• Home
  • News
  • Longform
  • Life
    • Jeans
    • Madam Zeenat’s Feminist Tarot
  • Health
  • Work
  • Culture
    • Books
    • Art
    • Music
    • Fashion
    • Cinema
    • TV
  • Sports
  • Kranti
  • Vaanthi
  • The FAK
  • About
    • Submissions
  • Home
  • News
  • Longform
  • Life
    • Jeans
    • Madam Zeenat’s Feminist Tarot
  • Health
  • Work
  • Culture
    • Books
    • Art
    • Music
    • Fashion
    • Cinema
    • TV
  • Sports
  • Kranti
  • Vaanthi
  • The FAK
  • About
    • Submissions
HomeVaanthiA Woman from Meghalaya was Forced to Leave the Del ...

A Woman from Meghalaya was Forced to Leave the Delhi Golf Club Because She ‘Looked Like a Maid’

June 27, 2017

By Ila Ananya

Tailin Lyngdoh. Photo courtesy: Nivedita Barthakur via Facebook.

“The room was full of Delhi elites who make their maids and nannies wait outside in the heat lest they pollute their surroundings, and I bet many of them were civil servants and keepers of the Indian constitution. It was so appalling at many levels: that a citizen in India is judged on her dress and treated as a pariah; that in this day and age, human rights of so many citizens can be tramples on just because he/she earns an honest living as a help,” wrote Nivedita Barthakur, Honorary Adviser, Health, Government of Assam, in a furious post on Facebook on 25th June.

The reason? Tailin Lyngdoh, a woman from Meghalaya who worked as a governess for Barthakur’s son, was unbelievably asked to leave the Delhi Golf Club because she “looked like a maid.” What followed was an argument, and The North East Today reports Barthakur as saying that while the argument happened, there were whispers of “pata nahin kahan kahan se aate hain,” [don’t know where all they come from].

Lyngdoh, was reportedly asked to leave the Delhi Golf Club because she was wearing a traditional Jainsem (a dress worn by Khasi women), because she was looked like a maid and needed to vacate the place because she looked like a “dustbin,” as NDTV reported. Lyngdoh had been invited to a lunch at the golf club by Barthakur, but was approached by officials just before lunch began, asking her to leave, who also called her a Nepali, and said that her dress was different.

The case is undoubtedly one of blatant racism that needs to be addressed, but it’s also, as Barthakur pointed out in her Facebook post, about how women who work as governesses and domestic help are treated. It’s not hard to expect that the room in the Delhi Golf Club had been full of upper class men and women discussing the sorry state of so many people in India, while continuing to be offended by the presence of someone from another economic class sitting down to eat with them. After all, we are content with having these discussions from a distance and appearing to be progressive and all inclusive, but who cares about practice?

Tags: class prejudice, Delhi Golf Club, Meghalaya, Nivedita Barthakur, racism, Tailin Lyngdoh

Share!
Tweet

Ila Ananya

About the author

Related Posts

Happy Teacher’s Day to The Women Who Changed My Life

Why is Being a Woman Such a Piss-Off?

The Bengali Girl’s Running Diary

My Sister And I Called It #Shakeitdaddy. But We Never Told Anyone I Had Epilepsy

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Trending

Sorry. No data so far.

Subscribe to our email newsletter!

You May Also Like

  • After Payal Tadvi’s Death Can We Allow Medical Education to Continue to Pretend to be Casteless? May 28, 2019
  • Jokha Alharthi’s Man Booker Win Reminds Us of Oman’s Recent Slave-owning Past May 24, 2019
  • In Avengers: Endgame, Black Widow is Sexy, Sterile and So Burnt By Marvel May 12, 2019
  • Let Us Admit the Sins of Atishi Marlena May 10, 2019
  • 20 Questions for SC Panel that Cleared the CJI of Sexual Harassment Charges May 9, 2019


Online Bachchi, Dil Ki Sachchi

Come on over for feminist journalism.

Politics. Pop Culture. Health. Sex. Law. Books. Work.

We write what we want to read.

  • Terms & Conditions
  • Privacy Policy
  • Refund Policy
  • About
  • Contact Us

Subscribe to our email newsletter!

Keep up with us!

Follow Us on FacebookFollow Us on TwitterFollow Us on YouTubeFollow Us on E-mail

Trending

Sorry. No data so far.

Copyright © 2018 The Ladies Finger
Subscribe to our RSS/Atom feed here