By Obadiah Lamshwa Lamare
It is noble to realise that everyone is entitled to their own opinions, but there’s a privilege not to be missed, in expressing one’s opinion. Recently the walls of the regional party that has for so many years held the claim of being the party that keeps the Khasi culture and identity at heart, opened its doors to include a certain section of the Khasi intelligentsia. Supporters of the party boasted of the party’s new upgrade. Within its perimeter this new group will seek to promote and pursue the politics that have made no significant impact since Meghalaya attained statehood. This may be because of a steadfast consistency that the party has displayed or because of the stagnant nature of its perspective. Regardless, the new members by the mere act of enrolling themselves seem to have given the HSPDP a new lease of life. Their very credentials seem to give the party a make-over and possibly usher in a new vibrancy, an intellectual’s endorsement so to say, the kind that was missing and which is very much needed by the party leadership.
It is, however, surprising that amongst the newly enrolled members are lecturers and professors, whose traditional and noble purpose is the moulding of young minds, and without being too expectant, instructors in the art of transcendence. Their association with a Party that has showed itself to be the epitome of parochial politics in our state and the most vocal of nationalistic and parochial concerns, creates a lot of confusion for the concerned. This begs the question as to their intentions and motives when they joined the party, and since their intentions and motives cannot be known beyond what was claimed, we will have to make a few assumptions. The first assumption is that they are well aware of their status and the level of development that accompanies society’s intellectuals, and have grown fond of the rational and universal way, the norms of modernity and such. It will not be too wild a guess to say that their constant exposure to education and reason have gifted them with wings and they have been able to transcend conventional walls. They are enabled to grasp the essential truths of democracy and universal reason, enabled to think beyond themselves, beyond their community and other primordial concerns. These traits of theirs’ may have, therefore, compelled them to politely and formally infiltrate the party so as to bring about a change in direction. If such be the case, then we will not be too optimistic to think that the era of parochial, national and exclusivist politics has reached its nadir and that fraternity, equality and liberty will finally set themselves as prime values within the Khasi community. We assume that progress and conscious and universal growth will be pursued and humanitarian concerns will replace nationalistic ones. If this is what transpires at the back of their minds, then the Party leadership has much to fear and the society has much to cheer.
The other assumption is that the hand of the system is playing its part earnestly. The emergence of intellectuals from any community is a mark of development, a sign that things are not what they used to be. However, development is not entirely a natural phenomenon. Human interferences and interventions have a great influence on its manifestations at any given time. In our situation the development that has come is a partial and limited one, courtesy the ruling elite near and far, a designed trait of the capitalist system. This is not only in the sense of narrow and unequal development but also in the form of deficient development that manifests itself in the fact that we still hold on to primordial and sectarian values. We have failed to let ourselves grow. Our claims of modernity are half bred ones, for our situation is conditioned more by the fallouts of the system than by its nobler constituents of rationality, modernity, universalism, democracy and liberty. Therefore, what were accomplished were not the culmination and the grooming of intellectuals but the creation of the elite in the different communities. The elite became familiar with the advantages offered by the system and also became determined in outpacing its counterparts from other communities. In such a scenario, the new upgrades that enrolled themselves with the party have done nothing more than registering for the rat race with new credentials and subsequently instructing others to do the same. The entire episode is a recruitment scheme aimed at better equipping the Khasi elite in its quest for more preponderance. With members of the Khasi intelligentsia joining the party there is an aggravation in more sophisticated form of ethnocentric pursuits. This assumption appears to be a more probable one.
This probability is enhanced by the peculiar situations in our State, where the middle class had benefitted much from the exemptions and the graces of the Indian government but it had on many accounts failed the Indian State; we mean the Modern Democratic State. It is here that we see our middle class ornamented with the latest luxuries but without the essential notion of citizen responsibility. Apathy looms over the uncommitted sections of our middle class and it claims them as its own. While the other section of the middle class is aware of its own interests and continues to render support those elements that harbour parochialism and pursue ethnocentric politics. Therefore, we see the middle class in Meghalaya as an opportunistic lot, which have failed to take over the role of being the progressive, articulate class it should be. The middle class appears to have fallen short of changing the course of our political development and therefore it has failed to play a part in ushering in inclusive politics and inclusive development.
It has been proclaimed that no community is exempted from the march of History. Primordial elements will eventually disappear and they will take along with them their political manifestations. This note of optimism is however haunted by much louder notes of caution. One of the main signs that breed caution is the fact that the inevitable revolution, an inevitable correction of the illogical world system that Marxists proclaim, seems to have been delayed in the worse form imaginable. The increasing tensions in multi ethnic, multi cultural Meghalaya may one day break out violently in the open with frustrations exploding in their own varied forms. As long as intellectuals keep aloof or in the worse case, when they shed their responsibilities and confine themselves to primordial, sectarian concerns, solutions that will benefit all will never be found, and as long as common points are not explored and common needs are not met, there will never be peace, progress and harmony. However, the delay of solutions may be countered by conscious human collaborations and cooperation, which will work in tandem with the forces of history and this, will have to start from the grassroots, from the localities and, as a special mention, from the classrooms. The question remains, whether the enrolment of these intellectuals will really make the HSPDP a party capable of grasping the inclusive norms that democracy entails or whether they have just worked for ornamenting the party.
We have continually failed to see alternatives, we have continually been one sided in our thinking, we have lingered in the past and on the conservative’s camp for too long. Intellectuals should not be involved in running a rat race or scurrying through the maze successfully. Instead they should work at demolishing the maze. Intellectuals should be more concerned with cultivating wings and not with building fences and erecting walls.
[Obadiah Lamshwa Lamare is a Research Scholar in the Department of Political Science, NEHU]