Identity and Otherisation in Northeast India: Representations in Media Texts

Abstract

Asymmetrical power relations between ‘us’, or the in-group, and the ‘others’, or the out-group, are key to the construction and understanding of otherisation. Otherness in Meghalaya, Northeast India is made complex by historical, geopolitical, social, linguistic and cultural factors that are instrumental in creating boundaries between the tribal and non-tribal populace. The present article examines discourses of non-tribal people being ‘othered’ by their tribal counterparts, the majoritarian Khasis in Meghalaya. Employing Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), the article examines representations of the ‘othering’ of non-tribal ‘others’ in media texts drawn from English-medium newspapers, magazines and a blog. Evidently, issues of control, and dominance, are pivotal to the power struggles between the ethnic groups in the state, which are inherent in the process of othering. The othering of northeasterners in mainland India is evident in discourse that prods reverse otherisation of non-tribal Indians in the Northeast, including Meghalaya. Clearly, an analysis of such texts also reveals the role of identity politics and ethnonational groups as pivotal to othering. Finally, identity threat, race-based differentiation and loss of citizenship allude to outcomes of otherisation.