BY HH Mohrmen
Shillong was once the capital of Assam and it can also be said that it is the first city in the region which began in the colonial era. Since then and till today, whenever the Khasi-Pnar from various parts of the state travel from their villages to Shillong, they would say “ngan leit sha sor” (I am going to the city or the urban area). But is Shillong a city really? If so what percentage of the city is under the urban agglomerate and how much of the city is still under the rural setup? And the most challenging aspects are our own views and attitudes and hopes for the kind of future we aspire for Shillong.
The creation of the two new Blocks in Mawlai and Mawpat was welcomed with open arms. But if one looks at the list of the villages included in the two blocks, one will find that almost half of Shillong falls under the two newly created Community and Rural Development (C&RD) Blocks. Still there are shnongs (villages) we consider to be part of Shillong city which are included in the Mylliem Block too, so the question is whether Shillong qualifies to be called a city.
If for administrative conveniences, more than half of what we consider as Shillong city is included under the C&RD Blocks then is Shillong a ‘sor’ or a ‘nongkyndong’? Or is Shillong an urban area which is also a rural area? People who live in Shillong, particularly in the suburbs of the city love to say that they live in Shillong but they would also proudly display their allegiance to their respective villages. Claims like, “I live in Shillong but I am from Mawlai/ Malki/ Nongthymmai/ Riatsamthiah, Mawkhar etc are common. Fortunately or unfortunately, this is the kind of mindset that prevails in the minds of the people who live in the city. We want to be ‘nongsor’ (urbanites) yet we don’t want to let go our myopic attitude of not wanting our locality to be part of Shillong which is growing and is fast becoming a cosmopolitan city.
We crave for all that is modern and are proud that Shillong has Dominos, Pizza Hut, KFCs, Pantaloons, Westside etc which are symbols of a city, yet we are not willing to let our minds grow and accept the reality that we are living in an urban locale. It is like our heart is in one place but our minds are somewhere else. We want to be called city dwellers yet we are partly nongkyndong (suburbans).
When there is a traffic jam in the city, we blame the traffic police, the tourists and all sundry but we don’t realize that we are the real cause of these problems. We want Shillong to be a city, but we also want it to remain a nongkyndong and we don’t want any changes to happen. The only change that the people welcome with open arms is to create more C&RD Blocks within city limits and that is the kind of development we want. Traffic problems persist because our city is growing but our roads have not. It all boils down to the kind of mindset we have. We live in a city but we are still governed by our respective dorbar shnong. We live a flamboyant life style and wear branded clothes and we buy big swanky cars but in many cases the roads in the rural areas are much bigger that the ones in Shillong.
Shillong is a city which has not grown. If at all the city grows it is only in population and the space it covers. Other than that it is but a city with many villages. Like any city Shillong’s major problem is waste disposal and again we blame the government, the Shillong Municipality, Meghalaya Urban Development Agency etc when more than half of Shillong is under the jurisdiction of the C & RD Block. How can we blame these agencies when the major part of Shillong is not under their jurisdiction? What about the KHADC? What has the Council done, when most parts of Shillong is still under the different dorbar shnong?
Shillong is a city of many villages and it cannot work as a single entity and that is where the problem is. Take for example the effort to clean Wah Umkhrah. Almost all agencies had tried their hand at cleaning the river, but they have all failed miserably. The reason is because it is a city of many villages, which means if the village downstream of the river try to clean the Wah Umkhrah but the village upstream do not cooperate or remain is indifferent then the entire effort becomes futile. This important issue has never been addressed from a holistic point of view and it is almost impossible to get all the dorbar shnong in the city to agree on one single issue, hence cleaning the Wah Umkhrah remains an unfinished agenda.
Perhaps it is not out of place to mention that even the KHADC under which the dorbar shnong is supposed to function has failed in its efforts to save Wah Umkhrah because each dorbar shnong has absolute authority over its supposed territorial jurisdiction.
We are good at pointing fingers, blaming others for the problems that we face and we are quick at looking for scapegoats to blame for anything that is happening. Right now there is so much hate in the community because the pressure groups are trying to outdo each other to prove which of the group loves the jaitbynriew more. The HYC and the KSU are even wooing each other’s members to one fold and in the mêlée the non tribal is becoming a scapegoat. We blame the entire gamut of problems on the immigrants and anybody who dares touch the non tribal becomes an instant ‘Facebook hero.’ And when the two ladies tried to prevent the ‘Facebook hero’ from assaulting a non-tribal man (as was reported recently), they were branded ‘ba iashah dkhar (taking sides with a dkhar).’
A young Khasi man is in two minds. He claims to love his jaidbynriew but he does not respect its profound value system. Where is the ‘tip hok tip sot’ (justice) that the Khasi-Pnar used to be proud of? The Khasi-Pnars always set their cases in the altar of ‘ka nia ka jutang’ reason and argument and fights happen only when reason and arguments fail, but now blows and petrol bombs take precedence over anything else. The same young Khasi-Pnars who regularly attend church services every Sunday have no remorse on attacking a person without any rhyme or reason just because he is a non tribal. Do we need to again ask Jesus the age old question, ‘’Who is our neighbour?’’ Where are the merciful and where are the peace makers?
The people in Shillong are in two minds. We live in a city yet we owe allegiance to our dorbar shnong. We are urban yet we are rural. The problem is we cannot solve urban problems by using rural tools. Similarly we will not be able to address all the urban issues with a rural frame of mind. Shillong’s problems will persist because of the kind of mindset that people have – from our attitude towards others to our mind-sets about everything around us.
One can also ask : Can we solve our traffic and road problems by using MNREGS? Instead of looking at the problem in Shillong from an urban perspective, we now have to use the schemes and projects available under the rural development scheme to do so. Shillong’s problem is complex not only because the people who live in the city of many villages are in two minds. The worst part is also because we have a government which has no mind. A government which fought for Shillong to be included in the government smart city project has in one fell swoop decided that more than half of the city is under C&RD blocks.
If we want to address the problem Shillong is facing we need to look at the city problem from a holistic point of view. We need to look at Shillong as one entity and not as a constituent of various dorbar shnongs. Toki Blah in a write-up had earlier suggested that we need a dorbar sor (urban dorbar) to deal with the problems of our sor (urban areas). This is the crux of the matter.