Killed for looking different Premium

Anjel Chakma's tragic death highlights society's failure to embrace diversity and confront deep-rooted discrimination in India.

Anjel Chakma was not asking for justice. He was asking to be recognised.

“I am not Chinese… I am an Indian.” These words, spoken by a 24-year-old student from Tripura while being brutally assaulted in Dehradun, should haunt us for a long time. Not because they were dramatic, but because they were necessary. Necessary in a country that claims unity in diversity, yet repeatedly forces some of its citizens to prove that they belong.

Anjel had stepped out to buy household items. Like thousands of students from the Northeast who travel across India for education, he was spending nothing more than an ordinary day and an ordinary life. What followed was extraordinary cruelty — verbal abuse, caste-based slurs, rods, knives, and finally, silence. After battling for life for 16 days, Anjel died on December 25. A young life ended, not by accident, but by hatred sharpened through ignorance.

This was not just a murder. It was a failure of society.

For people from Northeast India, discrimination is not new. It is embedded in everyday interactions — the stares, the jokes, the “you don’t look Indian” remarks, the casual racism that many choose to excuse as harmless. These experiences rarely make headlines because they are endured quietly. Angel’s death exposes the extreme end of this spectrum — when prejudice turns fatal.

The debate now revolves around investigations, FIR timelines, and whether racial remarks can be “proven”. But the larger truth does not depend on legal phrasing. When a citizen feels compelled to assert his nationality in the face of violence, the problem is not procedural — it is moral. No Indian should have to explain their face, their origin, or their accent to survive.