• ‘Is India Racist?’: Murder, Migration and Mary Kom

    Author(s):
    Duncan McDuie-Ra (see profile)
    Date:
    2015
    Subject(s):
    Ethnology--Study and teaching, India, Sports--Sociological aspects
    Item Type:
    Article
    Tag(s):
    Indian politics, Ethnic studies, Sociology of sport
    Permanent URL:
    http://dx.doi.org/10.17613/M6FM3H
    Abstract:
    After the 2012 Olympics, Bronze Medal-winning boxer Mary Kom achieved national celebrity status in India. As a member of the Kom tribe, a Tibeto-Burman community from the Northeast region, she has come to represent a region long considered, and self-identifying, as outside the boundaries of the Indian nation. The same week that Mary Kom returned from London, thirty thousand Northeast migrants fled Indian cities fearing racially-motivated attacks. The so-called ‘exodus’ provoked rare conversations on racism within India. During this crisis, the figure of Mary Kom was invoked continually to challenge the existence of racism in India and posit paths to better integration in India's cities. These conversations paid little attention to the brutality perpetrated by the Indian state and military in the Northeast itself and the voices that publicised this brutality. Thus, while Mary Kom has come to represent a Northeast that Indians can embrace, figures such as dissident Irom Sharmila represent a Northeast that Indians wish to forget.
    Metadata:
    xml
    Published as:
    Journal article     Show details
    Pub. DOI:
    http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00856401.2014.992508
    Publisher:
    Informa UK Limited
    Pub. Date:
    2015-2-20
    Journal:
    South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies
    Volume:
    38
    Issue:
    2
    Page Range:
    304 - 319
    ISSN:
    0085-6401,1479-0270
    Status:
    Published
    Last Updated:
    6 years ago
    License:
    All Rights Reserved

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