Mumbai: MU Nagaland student faces racism outside campus

In a case of racial discrimination, a student from Nagaland pursuing his post-graduation degree in sociology at Mumbai University became a victim of abuse on Sunday, as certain individuals racially abused him outside Mumbai University's Kalina campus.

The student, who is also a YouTuber, uploaded the video of the incident on his Instagram account on Monday and has registered a non-cognizable offence (NC). The police are conducting an inquiry into the case.

In the video, Tiapong Tzudir, popular on YouTube as the 'Yatra Kid', can be seen calling out people who were calling him names outside the MU campus. The miscreants looked like some youth belonging to that area. They were seen hiding their faces when the victim tried to shoot a video of the incident.

Tzudir was on his way from his university to get dinner on Sunday night when some guys threw water and called him derogatory names and slurs related to his ethnicity. While returning back to the university, the same persons started throwing water balloons at him and continued calling him names. He later went to his hostel and called up his hostel mates who came to help, after which the miscreants fled the spot.

Tzudir posted the incident on his social media page and expressed how he felt harassed in his own country, and that this was not the first time he experienced such a disturbing episode. Tzudir and his friends later went back to the same locality and held a silent protest with banners and posters of anti-racism to spread awareness. They also tried distributing maps of India which highlighted northeastern states and wrote "Also India" on it.

He registered a non-cognizable offence (NC) against the accused persons at the Vakola police station. According to Tzudir, education and awareness among the people is the need of the hour to reduce racism within the country.