Rajen:
You have made an impressive presentation here; which at once, is
a ground-breaking dissertation on economics as well as
anthropology.
Jaapi off to you :-).
c
At 3:19 PM -0500 5/31/05, Rajen Barua wrote:
Earlier I stated that majority Assamese are Followers (Litikai), Coward and Lazy (Dhwd). Alpana did not agree with my 'coward' part. Dilip agreed to agree if I use the word 'majority' which I am doing now as that is what I mean. Much to the annoyance of some netters, I also want to add the following two or three qualifications to the Assamese. These are that majority Assamese are also 'Naive' , ' Narrow minded' and 'Self centered'. Frankly speaking, as a group the whole Assamese nation may be said to be 'stupid' and without any national 'unity'. I also say that Assamese may be said to be more 'corrupt' than the rest of the Indians. This however I leave it to netters general judgment.
While we all know that Indian 'democracy' has its own problems and the GOI has problems in implementing its share of responsibilities, we cannot deny the fact that Assam's problems are aggravated by the Assamese themselves because of their above draw backs. Normally no one would like to highlight these drawbacks of the Assamese and would rather like to focus on the shortcomings of GOI. That would have been fine to a limit. However when we try to take the opposite position that there is nothing wrong with the Assamese people and that all the problems are there because of inefficient Indian democracy, corrupt and dysfunctional GOI etc, then however we need to stand up and say what is the reality. This is important because otherwise we will fail to do any welfare to Assam if that is our goal. I feel very strongly that Assamese are not doing anything to help the pathetic situation of Assam other than blaming everybody else, that most of Assam's problems would not be solved even if we improve the efficiency of GOI and Indian democracy. For Assam to improve and develop, Assamese must to improve and develop.
With that is mind I would like to refute some of the defenses being put forward in the net against these drawbacks of the Assamese. First let me take the case of Assamese laziness. Basically Assamese are lazy people. It is a known fact. Ask 10 Assamese. They would vouce for this. In this I would agree with Mridul Bhuyan's examples of the situation Assam and want to take his question as responded by Chandan as an example:
Mridul - How many people in the village now can make 'khorahi', 'Passi', 'Bisoni'? Is 'burha tamul' is available in the villages ?
Chandan *** Guess how much time it takes to make a basket, and how much as a buyer you would be paying to the rural basket maker ( not to the Delhi shop--they would make out like bandits) for one? Have you ever made a basket Mridul? Have you seen one being made? If you want to know more about it, let me know, I will be pleased to spend an hour to educate you. I know all about it, because I have done it. It is all about time spent and reimbursements received for it. Still rural folks would make it for their own use, or when there is not much to do, will make a few to take it to the 'haat', to sell for at most, five to six rupees a piece, even in today's environment.
This brings us to the issue of
Economy of Assamese Pasi-Khorahi
Chandan is trying to tell that the reason why the Assamese villagers do not make pasi-khorahi-saloni any more is because it takes time and basically it is not economical and that there is no market for it. Let us take the case very seriously and try to see what exactly is happening here.
Chandan says that an Assamese villager would make a pasi (bamboo basket) for Rs 5 or 6 and sell it in hat (weekly community market) . First this shows how out of reality Chandan is. So first I would like to give Chandan a raise. Let us give the villager not 5 or 6 but 50 rupees for a good quality bamboo basket because that is what the present market is. Assamese household in Assam will pay Rs 50 without any problem for a good quality pasi khorahi. In place like Guwahati a good quality bamboo basket will probably sell for Rs 75/100. In place like Delhi (Dilli Hut) these will sell foe Rs 100/150.
Now while this market is there one will not find in the village hat or in any govt emporium any good quality Assamese pasi-khorahi-saloni. If one goes to place like Delhi, one will not find any Assamese pasi khorahi saloni. I did not find it in Dilli Hut which was full of handy crafts from all other states.
Now let us pause and reflect what is happening here.
First Assamese are very fortunate that they have inherited the Bamboo culture which is found mainly in South East Asia and China. There are not too many places in the world where bamboo grows. Assam is one. Assamese have inherited the special skills of making these handicraft. They have this knowledge which a Bihari or a Rajasthani does not. There is also a market for such products more than the 'naive' Assamese would like to think. Then the question is why the Assamese cannot sell it.
The answer is Assamese are lazy to try to improve their lot.
What is lacking from the above equation is the Assamese entrepreneurship of some ambitious unemployed energetic youth who would give contracts to the ignorant Assamese villagers to supply good quality pasi khorahi at competitive rates (of Rs 50 each) and who would in combination with others in towns like Guwahati, Jorhat would sell these in shops and open market (Rs 75 each) and eventually would sell these in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata etc (Rs 100/150 each).
That there is a world market for good quality Assamese pasi khorahi is evident if one would simply visit say a Import store in USA like PIER 1 Imports or Target etc. I checked and am very pleased to find that such Assamese pasi khorahi saloni would sell for $8/10. (Rs 400/500). This means that in collaboration with partners in USA, Assamese can sell these to PIER 1 or Target at least at half that price which is say $5.00 = Rs 250. If some Assamese youth can supply say 1000 such bamboo baskets to PIER 1 in USA through a middleman, he can sell the lot for Rs 10/15,000 at least. I have just shown some numbers for case of analysis. The fact remains that this market is there and all the existing bamboo baskets or other bamboo products in PIER 1 and other shops are being imported from Philippines or China or Thailand. It is a question of Assamese learning the tricks of the trade, learning quality control, learning how to do export market in bulk quantity and do it. BTW, one may visit the following web sites of PIER 1 and TARGET and see the actual prices of bamboo products. (www.pier1.com; www.target.com etc)
At present Assamese are not doing it because Assamese are not hard working, smart and are willing to improve their lot like the Chinese, Phillipines and Thai people. So let us understand the reality and let us not come up with some false defenses why the Assamese do not make pasi khorahi.
I fear that this Assamese laziness is going to cost the Assamese people very dearky. They are going to loose these skills entirely.
In the next message later, I will follow it up with the case of 'Assamese Tilika Goru', the Wretched Assamese Cow-Why and How.
Rajen Barua
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