By H H Mohrmen
In a certain family a mother was discussing with her daughter the bandh called by the HNLC. The grandson who overheard the conversation jumped up in joy saying, “So we are going to have another two days off….hurrah!” In another family on the morning before the bandh, another mother reminded her daughter not to forget to purchase extra groceries since in the next two days all shops would be a closed. These are familiar conversations in most families when a bandh is announced. Bandhs have desensitized us to the meaning of this exercise. It has turned us into nonchalant citizens looking out for any reason to take a break from work and our normal duties.
Our attitude towards bandhs is so casual that we take it for granted that anybody has the right to call a bandh. We have learnt to accept bandhs unquestionably. It is not easy to describe the attitude of the Khasi-Pnar people towards strikes and bandhs. We have become lazybones who cheer every time a bandh is called. Is there something wrong with us collectively that we seem to be happy every time someone imposes a diktat on us? Aren’t we supposed to be hard working people? In Jaintia hills before the advent of Christianity people worked for seven days and rested only on Muchai the day after Musiang the market day in Jowai. Musiang is payday as well as shopping day hence people rested and spent the next day in fun and merry making. In the eight days a week calendar of the Pnar people, Muchai is the only day when people rested while slogging for the rest of the week. If one is studies the tribe closely one would see that this practice still continues among people who follow the indigenous faith especially during festivals. By tradition the final and penultimate day of every Behdieiñkhlam (except that of the Muthlong) always falls on Muchai. Till very recently the importance of Muchai was always taken into consideration by the eight localities of the Jowai town which still organizes the theatrical festival called Bamphalar. The theatrical troupe would start their Bamphalar on Musiang and continue till Muchai.
The hill people are known to be hard working. They did not know the concept of rest except while sleeping at night. A visit to any village would see people making baskets, cones or broom sticks even while they bask in the sun sitting on their verandahs. Their hands will always be engaged even while they converse with each other. They would slice bamboos and knit them up or carve something or the other even while walking to the field or an orchard. Old people whose age would not permit them to walk to their plantations or orchards anymore would have a small vegetable garden adjacent to their houses to keep them busy. Working hard was once the trait of the Khasi Pnar but now all of a sudden that has changed. And it would appear that the Khasi-Pnar people living in urban areas have no interest in hard work anymore.
Why have we become so lazy? Or is this merely an urban phenomenon because in the villages, no matter who calls a bandh it is always business as usual. People go on with their daily chores without any hassle; schools are kept open. It is only in the towns and cities that everything comes to a grinding halt during the bandh. It is also a known fact that people from the rural areas will come to sell their goods if only markets are open. Daily wage earners from the villages in the suburbs of town or cities will come to work but provided there are conveyances that they can commute to and from their villages. It is the people in the urban areas who are paying heed to every strike and bandh while the rural people are at the receiving end. If at all we want to change our current lackadaisical attitude to bandhs the onus would be on the people who live in the urban areas to take a stand against such diktat. We need to stop respecting any bandh because it is undemocratic. If pressure groups are not innovative enough to come up with new forms of protest so be it. But we should stop tolerating bandhs in the future.
Often we blame government employees for the bandh culture in the state. They are accused of taking advantage of any kind of protest called by any organization as an opportunity for another paid holiday. But isn’t the government also to be blamed for taking a soft stand against any kind of illegal protest, especially the recent bandh called by an amorphous group against the NGT order. Has the government arrested those who called the bandh or even registered an FIR against bandh callers? It is funny in a way because the anti NGT order stand is one issue where the HNLC and the government are on the same page; hence the soft stance taken by the government only proves its double standards in dealing with the bandh. The government should use the same yardstick while dealing with all bandh callers. It cannot distinguish between a bandh called by the HNLC and other groups because they are both based on the same issue. Hence condemning one and turning a blind eye on the other bandh is an act of hypocrisy of the highest order.
In the HNLC press statement calling for a 48 hour bandh which was carried by all newspapers, the spokesperson of the group was speaking in two voices. On one hand the militant group called for a bandh to protest against NGT ban on coal mining while on the other it also expresses its concern over the degradation of the environment. If the organization is really concerned about the environment of the state then the only way to protect it is by regulating mining – there is no other alternative. But why is the organization against the NGT ban on coal mining which is only pressuring the state government to regulate mining in the state. It looks as if the HNLC is not even clear on what it wants to say. It also claims that the ban is to protest against the loss of livelihoods of the poor people as a fall-out of the NGT ban. As a matter of fact, for the poor people it matters not if they are working in the farms or the coal mines or whether they separate slate from coal. It is all the same – a backbreaking job. The people that we claim to be very much concerned about will find no difficulty in changing jobs from farming to other forms of labour. That work transition is what they have been doing all along. The question is whether it really about the poor? Or is the bandh about those whose spending power is gradually being affected by the ban on coal mining? Because if the bandh is really about the poor people then HNLC should realize that NGT ban on coal mining is a blessing in disguise.
Bandhs have a negative impact on the lives of the people and the economy of the state and we have both the KSU and HNLC to blame for introducing bandh culture in the state. Now it is being copied by every other group. It looks like bandh is the only form of protest that pressure groups in the state know of and Meghalaya is the only place where people can call a strike at the drop of a hat. Meghalaya might even beat West Bengal or Jammu and Kashmir’s records of having the most number of bandhs in a year.
Not only does the bandh culture affect the economy of the state but even kids are beginning to see these frequent bandhs as normal and have started accepting them without question. This is a dangerous trend and if this is allowed to continue it is going to have an impact on the future generation of the state. If this is not stopped then in no time we will have to change the name of the state from Meghalaya to Bandhalaya.