By D Kitbok Ryntathiang
It was believed that post-independence, the euphoria of freedom and self-rule as it was known, and the land and its people would have all the peace and rest we needed to make our lives prosperous. Change will come but, as John Kotter in his book ‘The Heart of Change’, says ”the core of the matter is always about changing the behavior of people, and behavior change happens in highly successful situations mostly by speaking to people’s feelings”.
Browsing through the pages of newspaper each morning, one gets lost in the myriad of voices being spread about by all and sundry. From the screaming news headlines to the jottings and opinions; the local newspapers fill their pages with government actions or inactions, with politics and political party matters; down to administrative success or failures. Then there is news of deaths and rapes that seem to occur every other day. As an individual of pre-independence India, what we avail today even without social media is mind boggling. The vernaculars media are plenty and so too other language media. It reminds me of what was available at that time. A newspaper must come all the way from Calcutta (as it was then known, not Kolkata) to be delivered to the house by the delivery boy as early as 5:00 PM or even later than 8:00 PM extending even to the next day when flights do not land in Guwahati. The only daily paper available at that time was “Hindustan Standard” and “The Statesman” in English.
The main news that one got through the media at that time was mainly the national news and not much local news. It must be mentioned here that it was only at that time and after the adoption of the Sixth Schedule, that the Khasi States became united and known as the united Khasi & Jaintia Hills otherwise the Khasi states were fiercely independent, and no such unity was there. In fact, if one was to read the writings of Pemberton and others it could be seen that the English rulers did not recognize the independent Khasi States and it was only the Jaintia Kingdom that was recognized as a state, and those living in the west of the Jaintia Kingdom were known only as the marauders and wild people who made life miserable for the rulers. These hill people would every now and again foray into the plains to loot and kill.
It was believed that post-independence, the euphoria of freedom and self-rule as it was known, and the land and its people would have all the peace and rest we needed to make our lives prosperous. Change will come but, as John Kotter in his book ‘The Heart of Change’, says ”the core of the matter is always about changing the behavior of people, and behavior change happens in highly successful situations mostly by speaking to people’s feelings”. Now that the country is free, people will themselves build and innovate to bring peace and prosperity. It was a change everyone in free India was looking for, and expectations were sky high. However, it may not be out of place to mention here that freedom for the Khasi States was a misnomer possibly, as they have never been colonized by the British till then, but the colonization of Jaintia Kingdom had taken place as the Jaintiapur Kingdom had been colonized by the English through outright win or deals as the English were famous for.
The very adoption of the Constitution in 1950, caused much discontent when the provision that Hindi shall be the official language by 1965, phasing out English was added to it. This clause caused alarm and rebellion in the non-Hindi speaking states in the 1960s. Hence parliament had to adopt an amendment to allow English to continue. It can be said that language was what united India at the time for the freedom movement. Now it was language that ended that unity, and caused unrest. It saw the beginning of regionalism in the nation and thus extractive institutions were created. (Daron Acemoglu and James A Robinson in their book “Why Nations Fail” wrote, “The most common reason why nations fail today is because they have extractive institutions” like in Zimbabwe. In January 2000, Fallot Chawawa oversaw drawing the winning ticket in a lottery organized by the partly state-owned bank. As the public statement of Zimbank puts it “ master of ceremonies Fallot Chawawa could hardly believe his eyes when the ticket for Z$100,000 prize was handed to him, and he saw the name of His Excellency RG Mugabe written on it.” President Mugabe had won the lottery. This after he had awarded himself and his cabinet salary hikes of up to 200 per cent. Extractive institutions!””). The pension provided after one term; the self-raising of the salary are prime examples of extractive institutions and this includes all the NGO’s of today!
Peace and Rest are therefore an elusive dream for the public in general as it belongs to an exclusive group, defying the Constitution’s preamble that says “…….to secure to all its citizens JUSTICE, LIBERTY, EQUALITY AND TO PROMOTE AMONG THEM ALL FRATERNITY ASSURING THE DIGNITY OF THE INDIVIDUAL AND UNITY AND INTEGRITY OF THE NATION”. Malcolm Gladwell in his book “What the Dog Saw” wrote about the bankruptcy of ENRON, one of the most admired companies in the world, (it even had the footprints in India) at the trials of Jeffrey K Skilling who had built the company, who after his lawyer had said ‘he was innocent of every one of these charges, the judge called Anne Beliveaux, Senior Administrative Assistant in Enron’s Tax department, who had been asked to address the sentencing hearing. Her statement went like this, “How would you like to be facing living off sixteen hundred dollars a month, and that is what I am facing” she said to Skilling. Stating that her retirement benefits had been wiped out by the ENRON bankruptcy, she also said, “And Mr. Skilling, that is only because of greed, nothing but greed, and you should be ashamed of yourself”. Another witness said, “while you dine on Chateaubriand and champagne, my daughter and I clip grocery coupons and eat leftovers”. No peace and no rest for them because of extractive behaviors.
As one looks at these circumstances surrounding our State, it can be said there are now more extractive Institutions than inclusive ones. We need to look at the more finite behaviors and why we have come to the present situation. To emphasize, at independence the nation was looking to flourish, rest and obtain peace but by the mid 1950’s the clamour for, “No Hill State No Rest,” broke out. Now “No ILP no Rest” comes to the fore. What really causes these? It is more like a house without windows that will kill us all except for the privileged few, where dynastic politics has crept in. It is sad to see that after 74 years of freedom, and 49 years of statehood, the demand and the desire for peace and rest seems greater than ever. Perhaps there is a need to examine the reasons even as the youths seems lost, politics has shattered their dreams of a utopia, religion has not delivered; the educated are jobless. Some have a degree but no education and that cry for peace and rest grows louder.
Would it be possible through these pages to examine and bring hope to a nation that seems rudderless and which is plunging headlong into an abyss? There must be a hope, a silver lining, a rose among the thorns, not just a land of the clouds.