By Patricia Mukhim
It took the death of two teenagers to bring us face to face with what has been happening surreptitiously for decades. If any philanthropic institution desires to provide education to our youth here they are welcome to do so, without any strings attached. Children should be able to study in a liberal environment where they can think what they want without being coerced to recite prayers, sing bhajans or hymns with the ulterior purpose of proselytization. There are enough divisions in this state between the Khasi and Jaintia, between the Khasi-Jaintia and Garo and between the three tribes and the “others.” The there is this unbridgeable chasm between the Niam Khasi, Niamtre and the Christians. Here too the twain can never meet because both groups are suspicious of one another and also mock and ridicule each other. Forces adversarial to our progress as a state fish in such troubled waters.
There are sections in the Niam Khasi/Niamtre who are not averse to aligning with Hindu belief systems and practices and seem to be cosying up with the current political dispensation running the country. Individuals are free to hold any political ideology but should they use their faith as a propeller to political power? If so they are as complicit as those they scorn for being Christians and believing in a foreign God. At the very least the Christian missionaries set up some of the finest educational institutions and with funds coming in from distant lands. Perhaps where the Christian missionaries might have erred is in making entry into those institutions conditional. That is that they would admit children of Christian faiths first before allocating seats to others. But those millions of non-Christian students that have studied in Christian institutions have never complained of being coerced into becoming Christians. Many of us studied alongside students of different faiths and never once felt the pressure to conform to Christian tenets. In fact we were fortunate to have studied in such enlightened institutions.
Now coming back to the point of destitute students being sent to study in distant Karnataka and reduced to living in decrepit, sub-human conditions and the fact that nearly all those students from Meghalaya are from the Niam Khasi/Niamtre, the point being made by the leaders of the indigenous faith is that they have also started educational institutions for their children in the manner that Christian missionaries have done but that those schools do not get government patronage as schools of other faiths do. If that is borne out by evidence then it shows up Meghalaya as a state that leans towards a particular faith only and that is unconstitutional. But Meghalaya has also supported institutions like the Ramkrishna Mission and to their credit the Swamis have set up institutions, not in urban hubs but in the far-flung villages. You have flourishing RKM schools in Mawkynrew, Sohbar, Laitlyngkot, Myliem among many others. These schools have admitted the poorest and provided students a set of uniforms, school books free of charge. Like the Christian missionaries the RKM monks too get help from philanthropists across the country to be able to afford their charitable works. In fact, the RKM schools are doing more for rural Meghalaya than most other schools, apart from providing quality education. And those who have passed out of RKM schools have never been felt the pressure to adhere to the Hindu faith. The schools offer a liberal space for ideas to grow.
If the parents of Niam Khasi/Niamtre children don’t feel comfortable sending their kids to Christian institutions or to government run schools- the first because they don’t want their kids to convert and the second because of the sub-standard education provided, then aren’t the RKM schools a better choice. I know of Swami who tour the villages urging villagers to send their kids to their school and with no cost. If the Niam Khasi/Niamtre are not getting government help to run their educational institutions why has that issue never been discussed in the Assembly? Why have petitions never been given to the Government? And if given why is the media not privy to such petitions?
In recent times the Aga Khan Foundation – a philanthropic institution with schools across India, had sent their representatives to Meghalaya to scout for aspirational children but who are inhibited by poverty from attaining their goals. These representatives met with State Government officials and took them into confidence about the purpose of their visit and also sought government assistance to facilitate their engagement with various schools. Finally they were able to select their set of students who are now studying in an educational ambiance they would never have experienced here. And all free of cost. They have a comfortable stay with large playgrounds and are not indoctrinated into any religion.
The question to ask the Lei Synshar Cultural Society (LSCS) is why are they sending only children from the Niam Khasi/ Niamtre to study in these ashram schools if the purpose is not to indoctrinate those children in an equally alien faith – Hinduism because, Niam Khasi/Niamtre are avowedly indigenous faiths. If today two teenagers have died due to the inhuman treatment they received in that ashram is the LSCS not culpable too for allowing that to happen? Where else other than Karnakata have they sent students from Meghalaya? This Society needs to be held accountable for surreptitiously sending kids across the country for the purpose of ideological brainwashing.
Any philanthropic organisation with a heart that cares for tribal students from Meghalaya, particularly for those that come from deprived backgrounds should enrol such students in a transparent manner and with the knowledge of the government because if anything should happen as in this present case, it is government that must rush in to do a clean-up job even while the LSCS looks on in abject apathy, except to defend its case.
We have had enough of a divide and rule model of governance in Meghalaya for the last 50 years. If the adherents of the Niam Khasi/Niamtre have genuine concerns they should get the Government to listen to their pleas and those concerns should be addressed. The fact that people of the indigenous faiths have been classed as ‘Hindus’ in official documents and have lost out on benefits due to them as members of the Scheduled Tribe. There has to be a discussion on this issue in a public platform and this ought to be taken up in parliament. Tribals adhering to the indigenous faiths cannot be classed as “Hindus” because as tribes we don’t practise the caste system and the other paraphernalia of Hindu rituals and nor do tribals believe in idol worship since they inherently believe in a Creator (U Blei Nongbuh Nongthaw) as opposed to the legion of Hindi gods and goddesses. So, to appropriate the tribals of Meghalaya into the Hindu fold is sheer political opportunism and luring innocent kids into this project is a crime.
The problem is the absence of a united platform where people can come together and discuss some existential crises afflicting our state. Politics thrives in divisions. Politicians cannot handle a unified voice of the people. They need us to fear someone or something so they can be our saviours. I had delved into this issue of a perpetual fear psychosis in my article last week. This fear of the unknown enemy has to be dissected and reduced to an entity we can identify and deal with. Unless we do so the agents that thrive on spreading fear will keep is in a perpetual victimhood mode.
As tribes we have the propensity to romanticise our past. But the past is potent and nearly always involves memory trafficked into an inflammatory myth. In fact, psychologists aver that when the past overwhelms it can turn victims into oppressors. Not to remember the past or to be overwhelmed by memories of the past are equally dangerous. Only a balanced view of the past in a non-obsessive way can help us shun victimhood and accept divergent narratives about ourselves for after all we are an oral history people and we cannot take legends and myths as absolute truths. To interpret our faith from the past into a constructed definitive present is potent apart from being divisive. We are people like all others. There is nothing unique about anyone of us.
Now that the children from Karnakata will be brought back from that infamous school, let us all contribute towards making their lives more pleasant so that the memories of that fateful event that snatched away the lives of their two companions are not allowed to mar their future.