By Patricia Mukhim
Frankly speaking, this article is prompted by the lazy but provocative slogans of the Khasi Students’ Union splashed across the city on Khasi National Awakening Day (April 4). I am a Khasi but do not subscribe to those slogans hence I cannot be appropriated by any Union or Group without my permission. I find the slogans distasteful, misleading and superficial. “Khasi by blood, Indian by accident,” was a slogan of those troubled times in Meghalaya. These were slogans used to justify violence committed on those who were excluded from the political definition of “Khasi.” The excluded were somehow caricatured as wrongdoers who deserved the wrath and scorn poured out on them. Interestingly no one considers as wrongdoers the political masters who are Khasi by blood but swear by the Indian Constitution thereby perpetuating ambivalence without trying to resolve the dichomotous stance and calling the bluff of the sloganeers. In all of this I see a vacuum in Khasi society. Where is the Khasi public intellectual who can rise above his/her ethnicity and provide an honest critique to the regular shenanigans adopted by pressure groups and the plethora of non-state organisations that claim to speak on our behalf? .
The only time one gets to hear snippets of profound wisdom being discussed by Khasi men, who in this society are considered as repositories of wisdom, is at a iing iap briew (home of the bereaved) where we go to pay condolences for a few minutes but spend not less than an hour discussing politics, society, culture, literature and what have you. Since such occasions are quite frequent the ideas discussed are also wide ranging. But try and get people to speak their minds on issues that actually impact us as a society and we will only get sign language. Societies across the world rely on public intellectuals to lead the way. Edward Said defines a public intellectual as someone who meddles in what does not concern him; someone able to speak the truth; a courageous and angry individual for whom no worldly power is too big and imposing to be criticised and pointedly taken to task. The real or “true” intellectual is therefore always an outsider, living in self-imposed exile, and on the margins of society. He or she speaks to, as well as for, a public, necessarily in public, and is properly on the side of the dispossessed, the un-represented and the forgotten.
Irving Howe says public intellectuals are free-floating and unattached generalists speaking out on every topic that came their way. They might be journalists or academics, but only because they had to eat. At the most fundamental level, ideas for them were not building blocks to a career. Rather, careers were the material foundation that allowed them to define and express their ideas. Jean Paul Sartre while addressing the role of public intellectuals as a social class says that they are the moral conscience of their age; that their moral and ethical responsibilities are to observe the socio-political moment, and to freely speak to their society, in accordance with their consciences.
In every progressive society the seasoned and experienced members of that society become mentors to the younger generation. Academics and thought leaders sit to dialogue with the youth and question their objectives, their political rationales and the actions they propose to take in crises situations. But look at us! Ours is a society where elders play safe and push the young to take up all sorts of weighty issues without having thought through any of them with the political and social sagacity that is called for.
Khasi society is at the crossroads. There is a near collapse of ideas; we suffer from a beleaguered morale and this is where the public intellectual should be stepping in. There is an urgency to listen to the views of economists, sociologists, historians, political scientists, retired and serving Khasi civil servants, playwrights, film makers, writers, poets and all those who agonise about the trajectory that this society is taking. Instead we are content to allow a bunch of school and college drop-outs to taunt us with slogans that are as shallow as their messengers. Sample this slogan: ‘If to love our Hynniewtrep land is a crime then we are all criminals.’ What is this Hynniewtrep land? Is it not a mythological understanding of the divine origin of the Khasis? Can myths and fables become the building blocks of a society that is grappling with a harsh economic future? What is the concept of the Hynniewtrep land here? Is it only the land inhabited by the Khasis? Is there such an exclusive paradise in Meghalaya today? What land are we talking about? Is it land as a cultural construct where we can breathe the pristine breeze and drink of the pure waters? Or is this a land which has become a commodity owned by a section of Khasis? Land where water is no longer a free resource because all water sources are now the property of the rich Khasi! And if there are rivers they are already too polluted and poisoned to the hilt and can no longer be used by ordinary mortals. Yet these rivers were once the sources of livelihoods a reservoir of fish and other marine life co-existing in a perfect balance with nature. Why are we romanticising the idea of land as a habitat of an exclusive, virtuous race when that is no longer the case? Is this not misleading the young and impressionable?
And for a society that claims a glorious past how could its elders have alienated themselves from the thought processes that are imperative to guide this troubled generation? The other very troubling slogan is, “They may take away our lives but not our freedom.” Who is taking away whose lives? Are groups like the KSU bothered to go deep into issues of landlessness among their own people? Their silence on destructive mining practices which have created toxic rivers tells us that they are in league with this coal mafia. Why? Can the KSU explain why they continue to support extractive coal mining practices with their multiple adverse effects on the environment but shout anti-uranium mining slogans? Are these not double standards? What sort of freedom is the KSU referring to? Do the poor of this society who have to pay through their noses for all food items from the market because there are non-state actors who collect taxes from goods that come into the state, enjoy any freedom? For them it is an existence with limited choices? They have no power to shout against the bandhs that disrupt their livelihoods! And the public intellectuals will not move out of their comfort zones to challenge such bandhs! The poor are caught between the devil and the deep sea. But they have no slogans because their voices are muted. However they are conveniently appropriated by every organisation that claims to fight for them.
The last slogan, Khasi by birth, Indian by accident’ is an oxymoron because we are known by our ethnic identity (Khasi) but have a larger nationality (Indian). These are slogans meant to incite the unthinking, explosive minds that are instrumental in burning people alive or hurting others physically. To that extent such slogans are dangerous.
The reality today is that genuine students have no time to spare for misguided political action. Many young students and scholars are able to see through the futility of slogan shouting but they have not yet converged to become the counterpoint to street politics. There is an urgent need for critical thinking, imagination and creative ideas which must become the new conversation of the Khasis. It’s time for Khasi intellectuals to speak and lead the way. To be shy at this juncture is to surrender our freedom to those who least understand the meaning of “freedom.”