“Joining up with North East”
By Dr. D.K. Giri, Director, Schumacher Centre
I was in the North-east Manipur a week ago. Although I had been to Assam and Shillong, the trip to Manipur was extra ordinary, eye-opening to things that I would have never known without visiting the state, I would like to share a few observations and insights.
People’s Ignorance: When I mentioned to a foreign friend living in India, that I was going to Imphal, he was lost and asked me “where is it? Is it a country or city?” Perhaps he was not as surprising as a 5 star hotel sales manager who asked my secretary which country I was going to. It will not be surprise again if many educated people do not know that we have eight beautiful states in the North-east; the names like Aizawl, Kohima and Agartala may not ring a bell. How does it work for national integration? Foreigners have restrictions on travel in the North-east, Indians do not, despite the security concerns, which are overblown, Indians are missing out on the beauties of the North-east.
Faulty Perceptions: “North-east is different, the people do not look like us, their culture is different” so go the perception. In fact, one of the American tourists who was on the same panel with me on “tribal culture sustainable development, and climate change” in Tribal Research Institute, Imphal, said, initially he felt like he was in Bangkok. I told him how wrong he was about India. In fact, coming from my native place, Orissa, I felt quite at home in terms of food, landscape and even language. When I asked for tea at a small stall, the old lady selling the tea said, she did not have change in her language. Quite a few words were what we say in Oriya also.
I was taken to Kangla, the heritage site of Imphal, the history of Manipur state is not dissimilar to rest of India.
Diversity, pluralism etc.: The ethnic diversities in Manipur is amazing; out of population of about 2.5 million, 34% are tribes all of them Christians, 8% Muslims and 58% Hindus. But amongst tribes, there are 34 different tribes and 5 more are to recognized. Each tribe stays in one village. I visited a Koirang tribal village and a couple of kms away a village of Chiru tribe. Interesting feature to observe was the bio-diversities in two villages, which were rice but different. A small state presents so much of pluralism. That must be the case with other states in the North-east should too.
I wish to end this note by suggesting, Government of India encourage internal tourism even by giving subsidies, travel concessions etc. to foster a spirit of Indianness. When people see differences, they recognize and appreciate, when they see similarities, they develop a feeling of oneness. North-east feels alienated, distortions and deficits in development apart. And separating us from them we are contributing to that feeling. It is never late to repair the fault lines in perception as well action.