By FabianLyngdoh
It was only during the colonial rule that an entity called‘British India’ which included the present India, Pakistan and Bangladesh came into existence.The British India was Gandhi’s dream of an independent India, while the present India was created according to Mountbatten’s Plan which effected the division of the British India into two Dominions: India and Pakistan on 15th August, 1947. Mr. Jinnah’s dream of an independent Pakistan that would include the whole of Bengal and Assam in the East and the Punjab in the West also did not materialise. So, in truth, the India we have today is a modern historical entity which is still struggling to achieve its constitutional ideals.
Before the advent of the British rule, the various tribes in North East India had their own well-defined ethnic identities and cultural boundaries, though their territorial boundaries could have changed from one generation to another according to their migratory occupations and existential encounters. These tribes had no idea of a realm such as an India or an Indian culture. They knew and recognised only their own identities and cultures, and that of their immediate tribal neighbours.Today, the North Eastern Region is surrounded by four countries: China, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Myanmar, and share a 4500 km international border, butlinkedto the Indian mainland only by a 22 km wide corridor,which connects the State of Assam and the northern part of the State of Bengal.All the other States of North East India have no direct geographical connection with mainland India, and from the context of ethnicity and culture, North East India is a part of South East Asia rather than that of India. This is an established fact which cannot be manipulated otherwise, but to be accepted as the baseline.
Since independence and partition, the idea of integrating the tribals into the Indian mainstream came into being as if that mainstream is already in existence. But the people of India have agreed to constitute India into a “Sovereign, Socialist, Secular, Democratic,Republic.’ These are the ideals of the mainstream to which not only the tribals, but all Indians should be integrated. Since India is a multi-cultural society, the concept of unity does not presume the existence of a monolithic culture.Hindu culture cannot be the mainstream because Hindu society itself needs to undergo drastic changes to establish a casteless and classless society with justice and equality as prescribed by the Constitution.Till today reference is still made to the effect that every Indian is a member of a caste.The process of integration which we should follow is the principle of‘unity in diversity’ with justice and equality. Each group must be integrated into the common political economywith the ideals of the Constitution as the cultural mainstream.
There are many academics and intellectuals from the mainland who have a clear concept of the tribals’ situations and the issue of national integration. But there are also those who seem to take overcharge after the British colonists and continue to view the tribals as exotic primitive and backward beings whose value lie only as objects of academic study and elites’ intellectual discussions.Perhaps they had borrowed certain theories about primitive peoples from western academics and try to cut and pastethe tribals just to fit into their terms of reference. Some assumed to have discovered that large chunk of the tribal population still reels under poverty, social backwardness and illiteracy, and thata large section of the tribal communities is to be brought at par with the advanced sections of the Indian society. Some even charged the tribals of refusal to be identified with the ‘mainstream’ or to get absorbed into an imaginary universalistic culture and hence assert their separate identities. What does it mean that tribals are socially backward? What categories constitute that advanced section of the Indian society? And, what is that ‘mainstream’ to which the tribals refused to identify?If a study with reference to social backwardness, poverty, gender inequality, illiteracy and injustice be undertaken among the rural villages in mainland India, these negatives would be found to be more rampant there than among the tribals in the North East India.
There are people among the tribals who are as rich as people in the mainland, and there are tribals who are as educated as the educated Brahmins. But there could be families among the Hindu society who are poorer than the poorest tribals. The high caste elites and economically powerful would do injustice to their fellow caste members if they try to convince them that they are superior beings in spite of abject poverty and injustices, just because they are born in a superior caste. Cultural protection is prescribed in the Constitution for the cultural minorities, but economic protection is the prerogative of the poor majority regardless of castes, race, tribe, gender, faiths and beliefs. That is the tenet of our constitutional justice. Just because a minority section of the upper castes in the Hindu society are prosperous and in control of academic, political and economic powers, and hence, constitute the advanced section of the Indian society, it does not mean that the majority population of Hindus are educated, rich, developed and free from inequalities and injustice.
The tribals of North East India had already looked to the east and to the south and conducted traditional trades with the neighbouring people in Myanmar and the present Bangladesh since time immemorial, and they had survived well in their traditional international trades. It is only after independence and the partition that their traditional trades have been blocked. In the new look east policy, trade between India and South East Asian countries isconducted mainly by sea routes, and the North East has been bypassed because it is considered not as safe enough to act as a gateway to South East Asia. Not safe enough as a gateway for whom? It is safe for the tribes of the North East,and safe for all Indians with justifiable and equitable relationships; but it might actually be unsafe for some people from the mainlandwho try to squeeze through the 22 km Siliguri corridor only to take advantage of whatever opportunities available and keep the people of the region alienated from their own lands and the opportunities provided by their strategic locations.
In the Chinese aggression in 1962, the Chinese troops had advanced up to Tezpur and India was clearly on the defensive. Our teacher in primary school had told us that Prime Minister, Pandit Nehru had morally surrendered, and had given the farewell message to the people of North East India through the radio.There are also apprehensions that since the tribals of North East India have ethnic and cultural ties across the borders, serious security problems may arise if their activities are not effectively monitored, and hence, required to be heavily militarized.So, national security could be the main concern, while development of the Region is only an entry-point.
The North Eastern Region requires basic socio-economic infrastructural development to pave the way forlocal capacities and capabilities for the region’s sustainable development.The tribes prefer to be in India and to defend India than with any other country; what they dread is that people from other parts of India might, in the name of development, squeeze through the narrow corridor andsuffocate their minds and hearts with oppressive and stratified cultures; andtheir lands, which they consider as legacies from their ancestors, might be overtaken by others beyond redemption.Let the tribals of the North East find economic and cultural security with India, and let the tribal lands be the realms where the tribals thrive, and not as virgin lands to be invaded. If on the other hand, the people of the North East find their life more comfortable and secure with Myanmar, with China, or with Bangladesh than with India, what right have the people of the mainland to object? Other tribal communities in India are right in the middle of the mainland unlikethe tribals of North Eastwho live separately on the frontiers. There is nothing much to interfere other than mutual help and mutual respect. Indian nation can be built on political maturity in democracy, not on racial, cultural or religious ground. It would be futile to delve into the mythical Ramayana or Mahabharata in an attempt to invent a cultural context of linking the tribes of this region with the mainland because it is a glaring fact that they are very much closer to China and Myanmar than India on that count. At present, there is no established ideal mainstream even in the mainland India.The Indian mainstream which all communities in India have to be integrated is prescribed in the Constitution which we still have to achieve.