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Doctors’
shortage Dangerous
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Kodachrome,
RIP
Political
opportunism in Haryana
A Text-y
New Year
Men and women from the Northeast have spread to
various cities in the North for both education and work. The
community, however, feels vulnerable and special efforts need to be
made to make people from the Northeast, especially women, safe and
comfortable in their new environment. Parbina Rashid YEARS ago when I left Assam to join Women’s College at Aligarh Muslim University, what shocked me more than the proverbial ‘cultural shock’ was the reaction I got from the dining-hall staff when I told them where I was from. “Oh, you have come from a far-away country”
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Dangerous power politics
With
the MQM, which has 25 members in the Pakistan National Assembly, dissociating from the PPP-led ruling coalition in Islamabad, the Yousuf Raza Gilani government has lost the majority it had in the House. The MQM’s withdrawal came after another ally of the PPP, the eight-member Jamiatul Ulema Islam (F) parted company with the government, alleging that Mr Gilani had sabotaged the “policy of reconciliation” adopted by the PPP chief and Pakistan President, Mr Asif Ali Zardari. The MQM’s charge-sheet against the government says that it has failed to deliver on all fronts and, therefore, there is no reason why the Sindh-based party should remain a part of the coalition. The truth, however, is that the party of Mohajirs had made up its mind to call it quits after the Sindh Home Minister, a PPP leader, accused the MQM leadership of being involved in incidents of violence in Karachi and other parts of Sindh. Despite having the support of only 163 members, including 127 belonging to the PPP, in the 342-member Lower House of parliament, the Gilani ministry, it seems, may be able to survive for the time being. The PML (Qaid), close to the Pakistan Army, is willing to support the government, though on certain conditions, and the PML (Nawaz) does not find it worthwhile to rock the “boat of democracy” at this stage when Pakistan is passing through a severe economic and security crisis. But the question is: why did the Sindh minister think of creating a situation which precipitated the MQM’s withdrawal from the coalition? The minister is close to President Zardari, who has not been pulling along well with Prime Minister Gilani. Interestingly, there is now talk of finding a compromise candidate for the prime ministership to save the government as well as Pakistan, which cannot afford mid-term elections under the prevailing circumstances. If this really comes about, one person who would be very happy would be Mr Zardari, who had allowed Mr Gilani to become Prime Minister after the February 2008 elections on a temporary basis. However, Mr Gilani emerged smarter and made his position unassailable by establishing a close relationship with the all-powerful army. It is a dangerous power game being played in a country that needs stability more than anything else.
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Kodachrome, RIP
It
recorded images like nothing else could, and as the year ended, so did an era in photography. Kodachrome slide film was introduced to the world 75 years ago and it became a successful commercial film, widely used for making movie and shooting still photographs. It was a difficult film to make and process, but Kodachrome transparencies had a richness of colour that gave tremendous vibrancy to the pictures, one that various top professional photographers called incomparable. Many of the iconic images of the past seven decades were shot on Kodachrome, be it the shot of Sir Edmund Hillary’s ascent of Mount Everest (1953), the assassination of US President John F. Kennedy (1963), or the beautiful and haunting portrait of Sharbat Gula, an Afghan girl at Nasir Bagh refugee camp near Peshawar, (1984), used on the cover of National Geographic magazine Unlike other slide films, Kodachrome had to be processed in one of the 25 special laboratories around the world, using special chemicals and processes. Kodak had closed down its lab and stopped producing films some time ago, but it had a contract with Dwayne’s Photo in Parsons, Kansas, USA till 2010, and thus it became the last place on earth where one could process a Kodachrome film. The use of slide film had declined since the 1980s and other film companies too, had ceased production and given in to the march of digital reality. The digital cameras allow for taking pictures in a wide variety of light conditions, and these images can be directly transferred to computers for colour correction and image manipulation, if needed. Most of the digital pictures are not printed at all, and even if one makes prints, one does not use the traditional chemical methods that earlier photography was associated with, but use computer printers and papers. Kodachrome, the special way it handled light and gave us iconic images, contributed significantly to the photographic heritage of the world. The world has changed, and in this digital era, while we have many advantages, we still await something that would be comparable.
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Man must choose whether to be rich in things or in the freedom to use them. — Ivan Illich
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Political opportunism in Haryana
Haryana
has the dubious distinction of incubating the “Aaya Ram, Gaya Ram” syndrome in Indian polity and spreading this contagion to different parts of the country. When defections were rife in Haryana just after its inception in 1966 as a separate state, the then Governor, while recommending dissolution of the Assembly to the Centre, observed that Haryana legislators changed their parties as they changed their clothes (one legislator changed parties thrice in a single day). The phenomenon has not undergone a qualitative change even after more than half a century. Haryana politicians, leaving aside exceptional cases, pursue the politics of “soot-kasoot” (convenience). Bereft of any commitment to an ideology and the good of the people at large, they put self before everything else. Just after the last Haryana Assembly elections, a bunch of Haryana Janhit Congress legislators were in such a desperate hurry to climb on the band-wagon of the ruling party that they forgot to take the elementary precaution of forming a new party and merging it with the ruling one as required under anti-defection law to escape disqualification. A case was filed before the Speaker of the Haryana Assembly for their disqualification. The strategy of the Speaker to bail them out by prolonging the case endlessly has been thwarted by a judgement of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, directing him to decide the case within four months, thus making the danger of disqualification looming large over the heads of the defectors. The roots of political opportunism in Haryana can be traced to two important episodes in its history — the 1857 rebellion and the ascendance of the Unionist Party in the Haryana region. The whole of Haryana region was involved in the 1857 conflagration. The peasantry groaning under the oppressive land revenue system was the main agent. Tehsil — a repository of land revenue record — was the most coveted place of attack. A number of British officers along with their native assistants were the target of the mob fury. The colonialists used barbaric methods to quell the rebellion everywhere in the country where people had risen against the foreign rule. The rigour of this barbarity was more severe in the Haryana region primarily because of two reasons. First, there was large-scale participation of the people in the uprising. Secondly, the region was in close proximity to Delhi, necessitating a strategy of suppression to minimise the possibility of disaffection against the colonial rule in future in this region. Methods of suppression included offending the religious sensibility by cremating the Muslim rebels and burying the their Hindu companions; mowing rebels under a road-roller; hanging rebels from trees for days on end as a standing reminder to villagers of the possible punishment in the event of their turning against the regime; nailing a rebel to a tree; disfiguring the face of an injured rebel and roasting him on slow fire; sealing a Hindu rebel in a cow’s skin and a Muslim rebel in a pig’s skin, leaving him to die of suffocation; cutting of ears and noses of women suspected of helping rebels and so on. Haryana had no viable statehood in medieval times. There is no history in Haryana of organised resistance against the foreign invaders who passed through the region creating mayhem on the way, and the adventurers who pillaged it at will. Unlike Punjab with the martyrdom of some Sikh gurus, Haryana had no trace of such heroism before 1857. There was no reservoir of moral grit to fall back upon in distress. The reign of terror let loose on the simple peasant society of Haryana was, thus, highly demoralising. When a child indulged in naughty pranks, his or her mother would often say, “saabo aaya” (sahib is coming) to instil fear in the little one. Besides burning a large number of villages, a heavy fine was imposed on many, thus shattering the peasant economy. The Haryana region was detached from Delhi division and appended to Punjab division. Certain territories of Haryana were given to princely rulers of Punjab as a reward for helping the colonialists. This dismembering of Haryana had a further debilitating effect on the morale of Haryanvis. A saying became popular in Haryana: “Sarkar ki agarhi aur ghorhe ki pachharhi men nahin aana chahie” (one should avoid confrontation with the rulers and standing behind a horse). The people of Haryana drew a lesson that a conflict with the government was futile and the best course was to cooperate with it and derive all possible benefits. This paved the ground for the emergence of the Unionist Party under the leadership of Chhotu Ram. There are two extreme views about Chhotu Ram — as a saviour of the peasantry and as an agent of the British imperialism. The truth, however, lies in between the two. Chhotu Ram, with razor-sharp intelligence and deep compassion to provide relief to the peasantry groaning under the debt of the usurious lending class, was a towering personality eclipsing others in the political field. He used his crucial position in the ruling dispensation to enact laws to help the peasants in distress. He was hailed as a saviour of the peasantry in the composite Punjab, transcending caste and community barriers. Characterisation of Chhotu Ram as an agent of the British regime is misplaced. Undoubtedly, he did not participate in the freedom struggle. So is the case with Dr B.R. Ambedkar, Jyotiba Phule and Ramasamy Naicker, but they were as patriotic as anybody else. However, since Chhotu Ram was an important functionary of the Unionist Party which was in collaboration with the British regime, this undoubtedly played a crucial role in shaping political ethos and culture in Haryana. Participation of the Haryana people in the freedom struggle was not as much as it could have been on account of the hegemony of the Unionist Party, thus depriving its people of the idealism which would have been theirs if they had greatly participated in the struggle. When Bhagat Singh and his companions became martyrs for the country’s emancipation, the educated youth of Haryana were hankering after government jobs. This bred the culture of jobbery in the state. There is need in Haryana to transcend the negative legacy of the 1857 uprising and the Unionist Party, and to honour and cherish the positive accomplishment of both. The task is not easy. Haryana, in fact, needs a powerful reform movement, a prolonged battle of ideas to usher its people in the realm of modern sensibility in the era of globalisation when the dynamics of oppression has undergone a qualitative change. This is a long haul. However, there are no short-cuts in
history. The writer, a retired academic from Delhi University, is a specialist on Haryana affairs.
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A Text-y New Year
I
am
sure New Year’s Eve in Chandigarh had the usual ingredients for most of us. Shaking a leg at the discos if you were “jung” or “jung-at-heart”. Tucked up cosy in bed if you were middle-aged in mind, body or spirit, or just plain lazy ! But the prize for persistence and enthusiasm must go to the texting revellers of our SMS crazy nation. With cellphone companies imposing hefty charges on festival messages, one expected a certain restraint. On the contrary, anyone who had a place in your life, or thought he had, was right there in your inbox ! From the simple “Happy New Year” to the mathematically precise, “Wish you 12 months, 52 weeks, 365 days, 8760 hours, 525600 minutes and 31536000 seconds of happiness “, the SMSes flowed in abundance. My “quilty, blankety” New Year’s Eve was spent reciprocating sincere sentiments from well wishers and, I suspect, a few strangers. If you are like me and think it is churlish not to respond to a greeting, you do end up doing a lot of ‘response texting’ on such days in the year. I did my bit, of course, and texted my friends, colleagues and loved ones. I sent appropriate return messages like, “Thank you so much for your greetings, please accept my good wishes !” Cringing inwardly at the grammatically mutilated messages that found their way to me in large numbers, I sent a ‘correct’ response that read, “May God shower His blessings on you in the year to come.” I got an immediate response from one young well-wisher, “Are you upset with me, Ji ?” Puzzled, I asked, “Not at all, why do you ask?” The response : “Because your SMS was very formal Ji !” My befuddled brain finally made the connection : correct spelling equals formal conduct equals cold behaviour. I realized I had to use ‘d’ for ‘the’ and ‘dis’ for ‘this’ if my messages were to be rated ‘warm’ ! Then there were some from unfamiliar numbers. I took the bull by the horns and texted one anonymous greeter, “Thanks, happy new year, but do tell me your name !” The response, “Surinder”. Cryptic, precise but pointless ! I know at least half a dozen Surinders. I dialled the number determinedly. “Hi, which Surinder are you ? “ A grumpy male voice retorted, “Wrong number !” and rudely hung up. I noted with interest that while I received a spate of SMSes from old school chums, colleagues past and present and even the grocery store owner, the laundry guy and the fruit vendor, I got absolutely none from my only sibling miles away in another city. A bit upset, for I had sent her a greeting a few hours ago, I texted, “All OK ? Not greeting your loved ones this evening?” Her terse reply, “I would if I could. I am busy deleting 174 messages that have clogged my inbox. “ I was reminded of Thomas Friedman’s iconic book “The World Is Flat”. I thumbed, “Smile ! Everyone wants to get into your inbox, it’s a flattening world !” Not mollifed, my irritated sister shot back, “Just wait till I flatten the world !”
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Men and women from the Northeast have spread to various cities in the North for both education and work. The community, however, feels vulnerable and special efforts need to be made to make people from the Northeast, especially women, safe and comfortable in their new environment. Parbina Rashid I could not complain, especially as their ‘far-away’ notion helped me get an extra piece of chicken or a second scoop of ice-cream on my plate. But what I did not enjoy was the extra vigilance the warden put on the Assamese girls, a step, which we figured out, stemmed from our cultural differences. On hindsight, I appreciate the men’s ignorance as much as I value the warden’s strict set of rules reserved for us. After all, girls from the Northeast have proved to be
an easy target once they land in the North. Let us rewind to year 2010. November 24: A young girl from the Northeast, who was working at a call centre in Gurgaon was kidnapped from the Dhaula Kuan area in New Delhi and gangraped. November 19: An attempt was made to kidnap a 17 year-old-girl from Manipur. She was working in a beauty parlour. October 24: Two men walked into the hostel room of a Manipuri girl on IIT Campus on the pretext of collecting donation. They assaulted her sexually and when she raised an alarm, they ran away with jewellery worth Rs 30,000. This is only a tip of the iceberg. The Northeast Support Centre and Helpline has handled and reported 34 cases of harassment since its birth on October 21, 2007 out of which 41 per cent cases were of sexual abuse, 18 per cent beatings by local people, 12 per cent rape cases, 9 per cent murder, 6 per cent landlord harassment, 3 per cent vulgar remarks, 3 per cent eve teasing, 3 per cent police harassment, 3 per cent harassment by employees and 3 per cent anti-Northeastern statement by the media within Delhi and NCR. So what’s making the Northeast community prone to such violations? Their physical appearance and what the Northerners consider peculiar accent is, for sure, one. Though for argument’s sake one can say that a rapist would not be bothered with the race of his
victims, the fact that knowing these girls belong to a far-away region and generally without much of a support system in the metros, is encouraging enough to target them. Another very important reason is that in contrast to the seventies and eighties when they used to come out only for higher studies or government jobs, there is a new trend of young boys and girls, who have not even completed their school education, coming out in search of jobs in sectors like beauty industry or call centres. They have to live as paying guests and in private hostels in far-flung areas where they are lonely and without a proper support system. Unfortunately, the lack of support system in this case also includes the police and society. The Northeastern community living in various cities in the North is reluctant to approach the police fearing apathy. And there are reasons enough to make them feel that way. Like in the Gurgaon mall molestation case of a 20-year-old Naga girl, the Gurgaon police took 60 hours to register an FIR. “Usually, when a boy or a girl from the Northeast approaches the police, they tend to ignore our plea or even if they register a case, it’s after much persuasion,” says Finicy Moiranglhem, who is working with the Northeast Support Centre and Helpline. “The general perception of people here is that we are a free society and if we invite trouble, that’s because we deserve it,” she adds. Here is an interesting tale a girl from the Northeast shares, “When I broke the finger of a man in a crowded bus as he was trying to grope and threatened to snatch his eyes out next time he tried that, I was left with a comfortable space in that crowded bus by the public inside with a clear message that there is one insane, uncivilized, wild Northeast girl among well-mannered ladies and gentlemen.” A lot is being done and a lot needed to be done to bring the North and the East closer. The recent rape case has been the trigger to come out with some pent-up feelings. And its repercussion has reached as far as Guwahati. “We are giving a memorandum and sending representations to Delhi to meet the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister has assured us to provide full security to the community living in there,” says Elvin Barua, general secretary of the All-North Guwahati Student’s Union. Agatha Sangma, Minister of State for Rural Development from Meghalaya, feels the mechanisms to avoid such incidents are in place. “We have had some similar incidents last year after which we, as a group of MPs from the Northeast and a group of student leaders, met the Prime Minister and urged him to take action. The police department has been directed to be more vigilant and helpful towards the students who come to lodge complaints. A separate phone line has been
established at all police stations solely for the Northeast students. But what is important is that these arrangements should stay
effective throughout, not only when something bad happens,” says Sangma. With the Centre taking requisite steps, now it’s up to the community to do their bit to make it a safe place for themselves, and the key to that lies in the process of assimilation. As Sanjoy Hazarika, renowned writer, activist and founder of the Centre for North East Studies and Policy Research, points out, “Instead of living in ghettos, which is a common practice among the Northeastern people living outside, they should mingle more with the local people and make them their support base. That’s the only way to live in harmony and peace.” And, perhaps, that’s the only
way to dissipate those prejudices which have been haunting us for a long time!
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Overcoming the divide With
states like Meghalaya following the matriarchal system, the general presumption that women enjoy a far better status in the Northeast than their counterparts in the rest of the country is not without basis. So what should women who enjoy greater visibility and mobility in Northeast do when they shift base to states where things are different? Malabika Sen Having come from a liberal environment, first in Assam and then a decade in Mumbai, getting used to North Indian culture, which is strongly male-dominated, took me a while. But then as they say “When in Rome, do as…” Reema Saikia Raja Sharma Rymbai
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Knowing Northeast India’s Northeast, a region of mystic splendours and rich cultural heritage, spreads over an area of 2,62,179 sq. km and consists of eight states. The region orginally had the seven states—Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Tripura and were known as the “Seven Sisters of India”. Later, Sikkim also became a part of it. Women in the Northeast have occupied a unique position and differences exist between different states. n While at the all-India level the number of females per thousand males is 933 according to the 2001 census, in some states of the Northeast like Manipur, Tripura and Meghalaya the figures are heartening. Manipur leads with a sex ratio of 978, closely followed by Meghalaya with 975 and Tripura with 950. Sikkim cuts a sorry figure with 875. n
The female literacy rate in India is 54.28 per cent. Most states of the Northeast, except Arunachal Pradesh, have a female literacy rate above the national average. Mizoram’s female literacy rate of 86.13 per cent is even higher than the combined national average
as well as the national male literacy rate of 75.96 per cent. n
Northeast also boasts of matriarchal system in one of its states. All the tribes of Meghalaya follow the matriarchal law of inheritance. The tribal law lays down that custody to property and succession of family position runs through the female line. The lineage consists in passing the inheritance from the mother to the youngest daughter. In Arunachal Pradesh, women could not inherit property. However, they fought over the issue and managed to secure the right. n
In India, which has a dismal record on maternal mortality rates, 254 women die per 1,00,000 live births. The Northeastern state of Assam has the highest maternal mortality rate of 480. Insurgency that results in limited access to healthcare is attributed as one of the reasons for this. n
Domestic violence is common in Manipur. Cases of dowry deaths are not widely prevalent in the Northeast. Similarly, female foeticide is unheard of.
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YEARS ago when I left Assam to join Women’s College at Aligarh Muslim University, what shocked me more than the proverbial ‘cultural shock’ was the reaction I got from the dining-hall staff when I told them where I was from. “Oh, you have come from a far-away country” 
The cultural divide between the North and East is really wide. In our part of the country, women are equal to men and in fact more than equal in some cases. You can gauge it from the fact that in Assam even the city buses keep 50 per cent seats reserved for women. Yes, coming from a secure and liberal yet cocooned existence to assimilate into North Indian culture, does pose a challenge. The trick for survival would be to master the right amount of confidence and the right body language to ward off unwanted attention. And of course, to choose a right set of friends who can provide a good support system.
The cultural adjustment for me means dressing up according to the place and time, travelling with an escort at night and so forth. Having said that, I want to assure that I am not against dressing up in modern ways. But then it is important to understand whatever adjustments need to be made, have to come from us. We should not expect a radical change in the attitude of the people of our adopted place, which is deep-rooted in their culture.
Discrimination against Northeastern people in the North is apparent from various incidents. It is due to the lack of understanding and respect for each other’s culture. One way of bridging the gap is to open up to the North Indians, which can be achieved through cultural festivals and tourism. Bring North Indians to Northeast and educate them about us. There has to be a forum with prominent personalities from both the regions taking the lead.