 and many more traumatic mental illnesses since ages; it’s not a newly surfacing problem, we just have failed to notice it. According to a 

 report from 2018, in high income countries, three times as many men as women die by suicide. Mental Health America, a community based organization, reference data suggesting that- more than 6 million men in the US experience symptoms of depression each year and another 3 million battle through the shackles of anxiety. With such staggering statistics, male mental health issues have transformed into a ‘

silent epidemic and a sleeper creeper that has crippled the minds of men in millions’.

How often have you seen your father cry or have your grown up brother shared his personal problems with you? My answer would be rarely to never, why? Because no matter how pretentiously progressive we have become, we’re one way or the other still raising our boys to be 

 Men are taught from an early age, either by cultural referencing around them or by direct parenting to be tough, not to cry, to 

. Many of us have fathers that are emotionally distant, unable to express their needs, fears and grief, which becomes an unconscious template for their sons’ behavior. Imagine being a young boy, crying over a painful injury or an emotional heartbreak that feels like the end of the world, and then being told to “

 instead of being gently asked what’s making him cry, how he feels about it and teaching him how he can overcome it. Later on, when that boy grows up to be a man faced with worldly pressures, we would pep him up with the same phrase, thus turning him into a 

Society dictates that boys should be raised to believe that confidence, muscular strength, success, composure etc are the core elements of being a man, and anything ‘emotional’ is girly and should therefore be stifled. This notion of masculinity- fearless, resourceful, stoic, mostly in control and usually facing adversity alone, is again reinforced in the stereotype of the popular culture representation of males in movies, series, comics, books and art. Society tells men that it’s simply not acceptable to have too many feelings, ingraining an emotional paralysis into their minds. As a society we expect so much from our men- to be a good son, husband, father, uncle, brother, worker, colleague, lover and much more, always binding them to their traditional gender roles and never allowing them to show distress. We train men like professional warriors and then expect them to be emotionally intelligent, to open up when they need help; worse, we expect them never to need help. When feelings are dismissed and gender-defining thinking is heard repeatedly, a boy learns to bottle up his perfectly valid emotions, turning himself into a 

In today’s cut-throat world, it is very difficult to admit you’re struggling as a man. Part of it is the 

 thing- men tend to see anxiety, depression and mental health problems as weaknesses and secondly it’s the 

 around mental health issues, especially pronounced around men issues. That’s the thing about 

 it’s not just the unconscious belief that enjoying the refined pleasures of the senses makes you less masculine, it’s the belief that vulnerability in any form makes you less masculine, and therefore less of a valuable human being. Men are afraid to seek help in fear of being ridiculed. They tend to think that they can fix this problem quickly and move on to the next, denying that there’s a problem at all- that’s the most disturbing fact of all. Sometimes, men know they need help, but it can be tough to know where to start, majorly not knowing how and who to ask for help.

, former CEO of American Psychological Association, notes that 

 are the demographic most likely to attempt suicide and that 

 are most likely to experience incarceration. Thus, the effect of social disparities on the mental health of people of color and diverse ethnic and racial backgrounds is a double whammy.

In a world where science, technology, women, diverse communities are progressing bit by bit every day, how can we push our men into rat-holes of emotional mental trauma? Symptoms of anxiety and depression manifests differently in men than women because centuries old social systems had made them like this. Men are more likely to use external methods to cope with the inward turmoil- often by over-working, substance abuse like alcohol and drug use, anger blocking access to support, bursts of 

 and anger etc. We, as a society, and mostly, as a human being must understand what our fellow beings might be going through at a certain phase. And boys, man up the real way and acknowledge your feelings, identify these sensations- the anger that you might be experiencing as a flush of heat in the face, the sadness that you feel as a tightening on the throat, the anxiety that plays a knot in the stomach.

” (You also feel pain, you don’t know it, but you do feel pain) – remember this before schooling yourself and other boys on dismissing your emotions.

To Say or Not To Say: The Male Conundrum

The whole of Northeast India burned in peril in turn of the events that shaped the momentum of CAA. Many might snicker at the thought, but the truth speaks for itself-the Northeast has always been sidelined in the Indian state. And now out of nowhere the so called ‘torch bearers’ -the igniters of our economy want to dump a whole set of outsiders population in the already populated 7 sisters! The people of Northeast have always struggled with their existence with such a diverse ethnic population of 10-20 indigenous communities residing in each of the states. We have always a remained a harmonious region but silence does not mean we will take the toll of immigrants barging in our homes and snatching our lands, our rights, our jobs.

Assam and Tripura which borders Bangladesh on two sides went into a state of frenzy over this sudden bomb. While violent turns of protests and agitations took momentum in Assam, Tripura failed to garner the limelight. The Act sparked both outrage and celebration in the tiny frontier state of Tripura. While firecrackers went off in the Bengali dominated Agartala, the capital city, the tribal dominated hill districts erupted in protests and mayhem. Tripura, which came to be known as a Bengali dominated state, has 19 ethnic communities- the Reangs, Brus, Kokis etc. The atrocious Citizenship Amendment Act(CAA) reignited old hostilities and animosity between Bengalis and Tripuri tribal communities, releasing another fresh surge of violence in the state- an internal battle resurfacing again.

On one hand, Tripuris were resolutely protesting in the streets against CAA in the face of an incumbent BJP government, on the other hand their numbers were dwindling by the stroke of midnight as indigenous Tripuris were being picked up from homes, assaulted on the streets, slaughtered and slandered in broad daylight- a part of the package that national media fails to cover. Tripura has been infiltrated by Bangladeshis since partition in 1947 and 1971. The local population of the combined 19 communities has come down to 39% while that of Bengalis shot up to 62% in the last decade and most of the locals are settled in the hills, unable to use their own resources. Their lands have been scorched upon, most of the government jobs are in the hands of refugees or Bengalis, they have to walk miles to access whatever form of education they can get, their markets vandalized either by Bangladeshi refugees or state dominating Bengalis- in short Tripuris cant have a peaceful breath in their own motherland- there’s a constant fear surging inside.

Homeless in Homeland. Home is where we love-home that out feet may leave but not our hearts and one day I will bring back the light in my homeland, my home.”

Reang student of Jadavpur University recalls his nightmare when he witnessed his uncle slaughtered in the middle of the street and nearby houses torched.

The dust have barely settled in Kanchapur subdivision after two weeks when violent clashes broke between Brus and Hindu Bengalis. “

We don’t despise the Bengalis, we are against the influx of Bangladeshi Bengalis. Sometimes I feel like a stranger in my own town-there’s no Reang, Kuki, Oraon, Uchai or any similar face in the streets”, an accused said.

 Tripuris have faced years of indignation, discrimination in their own homeland and like many other issues of 

 it has gone unrecognized by benches of cabinets now and before and the Indian media seems to be tantalizing in its own world of power demographics. Some of the communities are on the brink of extinction, many are leaving their homes and meagre lands for safer routes, they are downgraded to the level of mendicants in the land they were born and raised! They couldn’t tell Indian Bengalis from the Bangladeshi Bengalis-they spoke the same tongue after all. They have no means to retaliate; only passing the days to get out of this rat hole or living this ghastly nightmare every day to the very end with no hopes of a reconciliation. They somewhat resemble the Kashmiri Pandits, only their stories never seem to see the light and maybe would go unsung, untold even years from now.

Voices of dissent did grow in Tripura against CAA, no one would stay silent if your identity is at stake ,but they died down as fast as a bolt of lightning; how could anyone see their family getting killed in front of them and have no one to go to but that’s how their lives are-after all they have gone unknown for decades now. They know their truth, the Northeast know their truth, but will the rest of the world ever get to know it or will they just end up as an extinct population enriching our folklores- the question looms bigger than ever!

Articles by Syeda Peenaz Seerat

To Say or Not To Say: The Male Conundrum

A Distant Echo in a Juggernaut: Lost Voices of Tripura in CAA

To Say or Not To Say: The Male Conundrum

A Distant Echo in a Juggernaut: Lost Voices of Tripura in CAA