Opinion Not so far away

Trains, the conduit of news and change, have been vital to connecting the vast reaches of the Indian subcontinent, geographically and imaginatively. So the Centre’s plan to introduce subsidised train tours to the Northeast for school students is welcome. A student from Delhi, for instance, could now find it easier to add Dibrugarh, Dimapur, Itanagar, Tezpur and Lumding to her vocabulary of places and experiences. Till now, for most of the Indian mainland, the Northeast has been a remote, opaque place, known mainly by its conflicts. Much of the Northeast’s alienation from the rest of the country has stemmed from this perceived inaccessibility.

Bridging this distance could go a long way in addressing the racial discrimination faced by Northeastern students in other parts of the country. The insecurities of being a Northeastern student in the Indian mainland became starkly palpable during the panic spread by cellphone messages in 2012, when hundreds of students, fearing attacks, took the next train home from Bangalore and other cities. Government efforts to address and stanch this problem have been unimaginative so far. When 19-year-old Nido Tania, a student from Arunachal Pradesh, was killed in Delhi this February, it responded by setting up yet another committee, the Bezbaruah committee, which submitted its report in July, suggesting a new law against discrimination, fast-track courts and special police squads to tackle such crimes among other recommendations. Most of these measures, though, tackle the symptoms, not the root, of the problem. Discrimination against the Northeast cannot be isolated from the larger history of the relationship between the region and the rest of the country that is marked mostly by distance and distrust. Encouraging greater mobility and interaction could be an important step towards making a real change.

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But the government’s new plan will be limited by infrastructure in the region. It was in April this year that the first broad-gauge train reached Naharlagun station, making Itanagar only the second capital in the Northeast to be connected by rail. The Union budget this July earmarked funds for seven new trains travelling to the region and within it. Pressing forward with such projects will be crucial. Not only would it bring greater osmosis between people and cultures, but it could also promote tourism and economic opportunities in a region that has long felt marginalised by Delhi.