each other.” A recent protest of note
came following the gang rape of a Mizo woman at gunpoint in
November 2010. Up to 2,000 people are reported to have
marched, led by members of Mizo associations and church
groups and supported by the north-east community in Delhi.
The woman was attacked after being dropped off in a north-
east neighbourhood by the service vehicle from her workplace,
suggesting that the culprits were monitoring north-east locali-
ties looking for women returning home late at night. The
police handling of the incident and the failure of the call cen-
tre to take responsibility for ensuring the safety of workers
increased anger among migrants in Delhi. The suspected mur-
der of Loitam Richard, a migrant from Manipur, in Bangalore
in April 2012 led to protests in Indian cities and back in the
north-east, including large protests in Delhi organised by dif-
ferent north-east groups. Unlike protests around the AFSPA
that are about what happens back home, protests around
racism and violence are in response to what happens in Delhi.
This enhances a sense of place and belonging for migrants by
publicly demonstrating discontent and calling on city autho-
rities to take action, articulating legitimacy and claims to
equal treatment in the city.
Place, Identity, Cosmopolitanism
Much of the place-making activity by north-east migrants in
Delhi enables the articulation of both identities from home
and a kind of cosmopolitanism. Cosmopolitanism is an impor-
tant part of ethnic identity in the north-east, especially in
urban areas. Yet in Delhi, away from the frontier, cosmopolita-
nism takes on additional significance as a way of differentiat-
ing from the Indian mainstream and contesting archaic stereo-
types. North-east migrants demonstrate a number of cosmo-
politan influences in what they consume, what they reproduce,
75
REVIEW OF URBAN AFFAIRS
and what they relate to. Rather than a place-less universalism,
North-easterners express a cosmopolitanism captured in a
dual process of cultural enclosure as well as openness to
worldly – and explicitly un-Indian – cultural influences
(Darieva 2011). Cosmopolitanism helps to refute the backward
frontier dweller stereotypes and allows for a north-east
identity capable of incorporating global influences. Although
stereotyped as marginal and “backward”, north-easterners
are linked to global networks in ways that bypass the rest of
India. Here I am not just referring to cross-border networks
between communities in the north-east and their kin across
international borders but to connections beyond the frontier to
global subcultures.
North-easterners revel in their reputation for fashion and
music. North-eastern performers have fared successfully in
national music competitions, including Indian Idol (Prashant
Tamang from Darjeeling won in 2007, Sourabhee Debbarma
from Tripura won in 2009, and Amit Paul from Meghalaya was
a runner up in 2007) and the Naga band Divine Intervention
won MTV India’s Rock On 2010 competition – notably singing
in Hindi. These successes are drawn from a rich culture of
rock, rap, and punk music in the north-east, developed
through decades of rejecting Indian popular music and Bolly-
wood (Akoijam 2010). Fashion too connects north-easterners
to worlds beyond India. “If you are trying to spot the next hot
trend, head to the north-east. Forget the metros, street fashion
76
is born in Shillong, Kohima, and Imphal” (Banan 2010). This
quote opens a feature story on north-east fashion in Tehelka
magazine. Later the author adds that fashion trends “hit Gang-
tok, Shillong, Imphal, and Kohima before they hit mainland
India”. Add to this reputation the very visible presence of
north-east men and women in fashion boutiques, spas, and
restaurants in cities throughout India and it is evident that
there is a transformation of the subjectivity of ethnic and tribal
communities underway. The portrayal of fashionistas and
rock stars jar with the half-naked tribesman floating down the
river on a bamboo raft from the Incredible India commercials.
Paradoxically north-east migrants are scrutinised for the ways
they dress. Their style is coveted yet also used against them in
claims that they invite harassment and violence. It constructs
a separate moral order; because of the way they dress, north-
east people are subject to stereotypes about their lifestyles,
sexuality, and decency. Yet in neo-liberal Delhi being consid-
ered stylish also helps them find jobs.
Korean popular culture is phenomenally popular in the
north-east and among north-east migrants. The so-called
“Korean Wave” refers to the production and export of Korean
culture – mostly film, television, and pop music – and its phe-
nomenal reception in other parts of Asia (Dator and Seo 2004).
The Korean Wave is a crucial element of the cosmopolitan
identity of north-easterners. It is the preferred cultural refer-
ence point for north-easterners and it orients social life,
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 REVIEW OF URBAN AFFAIRS

aspirations, and desires away from India to east Asia. In the
second half of the 2000s, Korean popular culture had taken
such a hold in the north-east that fan clubs were established
in Kohima and Imphal, posters and other paraphernalia
adorned the walls of houses in towns and villages, and
Korean language courses were being taught in schools and
privately. Young people throughout the region started sport-
ing Korean hairstyles, makeup, and fashion. Korean films
and serials were indispensible to both the young and the old.
At the Hornbill Festival, the Flagship Festival in Nagaland
that attracts tourists from all over the world, there is a
Korean Pavilion where Korean bands perform and where
other exhibitions of Korean culture take place, including a
Korea-Naga wrestling match in 2010. This popularity has
opened the door for Korean Christian missionary activity in
the north-east; evident throughout the region.
Knowledge and consumption of Korean popular culture is
part of being a north-east youth. The rejection of mainstream
film and television is not just aesthetic but bound up in ques-
tions of identity. In Delhi, recreating small pieces of home
involves shared consumption of Korean popular culture.
There are Korean movie vendors in north-east neighbour-
hoods, and migrants also download movies through their
computers and trade them with one another. Respondents
have a folkloric respect for those who watch an entire Korean
drama series in one sitting or over a weekend, and word of
such heroism travelled fast. Consumption of Korean culture
does not stop with movies. Style is crucial. In Delhi, north-
east migrants have started Korean-themed hair salons and
they work as wait staff in Korean restaurants, usually for
Korean owners who prefer north-east staff for their know-
ledge of Korean culture.
As cosmopolitans, north-easterners act in ways that are un-
expected – neither the backward stereotypes nor the sympa-
thetic construction of the north-east victim are able to account
for what it means to be a north-easterner in contemporary
India. This is not strictly an urban phenomenon. Cosmopolitan
identities are exercised back home in the frontier too, in both
towns and villages. Yet it is in India’s cities that the cosmopoli-
tanism takes on new meaning as a way to draw upon external
influences to emphasise difference from the Indian main-
stream while at the same time enforcing ethnic, tribal, and
pan-north-east elements of identity. For an older generation
of, their difference was emphasised by drawing on traditions
from agrarian practices and communities, rebellion against
state control, and folklore. For younger generations, their
difference is emphasised through an even more complex
milieu of global influences, resilient and reconstructed ele-
ments of traditions, separatist identities from growing up in an
era of conflict, and a much deeper awareness of India than
their parents and grandparents. Awareness of India does not
necessarily lead to acceptance but to more frequent encoun-
ters between frontier dwellers and the heartlands and more
adept negotiation and navigation of these encounters.
Indeed, migration from a frontier where the very legitimacy
of the Indian state is questioned to the seat of power of the
same state seems paradoxical; yet more north-easterners
than ever before are migrating. Evidently, being in Delhi no
longer involves a compromise of what it means to be a Karbi,
a Meitei, or a Naga.

Notes
1 A Konyak Naga festival.
2 Donyi-polo is an indigenous faith practised
among several tribes in Arunachal Pradesh. It
revolves around worship of the sun and moon.
3 Sanamahism is the pre-Vaishnavite faith of the
Meitei. It has very localised forms but essen-
tially is the worship of Sanamahi, the creator.
Lai are different deities that take male and
female forms. Often their worship is accommo-
dated within Vaishnavism (Parratt and Parrat
1997).
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