What really makes a Sikkimese?

As an Indian-Nepali – or an Indian-Gorkha, the term some others prefer – I have often found it easier to shrug my shoulders and walk away from racist encounters where I am called "chinky", "chowmein" or "Chinese" than from those occasions when I am mistaken for a Nepalese. I use "Nepalese" deliberately to mean a citizen of Nepal, as opposed to "Nepali", which denotes a much broader cultural and linguistic connection that transcends any single national identity. As someone born and raised in Sikkim, and although of Nepali and Bhutia-Lepcha descent, my Indian-Nepali heritage forms an important part of my cultural identity. I suppose being called "chinky" somehow binds me to the collective racism faced by other people from India's Northeast – it unites all Northeasterners, considered outsiders to mainland Indian culture, and in effect contributes to an alternative version of Indian citizenship where it is okay to not "look Indian". Being taunted as a Nepalese, on the other hand, can be an especially isolating experience: it singles out me and other Indian-Nepalis, and leaves us alone to defend our rightful sense of belonging to India, usually through reiteration of our loyalty to and many sacrifices for the nation.

This was already, always, an ordeal. Then, recently, a verdict from the Supreme Court of India left us grappling yet again to defend our history and our legitimate place in Sikkim – and, in effect, in India.