Discrimination and coping of old settlers in sikkim

Abstract

The study was conducted to explore the existence and manifestation of discrimination in Sikkim. In the Indian context, race-based discrimination has been extensively studied from the point of view of the northeasterners residing in mainland India. An important reason for this is the differences in race, culture, language, and minority status of the northeasterners in mainland India. However, within the northeastern states all of the above mentioned aspects are reversed newlineand the minority is the mainland Indian community, race-based discrimination has not been studied. Sikkim was considered as the region for study as it is part of the sister states of the northeastern region and the Rajya Sabha Committee on Petitions has acknowledged that discrimination has been practiced in the state. An exploratory sequential mixed design was adopted for the newlinestudy. Eleven telephonic semi-structured interviews were conducted for the qualitative phase with members of the old settlers of Sikkim. A survey was conducted for the quantitative phase. Thematic analysis revealed two global theme, five organizing themes and 44 basic themes. Survey method revealed that 51% of old settlers felt discriminated daily in Sikkim. The results newlinerevealed that race based discrimination does exist in Sikkim with it being purported at newlineinstitutional and interpersonal levels.