Political consciousness through self introspection: Your shadow, your reflection

RK Rajeebsana *

Yes, we can understand, acknowledge and know a particular society just by a mere look on the constituent political class of people that exist in a particular society. We do know a particular kind of culture superficially, by just looking at women of that particular society as women being consider as the cultural remark of society.

Optimistically looking at it, women are indeed the ideal character, the complete representative whole of society. So likewise if we want to know the particular type of society, the psychological aspect of society, the kind of mentality people have , the level of civilization it maintain, the level of social and political consciousness it posses or on the other hand the level of its value riddeness or contrary of it , can be known and easily identifiable by just a mere watch upon the political class of people it has in that particular society.

This hypothetical like assumption may seem paradoxical if we take it on a very literal and superficial sense but this indeed is true and verifiable if we look at and bring Manipur society as focal point of its analysis. There is a line in the Ramayana , “ yatha raja tatha praja” which essentially mean the character of a king determines the condition of a people.

To look at one episode of it, in the mythology Ramayana when demonic Ravana, become the king in Lanka, accordingly his subjects also become demon, a rude, cruel , merciless creatures. In contrary when Bibishan, the younger brother of Ravana become the king of Lanka who is devout and attended to the wishes of people, all his subjects become devout and truthfully, religiously inclined. Thus yatha raja tatha praja.

If we look at the present democratic setup in our society, as it is known that democracy itself is a people’s government and power ultimately lies at the hand of people then there is, in no way wrong in saying that these particular constituent of political class are just the reflection, the mirror of the people in that particular society.

These political class of people are just the stone that people throw against the water and the outcoming of wave, only the reflection of the kind and nature of people’s mentality, there level of political consciousness and there value as a social animal which people themselves has created and projected as a type of self image. Since the paramount power lies at the hand of people and ultimately decide their elected representative then as of now it can be concluded that as people, so as there representative , “yatha praja tatha raja” in contrary to that of original religious notion.

As you sow , so shall you reap. Keeping this context in mind , it is of course and indeed a fool who criticize and complaint the government. Ignorantly people are blaming themselves which they could not bring into consciousness. It is not the government to whom people should blame but it is the people themselves who are to be blame. If this consciousness do no materialize and bring into praxis that society and Manipur society in particular has a long way to go with future hopelessness.

We find people who are all time criticizer of government, who do not find himself satisfy without a day of single punch against government. They will continue to do so for a years but what is surprising is that these people stop all their criticism and will be blown away by the wind of election when days to election approach, where they fall into their own trap which they were once criticizing.

We need to remember all the episode of event chronologically of what had happened in the past years or during the term in power either that may be ruling party or opposition. Just because election has arrived and if we lost all the memory of past incidence, the record of 120 days of economic blockade , the 50 days economic blockade , the ongoing indefinite economic blockade which have reach more than 100 days to break the previous record, all the long queue at all walks of life, the sky high price of every commodities, red tapism , all the brutal and fake encounter killings, all that crime against women then it does not make any sense being human as well as being a responsible citizen.

We are also responsible to think and remember all those issue which have been sideline and of course the issue which are need of the hour. There may come a time in which we may not able to held our head high if outsider outnumber our population.

We may face the same psychological trauma which had been experience by the tripuri when there population reduce into minority when outsider population outnumber them that consequently affect the socio –economic-political and cultural life of people. To put an anecdote on it, Tripura was a princely state with a history of 1300 years before it get merged into the Indian subcontinent in October 1949.

In pre-independence India tribe were the major dominant population. Since mid 1940s outsider population outnumber them due to influx of Bengalis from east Pakistan (now Bangladesh). Moreover, more than 6 lakh refugees get influx during 1947-1971. Being reduce as a minority in their own land they suffer a psychological trauma. There was also a question of survival because of the numerical domination of Bengalis and refugees taking over all their means of livelihood .

There was a major 19 tribal group in Tripura and tripuri was the dominant tribal group consisting approximately 57% of population. But due to excessive influx of alien population there was a huge changes in the demographic profile. The total tribal native population in 1874 census consist of 64% that went down into 52% in 1931, 37% in 1951, 28.44% in 1981 , 29.59% in 1991, and 25.74% in 2001 (provisional) .

Due to excessive influx of alien population, it ultimately affect the socio-economic-political and cultural affairs of the state. The Bengalis started contesting election , participate in the administrative process that consequently encourage Bengali language and culture . Moreover Bengali language and scripture become the medium of instruction in educational institutes.

So, keeping in mind the living example before us and with an empathetic understanding, it is we the people, being a responsible citizen to decide the right decision, the right duty which are already on the table.