Social standing in India is important for its people, which explains the massive disparity that exists between its poor and its rich. Upper-class Indians have associated low-income backgrounds with a lack of power, intelligence, and ‘valuable’ opinion for years. In turn, most Indians tend to associate unrelated aspects of people’s lives with their socio-economic background – complexion and clothing, for example. Once you are labelled as being from a lower income background, you are immediately treated differently; treated as an inferior. This is exactly what happened to Tailin Lyngdoh on 25 June, 2017.
A Khasi lady from Meghalaya, Lyngdoh works with Honorary Advisor, Health, Government of Assam, Nivedita Barthakur, as a governess for her son, and was invited to lunch at Delhi Golf Club on June 25th. She arrived at the lunch wearing her usual attire – a Jainsem, the traditional Khasi dress – the same attire in which she travelled the world on work. Only a few minutes after arriving, however, the club’s manager, Ajit Pal, along with another lady, Sumita Thakur, asked Lyngdoh to leave the venue because according to them, her attire and her features made her ‘look like a maid’; a ‘Nepali’, and ‘maids were not allowed.’ Barthakur explained to them that Lyngdoh was a guest there, but they refused. “We left the club feeling stripped of our dignity, feeling vulnerable for being Northeasterners and looking different”, Nivedita said.
Considering this is barely a month since the incident at the Delhi Jazz Club, We’re appalled to see just how ignorant people from our own country can be — how strayed and blinded they are by what is considered to be ‘important’, ‘upper-class’, and ‘worthy.’
For more information, read The Northeast Today’s article on the same.
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