SHILLONG: Member of Rajya Sabha, Rakesh Sinha, who announced adoption of Kongthong village from August 15 and work towards its development as a model village and a tourist attraction, has dreams of transforming this sleepy village to a bustling hub of economic activities without having to dilute its pristine homogenous culture and ethos. In an exclusive interview to The Shillong Times, Prof Sinha talked about his vision and action plans for Kongthong and dwelt on what retards pace of development in Meghalaya. Here are some excerpts:
ST: Prof Rakesh Sinha, how did you first hear of Kongthong village and what made you take up the issue of it being listed as a heritage site by UNESCO?
RS: The culture and people of North East reflect originality. There is an ethos of universalism. That’s why they are accommodative and also adjust with people of different regions. However, they have been treated like subjects of study and object of politics. It needs to be radically changed. They are in fact sharers and contributors in our national ethos.
There are many things which, I believe, the rest of the country should learn from the people and culture of the North East. Their love for nature, non-materialistic lifestyle etc., distinctively make them superior to many regions and people. All these entice me. I have been trying to understand cultural life of North East in general and Meghalaya’s progressive traditional life in particular. During my regular discussion with a friend whose deep interest in research keeps us interacting with each other, we discussed about Kongthong, the whistling village. Both of us were excited but I never realised at that point that it is not only exceptional and unique but also unknown to our own countrymen. What shocked me is the lack of awareness of academics, intelligentsia and political class of Meghalaya, too, about their own great cultural tradition.
I found a parallel in Kuskov, a village in Turkey which has been recognised by the UNESCO as a cultural heritage. I raised the issue about the uniqueness of Kongthong in July 2019 in the Rajya Sabha. It received huge support from the members. Many of them were dumbfounded to know about Kongthong and proposed to visit the village with me.
During the meeting of NEHU Court (I am its member) last year, I requested the VC to encourage research on not only Kongthong but also micro-traditions of Meghalaya.
The media, including The Shillong Times, then highlighted the issue and a national daily reported that 22 more villages claimed the same characteristic. This is the way to understand our own age-old traditions and culture and preserve them as intangible cultural heritage.
ST: When did you visit Kongthong and what was your impression of the people there?
RS: When I raised the issue in the Rajya Sabha, the people of Kongthong were elated. I received many phone calls and requests to visit that village. An activist of Seva Bharti informed me that some of them planned to come to Delhi to meet me. Touched by this, I planned my visit to Kongthong in mid-August 2019.
It was a wonderful stay and I met with local inhabitants. They waited for over two and a half hours in a hall. I visited some of their homes and tourist spots. I have never been received with such warmth anywhere. They cooked and offered locally prepared food and fruits. They organised cultural programmes and also prepared a song (whistle) as an invitation to Prime Minister Narendra Modi which I tweeted. It was a memorable journey and stay.
Innocence, simplicity and contentment were key features I found among the people of Kongthong. They have been self-reliant. They have ambitions to contribute to culture and development. The women are confident and play vital roles in day-to-day life. Tourists also get a homely response from the local people.
ST: The people of Kongthong say they have four priority areas that need to be taken up by those in governance or by any MP who has the heart to help them. Those are a) Roads (b) Healthcare (c) Education — at the moment they have only two primary and one upper-primary school (d) a fruit-processing centre since they grow pineapples and oranges but are unable to transport them to the markets due to the poor road conditions. Would you like to adopt Kongthong under the SAGY scheme to speed up development of the area? It would be a great blessing to them if you did so.
RS: I am grateful to you for raising a very pertinent issue. It is good to talk of great traditions but this should not obfuscate the issues that people of Kongthong genuinely face in their day-to-day lives. Sometimes we praise and popularise traditions, art and music and forget the perpetuators of this great heritage.
Kongthong is near the Bangladesh border and it takes over three hours to reach from Shillong. The roads are in very poor condition. Moreover, they also require good educational centres and promotion of cottage industries. They have the potential to develop as a tourism hub. We can easily popularise it and support the people to create infrastructure for tourism. It is unfortunate that they have to travel long distances for their medical treatment.
I declare through your popular daily that I own this village. From August 15, 2020, Kongthong is my village and I owe moral responsibility to do whatever I can with the support of union and state governments and will mobilise local resources. Kongthong must be the centre of tourism activities and a model village. I hope that the state government will cooperate in lifting this village from the cycle of backwardness. We will together bring Kongthong to the international map as a great place for tourists.
ST: North East India is poorly connected within itself and with the rest of the country. Many rural villages are suffering due to want of motorable roads. Development has passed them by and they are voiceless. Would you like to take up the issue of rural roads or their absence in the North East, in Parliament and also ensure that their construction is diligently monitored?
RS: Infrastructure development in the North East has been tremendous since 2014. North East has never witnessed such sincere efforts as has been happening since Narendra Modi became the prime minister. North East has a special place in his heart. There is a reason for saying so. It is not an exaggeration. He visited the region many times before the 2014 Lok Sabha election, which is disproportionate to the number of Lok Sabha constituencies. After becoming the prime minister, he visited North East and encouraged cabinet ministers to visit the region, which is a record in itself.
Airports, roads and research institutes are being developed.
Nevertheless, there are many developmental issues, educational problems in the North East. The state governments must utilise central assistance honestly and for that micro and macro planning is imperative.
There are some elements that obstruct developmental activities and invoke undesirable social and religious issues to create civil anarchy. They should be addressed properly and sternly.
Secularism in the North East is like a forest where every plant and tree grows without interventions. Here we find hundreds of dialects, languages, tribes with similar traditions. This is its beauty. And this beauty should unfailingly remain in the consciousness of the people. Even the prime minister considers North East as a great asset, both in human resources and also as inheritors of India’s great cultural life. We need to amicably resolve social issues which include the binary between tribal and non-tribal. The people of North East can do it and it will help the region to attain greater heights.
Last time I visited a village near Tura and shared the dais with Chief Minister Conrad Sangma. He was kind enough to accept many suggestions of which one was to fight corruption, red-tapism and middlemen, which are reasons for the slow pace of development. I also suggested that the name European ward be changed. We are now a free nation. This place is neither owned nor inhabited by the British. Let it be named after a great person of Meghalaya.
