By Paramjit Bakhshi
It is said, you cannot step into the same river twice. The water that was there even a minute ago is replaced every moment by different waters, because the essence of a river is its fluidity. If you take its water and preserve it in a tank, it is no longer the river because it has lost its essence. The same is the case with culture. Its nature is also fluid and we cannot freeze it without destroying it. Cultures evolve and change with time. They are susceptible to influences that come with our evolving lifestyles.
Our education suffers from a serious defect in the sense, that it makes us confuse, our concepts with reality. We may learn about a rose from our textbook, without ever having seen one, smelt one, or even having touched one. In short we can feel knowledgeable about things, without the benefit of any actual experience. All knowledge to be useful, has to be experiential and not, just conceptual.
This is what is happening, when people talk about culture. They mistake it for its symbols. It is confused with some form of clothing, some type of foods, or dances, or songs. But like the river and the rose, culture too is a living entity. When you dance in a particular manner with feeling it is the dance of your culture; when you convert it into a mechanical on stage performance for somebody else’s benefit it becomes a symbol -like a rose drawn in a textbook, a river illustrated in a map or a picture of oneself.
The reality is that a culture cannot be preserved, if the concerned society is economically weak. The cultures of societies, which are economically marginalised, wither away. Though sad this is the harsh truth. Everybody wishes to ape American culture, because it is the culture of an economically strong country and throughout the world (including in our little state), people identify with its symbols. Nobody would ever want to follow the cultures of the disappearing tribes of Andaman and Nicobar islands, no matter how good they might have been. Chinese and Indian cultures are very old, and have many positive features and though they have survived many millennia, they have not been respected, because we have lacked economic power. As we grow economically, our cultures will exert more influence the world over.
It then follows that if we truly want to strengthen and preserve our way of life, we have to work out economically sound models of living. By disregarding these, we cannot preserve a culture. Yet the guardians of culture would have us believe, that economics is of no importance. We would be fools to believe that. It is precisely because we have neglected economics that Meghalayans have to worry about being marginalised. Today the indigenous people are leaving the state, to look for jobs. If we had developed good economic models, not only would we have created ample employment opportunities, but our businesses would have grown beyond our borders. With hundreds of companies listed on the stock exchanges, there isn’t even a single reputed one from Meghalaya.
To come up with economic models requires creativity and dedication. This is what Bhutan and Sikkim are attempting to do. We on the other hand have been mindlessly copying, the failed social models of other North Eastern states. The student movement blossomed in Assam where it morphed into a political entity and won two elections. Though they contributed precious little to the development of the state soon all north eastern states had student bodies with political aspirations. Militancy had its roots in Nagaland and though it only brought misery to the people there, it inspired similar movements in other states. Manipur is a state which has the maximum NGOs none of which significantly furthered the cause of its people. True the North East lacks good developmental examples, but even in the absence of any regional inspiration, Meghalaya with its good climate, better topography and education, and better connectivity could have still done well.
But we have lost our way by politicising every issue. Instead of focussing on our economic and social good, we have been, and continue to be, fascinated by the game of political musical chairs. Even today people are more interested in the political shenanigans, than in pursuing an economic agenda.
Economic prosperity requires inflow of capital. The Christian missionaries were the first to invest in the state. They educated us, and to a certain extent, gave us better healthcare. Though certain aspects of the culture may have been altered, certain others were strengthened. They were also responsible for introducing a script, which provided a boost to the local languages. In an effort to advance employability, they also imparted training in various trades and vocations. However investing in businesses fell outside their purview, and we needed other agencies to be the catalysts.
Since we have been being allergic to big business from outside, the only other player whom everybody looked up to, was the government. However none of the government run units, lived up to our expectations, and instead became a drain on the exchequer. One of them MeCL is very much in the news today. It perhaps could be christened Meghalaya Candles Ltd, since it barely generates a fraction of our electricity requirement and it may make more money trading in candles (of which it has encouraged the use) rather than in power. One could go on having fun amending the nomenclature for many such organisations (fund less MIDC as Idleness Development Corporation or MMDC as Monumental Destruction Corporation) but the sad truth is that they have neither grown profitably nor brought about substantial employment.
So where is our succour going to come from. We have made the investment climate in the state deplorable and no companies are coming here. Businesses here need to appease so many organisations and need clearances at many levels to operate. Our own tycoons, apart from one or two, have not made long term investments and are happy mining, trading or doing government supply and contracts. Everyone knows that the cost of doing real business in Meghalaya is very high and the process risky, cumbersome and complicated. Our cooperative sector also lies in doldrums.
All across the world, as is very apparent from the deteriorating economies of Europe, governments are being forced, to cut back on their spending. Sooner or later even the central government, already under pressure to reduce its fiscal deficit, is also going to tighten its belt, especially if all the expenditure in this area, remains unproductive.
So what is going to happen to our economy and our survival? Closing the gates to Meghalaya will not help us. The gates are wide open since we need to import almost everything from meat, fish, eggs, rice, liquor, fruits and vegetables and even labour and power. The only thing we seem to have in abundance is ego which unrestrained, will bring about our downfall. Unless we become economically viable we will be the ones crossing the inner line, in the opposite direction. Today some of us look nostalgically to the Raj era, and refer to it as the good old days. Inarguably in a few decades, unless we wake up, we will even remember this – our present – as the good old days.
Of course the river of time would have changed by then and we might then be stepping only onto dry pebbles of pain – sans song, sans dance and sans culture. There is a danger of this beautiful land becoming, a Scotland of defeat.
(The writer is a life skills trainer and can be contacted at [email protected])