By Fabian Lyngdoh
The emotional and intellectual war with regard to the Inner Line Permit (ILP) has almost reached a saturation point. Where ever there is deficiency in reason, it is made up by sentimental bombardments, and where ever there is a dead absence of sentiment it is made up by a call to 21st century ideology, while the real crux of the problem is sidelined. Bah Toki Blah in his write-up (S.T. September 3, 2013) has hinted on this crux of the problem which is attempted to be sidelined. Bah Toki said that by shying away from this fact nothing has been brought to us but trouble and confusion. Understanding of this core issue would provide answers to all seemingly unconnected social movements.
The “mynder” (outsiders) issue has its origin in the situation of Shillong, and with the withdrawal of the strong hand of the colonial power. Today this grudge started spreading to other parts of the Khasi and Jaintia hills. Under the strong colonialist power the babu’s with their families from the plains were respected and tolerated. A sizeable number of these babu’s and Europeans were integrated as fathers in many of the Khasi families. Some even took part in asserting the Khasi tribe’s identity and rights in the social and political sphere in the face of the great ocean of Indian society. Shillong was the capital of the whole north east India for a full hundred years. On this account, the non- Khasi inhabitants of Shillong feel that they are permanent settlers, and this capital is a common inheritance, and hence belongs not only to the Khasis. Enough rights have been given to the non-Khasi inhabitants in the Khasi and Jaintia hills especially in Shillong, in business, government jobs and other services. But if slight disturbance to the exercise of these rights crops up, our non-Khasis inhabitants feel offended and injured because there is the feeling of this common inheritance. If we visit Aizawl, the capital of the State of Mizoram we would find not a single non- Mizo owning any shop there, big or small including the street hawkers. Non-tribals are seen only as labourers in road repairs and other construction jobs. But it seems that that is not seen as discriminatory because Aizawl is not a common inheritance.
In the issue of the ILP, some try to tone down that it should concern with the influx of illegal migrants, meaning the Bangladeshis and the Nepalese. Others suggest that it should also concern with the influx of non-tribal Indians into the State of Meghalaya. While the spirits of the Sixth Schedule and the ILP concern with the influx of non-tribals and every other non-indigenous tribal into the area of a particular tribe. That is why, not only the non-tribals but the Khasis too have to obtain an ILP before entering Nagaland. In this spirit, even in Meghalaya, the Garos cannot enter into the Khasi and Jaintia hills without the ILP and the Khasis cannot enter into the Garo hills without the ILP. The Sixth Schedule and the ILP were not enacted in terms of the States but in terms of tribes. Hence there is an indissoluble complication in the case of Meghalaya which has no cultural ground but established as a state only on ground of a common hills state out of Assam. The Karbis and the Dimasas too were invited to be part of this hills state but they rejected.
To be frank, what is in the minds of the Khasis or other tribes and races is that all “outsiders” mean all those who do not belong to their own tribe. The problem is that this feeling is provided existence in the Constitution and legal enactments and brewed in the very exclusive and defensive character of every community. Our non-tribal and non-indigenous tribal residents of Meghalaya feel that they are the permanent settlers as they have nowhere else to go but they still enclose themselves in their own cultural cocoons, socialising and indoctrinating their own members as distinct, apart from the indigenous tribals. A real cosmopolitan outlook in any society is hindered by this cultural restriction. The Khasis feel that they had opened their society enough to the outside world. Their women are not restricted to enter into marital alliance with other people, while other people restrict such social interrelation with them. Either this is due to the inherent inferiority of the Khasi male or due to cultural restriction that other people are imposing on the freedom of choice of their women is not known. Whether it is in the 15th century or the 21st or 22nd century, women still carry the cultural symbol and looked upon as embodiments of a tribe or race. So unless there is a natural exchange of women in marriage the talk of a cosmopolitan society has no meaning.
The immediate tribal neighbours of the Khasis are the Garos in the west, the Karbis and Tiwas (Lalungs) in the east and north east. The cultural origin of the Lyngngams is in the inter-marriage between the Khasis and the Garos and the cultural origin of the concept “Bhoi” is in the inter-marriage between the Khasis and the Karbis and Lalungs. In the past natural integration of tribes took place without grudge and hindrance because there was a balance exchange of men and women in marriage. Khasi being a more dominant tribe, the result of this tribal integration is leaning towards the Khasis. So the Lyngngams and the Bhois are today considered as Khasis. Any community which settles in the territorial area of another tribe or race should either integrate with the tribe or live marooned in a cultural island, or yearn for going back to Zion if there is any. The Israelites mourned by the rivers of Babylon because they could not sing their Lord’s song there. Tagore lamented because the world is broken up into narrow domestic walls. So he prayed to God for intervention because he knew that it is humanly impossible to solve that problem. In the natural order of things, mutual respect for each other’s domestic walls is what is meant by, “Indian unity in diversity”. On the other hand, problems would arise when someone tries to enlarge his control and build his domestic walls in the compound of another. The world is getting smaller but farther.
Twenty five years ago, Daniel Bell predicted the conditions of the world in 2013, in The American Review, 3/1988. He said that while the international economy is increasingly integrated, many polities are fragmenting…the fragmentation may be linguistic, national, tribal following the historic ‘fault lines’ of these countries. The nation State is becoming too small for the big problems of life because there are no effective international mechanisms to deal with the problem of capital flows, commodity imbalances, the loss of jobs and the several demographic tidal waves; and too big for the small problems of life because the flow of power to a national political centre means that the nation state becomes increasingly unresponsive to the variety and diversity of local needs, and local political centres loses the ability to effectively control resources and make their own decisions. The nation state has become increasingly ineffective in coping with economic problems. So we see international economic integration and political fragmentation. We should not be surprised at the demand for the Garo State or the Hynniew Trep State because it is in the natural order of things. It arose from the ever increasing acceleration of individual freedom in the guise of a “little collective”.
To conclude, policy makers should realise that the present demand for the implementation of the ILP is not only to prevent the influx of illegal migrants, or Indian non-tribals, but to prevent the influx of all outsiders without natural and simultaneous integration. Non-Khasi communities permanently residing in the Khasi hills too should respect that feeling, as they expect the Khasis to respect their own little cultural isolation. The Khasis too should realise that exclusive ethnic conservation and cosmopolitan development cannot go together. That kind exclusiveness shall be achieved when the East-West corridor running from Tripura, Assam, West Bengal and to the rest of India is completed, and when the attempt to extend railway lines is abandoned.
(The writer can be reached at [email protected])