By Patricia Mukhim
We survived yet another doomsday prediction – this time courtesy the Mayan calendar which marks 21st December as that ominous date. Many had taken this prediction with a pinch of salt; a large multitude of those who neither read nor write were not even aware of such a prophecy and went about their work in pretty much the same way. But there were a good number that put their lives together, repented, sold off their belongings because they did not want to be burdened by earthly acquisitions. Some even left their jobs and spent their days in prayer and penance. Such is the stuff of human faith in these forecasts, which have perhaps come once too often.
Winter is here so those who can afford to, catch the first flight out to sunnier locales like Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore. Those whose pockets do not support a foreign jaunt travel to Kolkata, Delhi, Mumbai, Goa et al. This is the 21st century and parents who never knew what a holiday is like, now want their kids to have the best of everything. Fair enough. After all, having worked hard the whole year, everyone deserves a much-earned break and just where and how far we travel depends a lot on our incomes. Ironically, this is also the time when non-resident Meghalayans literally come home for a temporary roost. They have short vacations but love to visit their loved ones. Then there are also weddings to attend and if they are fortunate they can even be part of funerals of distant relatives who decide to pop off at this time of the year.
Now am I writing mundane stuff? And why am I doing it? Many ask me – where is that firebrand writer we used to know once? I guess after many years of tapping at the keyboard one also sees life through a different, more humane prism. You realise that you are human too and just as prone to the failings that appear so gross in others. Besides, today we have so many whistle blowers that most of us can just sit back and watch the fun as the high and mighty slip on the banana peels of life. Indeed, even church leaders have begun to take their God-given mandates with utmost sincerity and have embraced the RTI movement with a gusto rarely seen in the past. For now, though, the church leaders have concentrated only on one issue, the Martin Luther Christian University; how it is functioning and where it has slipped up. Mind you there are other universities all over town, and one of them is also church-initiated (William Carey University) which rumours have is up for sale. But the pastors don’t have much interest in pursuing any other university or issue. Of course one of them is with the Lokayukta demand movement.
Talking about the church and accountability, one is disillusioned that despite claims of RTI activists that they fall under the purview of the Act we are yet to see a single RTI question being directed at any church, of any denomination. Any reason why? My question is directed more at the pastors who are also RTI activists? Is MLCU the only defaulter? On questioning the Registrar MLCU about the delay in starting the IAS coaching centre, he said that it was because the Khasi-Jaintia Presbyterian Association (KJPA) had reneged on its word of allowing the coaching centre to be located at the present MLCU premises. Why this sudden change of heart of the KJPA? What is it that has driven a wedge in the start-up document signed amidst great fanfare at a particular synod venue some years ago? I had said this once and I will say it again, that church politics is far worse than real-politik. And one sees this rancour surface every now and again. Very often it is personal and political as well.
Of all the things that the church is expected to do is to create space for the oppressed to voice their concerns. Is that happening? Is the church a place for radical thoughts to ferment and cause a social and political revolution? Or is it rapidly turning into a sort of mimic’s club where even songs are sung with an American accent? This is so visible among the youth. They must be watching music videos of how Christians in the West, sing and perform. They ape them so mindlessly. Is this what the church is all about today? About not touching base with the realities here? Would the poor and oppressed feel comfortable about attending church today and of being seated next to some well-heeled, co-believer? No, there are many distressed souls who no longer feel at home in church because the ideologies (prayers) don’t match up to their own spiritual and material needs. While the pastor in a gentrified church prays for the children of those faithful who are pursuing all manner of courses in universities abroad or the best ones in the country, the poor cannot even identify with that prayer. There is such a huge mismatch even between Christians today. Rich Christians think it is alright to do charity on Christmas day to assuage their conscience for the rest of the year. The poor ask why these people who are in responsible positions not change the way life works for them. Most churchgoers hold positions of authority in the bureaucracy and politics. There is much they can do to make government more accessible to the poor. But will they bend the rules? Will they leave the red tape aside? Doubtful! The Pharisees as they say are alive and kicking amongst us today.
In this state and region the church has played a major role in providing education. But has that education transformed our thinking and made us more critical and less conformist? Is modern technology adopted to facilitate better education? Is technology in education not creating greater divide between those who can afford a computer; who have access to electricity and the internet and those who have none of these facilities? Richard Shaull in his preface to Paulo Friere’s, book ‘Pedagogy of the Oppressed’, says “There is no such thing as a neutral educational process. Education either functions as an instrument that is used to facilitate the integration of the younger generation into the logic of the present system and bring about conformity to it, or it becomes the ‘practice of freedom’ the means by which men and women deal critically and creatively with reality and discover how to participate in the transformation of their world. Shaull says the development of an educational methodology that facilitates the latter will inevitably lead to tension and conflict within society. But it could also contribute to the formation of a new human person and mark the beginning of a new era.
When I look at the Khasi society today I find it divided by class (rich and poor), by religion (Christianity versus the others); by religious denominations (Catholic and Protestants); by political ideologies; by cultural definitions that try to defy modern governance exemplified by the readiness to cling to archaic oligarchical arrangements despite the gnawing economic gaps, if only for the sake of holding on to power. Education has done nothing to address these growing disparities. No stirring political thought emerges out of the portals of learning and of universities. Research is not need- based but are driven more by what funding agencies decide they want. Despite that appallingly illiterate research conducted by a local NGO known for flaunting its proximity to the US Consulate at Kolkata and the US Embassy at Delhi, and with no visible impact on anything or anyone, and then setting the world on fire by declaring that there are 70,000 child labourers in the coal mines of Jaintia Hills, no college or University was willing to call that bluff. We are all so happy in our little comfort zones. NEHU with an annual expenditure of roughly 100 crores has become a little kingdom beyond the pale of RTI activists. There are of course expensive projects managed by some sort of a syndicate in NEHU which deliver no results or bring any gains to the academia as such. When the CAG Vinod Rai delivered the Convocation speech at NEHU this year and addressed the issue of corruption he probably had no inkling of the huge scams that are part of the NEHU legacy.
Our education institutions have become mere structures where critical thinking is quashed. Hence conflicts in our society have happened despite education. Unfortunately these conflicts are misdirected and are controlled by a clique that does not really represent the oppressed. I sincerely pray for the day when educated youth, armed with the weapon of liberal thinking and fired by the pedagogy of the oppressed turns Meghalaya on its head and takes control of the reins of governance. We can do without the clichéd ideologies of the political parties which actually suck because they mean nothing. We can also do without the tried and tested lot of political leaders. Their narcissism and bloated opinions of themselves evoke only pity and disgust.