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Mayur You have very
carefully chiselled and honed his defence against a veteran. No doubt like the
rest of net-colleagues, I do appreciate the niceties of the repartees
exchanged while I’ve a feeling we are getting distanced from the points raised
for discussion, one of which
is: Alienation of tribal people from the mainstream due I had been a Government servant half
of my life working at Shillong mostly and had the good fortune of knowing at
close hand hundreds of legislators and administrators of the State for two
decades as an official reporter although in 1973 I left the job.
What I want to assert is that the
so-called caste Hindu Assamese had never alienated the tribal people though it
appears the so-called caste Hindus take the blame upon themselves for doing so.
First of all Assamese society is not a very caste-bound one. Please don’t go
back to the hoary past. I am considering the post-Independence period only when
a few politicians belonging to the
Assamese community got a chance to govern themselves like the rest of
India. The representatives of the tribal and scheduled caste people participated
in the process fully and I believe
got a very fair deal from the nation, particularly the people of the Hills. If
there was a graduate among the Khasi people, he or she had every chance of
joining the civil services unlike a Plains graduate because of the reservation.
In those days it was difficult for a Matriculate Assamese typist to get a job
either in the plains district or at Shillong but it was not a problem for a
non-Matriculate Khasi girl to get the job of a typist. They did have grievances
but these were rather exaggerated and not genuine. For example, they blamed the Government for
allotting housing land to
Government servants within and around the town so that the employees could
attend their offices on time. These
were never permanently settled; initially leased for ten years or so although
the tenure was extended from time to time. A local Khasi did not have this
problem; in fact he or a she exploited the situation to their advantage. In
those days there were not many houses available to let; so it was a step the
government of the time thought as essential. Besides, the Khasi Hills were then
a part of Assam. Even today only a small area is free from the tribal belt, that
is the Shillong Municipality area.
The Khasi people greatly benefited economically because of the capital of the
State being at Shillong while the Plains including the rest of the hill
districts including Arunachal suffered in many
ways. The Khasis were mostly Christians
and they were pampered. More or
less that applies in case of the tribal and scheduled caste people of the rest
of the State. The tribal people considered their fellow citizens from the Plains
as inferior to the White Sahibs,
and Western religion and culture superior to those of the plains people.
They had no occasion to be socially ostracised. Relations with the Nagas and
Lushais were also by and large similar. I remember one Plains tribal friend of
mine telling me on an occasion: Baruah, you have to have the Bible and come from
the Hills if you want anything from the Government. The ‘disunity and a sense of mutual
distrust among different tribes’ does exist. But I suppose you really mean
‘disunity and a sense of mutual distrust’ between the tribal people and the
Assamese’. Please clarify.
Best
wishes |
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