Day: February 17, 2013

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By Amar Yumnam
Rereading the global experience of the search for truth and the resultant shifts in paradigms of development are what we may term as paramount needs in this part of the country. This is so particularly in the context of what is going on today in this country in the name of searching for peace.

Truth is something which cannot be explored or established in haste. It cannot be the product of pressure for acceptance either. But it remains the foundation for civilisation and remains the charm of the conscience of individuals with character. These individuals of character do not wait for their labour of conscience to be accepted by all during their lifetime and do not labour for it either. They do not wait for their conceptions of truth to bear fruit, i.e., they do not expect for any outcome to result from their labours of conscience. But the society does learn in due course and the consequent responses result in the progression of societies or the non-learning ones remain backward. There are instances of societies where some individuals have pressed for outcomes rather than truths and yielding pseudo images of progression. However these have never been lasting while the regress from civilisation as a result of such efforts of pressing for outcome rather than truth has been lasting.

In this light we need to collectively apply our mind in the sense of individualised exercise of conscience rather than enforced acceptance of ‘truth’ in the context of what goes on today for enforcement of acceptance of an agreement between two parties. There is a definite sign of haste as if truths of civilisation can be established in haste by agreeing between two parties in which one of the parties pushes for outcome based on enforced agreement, and the other party not owning the truth whatsoever but rather looking for immediate outcome in terms of something called ‘peace’. This fundamentally violates the universal history of civilisations where the truth has been the fruits of conscience of individuals least looking for outcomes but only the truths and that too in periods extending over centuries. The present exercise smacks as if civilisation can be forced and a logic superimposed. It also forgets the globally inherited reality that civilisation and civilizational characters shoot much beyond politics; at best politics can only facilitate the civilizational process if the leaders playing politics do not look for hasty results but for lasting truths. But in the present dialogues politics has had the upper hand so far for establishing an agreement. There is no evidence anywhere in the globe where such exercises have yielded sustainable social tranquillity and established a long term foundation for advancement. Political convenience may serve a purpose for some time but never created a permanent strength anywhere in the world for progression.

Further the continuing dialogues display images of a certain concept of culture as something to be imposed from above with threats of huge costs to any individual of any indulgence in divergence from the one imposed.  They also convey the impression that culture is being conceived in a vacuum and as something static. Culture and the institutional features anywhere in the world have always been subject to the norms of evolution in response to the needs of the times. The present talks between the two parties display efforts for enforcing a culture and blocking any evolutionary process in any component of the cultural institutions. Now this is what should be the cause for maximum concern for everyone in this part of the country, and should also be issue for analysis by social scientists. Such scenario emerges in a particular environment where illusionary ‘leaders’ endeavour to impose outcomes to their advantage instead of fostering a culture of search for truth. These ‘leaders’ must have gained a certain degree of privilege from their adjudication of imposing their concepts of truth. These are the least confident groups of leaders as established by the growing literature on democracy and dictatorships. Since they lack confidence on their continuance, they naturally press for outcomes during their lifetime and stunt progression. Since evolution of cultures and modernisation of social norms would not be serving their purpose of continued relevance and exercise of power, they manoeuvre social dynamics with every possible force at their command. They may talk of other issues which may appeal to the larger population so that they remain under the spell of illusionary truths of the outcome seeking ‘leaders’. But the civilizational development trajectory of the world has ample evidence of the rise and fast decline into oblivion of societies influenced by such illusionary fictions of truth.

While peace is as important as it should be, the country needs to be sufficiently careful so that we do not sacrifice long term evolution into lasting civilizational trajectory at the altar of political convenience. Culture grows only under freedom and never under controls. Social institutions have to continuously evolve with the changes of times. The present global history is movement towards a direction of heterogeneous co-evolution and not for homogenous exclusionary approaches; it is interaction rather than isolation which is the fountain of development for lasting peace and social progression. Truth is not to be searched in isolation, and it has to be searched only in context. Truth without context would be violence in isolation. Diversity and the cultivation of this have been the foundation for sustainable civilisations in the last three centuries. The countries with strength anywhere today, whether in Asia, Europe, America or Africa, are increasingly searching for ways to diversify in terms of population and activities. Knowledge and ideas grow best in a world of diversity and not in a world of homogenising isolation. The lessons of the Cultural Revolution in China should be absorbed by us without incurring the accompanying costs by any group of population in any part of the country. Once again truth cannot be discovered in haste, and only truth should be the foundation for any solution of problems. Political conveniences of two groups hastily looking for outcomes would only give a death blow to the civilizational trajectory of the groups purported to be served by the hasty outcome.  

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The post Social minding groups appeared first on  KanglaOnline.com.

There must be something about this land, its soil or the weather that ferments so much of turmoil and then, made all the worse by conflicting stands taken by ‘well meaning’ and those ‘working for the people’. Starting, right from the various armed groups that all say they are fighting for the people but who do not unite as one; the next level of politics is played out amongst those who call themselves ‘civil society organizations’. Those who associate with such groups go by the ‘social worker’ tag regardless of whether the work they do end up being beneficial or detrimental to society. The same applies for student organizations that are so numerous that the layman is left confused over just who these groups are and what they are working towards. In all three categories, we have the phenomenon of groups, factions and based on ethnic and community that work to make it more complex. But what boggles the mind is the way various student groups are fast becoming involved in social vigilantism, pegged of course at ‘the welfare of students’. While many will point out and rightfully so, that students being a part of the larger society will naturally react to the situations and circumstances that affect the social fabric, the mushrooming of various groups with their own takes or dictates and all with claims to ‘legitimacy’ more often than not, makes it tough for actual students who are studying in schools, colleges and other educational institutions.

One only has to rewind the situation to 2009, to the public agitations over the fake encounter case of a former armed cadre of a certain group, Ch Sanjit that left another civilian Th Rabina an expecting mother dead in what the state police said was a firing incident provoked by Sanjit when he ran after police asked him to stop for checking. The incident left five others injured. A series of photos published by a National news magazine that showed the sequence fake encounter led to protests on the streets of Imphal leading to curfew being clamped. While this meant disruptions on the streets, it also meant that students in schools and colleges had to miss out classes, something which is unfortunately not a rarity in the state. This time, there were 45 days of curfew and following it up was a call by two major student groups of the state that all educational institutions would boycott classes since there was no meaning for the right to education in a state where the right to life is was not being granted. The boycott call led to the total shut down of all educational institutions in the valley. No one wanted to dare risking the wrath of the student groups and various civil society organizations and educational institutions remained shut for four months in total. When the Government, which was otherwise staying silent regarding the calls on action against the policemen involved in the incident stepped in with a warning to educational institutions to open, a few started limping back with classes and paid for it by having their premises vandalized and school buildings burnt. The lesson was clear to students, parents and the management.

But in this land of the many groups and the many voices syndrome; another student group tried to challenge the boycott the call given by the two other organizations but given the strength and force of the battery of civil society groups that threw its weight around nothing could change for the students who were staying out of classes. Co-incidentally, the voices of various parents and guardians of school going children were not being counted as a civil society opinion because they were non-political. When the agitation got resolved, the ones most affected were teachers and students who grappled with incomplete syllabuses.

Cut to the present and one of the many student groups in the state have taken it upon themselves to ensure that students appearing for their Board examinations must not be disturbed which they believe, will happen if any social entertainment or cultural programs take place.  By that standard, they may well end up hauling away all DTH set top boxes perhaps but for now seem to be caught in the middle of a major public relations disaster with three localities alleging that the group demanded money for ‘breaking’ their ban as they were organizing a housie. The dust over the allegations and the counter allegations will settle down with time but the one disturbing question that remains is the legitimacy that groups and organizations profess in the state today and the manner in which news groups coming in to create more clutter.

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