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Beyond the 'Exclusionary City': North-east Migrants in Neo-liberal Delhi Duncan McDuie-Ra Urban Stud 2013 50: 1625 originally published online 16 November 2012 DOI: 10.1177/0042098012465126

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Beyond the ‘Exclusionary City’: North-east Migrants in Neo-liberal Delhi

Duncan McDuie-Ra

[Paper first received, July 2011; in final form, August 2012]

Abstract Scholars have noted the ways in which Delhi’s transformation into a global city has enclosed urban spaces excluding the urban poor, labourers and migrants. One of the neglected aspects of this focus is the way in which Delhi’s transformation has created new opportunities for migrants from north-east India. This article is an ethno- graphic account of migrants from the north-east in Delhi. It is argued that employ- ment opportunities in the neo-liberal spaces of the global city are fuelling a rapid increase in migration from the north-east, the very limit of India’s geographical and cultural imaginary. Outside these spaces of economic inclusion, north-east migrants continue to live as exceptional citizens and experience racism, discrimination and violence. The experiences of north-east migrants in Delhi suggest that the exclusion- ary city narrative is an incomplete view of urban change in India, and reveal how neo-liberal transformation is connecting heartland cities to frontier regions in ways previously unimagined.

Introduction India’s embrace of neo-liberalism has had a groups. One such group are migrants from profound impact on urban areas. The drive north-east India—the very limit of India’s to transform Delhi into a global city has been geographical and cultural imaginary. This critiqued for reorganising, sanitising and article is an ethnographic account of migrants enclosing urban spaces, excluding the urban from the north-east in Delhi. Migration from poor, labourers and migrants (see Baviskar, the north-east to Delhi has increased drama- 2003; Chaplin, 2011; Dupont, 2011; Rao, tically in the past half-decade. I argue that the 2010). One of the neglected aspects of this experiences of north-east migrants in Delhi focus on exclusion is the ways in which the suggest that the exclusionary city narrative is new spaces created by Delhi’s transformation an incomplete view of urban change in India. have created new opportunities for different The so-called neo-liberal transformation of

Duncan McDuie-Ra is in the School of Social Sciences and International Studies, University of New South Wales, Morven Brown Building, NSW 2052, Australia. E-mail: [email protected].

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Delhi has created jobs in retail, hospitality Initially, I attempted to conduct formal and call centres—employment coveted by interviews; however, most north-east migrants north-east migrants. Further, employers in were uncomfortable with this method and these sectors desire migrant labour from the many said that they did not have anything north-east in particular, targeting their dis- important to say. Respondents were much tinct appearance and their English language more open to informal conversations. I had skills. These changes link the north-east fron- conversations with north-east migrants every- tier to India’s heartland cities in ways that day for almost three months and during a were unimaginable a generation ago. Despite shorter follow-up visit. Some of these conver- these opportunities, north-east migrants sations were brief. On a university campus, I experience a number of challenges in Delhi, would meet a north-east migrant and ask some of which mirror the experiences of where they are from, what they are doing in other migrants and others that are particular Delhi and how they find it. That could take a to ethnic minorities from the north-east. few minutes and we might never meet again. These challenges are less a product of the Other migrants I saw almost every day. In neo-liberal spaces of the city and more a rem- north-east neighbourhoods, we would talk nant of embedded stereotypes towards ethnic while passing in the street, while cooking, or and tribal communities from the north-east when I went to their flat in the evenings and frontier. thus, after three months,weendeduptalking This article is the result of ethnographic for many hours. There were all manner of fieldwork carried out in Delhi from interactions in between these extremes. All of December 2010 to February 2011 and again the respondents mentioned in this article have in December 2011. It also builds upon been given pseudonyms. eight years of ethnographic research in the This article has four sections. The first north-east itself. Delhi was chosen because section reviews the ‘exclusionary city’ nar- it has the largest community of north-east rative present in critical accounts of Delhi’s migrants and the migrant community is neo-liberal transformation. The second sec- more diverse in terms of its ethnic and tion discusses push and pull factors leading socioeconomic origins. Ethnographic field- north-east migrants to Delhi. The third sec- work was conducted with migrants from all tion analyses the challenges faced by north- parts of the north-east, but was more con- east migrants in Delhi. The concluding sec- centrated among migrants from the states tion discusses the ways in which north-east of Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Mizoram migration complicates the ‘exclusionary and Nagaland. This is partially explained by city’ narrative and suggests new ways of higher numbers of migrants from these thinking about the links between frontier states and because I began with contacts and heartland. from these states and through snowball sampling I met other members of their net- The Exclusionary City works predicated on family, clan and ethnic ties. During fieldwork, I lived in a north- The liberalisation of India’s economy from east migrant neighbourhood, Humayanpur, the late 1980s (officially since 1991) has trans- in south Delhi. I conducted interviews and formed urban areas through the privatisation conversations with north-east migrants and enclosure of urban spaces, the creation of throughout the city in places where they investment-friendly infrastructure and the live, work and study. partial privatisation of governance and welfare

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(Bavsikar, 2003; Chaplin, 2011; Lama-Rewal, Plan for Delhi 2021, released in 2007 2011). David Harvey defines neo-liberalism as (Dupont, 2011, p. 533). The global city aspiration has necessi- a theory of political-economic practices that tated a shift in urban logic. Construction proposes that human well-being can be best that is ‘planned’ is afforded legitimacy, advanced by liberating individual entrepre- whereas construction that is ‘unplanned’ neurial freedoms and skills within an institu- can be deemed illegitimate and subject to tional framework characterized by strong demolition (Ghertner, 2011). Bhan (2009, private property rights, free markets, and p. 128) estimates that 45 000 homes in free trade (Harvey, 2005, p. 2). Delhi were demolished between 2004 and 2007, reflecting a shift in ‘‘how the urban Neo-liberalism is regularly identified at the poor in India are represented, governed and heart of India’s urban transformation, judged’’ (p. 131). Bhan argues that the rights although in the literature neo-liberalism is of Delhi’s poor are eroded by the targeting often used interchangeably with liberalisa- of ‘encroachers’, seen as improper citizens tion to describe the same phenomena. of the city (p.139). The poor, including the Neo-liberalism takes on a variety of working poor, are seen as threats to the sani- national and sub-national forms. In the case tised spaces of the global city. Key to this of India this has necessitated a shift from the rationale is the creation of exclusionary role of the state as provider under Nehruvian spaces: gated neighbourhoods, restricted- socialism, to the role of the state as a cham- entry shopping malls and restricted-entry pion for private investment and market parks and green spaces. Waldrop argues that penetration. The role of the state in this pro- such spaces reflect anxiety derived from the cess is varied at the federal and local levels, perceived crumbling of old caste and class and in different sectors of the economy and boundaries and the need to ‘‘re-establish a society (Gupta and Sivaramakrishnan, 2011). sense of order’’ (Waldrop, 2004, p. 99). Transformation is constant in urban India Fernandes calls this ‘‘the spatial reconfigura- and, as Gooptu (2011) warns, many of the tion of class inequalities’’ part of a larger processes attributed to neo-liberalism are phenomenon of the ‘‘politics of forgetting’’ not necessarily unique to the past two wherein ‘‘marginalized social groups are decades but take on a distinctive character rendered invisible and forgotten within the under neo-liberalism. For Gooptu (2011, p. dominant national political culture’’ 38) distinctiveness can be seen in the cre- (Fernandes, 2004, p. 2416). ation of ‘entrepreneurial cities’ to trigger Citizen participation in the city’s gov- economic growth, with dramatic conse- ernance is altering the locus of political quences for the reorganisation of urban power. The most notable change is the space and the capture of urban politics by Bhagidari initiative, begun in 2000, which the middle classes. Neo-liberal transforma- formalises citizen–government partnership tion in Delhi is partial and diverse spaces co- and deliberation on local issues through exist and overlap; it is what Kudva (2009, p. Residents Welfare Associations (RWAs). 1615) refers to as a ‘‘patchwork of deeply Critics of Bhagidari argue that RWAs have segregated localities’’. Attempts to transform become a vehicle for narrow middle-class the city are driven by the desire to fashion a interests, effectively hijacking the govern- ‘global city’, set out explicitly in the Delhi ance agenda and directly and indirectly Development Authority’s (DDA) Master affecting the urban poor (Chakrabarti,

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2009). Harriss (2005) argues that RWAs areas around two large river valleys, the promote an associational life that appeals Barak and Brahmaputra (Assam), and the to the middle classes, whereas the urban smaller Imphal valley (Manipur). A large poor are much more likely to address prob- proportion of the population traces their lems through political mediation. As linguistic heritage to Mon-Khmer, Tai and Kundu argues, RWAs are working in part- Tibeto-Burman peoples (Cordaux et al., nership with the DDA, the Delhi Police and 2004). Several of these groups are cate- the Municipal Corporation of Delhi to gorised as ‘Scheduled Tribes’ in India and ‘‘sanitise their neighbourhood by trying to make up the majority of the population in remove encroachments and petty commer- four out of eight of the federal states in the cial establishments’’ (Kundu, 2011, p. 24). region (Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, The end result is exclusion. Mizoram, Nagaland) and large minority Considering Harvey’s (2003) paradig- populations in the other four states. matic ruminations on the ‘right to city’ as Christianity, Animism and Buddhism are rights of access and rights to transform the common in the hill areas and Vaishnavite urban environment, Delhi is failing the poor Hinduism and Islam are more common in and migrants on both counts as urban space the valleys. is sanitised, pushing the poor further into Much of the region has been charac- the margins, and participation in increas- terised by armed insurgency and counter- ingly formalised local associations is cap- insurgency for the past six decades. tured by middle- and upper-class interests. Insurgent activity has been in the pursuit of Where do north-east migrants fit into this separatist demands and for ethnically exclu- picture? As will be seen, the neo-liberal sive homelands (Baruah, 2003). While transformation of Delhi is creating opportu- India contains diverse regions and peoples nities for north-east migrants in the spaces and a coherent national society is not of global capital. always identifiable, there is a distance between the north-east and the rest of India that is qualitatively different from that North-east Migrants in Delhi between other regions and peoples in India. Studies of urban exclusion have rarely There is a strong belief in both the Indian asked whether the neo-liberal transforma- ‘mainland’ and in the north-east that the tion of cities can include groups that have different states, autonomous units and peo- been historically marginalised or that have ples grouped together as ‘the north-east’ had little engagement with large cities. will never be able to be part of India in the North-east migrants are one such group. same ways as other diverse groups of peo- The north-east refers to the area of land ples have been accommodated. This belief between Bhutan, China, Myanmar and is enacted in the ways the region is gov- Bangladesh, which contains eight federal erned (Baruah, 2005). Exceptionalism states: Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, allows democracy to be suspended perma- Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, nently and the peoples of the region to be and Tripura. The region is almost com- under permanent surveillance. It also pletely cut off from the rest of India, joined means that laws, norms and government only by a narrow corridor of land between practices that would be unacceptable in the borders of and Bangladesh. The other parts of India are accepted and often region contains steep hill and mountain unchallenged (McDuie-Ra, 2009).

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Since the mid 2000s, more migrants come to Delhi in their 20s and migrate with- have been leaving the north-east than ever out their parents—although from fieldwork before, yet research into migration out of it is clear that there is an increase in families the north-east is scarce. Scholars have long migrating to Delhi together, especially from focused on migration into the region, from areas affected by armed conflict, such as other parts of India and neighbouring Manipur. countries, seen as fuelling ethno-nationalist During fieldwork, migrants gave a politics and insurgency (Bhaumik, 2009; number of reasons for leaving the north- Hazarika, 2000; Singh, 1987). Migration east including seeking refuge from conflict, from the north-east to Delhi has taken changing attitudes towards India and place since Indian Independence, yet given increased connectivity between the frontier the distance between the north-east and and the city. However, most migrants dis- Delhi most tribal migrants moving to cussed the availability of work in retail, urban areas chose towns in their own tribal hospitality and call centres as the primary areas or within the north-east region. reason. Job opportunities in the north-east Historically, those migrating outside the are limited by insurgency and by a number region went to cities much closer to the of associated difficulties such as corruption, frontier, including and in low levels of investment, capital flight and West Bengal. Those who travelled to Delhi the proliferation of illegal and semi-legal were there to learn the tools of the Indian economies. Alongside work, the opportu- bureaucracy and for tertiary education. nity to study outside the region is a major With the top universities in the country impetus for migration. The availability of and also the top preparatory courses for work means that migrants from the north- taking the Indian Administrative Services east can support themselves during study, (civil service) exams, Delhi attracted the or support family members to study. wealthy, connected and educated from the Education is sought after to gain an edge in north-east. This group of migrants contin- labour markets back in the north-east, ues to come to Delhi, but the dramatic especially in the public sector, and to meet growth of migrants from other back- changing aspirations and consumer desires. grounds in the past decade is most relevant Furthermore, as north-east migrants have to this article. begun to create a niche in certain labour As migration to Delhi is internal and as markets in cities, labour recruiters are tra- most tribal migrants do not own property or velling to the north-east to offer jobs in call a business, or vote in Delhi, their population centres, restaurants, hotels and spas. The is not accurately recorded. Recent survey following section focuses on the experi- data from the North East Support Centre ences of north-east migrants working in and Helpline put the number of north-east Delhi. migrants in Delhi at approximately 200 000 people and this accounts for 48.21 per cent of the total population of north-east migrants Economic Opportunities in Indian cities (NESCH, 2011, p. 10). The same report notes that the number of North-east migrants are conspicuous in two north-east migrants has increased 12 times main sectors of the urban economy broadly between2005and2011(p.10).However,the associated with Indian’s embrace of neo- scope of these data are limited and they are liberalism: new consumer spaces; and, call likely to be an underestimate. Most migrants centres.

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New Consumer Spaces make-up and lipstick. The masculinity of tribal men is less clearly defined, although In Delhi, new consumer spaces are typified in some stores their bodies are emphasised by up-market shopping malls resembling through dress projecting athleticism and other ubiquitous, though amorphous, street fashion sense. ‘Exotic’ facial features global spaces. This is not to say that they are emphasised by exotic dress. In some res- are bereft of national or local character, on taurants and spas, women were dressed in the contrary, global spaces in India have cheongsams, the tight-fitting Chinese eve- distinct characteristics (Mathur, 2010). As ning dress. In others, they wear a pastiche of Brosius’ study of consumerism in Delhi has East Asian clothing, although in other cases, shown, at the heart of India’s malls is the emphasising body shape is less important desire of the upper and aspiring middle than portraying exotica. In more expensive classes to ‘‘live abroad in India’’ (Brosius, Korean restaurants, I have met Naga wait- 2010, p. 65). It is in these spaces that many resses wearing hanbok, a flowing traditional north-east migrants find work. During dress that hides body shape. In an upscale fieldwork, I concentrated on three inter- Himalayan restaurant, they wear bakhu,a linked malls in Vasant Kunj, a suburb in Bhutia/Tibetan tunic with a long dress and south Delhi: the Ambience Mall, the DLF a silk honju (blouse) underneath. Many of Promenade and the DLF Emporio, mar- these women are not from the Himalayas, keted as Delhi’s ‘most exclusive’ malls with but from Manipur and Nagaland. The almost 300 stores. The malls are owned and highly orientalised labour force constructs a operated by the Indian firm DLF Ltd, a real space that is in Delhi but not of Delhi; per- estate firm described by Srivastava as using fect for ‘world-class’ aspirants of the middle construction projects in Delhi ‘‘for expres- classes. As Zana, a 23-year-old male migrant sions of numerous ideologies of modernity from Nagaland put it, ‘‘for Indians it is like and community life.’’ (Srivastava, 2009, p. going to Bangkok for shopping. We look 338) the same but some of us can speak Hindi’’. During fieldwork, I visited these malls Many respondents felt their race was uti- over 20 times at different times of the day lised to portray an exotic and/or global aes- and on different days of the week to con- thetic in these occupations. Some were verse with north-east migrants. I also met uncomfortable with this; others saw it as a north-east migrants working in these malls way to maintain an advantage over other job at other sites, including north-east neigh- seekers from elsewhere in India. North-east bourhoods and university campuses. migrants working in malls and restaurants North-east migrants find work in clothing expressed a number of reasons for pursuing stores, sports stores, spas and cosmetic this kind of employment. Some work in stores. They were especially well represented order to pay for their education, some for in stores that project a global brand image: their siblings’ education; some send their Adidas, Benetton, Esprit, Levis, Nike and earnings back home; some are working to Zara. In restaurants within shopping malls, stay in Delhi and seek refuge from conflict; north-east men and women worked as wait- and others work to set themselves up to ers/waitresses and as maıˆtres d’hoˆtel, as well travel abroad. Ben, a 19-year-old male from as in kitchens. Women are cast in highly Haflong, a town in the Cachar Hills district sexualised roles, particularly in fashion of Assam, worked as a concierge in one of the stores, restaurants and spas. The body is malls. He came to Delhi at age 17 to find emphasised in tight clothes, heavy eye work. After two years, he found his present

Downloaded from usj.sagepub.com at UNSW Library on August 5, 2014 NORTH-EAST MIGRANTS IN DELHI 1631 job at the mall after working in a restaurant among tribal migrants that life back at kitchen. Dressed in a bellhop’s outfit, his home cannot fulfil and she worries that few main duties were to give directions to consu- will return. Zana from Nagaland argued mers and to tell people not to take photo- that north-easterners work in these malls graphs inside. He found the job boring, but but cannot afford to shop there, so they are liked working in enclosed space away from becoming viewed as a race of shop assis- the dust, the rain, the cold winter and the tants and waiters. This makes it easier for hot summer. He wants to go back home but them to get work in these types of jobs, but he is not sure what he would do there, so for harder for them to be taken seriously in now he stays. Chon, a woman from the Naga other professions or in their studies. areas of Manipur, works in a global chain Yet not all respondents see their conspic- restaurant inside a mall. She came to Delhi uous representation in these jobs as solely at age 18 to work and had been there for two based on race. Many respondents pointed years. She got her present job through her out that employment in clothing stores is flatmate, also from Manipur, and she had related to the reputation north-easterners since secured jobs for other friends. During have for fashion. In fact, a key component one of my visits to the restaurant, all the of ethnic and pan-north-east identities is friends were working a shift together, speak- fashion sense. Reflective of this view, in a ing in Thangkhul dialect in front of obliv- feature article in the Delhi-issued ious diners. Chon found the work fine, but Motherland magazine entitled ‘Paris, Milan, as the restaurant closed after midnight she Dimapur’ (a city in Nagaland), the author did not like travelling home late. She misses discusses the ways in which rejection of Manipur but feels better off than she would Indian dress, openness to Western, Korean be back home. and Japanese styles, and access to goods For some migrants, working in malls was made in South-east Asia have converged better than their previous jobs in Delhi and among north-east youth, giving them a back home; they were paid more, it was reputation as ‘fashion obsessed’ and ahead clean and quiet, they were shielded from of the rest of India in cutting-edge style harassment and several respondents were (Merelli, 2011, pp. 21–23). Fashion blogs proud to work in such a ‘fancy’ place. A few by north-easterners abound, as do fashion respondents mentioned that the clientele in magazines published in various north-east the malls were easier to deal with than in languages, such as Lunglen, a glossy Mizo other shops and restaurants they had fashion monthly. Fashion shows, beauty worked in previously. Others seemed con- contests and local versions of American Idol scious of their disproportionate representa- (Manipur Idol, Mizo Idol and Naga Idol) tion in malls as opposed to any other areas have become staples of life in the frontier. of life in Delhi. However, the most criti- North-eastern performers have also fared cisms of mall labour came from north-east well in national music competitions, migrants who were not working in malls including (Prashant Tamang but witnessing the phenomenon through from won in 2007; Sourabhee friends, relatives and neighbours. Achi, a Debbarma from Tripura won in 2009; and woman from Manipur working as a profes- Amit Paul from Meghalaya was a runner- sional in Delhi for 10 years, commented up in 2007); and the Naga band Divine that north-east migrants have come to be Intervention won MTV India’s Rock On servants of the ‘‘wealthy and sophisticated’’. 2010 competition. Add this to the presence She said that this is creating aspirations of north-east men and women in fashion

Downloaded from usj.sagepub.com at UNSW Library on August 5, 2014 1632 DUNCAN MCDUIE-RA boutiques, spas and restaurants in cities ‘‘de-Indianise’’ the accents and personalities throughout India and it appears that ethnic of the labour force (Taylor and Bain, 2005, subjectivity is being re-placed in a new p. 278). Mirchandani’s (2004) research in space. The portrayal of the fashionable and Delhi’s call centres serving North American urbane north-easterner is a notable shift voice-to-voice clients is instructive. Workers from the exotic pre-modern frontier- are trained to ‘neutralise’ their accents and dweller or the violent separatist bent on call monitoring, scripting, and ‘locational destroying India (see Kikon, 2009). masking’, as in hiding the fact that the call centre worker is located in India, are all cru- Call Centres cial components of call centre work. This has advantages for north-east migrants. The neo-liberal transformation of Delhi has Most north-easterners from the hill areas resulted in a shift from manufacturing and attend English medium schooling and lit- heavy industry to the services sector. In eracy rates in hill areas are very high response to pressure to ‘clean up’ the city (Government of India, 2002). English is the in the 1980s and 1990s, coming from what lingua franca between different ethnic Baviskar (2003) refers to as the diffusion of groups. There are other factors affecting lan- ‘bourgeois environmentalism’ among the guage in different parts of the north-east: for middle and upper classes, the Supreme example, Hindi is banned in Manipur as a Court ordered the relocation of polluting result of ethno-nationalist campaigns to industries outside residential areas restore Meitei language and resist Indian (Rosencranz and Jackson, 2003). This was domination. As a result, most north- followed by the pursuit of foreign invest- easterners do not have typically Indian- ment in the services sector and the power- accented English. Like most junior call ful DDA has worked to appropriate land centre workers, the bulk of north-east and make it available to developers court- migrants are unmarried and in their 20s. ing foreign capital. As Dupont demon- Most do not have children or have left their strates, Delhi ranked first in cumulative children with relatives back home. This foreign direct investment flows in India makes them able to work shifts timed to from 2000 to 2005 (Dupont, 2011, pp. serve Australian, European and North 540–541). Investment has benefitted the American business hours. Thus, north-east services sector, especially special economic migrants have become desirable as a ‘flex- zones. Delhi and the National Capital ible’ and well-qualified workforce for the Territory area have had 72 such zones burgeoning call centre industry. approved since 2005 and these are concen- As familiarity with the industry has trated in Gurgaon and Noida, satellite cities grown, north-easterners have begun migrat- that have stretched the reach of the Delhi ing to Delhi solely to work in call centres. government into neighbouring states Call centres recruit in the north-east neigh- (Dupont, 2011, p. 541). Gurgaon and bourhoods in Delhi. One advertisement I Noida are the home of Delhi’s call centres, spotted in Munirka, a neighbourhood pop- which depend upon access to a relatively ular with north-east migrants, asked for low-cost labour force and one that is well ‘‘150 telli-callers’’ for work calling ‘‘UK and educated and fluent in English (Taylor and US’’, and requests applicants from ‘‘Nort- Bain, 2005). East Peopel’’ (sic). Call centre recruitment Literature on call centres in India agencies travel to the north-east recruiting has identified the various tactics adopted to high school and college graduates. Mina, a

Downloaded from usj.sagepub.com at UNSW Library on August 5, 2014 NORTH-EAST MIGRANTS IN DELHI 1633 postgraduate student from Sikkim, remem- was not conflict that kept him away, but the bered the visit of recruiting agencies to her sense that there were few ways to earn a high school in the mid 2000s. The recruiters living in Nagaland. Stephen admitted he had told the students they could work for for- no connections back home. He did not eign companies and earn a good salary. come from a family with any ‘big men’ or They showed pictures of the call centre in MLAs (members of the legislative assembly). new office buildings in Noida. She added He pointed out that, even if he could find a that it looked so different from home where job, he would not earn enough and he would offices were in run-down old government have to pay money to the different armed buildings, and the idea of working for a for- groups and extortionists. Unless he was pre- eign company opened the possibility of pared to be corrupt, he would not be able to eventually going abroad. survive in the Nagaland economy; this is a According to respondents, finding work sentiment that other respondents expressed in call centres is relatively easy for north- about other states in the north-east. For east migrants. I met respondents who had him, work in Delhi did not have these same taken full-time work in call centres after complexities. When you found a job, you dropping out of university. Others were worked hard and you were paid. Of course, trying to get a job after university to tide north-east migrants do get exploited in the them over until they could break into their workplace; they get summarily dismissed, preferred field. Others had gone back home they have pay withheld, they are refused and found it difficult to adjust, then leave, etc. Yet compared with some of the returned to Delhi with no real plan and challenges of making a living at home these eventually took up call centre work. Others can be minor concerns. stayed working in call centres to avoid having to go home, especially to areas of conflict. Stephen, a 25-year-old from Challenges of Delhi Nagaland, left home at 18 to study hospi- Economic inclusion in the spaces created tality in Chandigarh, the capital of Punjab by neo-liberalism draws migrants from all and Haryana. He got a job in an Indian over the frontier to Delhi. However, outside cafe´ chain and was placed in different cities the enclosed spaces of malls and call cen- working as a barista. After a few years he tres, north-east migrants face a number of was tired of moving around so he decided challenges in their everyday lives in the city: to come to Delhi so that he could earn a racism; discrimination; and harassment. living but also live with other Nagas. These challenges can mirror those faced by Through friends, he got a job in a call other migrants to Delhi, although respon- centre. Stephen worked his way up quickly dents iterate that their negative experiences and switched companies a few times until of the city are particular, owing to their he got a job in the finance department. He position on the edge of India’s geographical put his rise down to working hard and not and cultural imaginary, and their racial dif- cheating his employers—attributes that he ferentiation from the Indian mainstream. felt explained the success of north-east migrants in call centres. Racism Despite his success in Delhi, Stephen did not want to work in call centres much longer For north-east migrants, racism characterises and was eager to go back to Nagaland. their experience of Delhi. North-east migrants, However, he thinks this will be difficult. It particularly those with Mon-Khmer, Tai or

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Tibeto-Burman roots, are judged based on cast as backward and exotic; this is particu- ascriptive notions derived from their physical larly true for tribal communities. Colonial- features. North-east migrants look different era classifications have been reproduced in from the other peoples inhabiting Delhi, the systems of governing the north-east making it ‘‘difficult for them to escape from region in contemporary India (Barbora, their ethnic identity if they wish to’’ (Eriksen, 2008; van Schendel, 2002; Zou and Kumar, 2002, p. 6). India contains many communities 2011) and in popular representations of tri- earmarked as ‘others’ based on religion, caste bals in museums, tourism campaigns, guide- and even ethnicity, yet the nationality of these books, schoolbooks and national parades communities is not under continued suspi- (Kikon, 2009; Patil, 2011). In almost all of cion. Many of them can ‘blend in’ to the heart- these cases, tribals are represented using the land in ways that north-east migrants cannot. three ‘un’ myths discussed by Echtner and This is not to argue that these ‘others’ do not Prasad (2003): ‘unchanged’, ‘unrestrained’ face discrimination and violence, but instead and ‘uncivilised’. Secondly, they are cast as to contend that the experiences of north-east anti-national. Reporting on violence and migrants are distinct and reveal certain ele- ‘terrorism’ in the north-east is one of the few ments of contemporary Indian society other- times that the region and its people are men- wise obscured. tioned in the mainstream media (Hasan, For most respondents, racism in Delhi is 2004). This can create resentment of north- reflected in the epithet ‘chinky’. Respondents east migrants, especially those working, who found this term integral in their everyday are seen as taking jobs but not wanting to be engagement with the city’s inhabitants. part of India. Thirdly, they are cast as Respondents reported hearing the term immoral. This affects north-east women and called out in public places, in negotiations in men in different ways. North-east women shops and for transport, and used by col- are cast as loose in morals and sexually pro- leagues or classmates. Most respondents miscuous. North-east women work in found the term to be deeply racist and hostile. highly visible occupations where their sexu- Chen, a student from Arunachal Pradesh, ality is emphasised; they live in shared said that virtually every group in India went houses; most are not yet married; they move by at least one colloquial name, but they did about the city for work without male cha- not face the same treatment as north-easter- perons, almost always on public transport; ners. He gave the example of Bengali speak- those who work have some financial inde- ers. He pointed out that there are many pendence (subjecting them to speculation stereotypes about Bengalis, but no one runs that they achieved this independence across the street to call names in their faces as through ‘immoral’ means). North-eastern they do to north-easterners. men are also subject to some of the loose Epithets matter because they reflect and immoral assumptions, but are also cast deeply embedded stereotypes about north- as heavy drinkers, unpredictable and prone east women and men. Stereotypes are not to violence. always negative and have enabled the growth of the labour niche for north-easterners, yet Discrimination north-east women and men have very little control over the ways they are perceived, Discrimination is felt most strongly in the whether the impacts of these perceptions are housing market. Exploitation in the housing positive or negative. North-easterners are market happens to other migrants new to

Downloaded from usj.sagepub.com at UNSW Library on August 5, 2014 NORTH-EAST MIGRANTS IN DELHI 1635 the city. However, there is the perception taps, pipes, lights, heaters, holes and vermin among north-easterners that they experi- problems. ence it at far greater levels and for reasons The stereotype of the immoral north- that are particular to their race. Most north- easterner is used by housing agents and east migrants prefer to live with people from landlords to justify higher rents. Often this back home in areas like Shanti Niketan, is stated to tenants explicitly and several Safdarjang Enclave, Green Park, South respondents were told that, because they Extension I and other areas like Murnika want to live in mixed-sex flats, they must near Jawaharlal Nehru University and the pay more. It is common for north-easterners suburbs around G. T. B. Nagar Metro sta- to share housing and to stay with friends if tion close to Delhi University campus. they do not have anywhere else to stay. Housing for north-east migrants is expen- Many households have male and female sive. Respondents surveyed in January and tenants, sometimes in relationships with February 2011 were paying between 5500 each other, but usually they are friends or rupees (US$122) for a single room and 8500 members of the same tribe or clan back rupees (US$190) for what is called a 1 + 1 home. This fuels anxiety from some owners room (usually one big bedroom and a about the morality of north-east tenants. smaller room with a kitchenette) per month. Landlords also use food as leverage. Bamboo For migrants working in malls and call cen- shoots, the staple of cuisine in the hill areas, tres, this is between 40 and 80 per cent of akhuni a fermented soy paste common in their monthly income. For those not work- Naga cooking and fermented fish, are tar- ing, the cost of housing can be a major drain geted for their unfamiliar odours. Some on their families back home. respondents reported that this is used to There is an overwhelming feeling among drive up rental prices; landlords argue that, respondents that north-easterners pay far as north-easterners will be cooking smelly more for housing than other groups. Many food, landlords need to be compensated to north-east migrants arrive in Delhi with lim- offset complaints by other tenants. ited Hindi language skills and are in a poor Further, migrants feel that they have lim- bargaining position with housing agents and ited ways to redress this. If their landlord landlords. Respondents felt that landlords cheats them, they rarely take the issue to the pretended to misunderstand them to then authorities because they assume they will be take advantage of confusion and charge a on the losing end of the dispute. However, higher rent. One respondent complained of migrants have found ways to cope. North- his landlord installing a separate electricity easterners who do not speak Hindi will ask meter in his room and then demanding 2000 friends who do to deal with landlords. rupees (US$45) for electricity at the end of North-east males will deal with landlords on the month without ever presenting a bill. behalf of female tenants. There is also a There are stories of landlords raising the rent growing trend of passing housing onto with no warning, keeping advances but rent- friends or tribe and clan members when ing rooms to others, keeping their own keys leaving the city. As clusters of north-east to the flat and in two cases giving copies of migrants have developed in parts of Delhi, these keys to unknown persons, renting to landlords too have seen the value of being other tenants when migrants returned to the known as sympathetic to north-east life- north-east for short visits and refusing to styles. In Humayanpur and Munirka, there evict the new tenants unless the first renter are scores of small real estate agents operat- agreed to pay more, refusing to fix broken ing out of small shop-fronts, Internet shops

Downloaded from usj.sagepub.com at UNSW Library on August 5, 2014 1636 DUNCAN MCDUIE-RA and grocery stores. Many of them specialise the perpetrators are often ignored (Puri, in finding houses for north-easterners with 2006). landlords who tolerate their lifestyles, adver- As the bulk of my fieldwork took place in tising their services in English in north-east the first months of 2011, there was a recent neighbourhoods. incident that captured the sense of vulner- ability and growing anger among north-east Harrassment migrants. The incident was talked about all the time: whether discussions were about North-east migrants experience harassment race, gender, Delhi, India, work, safety or and violence in Delhi. Respondents were housing. In November 2010, a 30-year-old adamant that the day-to-day violence that call centre worker from Mizoram was characterises their time in Delhi is continu- abducted at gunpoint and gang raped in a ally downplayed in the media, by the author- car. The perpetrators waited for the woman ities and by non-north-easterners. Delhi has to be dropped back to her home in a north- a reputation as a violent city and one of the east neighbourhood after working a shift at difficulties in discussing violence experi- a call centre, suggesting that she was care- enced by north-easterners in Delhi is the fully targeted (Chandra, 2010). The police counter-claim that Delhi is a violent city and failed to make any arrests. Six days later, no community is immune. Most respon- almost 2000 people—the majority mobi- dents reject this argument. As one respon- lised by north-east student unions and dent from Nagaland put it church groups—protested at Jantar Mantar, a well-known protest site in central Delhi. They will always go on about Delhi being By early December, a number of these unsafe. They think it is not different for us. groups had secured a meeting with the But it is. We are walking targets. Chief Minister of Delhi, Sheila Dixit, and they submitted a list of 15 demands to North-easterners feel that they are targeted improve the safety of north-east migrants because of their race, they have virtually no (NESCH, 2010). Arrests slowly followed. recourse to justice and they are blamed for Respondents pointed to this as evidence the violence they experience. In the pamph- that the police will never take violence let Security tips for north east students/ against north-easterners seriously and that visitors in Delhi, issued by the Delhi Police, it takes the Chief Minister to push them north-east women are advised to act and into action. Respondents were able to cite dress more conservatively. The pamphlet dozens of cases of similar violence, many of reads which are catalogued by church organisa- tions in Delhi and most of which appear in Revealing dress to be avoided. Avoid lonely the vernacular media back in the north-east, road/bylane when dressed scantily. Dress often alongside editorials warning of the according to sensitivity of the local populace perils of migrating to the heartlands. (Delhi Police, 2005).

Respondents found this pamphlet and its Conclusion sentiments amusing, but also instructive of the ways in which they are viewed. North- As discussed earlier, the creation of exclu- east women are held responsible for the sionary spaces through the neo-liberal trans- sexual harassment they have to endure and formation of cities like Delhi has received a

Downloaded from usj.sagepub.com at UNSW Library on August 5, 2014 NORTH-EAST MIGRANTS IN DELHI 1637 great deal of attention from scholars. The city would significantly alter their place in consensus view is that this transformation is Indian society. It is within the spaces of further excluding large parts of the popula- ‘new India’—malls, restaurants, spas and tion, especially already-marginalised com- call centres—that north-east migrants are munities and recent migrants. In this view, included in the city, while their experiences marginal peoples share a common fate at the outside these spaces reinforce their margin- hands of this transformation and their rights ality. Importantly, this case is not an endor- to the city are trampled by the onslaught of sement of neo-liberalism. Rather, it shows neo-liberal capital and accommodating the unevenness of its effects. This uneven- authorities. The case of north-east migrants ness is not simply experienced by different is difficult to fit into the exclusionary city people in the same city, benefitting some narrative. Many north-east migrants benefit and harming others, but this unevenness is from the neo-liberal transformation of experienced in different aspects of life by Delhi, at least in terms of employment and individuals and members of particular economic inclusion in the city. In fact, these communities. As Mathews points out in his changes are connecting the frontier and study of Chungking Mansions in Hong heartland in relatively peaceful ways, some- Kong, which he refers to as ‘‘the most glo- thing that decades of state development pol- balized building in the world’’, the effects icies, scholarships and reservations for of neo-liberalism are largely benign, and in north-easterners, and counter-insurgency some respects positive, for the traders, campaigns, have been unable to achieve. In asylum seekers and illegal workers from a sense, the neo-liberal transformation of South Asia, Africa and elsewhere who inha- Delhi is changing perceptions of Indian citi- bit the building (Mathews, 2011, p. 213). zenship among individuals and commu- Yet their experiences outside this building nities in the north-east. The strength of in other parts of Hong Kong can be far less ethno-nationalism and separatism in the positive and there are remnants of har- north-east has historically created hostility dened attitudes towards foreigners. Indeed, and ambivalence towards Indian citizenship. in the case of Delhi, it could be argued that, Yet migration to Delhi shows the inwards despite neo-liberalism opening the city to pull of citizenship, in contrast to the out- more and more migrants from the frontier, wards pull of ethnic ties across international embedded stereotypes towards ethnic and borders. As citizens, north-easterners can tribal communities from the north-east travel to the heartland cities like Delhi to frontier still hold, unaffected by the neo- work in occupations that did not exist to the liberal transformation of the city and its same extent a decade ago. There are still labour markets. Yet there are changes evi- limits to this, and time will tell whether dent here as well in the re-placing of tribal migration to heartland cities produces any- and ethnic minority subjectivity through thing more than an instrumental sense of their presence in highly conspicuous occu- citizenship for north-east migrants and pations associated with fashion, style and those returning home. consumption. It is unclear whether this is Outside these spaces of economic inclu- necessarily advantageous to north-east sion, many north-east migrants continue to migrants, as it tends to emphasise differ- live as exceptional citizens. They experience ence, heightened sexuality and a separate racism, discrimination, harassment and moral order. However, it is difficult to violence. Respondents were far from con- determine what is ‘new racism’ drawn from vinced that their economic inclusion in the the occupations that north-east migrants

Downloaded from usj.sagepub.com at UNSW Library on August 5, 2014 1638 DUNCAN MCDUIE-RA undertake in the city, and what is ‘old (north-east India) against the normative racism’ drawn from embedded understand- frame of the Indian constitution, Interna- ings of the frontier and its people. tional Journal on Minority and Group Rights, The case of north-east migrants in Delhi 15(2/3), pp. 313–334. Baruah, S. (2003) Citizens and denizens: ethni- complicates the exclusionary narrative and city, homelands, and the crisis of displace- forces sharper focus on the intricate ment in northeast India, Journal of Refugee dynamics of urban change. It also shows Studies, 16(1), pp. 44–66. the ways in which the city and the periph- Baruah, S. (2005) Durable Disorder: Understand- ery are connected through the neo-liberal ing the Politics of Northeast India. New Delhi: transformation of urban India, as well as Oxford University Press. the limits of this connectivity. North-east Baviskar, A. (2003) Between violence and desire: space, power, and identity in the making of migrants are not the only beneficiaries of metropolitan Delhi, International Social Sci- these changes, yet their prominence in the ence Journal, 55(175), pp. 89–98. consumer and service industries, and the Bhan, G. (2009) ‘This is no longer the city I once impact this has had on the flows and profile knew’: evictions, the urban poor and the right of migrants from the frontier to urban to the city in millennial Delhi, Environment India, make them the ideal case for analys- and Urbanization, 21(1), pp. 127–142. ing these changes. In the case of north-east Bhaumik, S. (2009) Troubled Periphery: Crisis of migrants in Delhi, their economic inclusion India’s Northeast. New Delhi: Sage. Brosius, C. (2010) India’s Middle Class: New in the city appears to have had little effect Forms of Urban Leisure, Consumption and in spaces farther afield. This may not be the Prosperity. New Delhi: Routledge. case in years to come, or indeed in other Chakrabarti, P. (2009) Inclusion or exclusion? locations, but the possibilities of inclusion Emerging effects of middle-class citizen par- in transforming cities for otherwise mar- ticipation on Delhi’s urban poor, IDS Bulle- ginal groups requires deeper investigation, tin, 38(6), pp. 96–104. along with more detailed research into Chandra, M. (2010) Moti Bagh Gangrape: what went wrong?, Mizoram Express, 1 December. those returning to the frontier after time Chaplin, S. (2011) Indian cities, sanitation and spent in neo-liberal Delhi. the state: the politics of the failure to pro- vide, Environment and Urbanization, 23(1), Funding Statement pp. 57–70. Cordaux, R., Weiss, G., Shah, N. and This research received no specific grant from any Stoneking, M. (2004) The northeast Indian funding agency in the public, commercial or not- passageway: a barrier or corridor for human for-profit sectors. migrations?, Molecular Biology and Evolution, 21(8), pp. 1525–1533. Acknowledgements Delhi Police (2005) Security tips for north east students/visitors in Delhi. Delhi Police West The author wishes to thank Dolly Kikon, Xonzoi District. Barbora, David Zou, Makiko Kimura, Joy Dupont, V. (2011) The dream of Delhi as a Pachuau, Ursula Rao, Amita Baviskar and anon- global city, International Journal of Urban ymous referees from Urban Studies for com- and Regional Research, 35(3), pp. 533–554. ments on earlier versions of this material. Echtner, C. and Prasad, P. (2003) The context of third world tourism marketing, Annals of References Tourism Research, 30(3), pp. 660–682. Eriksen, T. H. (2002) Ethnicity and Nationalism, Barbora, S. (2008) Autonomous districts and/or 2nd edn. London: Pluto. ethnic homelands: an ethnographic account Fernandes, L. (2004) The politics of forgetting: of the genesis of political violence in Assam class politics, state power and the restructuring

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