By Amar Yumnam
North East has been the most intriguing issue for the policy makers in India, and this is truer in the case of Manipur. While the absolutely brutal approaches in Kashmir have not been pursued in this part of the country, but it has not been contextual either. Given the current metamorphosis in approach it would be interesting to take stock of the approaches so far.
Three Stages: India's North East policies, or rather the policy making business have had three stages so far. The first was of the period up to the later part of the 1970s when it was just non-existent in the policy arena of the country, or when it, existed at all, only as an appendix. It was during this period that only security based perspectives were adopted, and when it came to development intervention, it was thought that the macro-experiences and macro-realities in the other parts of the country would be relevant and replicated in this part of the country as well. The region was considered to be too backward to take the issues of development of the region seriously, and needing absolute paternal care from the Indian policy makers. It was during this period of intensification of interactions and exposures of youths in this part of the country to the other so-called mainstream India took place only to discover that they were not recognised as Indians, and if Indians at all, as junglees and cannibals.
But the mounting displeasure and collapse of expectations in the process of interactions led to rising political manifestations of social disapproval of the overall Indian approach. This needed a reappraisal of the Indian policy approaches in so far as the North East was concerned. This was the period of the 1980s. But, quite unfortunately, the Indian policy makers neither had the patience nor the willingness to appreciate the region in situ and independently of the perspectives adopted till then. This created a new market for "North East experts" to emerge overnight in the so-called mainstream India and particularly among those close to the political powers that be in India. During this period loads of writings on the North East emerged from these experts. These mostly stupid and nonsensical writings became the foundation for a new twist of policies towards the region. Unfortunately during this period, a new genre of traders on understanding the region emerged. All these experts were now advising the government of India on what needed to be done in the region.
By the end of the 1990s and the beginning of the twenty-first century, it became stark clear that all the prevailing understanding of the region and the policies based on them were not only not bearing any fruit but also were proving to be increasingly counter-productive. The Indian policy makers started realising that the region needed to be appreciated anew and ab initio , and base all new policies on this new understanding. A kind of willingness to understand the region in situ has now emerged. But this newly emerged willingness is now throwing open the great Indian dilemma. Well the desire to understand the region needs to be appreciated. But the great question is from whose perspective the understanding is to be established. While the policy makers are still to free themselves from the inherited distrust of the people of the region, there are now efforts by the earlier "North East experts" to make themselves even relevant in the changed circumstances as well. They are now trying to revise their earlier perspectives on the region and present them again as the revised and genuine issues confronting the region. They are again being depended upon by the government of India to provide the new foundation for revised policies in the region. The circumstances have changed, but the players are the same.
Who Are The Players: At this point, we may ask ourselves as to what to expect from this process. Well, we can conclude without waiting for the unfolding of events in the next a decade or so that whatever policies that might evolve from the partially revised approach would face the same fate as the earlier ones. Seemingly appropriate policies would not possess the necessary nitty-gritty, and this would only lead to aggravation of the already highly intriguing scenario.
We understand that for the sake of political expediency, the political class of the region have all along been satisfied with the flawed understanding of the region by the Indian policy makers. In fact, this could have been one of the major factors in halting the government of India to go for all out effort and open-heart understanding of the region, and thereby making it dependent upon the tried but repeatedly failed experts. The time is now to fully trust and depend on the people of the region for a proper understanding of the region and evolution of policies appropriate to the region. The region and the nation have already paid enough price for the flawed understanding provided by the wrong people. The region should now be made to account for herself by allowing policies on the understanding of the problems of the region by the people of the region, and do away for good the approach so far of depending on secondary understanding. We should do away with the paternalism in understanding and policy evolution, and rather go for mutual appreciation as equals.
This article was published on The Sangai Express