By Patricia Mukhim
It is commonplace for someone like me who is fathered by a non-tribal or someone who marries a non-tribal to be called by polite Khasi society as ‘Men Die Ri’ meaning a traitor whose loyalties lie with the ‘scheming’ non-tribal who they have over the years managed to caricature as the evil incarnate. Since the early days of statehood, the lack of vision by those who were mandated to craft out a vision for Meghalaya’s people but failed to do so and hence the state’s non-development and its economic and educational backwardness, are all attributed to the ‘dkhar’ who is seen as exploitative, calculating and Machiavellian to boot. The fact that most of us received our education from non-tribal teachers and made it in life is all but forgotten. Why is it so hard to accept the basic fact that we are all humans and have the same frailties and strengths in equal measure. Just because a person is a tribal does not make that person infallible.
The reason for this article is a conversation I had with a gentleman from Kerala who has lived and worked here for over 30 years. This person said to me, “Your Meghalaya will never develop because your people live in constant fear of the “outsider” as if you will never have to encounter that outsider once you cross Byrnihat. Your people are so afraid of selling land to non-tribals including those who have lived here for generations, yet you have no compunctions about selling acres and acres to a fellow tribal who then sells the land back to the government at a profit. The poor among you are getting poorer and no one is bothered about them, least of all the state.” He went on to say that if land were to be adequately surveyed and alienated for creation of livelihoods, it would make much better sense for Meghalaya since the unemployment figure here is staggering.
What one realises over the decades is that people like me who are termed “Men Die Ri” actually have nothing to sell to the “outsider” and nor do we do benami businesses. On the contrary it’s those so-called pressure groups (erroneously termed NGOs) that create a fear psychosis among the gullible tribals. They are actually controlling the semi-literate and illiterate through regular mind games. Fear and hatred are two potent tools to push an entire population to even take up arms against a group they are told is exploiting them; has taken away their share of jobs and are controlling all the businesses in the state. They forget that we are all part of the country called India and that if we can work and live outside Meghalaya others too have the right to do likewise in their areas of expertise here. In Meghalaya there are already specific laws and institutions that favour the indigene over the so-called non-tribals. We are not living in a separate country and therefore we need connectivity whether that be by road, rail or air.
One fails to understand why a fear psychosis is being created over the coming of a railway line into Khasi and Jaintia Hills and why we have had repeated spineless governments that could not take decisions that are in the public good for the long run and why governments are invariably held to ransom by these pressure groups. What’s the point in having a government that cannot assure the public of the basic development premise – such as the railways which will make all goods coming from outside the state, especially essential commodities such as rice, sugar, dal, vegetables and fish which all cost a bomb here because of the road transport cost and the extortion by sundry groups. What’s the point in having a top-heavy police force if they cannot even control extortion with a firm hand and put the kingpins in jail. If small offenders can be arrested why are the big fish escaping and living like kings with all the facilities available with one phone call? This extortion culture is what is retarding the progress of Meghalaya.
Sadly we have become a state with inaugurations galore on events with fancy names. Each inaugural function is followed by a speech that makes us feel we are closer to becoming lakhpatis but such dreams are short-lived because they are dreams crafted by some with ingenious minds who hardly understand the capacity of our people to own and implement the idea beyond the initial baby steps because there is no hand-holding after the inaugural session is over and done with.
In a liberal democracy people live with a certain level of optimism, faith and a sense of security but that’s far from happening in Meghalaya. Some people are constantly telling us we are not safe; that we need more protection and therefore we need the Inner Line Permit when the world itself is shrinking and people travel places with ease. But as a society even the educated have learnt to acquiesce rather than fight the forces of pessimism that actually are taking us on a retrograde step rather than on the path of progress. We are a society trapped in our own fears but we cannot even name those fears. Many people in closed doors speak of the so-called seng bhalang (organisations for the greater good) with disdain but don’t have the courage to call them out and point to the retrograde steps they have forced the society into.
Khasi society is today trapped in a cultural prison to which they have to conform or be termed traitors to the cause. But what is the cause? No one has really spelt out what the cause is but we are all enlisted into that ‘noble’ cause. Philosophers like Nietzsche tell us that society is not a zero sum war but a conversation of negotiations. Does Khasi society ever get together to discuss issues that affect us all? Why do we believe that everything that the pressure groups do is in our larger interest? What is the point of that Khasi National Dorbar Hall if it does not meet to discuss the socio-political and economic issues confronting us? What one sees today is a fractured community with the traditional support systems crumbling.
For decades together we tribes of Meghalaya have lived like we are a culture under siege and spent precious hours discussing culture. But does this culture bring food to our homes? We spend considerable time and resources reliving the past through dances and songs and are overly concerned about identity but hardly invest in discussing the future of our youth. Reality is a lot messier than for us to waste our time and resources enacting the idea of a culture under siege.
In Meghalaya what we have lacked for the longest time are leaders of courage who can motivate us to have hope, aspirations and who can inspire us to have a vision of a better life. What we have instead are leaders who arouse our dark passions and fill us with hatred and fear – two negative emotions that are intended to keep us constantly under threat. Evolution has wired us to be extremely sensitive to threats which psychologists call the “negativity bias.” The wrong kind of leaders and politicians have used resentment and fear and stirred up all the negative emotions to win votes. They make us believe they will protect us from these so-called threats but once they are elected, they forget their constituents and give them only the crumbs. That’s the political stratagem used by Meghalaya’s politicians and their collaborators the pressure groups to win elections.
And in 53 years we have managed to create a society sharply divided into the “high class” and the poorest of the poor who scramble to make a living setting up a shop that earns them just under three hundred rupees a day with so many mouths to feed, forget about sending their kids to school. This is the real Meghalaya which no one is keen to talk about because everything is Shillong-centric. We have realised by now that none of the elected representatives really care about addressing our most pressing problems. They are there to continue to remain in power because that power is an intoxicant they can’t live with.
So before we label people as ‘Men Die Ri’ first do a deep dive into the meaning and metaphor of the words and do a reality check about who the real traitors of the ‘jaidbynriew’ really are.
