Did you also know that NE insurgents slaughtered Bihari and Benglai Muslims because they thought they don't belong there?
How about Madrasis to refer to South Indians. How about Bhaiyas to refer to Biharis?
A lot of Indians just use this word because they heard it. Once you say 'hey, that's a racist word, they will mend their ways.'
It's the institutional and cultural racism that we need to watch out for.
I can't do anything about Pakistanis here or the Chinese here calling Indians inferior, dark and ugly (Happens everyday)
I don't think Indians are unwilling to accpet North Easterners a Indians. It's just that a lot of them have never been confronted with such numbers before.
It used to be that North Indians were dpeicted a certain way in Films, and so were South Indians.
as an example, You have massive numbers of North Indians coming to the state of Kerala to fill in blue collar jobs. Now you have a high number of North Easterners.
Even a decade ago, when I was in Kerala, I hardly saw North Indians except a few.
Unfortunately, a lot of Indians are just that, ignorant.
It is not an unwillingness to accept, but rather a complete lack of understanding that North East as a region even exists.
It did say Vendors, so i am assuming it is for security purposes.
I still don't get it though.