By Sanjeeb Kakoty
The ebb and the flow of events in the north east since post independence makes fascinating reading. While the shadow of insurgency cast an eerie backdrop to almost everything here, the bright lights of development seem to be slowly pushing that shadow away. Without a doubt, emotional integration would take time and the fact that the national anthem of the country stops at Banga and does not even mention the land of Brahmaputra and beyond is taken as an indicator of that emotional divide!
But this supposed divide did not stand in the way of Anshu Jamsenpa from Arunachal Pradesh, and a mother of two, proudly waving the Tri-colour from the Everest twice in a span of five days and thereby becoming the first woman to do so! Incidentally, she broke the previous record of Nepal’s Chhurim Sherpa, who had climbed Mt Everest twice in a week in 2012. Neither did it stand in the way of Captain Neikezhakuo Kenguruse, a soldier in the Indian army who hailed from Nagaland. His moment of valour came when he was made a part of ‘Operation Vijay’. On the fateful night of 28 June 1999, Kenguruse, the Ghatak platoon commander was leading his team to capture what is known as the ‘Black Rock’ on the icy heights of the Drass Sector. He volunteered to undertake an almost impossible commando mission which involved attacking an enemy machine gun position on a cliff face. As he tried to scale the cliff, Kenguruse realised that on the sheer rock face his boots gave him no grip. So, at a height of 16,000 feet and a temperature of minus 10 degrees, he climbed it bare foot. Weighed down by a heavy rocket launcher on his back, his bare toes sought out every crevice and foot hold and he succeeded in scaling the rock. He used his positional advantage to good effect and destroyed the enemy position and helped capture the strategic top. It is another matter that he sacrificed his life. A Naga martyr for the Indian nation!
Was Kenguruse a Naga? Yes, a proud one. Was he an Indian? Yes, probably much more than many others. There is no dichotomy and there can be no confusion on this. India is a nation of many races, languages and faiths. The Indian concept of nationhood cannot be equated with other nations that either boast of one nation one language, one race and one religion or seeks to achieve it. We draw our strength from diversity not from an artificial mono culture of the mind. In this score, the north east can certainly lead the nation. Seventy years ago when India began her tryst with destiny, sceptics wondered if the nation would endure. The many voices of regional identity that emerged in areas such as the north east were supposed to be serious threats to the integrity of the fledgling nation. Specials acts such as the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) and the Disturbed Areas Act complemented the might of the armed forces to contain these divisive and disturbing voices. Precious lives were lost, a generation was scarred. But what emerged was an understanding that the Indian Constitution certainly provides the inalienable right to smaller sub nationalities to exist with dignity and as an integral part of the larger national identity. The sixth schedule of the constitution, the clear assertion of its secular credentials and the inherent respect for racial and linguistic diversity are the very cornerstone of the Indian nation.
Not that the transition to a nation state was an easy journey. The hiccups of separate electorate and the two nation theory had begun even when the independence movement was on. On the eve of independence, the north east, most of which was under the state of Assam, found themselves almost gifted away to Pakistan, due to a faulty grouping scheme. Amazing as it may seem, the then central leaders with Nehru at the helm of affairs showed little sympathy for Assam’s concerns and apparently wanted to accomplish the independence of the country post haste! Thus, Assam’s grouping with Pakistan seemed a fait accompli and it seemed like the end of the road for the region! It took a man of Gopinath Bordoloi’s character to fight it with all his might. Though it displeased and peeved many a central leaders no end, he had secured Gandhiji’s complete support and Assam remained with India!
After that inauspicious start as a constituent state of the Indian Union, Assam and the rest of the states often suffered from distinct signs of neglect coupled with emotional and cultural divide . The promulgation of acts such as the AFSPA, Disturbed areas act, the Restricted Area Permit (RAP), and the Illegal Migrant Determination Tribunal(IMDT) Act that had put in place two sets of citizenship laws for the country (before being struck off by the Supreme Court after two decades of its operation) had certainly contributed to exacerbating the emotional divide between the region and the rest of the country. Thankfully, this approach to governance has been undergoing remarkable change in recent times. The RAP is withdrawn, IMDT is history and the continuation of the AFSPA is all set to be decided by the state governments of Assam and Manipur. Small but important first steps in reclaiming the emotional trust of the region, but there is long way to go yet!
Attempts to address the sense of alienation by pumping in huge amounts of money worsened the situation by institutionalising corruption at all levels. Basic infrastructure remained absent, good governance took a back seat and the illegal influx of huge numbers of people from neighbouring countries caused a demographic imbalance leading to xenophobia and violence. There were no easy answers to sort out the problems. Building roads and improving communication was hardly a solution to the woes of the region. Not many people noticed a quiet revolution initiated during the Vajpayee era; that of building roads and highways that sought to link the remotest villages of the region. Suddenly, the equation started changing. Better communication meant better access to information and to markets. Technology enabled the RTI to become a fundamental right in the truest sense. Soon, there was a glimmer of Hope that all was not lost. Corruption, no matter how entrenched could be uprooted and the innate genius of the people would be allowed to flower. Manipur which was always a powerhouse of Indian sports, soon had company. Tripura produced India’s first woman gymnast to qualify for the Olympic finals in Gymnastics in the form of Deepa Karmakar. No Indian football team could function without a name or two from the region, be it Manipur, Mizoram, Meghalaya or Assam. Shillong Lajong became a household name in the north east and carved a niche for the region in the Indian football I-league scenario. Individual stars in the form of Mary Kom, Shiva Thapa, Dinko Singh and the list goes on and on!
Away from the football field, in the political arena, Mizoram set the standards of having the cleanest elections in the country, through the laudable initiative of a youth group backed by the church. Assam has put the chief of the state public service commission behind bars for corruption. The list is certainly set to grow longer as new leaders committed to probity and development emerge and the public becomes better informed and politically aware. It is this awareness that made the common man of the region support not only demonetisation but also every move that the government makes to curb corruption and ensure transparency.
Probably, the most symbolic moment of the coming of age of the north east happened when the young Christian lady Temsula Imsong from Nagaland made it her mission to clean the Ghats of the Ganga by designing a campaign called Mission Prabhughat. She got a pat in the back from none other than Prime Minister Modi. In turn when the Prime Minister visited Meghalaya and went to the village of Mawphlang, he tried his hands at the traditional drum. When he got the beat right, the drummer actually gave him a pat on the back! Even the Prime Minister can do with a pat on the back and he had to come all the way to Mawphlang to get it!
(Sanjeeb Kakoty is a faculty at IIM Shillong. He can be contacted at [email protected])