Patricia Mukhim
I am a Khasi by birth and therefore I legitimately ask why the Khasi Students Union (KSU) needs to display its muscle on April 4 every year (barring this year) and to call that day – Khasi National Awakening Day. Firstly the KSU is a students’ organisation and should be taking up the issue of the tawdry and appallingly worded text books endorsed by MBOSE for our high school students this time. The KSU never took up this issue. It was brought to the notice of the Government from reports and letters in the media. In fact the KSU has taken up more politically convenient issues than those relating to education. On March 20, last the KSU observed their 40th anniversary and took out a rally through the city’s commercial areas. As expected the members of the students’ body started hitting people walking on footpaths with the flag sticks. And again, as expected, those who were hit were non-tribals. One person was grievously injured and shops in the city centre of Police Bazar downed their shutters. The shops mostly owned by non-tribals know the outcome of not doing so. The law has never been able to protect them against such mob fury which visits them time and again like a bad dream.
Now what do those students (I am not sure that all those in the procession are students) who unleash violence at every given opportunity when they are part of a mob, actually want to articulate? What is their grouse? Who is their grouse against? What are they angry at? Why do they target non-tribals who sell stuff in Police Bazar or Bara Bazar with trading licenses issued by the District Councils? Why is it so easy to take on defenceless and vulnerable business people who pay their taxes but who are left to fend for themselves each time violence erupts in this city? We have not forgotten the first Khasi National Awakening Day on April 4, 2012. On that day there was large scale vandalism on shops and individuals beginning from Laitumkhrah and which carried on all the way through Police Bazar. The routes too are always strategically chosen. Why the District Administration is unable to foresee the trouble is a no brainer. And why the KSU vandals are never apprehended is also a mystery. In fact, no one has been arrested in the past too for burning alive a tea seller and an electrical shop owner amongst others. That’s the law for you in Meghalaya! And since no one has thus far sought accountability from the justice system for the poor conviction rates for all forms of crimes, the police continue to enjoy their pay and perks for non-performance. A 5% conviction rate is an apology for policing.
David Brooks in his article, “Understanding Student Mobbists in the New York Times (March 8, 2018) has correctly summarized that student mobbists manage to combine snowflake fragility and lynch mob irrationalism into one perfectly poisonous cocktail. The difference between student mobbists elsewhere and the KSU is that the latter also includes several lumpens who have left school a long time ago. These are youth who have fallen between the cracks created by our unimaginative educational system and who are labeled drop-outs and for whom the same system has not created any institutional mechanism for integrating them and providing them employable skills. These youth are angry because they see no employment opportunities and are staring at a bleak future ahead. So one cannot blame them for being easily instigated to commit outrage!
However, my question to the KSU is whether they have the mandate of the Khasi People to kick-start a cultural revivalism in the name of the Community. Can the KSU appropriate our consent? But they have done it and each time there is violence on the streets in the name of Khasi Nationalism then we as a society are guilty by association and are held guilty because of our silence. Believe me such news of violence inflicted by a mob spreads fast and people quickly begin to judge the entire community as being in league with the KSU in their mobbism.
There is a video clip that has now gone viral. It is a short speech delivered by Rev Dr Kethoser Kevichusa on the occasion of Naga Day (Jan 10, 2018) which is a delight to listen to and full of wisdom. In fine, Dr Kevichusa speaks of three kinds of people in any given society. This threefold distinction was made by public intellectuals and was first stated by the founders of Democracy in ancient Greece. The first kind of people are idiots. An Idiot is not someone who is mentally deficient but is a private, self centred and selfish person who lives for personal gain and personal interests only. He/she has no public philosophy, no knowledge, no skills, no character, no virtues to contribute to a flourishing society and community. The idiot only lives for personal pleasure and treasure. The idiot is an upgraded barbarian.
The second type are tribes people, not in the sense of belonging to a certain tribe but having a tribalistic mentality. This group is unable to think beyond their small tribe or small group. Their primary and only allegiance is to the tribe. Their tribe is their god and their religion is tribalism. Tribes people are always afraid of things that are different and alien to them. They are always suspicious and fearful. They deal with different people and difficult situations with intimidation, with force and with violence. For the tribes people the ideal is the ‘warrior’ or the war-maker. The Greeks then speak of the third category of people who they call the ‘citizens.’ The citizen according to the Greeks is one who has the skill and the knowledge to live a public life and to live a life of civility. The citizen realizes that she or he is a member of a common wealth; knows her/his rights but also knows her/his responsibility. The citizen fights for rights but with an awareness and respect for the rights and interests of others; of neighbours, of the smallest of minorities and the worst of enemies. Citizens make a civilized society which truly lives up to the name of society and understand that society means friendship and friendliness. Citizens settle their differences with civility.
What an awesome speech and what courage to be speaking before several Naga tribes on a significant occasion. I wish we had such courageous leaders in society who can put the mirror to us Khasi people and to those that appropriate our consent – the KSU- and show them at what stage of civilisation we all are.
Looking at ourselves and our reactions today, I would think that many of us still live the lives of idiots and have not transcended to becoming citizens, let alone good citizens. A good number of us are also tribalistic and believe in our tribe right or wrong. So we never see the stye in our eye but observe the speck in the eyes of our neighbours, especially those who don’t speak our language or live our cultures because they don’t belong to our tribe.
The KSU must take time off for introspection and look inside instead of focusing on the extraneous factors and blaming others for the fact that Meghalaya remains backward even after 46 years. If Khasi National Awakening Day is always accompanied by violence then does the KSU want us to believe that Khasi Nationalism is inherently violent? History does not show the Khasi people to be violent at any point in our history – oral or written. Violence is a learned attribute, if we can call it that.
So the next time the KSU wants to observe Khasi National Awakening Day I wish to give notice that I voluntarily withdraw that permission for the KSU to appropriate my consent. I have not signed a contract with authoritarianism.