India prides itself on being a diverse country however, people from different regions of the nation have a hard time getting along. The differing features of people often bring out the truth behind racism in India. We often hear stories about every South Indian being labelled a ‘madrasi‘ or people from the Northeast being treated like foreigners every time they step out of their homes. A similar incident happened with Manjita Chanu, a girl from the Northeast who was denied entry into a historical monument.
Manjita was making her way into the Tomb of I’timad-ud-Daulah (also known as Agra’s Baby Taj) with her friends when she was stopped at the entrance by the guards. Manjita’s friend pulled out her camera and recorded the whole incident in a video which was later uploaded to Youtube.
In the video, the guards can be heard saying, “Foreigner hai aap!” (You are a foreigner), and asked the visitors to show their Photo IDs to present proof of their Indian nationality. Manjita recalls that even though she spoke Hindi, the guards misbehaved with her and her friends, and asked them to pay more money. Additionally, when the guards wished to check their bags, the group asked if there was a female guard, but there was none in sight.
Later, the guards allegedly took the visitors to a woman the officials said was a security guard, but upon inquiry, she turned out to be a cleaning worker.
Manjita even took to Facebook to recount the details of her distressing ordeal. She wrote, “Is this the land of my India? Am I #safe here or not?”
The incident brings forth the horrifying reality of the existence of racism in India. Manjita’s post has been shared over 4,000 times on Facebook with most people responding aggressively towards the behaviour of the guards.
Watch the full video below:
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