Editor,
In the article #MySelfieWithaCop, (ST Sep 13, 2016) Patricia Mukhim wrote about the Shillong police. I understand that some police personnel are annoying and insensitive but there are noble exceptions. Some are courteous and helpful including those at junior levels. Just yesterday a traffic constable, Chandan Singh, stopped all traffic to enable my old mother to cross the road and I am sure there are many more like him. So perhaps it is not good to generalize about the entire police establishment. May I remind you that along with officers the lower ranks also successfully and bravely fought the HNLC and are still fighting the GNLA and many have been martyred. May I also remind you that police personnel also come across many types of people from criminals to honest people, but mostly cheats, killers, rapists and other notorious characters. If police also generalize all people as criminals then the situation will become worse for everybody.
Ms Mukhim has access to the media and her opinions get wide publicity. I hope this letter with dissenting views is also published.
Yours etc.,
A L Marbaniang,
Shillong-2
Patricia Mukhim replies:
In my column mentioned above, I referred specifically to the officials of a particular police station hence the question of generalization does not arise. In my profession I have to engage regularly with police officers and men and maintain a cordial relation with them, which is why the behavior of the officials of that Police Station was irksome. Also, I wish to place on record my salute especially to the Shillong Traffic Police!
Loss of indigenous culture!
Editor,
Apropos the article, “Seng Khasi’s Mahatma moment” by Uma Purkayastha (Sunday Shillong Oct 02, 2016), I hope the author meant “Welsh Mission” and not “Wells Mission” as she had mentioned, which may have inadvertently missed the “welling eyes” of the SS Editor, too. Having said this, the nefarious activities of the Welsh Mission cannot be undermined at all. They are the ones who robbed the traditional Khasi tribesmen of their culture, tradition, beliefs, practices and all that is associated with their lifestyle amidst nature and in return inflicted a foreign religion and culture alien to their existence. In 1875, Babu Jeebon Roy urged the Provincial Government to the need for a Government High School in Shillong which could not fructify due to the inability of the government to spend on a new school in the aftermath of the then great plaque. But Babu Jeebon Roy did not give up and approached the Welsh Methodist Calvinistic Presbyterian Mission and corresponded with T. Jerman Jones to convert the Minor School, which he had started into a High School. But Jones rejected the plea on the ground that Khasi boys and girls were not fit for higher education (Ref: “The Spirit of Service” WD Jyrwa, Jeebon Roy Memorial Lectures). Later when he along with some educationists urged upon Jones again about upgrading his Minor School into a High School he was scorned by Jones, “We have come here to preach, not to teach”. That says it all and the doomsday for this region in fact started then, when slowly and gradually, the tribesmen were alienated from their hearth, home, traditional religious practices, customs et al and pushed into a setup that has its repercussions as we get to see today.
Mahatma or no Mahatma, that historic moment was momentary as there is nothing Mahatma-like about it. Nonetheless, Uma Purkayastha is correct in a sardonic way since the Welsh indeed ran a Wells Mission here.
Yours etc
PK Dwivedi
Shillong – 1