By Heirtami Paswet
In October of 2019, the Jowai police took custody of a mentally challenged man named Rimialson Daw after an FIR was filed against him. His crime? A barely intelligible Facebook post directed at the recently deceased Archbishop Dominic Jala. In the following days, the local news outlets, especially the vernacular ones, were inundated with posts expressing outrage against him. As a citizen of the 21st century, I believe in free speech but I also find it childish to spread vitriol against religious leaders or any religion for that matter. I recall scrolling through Mr. Daw’s Facebook page and immediately thinking to myself that my resume paled in comparison to his. He had posts in unintelligible English claiming that he was once married to Aishwariya Rai, had served as a general in the Indian Army and was also a thermonuclear scientist. Many, of course, refused to believe that he was mentally unstable and hurled insults and threats at his family.
A few days ago, I stumbled upon an Instagram reel by 4Front Media where a man by the name of Reading War―who as it turns out is my brother-in-law―claimed that indigenous festivals like Chad Sukra and Behdienkhlam are meaningless as people no longer own paddy fields. I watched the entire video and the full context turned out to be worse than the snippet. Towards the end of the discussion, Kong Reading, fumbling for words, perhaps tried to articulate that since the indigenous culture derives its essence from agriculture, festivals like Chad Sukra and Behdienkhlam lose their meaning if the environment deteriorates. One would think such a serious issue to be treated with due consideration, instead the panelists broke into laughter with Rev. Kyrsoibor Pyrtuh mockingly christening the festivals “Chad Cement”.
Unlike Rimialson Daw, the panelists are not mentally ill and in any context, this is extremely patronizing and inexcusable. Most followers of the indigenous faith across the Khasi-Jaintia hills are scandalized by this cavalier attitude. This discussion exposes a deep-rooted misunderstanding of the indigenous faith by those who no longer practice it which often results in a dismissive attitude towards its festivals reducing them to meaningless extravaganzas and rituals devoid of any mythology or theology. A few writers like Omarlin Kyndiah, Hammarsing Kharhmar and HH Mohrmen have attempted to elucidate the essence behind indigenous festivals to rid them of any lingering colonial biases. However, it is clear that this bias persists among a large section of our society. If even liberal-minded figures like Rev. Pyrtuh and Kong Reading―who himself visits us every Behdienkhlam (which, by the way, is not an agrarian festival)―hold such views, imagine what sort of misconceptions the masses harbour.
In the past, educated natives were not followers of the indigenous culture and could publicly speak ill of it with impunity, however, today, with many Christians recognizing its significance and with education no longer being a monopoly of a single faith, things are changing. Even political parties and pressure groups now condemn (though not explicitly) any actions that are against the sentiments of the indigenous faith followers―which was something previously unseen.
The bottom line is, faith is a deeply sensitive issue all over this country where the right to free speech feebly applies. Personally, I prefer the American-style free speech (i.e., with no restrictions), but either everyone should have the liberty to say whatever they wish or, restrictions should apply universally.
The issue of environmental degradation is a serious one and the more we are aware, the better. The town of Jowai has over the years made headlines for its poor management of waste. To its credit, the Sein Raij leads an annual cleaning drive of both Iawmusiang (market) and Wah Myntdu but more efforts are required from the masses and the government. I hope everyone learns a lesson from this incident.