Patricia Mukhim
At least three states of the North East are headed for the Assembly polls in early 2008. While elections in themselves have become meaningless or been made redundant by the very inefficacy of the people elected, adult franchise is the very basis upon which liberal democracy is founded. Democracy envisages an informed, enlightened citizenry that can put a government on the mat for its acts of omission and commission. But that is precisely what we do not have in India. Ours is a confused blend of forced nation-building out of incompatible elements, on a framework borrowed from the advanced west. Often, this attempt to forcefully make us wear shoes that are several sizes too big is what creates disorder.
When the Indian Constitution, whose preamble reads like a collective oath taking ceremony, was adopted, we in the region were still in the deep dark recesses of our tribal milieu. We had not evolved enough to have joined the bandwagon of those enlightened species of the elite durbar of India, many of them western educated elite, who consciously agreed to adopt the tenets of a liberal, western democratic framework upon which to launch our destinies. No wonder democracy suffers from severe maladjustments.
Democracy is premised on the idea of enjoyment of basic fundamental rights and exercise of responsibilities by individual citizens. It has no mechanism to deal with collective or community rights which is what defines the tribal milieu. Yet our democratic system has had to grapple with these dichotomies and only occasionally stumble upon answers. But, by and large, democracy continues to be an existential dilemma especially in states where tribal sentiments and community loyalty supercedes the rationale of hard core democratic codes.
Conflict in the region is largely because of these predicaments. It is difficult enough to transition from a society with no script and no written history into one where your histories are scripted by a foreign power with a peripheral understanding of the nuances of individual cultural legacies. Often the portrayal has been pejorative. Now that many of us have imbibed an educational system founded on the western world view we feel compelled to re-script our histories but without the rigidity of research and scholarship which are essential components of empiricism. From a past that completely blanked out our traditional values we now come to a present that is highly glorified. The need to project our exclusive identities to the world and also for the purpose of cornering the resources of democracy has resulted in the emergence of new ethnic communities with new challenges. Indian democracy does not know how to handle this continuous dilemma.
With all these inherent predicaments we have added our own experiences to the enrichment of democracy. The Indian state has gradually begun to understand and appreciate the ‘tribal genius’ that Nehru articulated at a time when the Indian masses were hardly aware of our existence. Over the years intelligent discourses by the academia and intelligentsia from the region, coupled with native wisdom from the field have become subjects of great interest for academics across the country and the world. Yet we are also part of the larger democratic sheet anchor that continues to guide our political destinies across stormy seas.
It is against this background that one looks at the forthcoming elections to the state legislatures and the role of emerging actors. Women have played very marginal roles in the legislature. Yet they have been the most pro-active campaigners, polling agents and proxy votes for male candidates. This was very succinctly stated by women themselves at the recently concluded seminar organized by the Nagaland State Commission for Women at Kohima. Now that women recognize they have been used as effective tools for vote-gathering, even while their own statuses remain unchanged, it would be fair to say that they are now ready for ‘real’ political mobilization.
For decades the people of Nagaland have voted, but for what? There is no infrastructure worth its name. Not a single institution stands out as a centre of excellence. Education is in the doldrums thus forcing out youngsters to seek for opportunities elsewhere. A huge percentage of the GDP of Nagaland leaks out of the State annually to meet the needs of its student population in the metros. Yet there is a distinct lack of interest in the Government to stem this exodus of the best and the brightest. Those who have experienced a fairly liberal lifestyle outside Nagaland wonder why they should come back to a State whose capital city goes to sleep at dusk and where social mores are dictated by gun-toting outfits. Last week three people were shot dead in the busiest section of Kohima town but there was not a whimper. This tells us that life is cheap and therefore expendable.
For years together Nagaland has been run like a patriarchal empire first by one tribe and then another. But there are no visible signs of progress. If roads are the indicators of development then Nagaland and its rulers have given it a new definition. Dilapidated roads, that are especially threatening for pregnant women as one severe jolt on an unsuspecting crater could lead to a miscarriage, have been, and continue to be an eyesore. Yet women have silently borne this rubbish that passes off as development and for which crores of rupees have been poured in by the Indian State. This reminds us of the song, ‘where have all the flowers gone?’ except that in this case ‘flowers’ is substituted by ‘money’. But we know where the money has gone, don’t we? It has gone into building sophisticated mansions, buying swanky cars, investments in personal businesses of ministers and their privileged ‘sons’ who think they have a natural right to all government contracts. How can this pilferage be allowed to continue?
So will women do better as legislators and will they bring about substantive changes? We will not know until we see them in action. What we do know is that women form half of the population of Nagaland and therefore have every right to play a role in its politics not merely as campaigners but by directly contesting the elections. History tells us that no organized political party will ever allocate space for women. Their leaders, all male will always find ways to deprive women of their legitimate space. Some of these male aspiring candidates will use women to defile and defame other women who intend to contest the polls. But we are not looking at a church post here where candidates are expected to be pure as driven snow. Do we have anyone who is perfect in the first place? Since perfection is only possible in the after-life, women need to unshackle the patriarchal conditioning and the slavery of sexual division of labour and come together to elect women to represent them in the next elections. It is time to form a separate women’s political party and for all women to rise above tribe and clan and work for the collective success of this party.
Nagaland deserves a change and women are capable of bringing to the political corpus their vast, yet untapped experiences. Can Naga women rise to the occasion and claim their space in politics to show the way to a better more equitable future? Of course this means hard work but it is worth the struggle.
