By Patricia Mukhim
Social networking sites give you an idea of the churning across wide swathes of the Face booking types. There is not just frustration but raw anger among a large section of youth. A conscious society would try and analyse why angst turns to rage and whether there are platforms to address this frenzy. “What is there to feel optimistic about?” is the question posed by many young people. The government seems to be working in silos with each department doing their own thing without any concern about outcomes. Money is circulating only within a particular circle and stops percolating down to the lowest common denominator.
The land holding pattern among the Khasis (and I include here every group from Khynriam, Pnar, Bhoi, War etc) is the weakest link in our societal relationships. One fails to understand why only certain clans can own hectares and hectares of land in a society that has innumerable clans. How can a society that calls itself egalitarian also have such a term as “zamindar,” which is what the Kharkongor clan likes to call itself within the Hima Mylliem? Other clans are zamindar elsewhere. Today no one who earns an honest salary can afford to buy even a 2000 sq ft plot in Shillong city. Not that there is any land left in Shillong! Land prices are excessively high. They defy all logic but no one bothers to question this ridiculous pricing of land.
The non-stoppable speed at which the coal barons of Jaintia Hills are buying up prime property in Shillong is, to say the least, a vulgar and loathsome display of crude money power. No one today knows how much land is owned by these noveau-riche who also, incidentally wield political power. It’s a dangerous cocktail and it will leave many Khasis homeless and shelter-less very soon. Now you would be mistaken to think that the ‘ruthless rich’ are buying up land only in Shillong. They own large hectares in West Khasi Hills and of course in the New Shillong Township which has suddenly turned into a gold mine that everybody wants to dig from.
Then there is the Syiem clan which owns land but whose members are either not aware or do not care about how it is being quickly dismembered, forest, catchment and all. Toki Blah has reasoned in his recent article that it is time to bring in even what is normally seen as a deleterious piece of act – the eminent domain act used extensively in the US and other developed countries, which gives the government or its agent the right to expropriate private property for public use, with payment of compensation. Not that this Act is new to Meghalaya. Since all land belongs to some person or the other and the state owns almost no land, the cost of a project tends to escalate on account of the compensation paid. Is this viable? Can the government keep paying money to own up all land that is currently being quarried and mined or the rivers that are sand-banked? Where is the money for human development then?
And since the land, or most of the land along the highways and other areas of development are already owned by the affluent who paid a pittance for it but who now want to convert it into a diamond mine, the Government is making the rich richer. This is what the Government in Meghalaya has been doing since the state was created. All the bunkum touted by people like John Kharshiing who go around the country speaking about “indigenous tribals” as if they are a pristine class of egalitarians, completely untouched by greed and power, is the biggest deception ever. What are John Kharshiing and his cohorts thinking about the growing landlessness among 85 % or more of Khasis? Is this a subject of concern among this elitist group that goes and meets Sonia Gandhi for photo-ops in their traditional finery? Does this entire shenanigan have any meaning at all for the poor? Kharshiing’s most recent proposal that elections to the District Council should no longer be based on party politics is nothing but a strategy to turn the Councils into a Syiemship and to another Dorbar where a few will lord it over the rest of us. The proposal betrays a stratagem to wield power by short-circuiting the democratic process. It is an attempt to give power to an already powerful group that is not accountable to any constitutional authority. Do we want one more such an institution in Meghalaya?
Many wonder what John Kharshiing’s agenda is and who he represents. Well, we in the media often unquestioningly and unthinkingly publish his views. He is the self-proclaimed spokesperson for “Ki Khlieh Nongsynshar,” which literally translated means ‘heads of the rulers.’ This means that Kharshiing is the spokesperson of the syiem, the myntri and dolloi who rule over the dorbar shnong, who in turn rule over us. The institution of syiemship is undemocratic because we do not elect the syiem. Nor do we elect the myntri, sordar and dolloi. These are oligarchic institutions. The Dorbar Shnong is partially democratic in that every Khasi is an eligible ‘selector’ of the Rangbah Shnong. But the non-Khasi who is expected to obey, pay and abide by the rules of the Dorbar Shnong is an alien insofar as his selector status is concerned because he is not allowed to participate in the selection of the Rangbah Shnong and his executive council.
Considering that a huge chunk of the Khasi community is today heading towards a landlessness even while some, including the syiem, myntri, sordar etc own more and more land in collusion with the rich and powerful, I want to ask John Kharshiing whether he has, any at any time, considered moving his party the United Democratic Party (UDP) to legislate the Meghalaya Land Ceiling Act before a full blown revolution knocks us all out. The late Mr MN Majaw (father of John Kharshiing) tabled and got passed the Land Transfer Act, by virtue of which non-tribals and later, by design even non-Khasis have been prevented from owning land in Meghalaya. Today if we are true to ourselves, then the non-tribal is hardly the enemy. A non-tribal is restricted to the European ward and can go no further unless a tribal connives with him to manipulate the system and do a benami. The real exploiters are the rich tribals with a voracious appetite for land. It’s almost like the insatiable thirst of the ogre. If people in Mumbai and Delhi talk of land sharks then we have them here as well and they are tribals. In other words tribals are trying to oust other tribals from their hearths and homes because with the collusion of the state, the large majority of people have been made poorer and are condemned to remain poor.
All the anti-poverty schemes of the Government so far have failed to make a dent. How many poor people have been able to buy back the land they have mortgaged to a rich tribal in order to pay hospital bills or to buy seeds or to send their children to school? And this is unlikely to happen because poverty tends to replicate itself due to ignorance and the tribal naivety to have large families. In this situation, unless Meghalaya passes the Land Ceiling Act, which would restrict an individual from owning more land than permitted, then we will have the guns booming yet again.
Those keen to follow the discussions about the forthcoming elections on Facebook should scour the sites and see for themselves the expression of futility, of absolute distrust in the political system, of the desire for change but not knowing how to bring about that change, the mobilisation by young people of others who are like-minded, all of which go to show that governance has completely failed to address core issues of bread, butter and the proverbial cry of the poor for “do bigha zamin” for a homestead. The graffiti is loud and venomous and only those with illusionary minds would shrug at such explosive language. I wish the Chief Minister of Meghalaya and the Chief Secretary had Facebook accounts. It might jerk them to the present realities. Sitting at the secretariat and moving around in a limousine tends to insulate VIPs from what’s actually hurting the people.
The Langpih episode has the potential to snowball into something bigger even as more political wannabes take advantage of the situation. And things are not going to get easier as we move closer to the polls. But all the frustration and anger needs to be correctly channelled.The manifesto for all political parties who claim that their hearts beat for the people should be to bring in the Land Ceiling Act. Come on people lets us make this a make or break agenda in 2013. Our MLAs, syiem, myntris etc., will not be happy because they will have to jettison off some of their precious baggage but this is the only way to restore equity. Meghalaya is in dire need of land reforms. It can either do it the right way or these reforms will slowly but surely come from the barrel of the gun.