Editor,
First and foremost, I am a citizen of India. By certain traditions, customs and identity in our united & diverse country, I am a Jaintia (Pnar). By faith I am a Roman Catholic. On May 5th 2011, in your esteemed paper, there were letters to the editor regarding the subtle but obvious demeaning of Christianity during the 20th anniversary celebration of the Seng Khihlang.
Personally, I admire and respect the Seng Khihlang as an organisation that has helped preserve the traditional culture of U Hynniewtrep U Hynniewskum (or U Niaw Trep Niaw Wasa). But the game of one-upmanship in matters of faith have left a bad taste in the mouth.
By law, the right to practice any religion is enshrined in Article 25-28 of our Constitution. That India is a secular country is also clearly mentioned in the Preamble. So, it means respect and toleration for all faiths in our country. According to CEM Joad’s essay, ‘The Story of Civilisation,’ toleration is a new thing in the world. He was referring to 18th century Europe when Thomas Paine (1737-1809) was exiled from England for writing a book called Age of Reason. Today, after 64 years of Independence and 32 years of statehood and with all the paraphernalia of economic development (education, health, etc), is toleration still a new thing here?
Today, there is a tendency to reduce anything that is non-Christian to paganism, ignorance and hedonism when historically, these faiths predate Christianity. Also, we have to understand that there are many aspects of Christianity that make it so appealing to us tribals in North East India. It is actually a give and take scenario where one and the other can co-exist symmetrically, celebrating the differences.
The contribution of Christian missions to the overall development of our land cannot be ignored. But the efforts of organisations like Seng Khihlang are also significant when it’s become a cool thing to literally ape everything about the West – materialism, consumerism, individualism, uncontrolled/unregulated liberalism and so on.
A thought comes to mind. Why do we allow ourselves to be divided by alien cultures? Do we need our lives to be dictated by others, be it the brown or white man and woman? According to Census 2011, there are less than 2 million people in the Bri U Hynniewtrep, which makes us barely a handful in this large country of ours (an old saying: Tang chi troh leh mem i). Realistically speaking, all it takes is for a tiny percentage of foreigners to come to our lands and in a few decades the indigenous tribals will be totally obliterated. Unity in diversity, is anybody listening? Speak no ill of the dead. Past wrongs are best left buried. For survival and longevity, the present and the future need to be right!
At gatherings of any faith, besides the rituals, the need of the hour is to talk, discuss and argue about issues that plague our state; to find out and implement short & long term solutions rather than putting the blame on one agency or the other. Apply pressure on our elected representatives to do something. Let us also on our own collectively or individually do something to make the quality of life better. Now and then, representatives from the Centre come to visit us. Bypassing the red tape of officialdom, can’t we try and get an audience with them, to apprise them of our issues and grievances? Right now, one issue that should occupy top priority is the traffic jam on our highways, NH40 and NH44. Others issues such as a strong and stable state government, rampant corruption, bureaucratic accountability, border disputes, environmental degradation etc need to be thrashed out.
Yours etc.,
Dominick Rymbai
Indian Institute of Foreign Trade
Delhi.
