AIR and Lingo Bubble

By David Buhril *

I was a little boy when my mother narrated a story about a family in feud over the color of a necklace they dreamt of buying. All the members of the family wanted different colors, which severely divided the family's cord even before they could buy their dream necklace. Neighbours eventually had to intervene to stop the quarrel that was already progressing into a fight. Despite the differences, the family could only be grounded by the fact that they did not even have the money to buy the necklace. My mother's message to us was to be grounded and never to fight.

That was then. However, as I was going through the ongoing debates/discussion/comments that is doing the rounds in many of our exploding websites on the issue of AIR link language, I was reminded of my mother's parable. Thought-terminating clichés murdering rational discussion. Ranting like demented Othello. We surrender our moral autonomy to the growing Paris- like heroes of Troy who are diluting our reason in dealing with the already prickly subject. It is true that "we are cursed not by a cultural divide but by mutual cultural self-destruction".

However, we must remind ourselves to shed the empty rhetoric's that could invade our peace, which is our biggest resource. Once again, this reflects a breakdown of us. However, we should not allow their cheers for adversity invade all our valuable spaces to drown into the All India Radio link language issue. Please tell them that we have bled enough. We cannot afford to allow us to be another comfortably numb sacrificial lamb. We cannot feed ourselves with those raw fodders that could gnaw our peace into pieces.

Besides the supposed confronting actors (read: Hmar, Kuki and Paite), the concerned authorities ought to be sensitive to the issue as it is not just a spat. We have also allowed ourselves to go off the limits. Imagine this: Leaders of a particular community even went to the extent of becoming a forger, forging the signature of one of the presidents of another community, to expedite their interest. It is shameful that we have lost our integrity.

If we care to retreat and take a peek of our current past, we cannot help but say that the ongoing debate is not merely about securing a link in the almost archaic All India Radio programme. Ethno-centrism and cultural prejudice is already tuning the cadence and temper of our debate, which is why we are all braying like the blinds who encountered the elephant. We are all right in our respective interpretation of everything. But I am ashamed. We never get to hear the elephant's version. It must have said how blind and narrow we all are. It must have pained his animal instinct in seeing the unplough human reason trapped within us.

I think we all suffer from an incurable acute form of cultural supremacy complex, despite the blurred, but collective history. We share the German idea of "leading culture", believes in war, armament, and other inconveniences that could reduce our humane existence. We make ourselves believed that we possessed the classical language of science, poetry, philosophy, music, etc. That could be one of the reasons that almost explode our chest as we sit behind the comfort of wall in urban jungles and burst mindlessly in front of black keyboard and glowing screen. But I have made myself believed that if all our love songs were on air with a stain of blood; I would rather choose to do without the bloody air breathing alive on the radio.

On the other hand, the cultural argument could be a mirror to reflect the intense feeling of political bitterness, enmity and victimization felt towards one another. The hyper-consciousness of our little explosive mindset that we all shelved within us, is actually driving us to forget the collective suffering of our own people wherever we are. Our marginalized state under Manipur Government with the absence of any basic facilities (health, education, infrastructure, etc.) and the failure of democracy and decentralisation, the "Chinese" or "Chinky" that we are called, and all the sour treatments as "others" outside our neglected homes, never seem to weave us together for that still absent union or realization. Are we just the blot of the scar?

We all know how the AIR project was stalled. Many of us were just growing up then. But the disease has recruited more victims. Sometimes I wonder what the role of our divisive politicians and bureaucrats would be in this matter, in their quest of erecting a hero-tombstone by conveniently exploiting our stinking divisions in the name of that elusive "nation" and its "glory".

Eventually, it is us, the common people who sacrifice and suffer, to further quench their thirst and hunger for that already overdosed power and glory, which they quest for more. Pandering behind them, the multiplying tribe based organizations and actors sought their own crown by fielding their innocent people who could go hungry and deprive anytime. I think we have given too much for that vain quest where nothing trickles down for us. For Paris blunder, thousands died for the "nation and land". Remember we are not here on earth to re-live the battle of Troy. Forget the sick demagogues. Let us stop their destructive power-game.

We cannot forget our realities in the small landscape of Manipur's Churachandpur district. The colonial divide and rule policy had divided and "scheduled" all of us equally as "tribe". Their seed of divisions were further oiled by their ignorance of our collectivity and emphasizing on our dialect/language that further fragmented us. When shall we realize the sick game? Forgetting everything, we sell and surrender ourselves like desperate prostitutes who even failed to wear protection in such vulnerable times. We clap with thunder as long as it fulfils our sordid quest. After the great division, the controversial project cannot be isolated, but has to be seen as a government's experiment to further plumb the society by pitting demagogues ordained confrontationists. We are mere victims of hollow clichés.

While saying that the AIR project cannot be isolated, it is, again, important for us to see the entire developments from the perspective of the Resource Mobilization Theory (RMT). The theory attempts to explain social movements by viewing individuals as rational actors that are engaged in instrumental actions that use formal organizations to secure and aggregate resources and foster mobilization (McCarthy and Zald, 1987). In a communally divided society, the "instrumental actions" of any "rational actors" is always discounted and interpreted as an attempt to incur resource for a minority by leaving out the greater collective. This is when the concerned authorities ought to be sensitive to the complex developments.

As it is visible, the aspirations of the engaged actors is to secure a win-win situation respectively. Knowing this, policy maker's need to walk that extra mile to explore ways and means to make the existing laws flexible and inclusive to accommodate conflicting interests. Imposing an archaic legislation without opening up space for necessary change that could, otherwise, stir constructive collective participation and foster peace and unity, would merely point to the absence of any democratic process. What if we collectively pursue that pursuit and widen the content of existing policies, terms and conditions that are already taming our recognized divisions. That would inevitably allow us to aspire for a fertile avenue where every language/dialect is evenly accommodated.

On the part of the government, instead of waiting and designing to plant the old seed of discord in a communally dormant society, it will do good to everyone if they could grow out of their stagnant boxes and devise an empowering strategy in the form of community radio that is already building healthy communities in different parts of the country. If policy makers/decision makers could not adopt new workable strategies and policies, it is high time they realize that their mugging-up of history and geography to score marks for significant post is already an outdated leverage that only act to polish their matrimonial column.

It is high time they stop their pandering role as watchdog of repressive government policies. They ought to be responsible for any outcome of their insufficient policies, rules and conditions. They should also be responsible for their silence. Let them know that their experiment is not an intellectual drama tuned to a Shakespearean history play. Otherwise, Shakespeare also believed that the debasement of language, which is a prelude to violence, is the curse of modernity. Let them not invite a Shakespearean tragedy out of their adventurous weakness.

And us, who are always seeking that elusive chaff of power and glory in everything, we are living the pain of that vain painted veil. I'd rather choose a clean, unpolluted air in a distant corner and not one clogged by AIR airwaves with innocent stains of my own brothers and sisters. Let everything happen for good. For virtue. For Progress. For Peace. For Unity. For justice.