By Avner Pariat
Why must we be led by cunning demagogues? Every populist leader has to be a fire-starter. To incite and instigate is the modus operandi. And what have they led us to? An uncertain future! In fact, who is even drawing up any worthwhile vision of any future which is workable, open and clear? In the absence of people with real substance, we have been forced to accept the loudest people as saviours. This will not, and has never led us anywhere. We are led astray towards the most impossible solutions which are non-agreeable to anyone and stubbornly we issue diktat after diktat proclaiming what we desire to be the one and only solution out there. Negotiation is dead. I wish fear didn’t rule over us, I wish desperation were not the only thing we know intimately. I wish people stopped to stand and smell the flowers.
The KHADC Lineage Bill as expected has been sent back for further reworking and it is highly unlikely that the Bill will be approved in spite of popular (but fragile) support. The many flaws of the bill were pointed out by many legal experts and their words have been prophetic. But the more important questions behind the Bill still linger in the air and will continue to float up into a fire-storm every few years until we are resolved to address them. The reality of the Bill is that it arises out of a number of bad ideas which have been circulating within our society for a number of years now. One of the main ideas has been the idea of “Khasi blood”. This is supposed to be a marker of difference which separates the Khasi from the non-Khasi. There are supposed to be varying degrees of purity and pollution. But scientific investigations have revealed that no “blood” is pure. That there are many different genealogies at work within different ethnic groups! One of the salient features of the Lineage Bill is this separation of “bloodlines”. It is not directly mentioned within the Bill but it is clearly one of the ramifications/goals.
One of the good things that has come out of this fight over the KHADC Bill has been the different questions posed over identity. It is clear that identity cannot be simply defined as is often done in legal formulations. In fact, we are in a conundrum today precisely because of the over-simplified definitions that we have grown up with. Many of these were Colonial ideas but we have accepted them as part-and-parcel of the Khasi way but those can be discussed elsewhere. How can we attempt to simplify complex human interactions and relationships? Can we really “bill” them onto a piece of paper? Those are the questions that every liberal-minded person has asked in this newspaper. But can I be very honest? On a personal front, I am as irked as anyone from the Right when I happen to meet someone with a Khasi surname but who is unable to form any coherent sentences using the language. It irks me when I hear stories about how a few non-tribals use the ST income tax exemption to their own benefit. These things happen and they can be very infuriating but then I remind myself, firstly, that sometimes people end up speaking a different language based on a number of personal reasons; secondly, that tribal businessmen are as cunning and manipulative as non-tribals. I remind myself not to judge someone based on their names but on the type of people they show themselves to be. I remind myself that everyone deserves a chance to prove themselves.
That is why culture and not blood is a much better marker for belonging. It should make no difference if someone is “khun shiteng” (a half-Khasi) or not, what is more important is how they “become” Khasi. My own grandfather, IM Simon, was a “khun shiteng”. His father was a Tamil, member of a linguistic family which has no deep roots in the region unlike the other non-tribal groups such as the Bengalis and Assamese. So if you’re talking about “genuine” and “non-genuine” cases, my great-grandfather would have been at the furthest end of the queue. Now it should have been that my grandfather spoke only Tamil, or Hindi or English. But he didn’t. And why is that? Because he was raised up to be and grew up into a Khasi. He was schooled and taught by the community in his beloved Laban to “become” Khasi. He eventually became a well-regarded teacher and writer within our vernacular. This was, of course, way before KSU, before KHADC, before STIEH, before Maitshaphrang, before SRT, before H S Shylla, before this obsession with “purity”. But many people will say: “Avner that was in the past, things have changed now.” Yes, it is true they have changed but not because there are more people and more pressure on certain resources and reservations. They have changed because we have lost an inclusive, warm-hearted, embracing community. No law can substitute for that. A couple of years back, in Jowai, on Christmas Eve, I had attended my neighbourhood bon-fire party. Many young children and teens were given the task of entertaining the audience and this included a young Scandinavian boy whose mother happened to be Pnar. He was not the only “khun shiteng” there, mind you. There are many in Jowai who are of mixed lineages but there is no sense of victimhood or excessive pride attached to that fact. It just so happened, it is not a big deal to them. The community is what matters in the end. Taking from it while also giving back is still a very important social task in many shnongs. It is quite nice to observe, but in this day and age such systems need our active support in the face of newer systems of societal organisation which are antagonistic to them.
Yes, we may look for the non-tribal bogeymen to blame and hunt down. But the real issue is a systemic one and no amount of distraction can confuse us forever. Much of these woes have been brought about by the inept and irresponsible attitude of the politicians who lord over us. That is the real meat of the matter and the sooner we wake up the better we will all be as a society. Can we really blame the scams and crimes of the powerful only on non-tribals? Yes and no. No, because it is a state (and region) where tribals hold sway over all political matters so they are directly responsible for the abuse. Yes, if we trace the origins of the systemic rot of the country to Delhi. After all, the swindling and con-games start from there, in the back-rooms of Parliament and the many ministry offices. And there for the most part, it is non-tribals who are at work and play. But then again, if we look beyond the bias of ethnicity, we start to understand that is not a question that involves tribal or non-tribal but rather the elites of the country. They personally benefit by scaring us and driving us to anger. These self appointed defenders are obsessed with preservation and the past, which are good things to an extent. However, they must also realise the fact that our people need to arm themselves for the future. In that regard, they are woefully behind the times.