By Avner Pariat
Here we go again! Yet another flare-up, yet another state of emergency in Shillong. And these are set to increase, in my opinion, as our economy continues to shrink. The work-force is increasing while employment opportunities remain stagnant. People are clamouring for every scrap and fighting for it tooth and nail. Unless there are radical changes we are doomed. Some friends of the slightly Right Wing persuasion seem enthused by these events of the past week in Shillong. They see it as a sort of expression of the anxieties and frustrations of the people. They are happy in a way because it seems to indicate, to them at least, that the erstwhile sheepish and complacent Khasi people have been fired up to address an old pending issue. They are delighted to see the crowd snub old political forces and personalities in a bid to exert a new form of activism/politics. While this does offer some satisfaction to those of us who are jaded we must not forget that this crowd of stone-pelters is essentially headless and therefore easily swayed and manipulated. This is the danger and that presents a great opportunity for many little Machiavellis to arise.
There is the emergence of a new type of hardliner these days and I think it is directly connected to the ineptitude of government to redress anything assigned to them. This new breed is quite vociferous and doesn’t care for KSU, FKJGP and others if those get in their way. When they smell blood, they go for the kill. This directness is also the problem. Over the last three years, I have come in contact with more and more of this type of “angry, young man”. They are often from very poor circumstances. Now that I think about it not much material benefits separate them from the Harijans in Punjabi Lane (Them Metor). It is just that they can purchase land here (well that is the hope anyway). In addition, many of them attempt to throw off all manners of socially conditioned control. So it should not be a surprise to learn that many of these men don’t really care too much about Church authority either. They question things much more than their predecessors, but the only problem is that they are getting the wrong answers. These cloud their minds more instead of allowing them to view things clearly and with calmness.
I read in the Shillong Times that it is assumed many of the trouble-makers are from West Khasi Hills. This is not a surprise statement because the Maharam/Maram people have always been accused of these types of activities from the earliest days. They are a good scape-goat to heap the blame on. I don’t see them as a threat to peace and order to be honest. There are a thousand ways of dealing with them without resorting to violence. What disturbs me most is the blind hatred that they thrive on and that is not from West Khasi Hills but located smack-dab in the middle of our own indigenous selves. We simply import these people to do the dirty work while we egg them on. There is a fear and a loathing in our Khasi community today which is toxic and it has been brewing for a long, long time. What was supposed to be a simple case of assault has snowballed into this putrid communal mess. No one wants to admit that they have done something wrong. Everyone claims to be a victim. Indeed being ‘victims’ has become a vital feature of our very identity. The sense of victimhood is not only confined to the Khasi people of course. But for our own sakes, we must interrogate its origins and try to attempt a new way forward.
Many people are upset that such things can still happen in Shillong but the truth is we have deep resentment towards dkhars. The people allegedly shipped in from West Khasi Hills can be bought to hate anyone but the hatred within the mind of the average middle-class Khasi is the most troubling. It is not drawn out of need (they don’t work in the bazaar, they don’t come into direct conflict with dkhars) but out of pure ignorance. They are purely jingoistic. They can afford to suffer the ill-effects of a curfew because they will get a pay-check at the end of the month regardless of what happens. They are also the most religiously conservative. Like many Khasis today, they have little or no personal interaction with people from different ethnic/cultural backgrounds and this is basically true for the whole state. If Conrad Sangma and his government are serious about the proposed Peace Panel then it should not be another boring old bureaucratic committee but should be vested with funding to sponsor “exchange” programs between the different peoples of the state. It is easy to hate the others, if we don’t see them as humans like ourselves. It is easy to hate that which we don’t know. These sorts of inter-cultural bridging programs have shown favourable results in foreign countries like Germany where immigrant Turks have become more integrated into greater German society. They have also been deployed quite successfully in places like Karbi-Anglong in spite of many issues. I think this is an important step if we are to avoid this sort of outburst in future. Think about it.
The Sindhis might tell us that they have been in Shillong since its beginning but I don’t know what they are like as a community. What about the Muslims of Shillong? What are they all about? What do the Mizos know about the Khasis aside from the occasional Halleluiah song and dance? This is not how we should live. We do not need false liberal tolerance, we need in-depth engagements.
There were so many stupid things that came together that faithful day: the police for not arresting the perpetrators sooner, the Punjabi attackers for their brutality, the Khasi racists for their, well, racism. The Public has had to endure all this inconvenience because of these lovely bunch of morons. This has been yet another event which has convinced me that the Meghalaya Police really need re-skilling especially with regards to their interactions with people. You are police officers, please act like it. Patience, kindness and action go a long way in building public trust.
As for the Harijans of Punjabi Lane, their apprehension is that they will lose out if that area is redeveloped after their relocation. A sensible government would involve them as partners. By giving them a percentage/stake in the final outcome/product (mall, parking lot etc) it would not only ensure that they are satisfied but it would also allow them to lift themselves out of abject poverty. It’s called humanitarianism (try it out sometimes!). None of us should support the redevelopment if it means that some contractor/businessman, close to the ruling coalition, gets all the benefits. It would mean that all this struggle we are going through right now was for nothing.
