Instilling
pride, a priority
Rise
above parochial “own-tribe” fixation; concede and confer what is due to each of
the pioneers.
For
want of an ideal idol to guide on path of honesty, integrity and social
harmony, Arunachalee society is witnessing sharp divide along communal line.
It’s not that marquee of exceptionally gifted leaders didn’t emerge. They did.
However, their contributions, charisma and aura were sucked-in by the
complexities involving geographical design, multi-ethnicity and absence of
lingua franca within Arunachal Pradesh. Soul searching ricochet our
failure to create identifiable common Arunachalee heroes- a fault line
responsible ethnic profiling that we witness everyday within our state. It
would not be unfair to state that the society as a whole decimated whoever
tried becoming one and yes, one can rattle atleast dozens of un-sung heroes who
could have salvaged from reaching the tipping-point of disintegration. It is
common knowledge that talks around dinning-tables and fire-places is almost and
always “division of the state into zones for each tribe”.
As it
stands today, we are clinging onto just “hope”. Though successive generations
and its leaders have failed to weave a strong and vibrant society yet we,
collectively, must paint a new canvass of common art, culture and heritage. It
is the bounden duty of each one of us to celebrate and rejoice the success of other
tribes. For instance, Yukar Sibi should be the role model for all aspiring
weight-lifters as much as Gumpe Rime or Indrajit Namchoom for the budding
footballers. Everester Tine Mena must be celebrated in Bomdila in grand fashion
as is done for Everester Anshu Jampsena.
To
begin with, instilling pride in being a tribal must be a priority. Though
symbolic yet far reaching in psychological impact would be naming of all major
landmarks in the state after our own heroes who the younger generation can
identify with. How about naming the jinxed Greenfield airport
project as “Kuru Hassang Airport”, after the first pilot from the state?
Idealistic it might sound but it’s refreshing even to imagine a Tangsa/ Nocte
legislator moving the resolution or the bill in the floor of assembly, seconded
by a Monpa/Sherdukpen. At the end of the day, Kuru Hassang is no ordinary name.
He was beyond his time, a pioneering personality to have ventured out of the
comfort zone of Arunachal Pradesh to compete with the best in the country at a
time when most Arunachalees thought of clerical and administrative job as the
glorious outcome of their academic achievement when Arunachal’s literacy rate
was less than 12%. His pioneering career in Indian Air Force must not be viewed
through narrow prism of politics, a field he ventured into post retirement from
patriotic service. Time has come to rise above parochial “own-tribe” fixation;
concede and confer what is due to each of the pioneers.
Ilk of
Gandhis and Nehrus no doubt towering personalities yet they were and are still
alien to most natives of the state and therefore rendered irrelevant in our
context to the extent that the youths, mostly born after 1981, have been
questioning the wisdom behind naming of institutions and landmarks after
“dynastic names”. To more than 60% of today’s population and more than 80% of
the literates, it is a difficult proposition to correlate national leaders and
development of Arunachal or vice versa, since neither finds any mention in
academic curriculum or in published articles in the mainstream. On hindsight,
relying heavily on anecdotes, it is evident that we were force-fed with names
such as Jawaharlal Nehru, Mahatma Gandhi, Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi and
other national leaders who the large chunk of the Arunachalees, with very
little connection to the rich history of modern India, failed to relate with.
Even today, in rural Arunachal that comprises almost 80% of the geographical
spread; most of them are known as congress leaders, not as national heroes.
Majority have little clue of their monumental contributions in the formation of
India or Arunachal Pradesh.
As
radical as it sounds very few educated youngsters appreciate Nehru’s greatest
gift -“Verrier Elwin’s philosophy of NEFA” or Indira’s effort in carving out
“Arunachal Pradesh as Union Territory” or for that matter, Rajiv’s benevolence
in granting Statehood despite failing on all parameters. Discerning youths find
such naming or honour as sycophancy veiled as veneration by the political
class. To a large extent, one would concur with such school of thought. Look no
further; take the case of the only central university- Rajiv Gandhi University.
It is a hackneyed name that stinks of sycophancy and further to know that Rajiv
Gandhi didn’t have the pedigree of an academic brilliance is unspeakable. On
the contrary, had it been named after a local hero or remained as Arunachal
University it would have instilled a sense of pride and higher self-esteem,
which is amiss in most youngsters.
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