From Kitchen to Community: How Axone Exposes Racism Against Northeast Indians in Urban India

Abstract

This paper examines the Netflix film Axone (2019) as a cultural text that exposes the everyday racism experienced by people from the Northeast living in mainland India's metropolitan cities. Through the symbolic use of akhuni, a fermented soybean dish central to the narrative, the film reveals how Northeast Indians' food habits and cultural differences provoke prejudice and stereotyping. Drawing on the theoretical frameworks of identity politics, cultural representation, and everyday racism, this study explores how Axone depicts the struggles of Northeastern migrants in mainland India as cultural “aliens” from the far Northeast region. Using qualitative film analysis and thematic interpretation, the paper argues that Axone documents microaggressions, discrimination, and the structural exclusion of an entire region within mainland India. The film also highlights community solidarity among people from Northeast India as a vital mechanism of survival. In this context, Axone functions as a critical cinematic intervention that challenges dominant metropolitan narratives and urges a reconsideration of race, identity, and cultural coexistence in contemporary India.