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Title: | From colonial ‘mongoloid’ to neoliberal ‘northeastern’: theorising ‘race’, racialization and racism in contemporary India |
Authors: | Rai, R |
Keywords: | Global racisms;racism in India;racialization;critical race theory;North-East India |
Issue Date: | 7-Jan-2021 |
Publisher: | Taylor & Francis |
Citation: | Rai, R. (2021) 'From colonial ‘mongoloid’ to neoliberal ‘northeastern’: theorising ‘race’, racialization and racism in contemporary India', Asian Ethnicity, 23(3), pp. 1 - 22. doi:10.1080/14631369.2020.1869518. |
Abstract: | Contemporary India has witnessed a rise in racism discourse, central to which are people from North-East and Himalayan regions, collectively referred to as ‘Northeasterns’. This has recentred ‘race’ and racism as being a theoretical-political problem of contemporary India itself. However, existing literature shows that there is stark under-theorisation of ‘race’ and racism in Indian context. Drawing from ethnographic research and applying the racialization approach, this paper argues that ‘race’ in India is a postcolonial-neoliberal construct, whereby colonial ‘Mongoloid’ is reconstructed into neoliberal ‘Northeastern’, such that ‘race’ in India acts as a layered mode of constructing identity and difference. It further argues that the ‘Northeastern’ category emerges as a result of exclusion from the ‘Indian’ category, which itself is racialized along Hinduised-Aryanised lines, such that racism is a product of a postcolonial centre-periphery power-relation between India and its North-East; thereby making way for critical ‘race’ scholarship in the Indian context. |
URI: | http://bura.brunel.ac.uk/handle/2438/24904 |
DOI: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14631369.2020.1869518 |
ISSN: | 1463-1369 |
Appears in Collections: | Brunel Law School Research Papers |
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