MONGOLOID FEATURE PART OF INDIA'S FACE

The Mongoloid feature forms very much a part of India’s racially-diverse face, Meghalaya Governor, Ranjit Shekhar Mooshahary emphasized here today.

Mooshahary said at an inter-state youth-exchange and home stay programme of the National Service Scheme (NSS), that he is often mistaken for a “Chinese or Japanese” outside the northeastern region.

Gesturing to his face, he said: “when you go back you should dispel this impression that this kind of face only belongs to a Japanese or Korean. This kind of face also belongs to an Indian,” he told the young students.

India is the most racially diverse nation on the planet. In the northern, western and eastern corners of the country the population is predominated by the Aryans, while in the South it is the Dravidian population who are in majority.

The Mongoloid population has made the northeastern corner of the country as their home, while the Negroid race is found in some parts of western and southern India and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

All these people from different races have made India their home from thousands of years, unlike the recent migration of racially diverse people to Europe and America.

Mooshahary said that India is unique because it presents one of the most diverse pictures of any nation. “A Kashmiri has a different language, face, traditional dress, music and religion from someone who lives in the south, but this is not the same in say between two Europeans,” Mooshahary added.

He pointed out that despite two people being racially different Europeans, there is lot in common between them when it comes to dress, food habit, language, script, music, in most cases religion and other lifestyles.

“The pride and wealth of India is its diversity and the spirit of tolerance to accommodate all the different colours and hues to make what we call India,” the Governor said.

Mooshahary said any education which fails to imbibe into a person this spirit and ethos of a “diverse and tolerant India,” such education remains “incomplete.” 

MNREGS TOP PLATFORM OF GENDER EQUALITY

Apart from providing crucial employment opportunities, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Generation Scheme (MNREGS) is an excellent platform of gender equality.

Meghalaya Chief Minister Mukul Sangma making the observation today at a regional conference on women’s empowerment said MNREGS does not make any discrimination between men and women when it comes to wage allotment. 

“MNREGS does not make any discrimination and equal wages is given to both men and women, it was formed on the fundamentals of gender equality,” he told the gathering. The scheme, he said, is empowering women economically in a substantial manner.

MNREGS was enacted as an Act by the Parliament in 2005 and provides 100 days of work to an adult member of a family in a calendar year. The Act provides equal wage to both men and women who undertake unskilled manual labour for building public works.

Sangma said, the government wants to partner with the people in developmental projects and women have been found to be “willing partners” than men on several occasions.

Citing the example of the government Institute of Entrepreneurship, Sangma said, 80 percent of those who enrolled in these institutions at the Community and Rural Development blocks were women. “Women are constantly searching for ways of economic development and they need to be encouraged and their skills and financial literacy upscaled,” he said.

Moreover, a woman who is economically independent is not only capable of providing economic stability to her own family but is also capable of creating a chain link in a multi – dimensional way for the much needed socio economic transformation of the society.

Stating the government has the responsibility, therefore, to frame policies and projects that are non-discriminatory so that people are empowered socio-economically equally. All the programmes of the government are gender sensitive for all round development of the state, the Chief Minister said.

DR. BHUPEN HAZARIKA'S EFFORT SACRIFICED JOB FOR RADIO STATION IN NORTHEAST INDIA

The setting up of the first Radio Station in the northeast immediately after Independence was made possible by a great personality who put at stake his lucrative government job and sought for his first love and devotion – music and humanism.

It was due to Dr. Bhupen Hazarika’s unselfish effort that brought Radio Station in the northeast in 1948, a prized addition in those considering the georaphical isolation that the region is challenged with. The historical anecdote goes thus…

Dr. Bhupen Hazarika was fond of Shillong and used to come down here often. After Independence he organized a “Hills and Plains Week” with artist invited from all over the northeast at Shillong. The venue was the lovely Park at Barik Point, now known as Hydari Park, after Assam’s first Governor, Sir Muhammad Saleh Akbar Hydari.

The then Governor Hydari was much impressed with the zeal of young Bhupen Hazarika and after the weeklong festival of music and cultural show, he invited Dr. Bhupen Hazarika for dinner.

In the course of the discussion he came to know that, not only the young singer was good at music, but was also highly qualified holding a Master’s Degree in political Science and offered him a Government job.

“The Governor said ‘why don’t you take up a Government job,’ to which he (Dr. Bhupen Hazarika) promptly replied ‘please give us a Radio Station for the region instead,’” Bolen Hazarika, brother of the singer, recalled the anecdote here at the Assam Club today.

The Governor was taken aback by the passion of the singer and in a way obliged. Soon a Radio Station was set up in 1948 with two centres, one at Guwahati and the other here at Shillong.

The first announcer of the Northeast service was film star of yesteryears, Jnanada Kakati, who was present at the commemoration of 1^st anniversary of the singer and rose first to light the lamp kept before the singer’s picture, wearing the quintessential smile, trademark cap and Gamocha.

The gathering also formed a human chain and pledged to live by the ideals of the revolutionary singer and visionary. The gathering also rendered one of the most popular songs of the artist Manuhe… Manuhor Babe(people for people.)

There were several other dignitaries, some who knew the singer personally and shared anecdote related to the singer’s love for music and all sections of the society.

“If there were any ‘isms’ he believed in…that was humanism,” an old gentleman said, paying tribute to the singer. Others echoed in similar lines, they said that music was the medium the great singer used to spread his message of universal brotherhood, which the younger generation must emulate to bring peace love and friendship all around.

 “From childhood our parents – Nilkanta Hazarika and Shantipriya Hazarika – inculcated in us to love and respect every individual. So he (Dr. Bhupen Hazarika) was a kind and simple person from childhood and never differentiated between rich or the poor nor had any other classification in his outlook. He looked at everyone as equal human being,” Hazarika said.

Stating that for some people it may seem that the singer’s demise has left a vacuum, but for others his ideals is a constant companion.

“There are lots of youngsters who are following his music and ideals so there are several Bhupen Hazarikas in our midst just because they follow his ideals and approach towards life, which is Manuhe… Manuhor Babe,” Bolen Hazarika said.  

Faith cannot be kept imprisoned in geographical limits

“Faith cannot be kept imprisoned in geographical limits,” eminent journalist, MJ Akbar said while dismissing the idea of nationhood nurtured on the basis of religion.

Akbar said that Bangladesh is a perfect example of doing away with the idea of religion and opting for culture, language and secularism, which are the templates of a modern nation state.

On the other hand, he cited the example of Pakistan, which is in utter chaos. “Bangladesh will not be the cancer, which Pakistan is and has the chance of entering into the modern world…but, there is no hope for Pakistan,” Akbar said, at the four-day "Calm" literary, art and photography festival at Shillong, Meghalaya's State capital in Northeast India.

He said the foundation of Islam is based on “Muslim brotherhood and not Muslim nationhood,” and therefore the faith did not remain confined within the geographical fringes of just Mecca and Medina.

About India, Akbar said that it has the prerequisite of a modern state with its democratic setup, secularism, gender equality and economic equity, although much more is desired.

“There is no corner of India that the evening azan or the peel of the church bells cannot be heard, despite 80 per cent of the population being Hindus. India’s secularism is of coexistence of different faith and even atheists have the right to exist here,” he said.

He said that the idea of India (culture, tradition, integration etc. and fundamentals laid in the Indian Constitution) is much stronger than the Indians themselves, which has evolved over centuries. 

“The idea of India would prevail in the northeast, as it has in Punjab and Kashmir to a large extent. It may take some time, but there is no doubt that this great idea would prevail,” he said.

On gender equality, he said that much more needs to be done, especially when it comes to education in the country, especially of the girl child. He cited the example of Jawaharlal Nehru, when he attributed his effort to bring about gender equality as his biggest achievement.

 Akbar, meanwhile, was scathing in his remark and said: “Indians have contempt of our poor,” adding, that the country must bring about economic equity, so that the poor are a part of the rising narrative of India.

“The poor has a right to demand more, maybe better food and shelter, if not more, so they feel a part of the rising narrative of India…the Naxalites have gone hungry for the past 60 years,” he said about the struggle of the poor.

Akbar said that India was slowly turning into a society, where a few hundred industrialists and 70 odd families are running the economy of the country. “And there is a crisis now, which the young generation would have to find a way out (of the crisis,)” he felt.

DR. BHUPEN HAZARIKA A TRUE ARTIST

Describing the legendry Dr Bhupen Hazarika as a “true artist” worthy of emulation, Meghalaya Governor Ranjit Shekhar Mooshahary today said, the revolutionary artist transcended religion and region for oneness and peace through his undying art.

Mooshahary pointed to the phenomenon of the “spectacular footfall of huge multitude of people,” to pay their last respect to Dr Bhupen Hazarika after his demise, being unparalleled in the music world, and goes to prove that the singer “touched people’s consciousness” through his undying art.

The Governor said the quality of a true artist, is in being first and foremost, a peaceloving man, just as Dr Bhupen Hazarika. The Governor said that “unnecessary intolerance” has been created around the world as people do not want to reach each other by simply trying to understand the other person’s point of view. But, a true artist, like Dr Bhupen Hazarika, is someone who believes in reaching out to the masses though the doctrine of peace, integration and learning.

“After the singer’s demise there was an upsurge of emotion and uncountable people visited to pay their last respect. Such a spectacular footfall was never heard anywhere in the music world,” Mooshahary said in his inaugural address at the four-day Shillong Calm literary festival here. The festival would also feature motivational speeches from personalities like Chetan Bhagat, MJ Akbar and others besides art, photography exhibition, etc.

Mooshahary added that “art and culture can help reduce misunderstanding” and the “North East is a treasure house of art, culture and tradition” with “music being its forte.”

Touching on the literary scene of the region, the Governor lamented that the North East has several talented writers in the regional language, who do not get the kind of exposure that writers in the English language gets.

On the overall scenario of the North East, he said some of the problems of the region have accentuated as people believe in living in isolation, due to insecurity of being overwhelmed and exploited by “outsiders.”

“Art and culture,” he stated, has the capacity to liberalise people from this sense of insecurity and take them forward in the path of liberty.

Earlier, Chief Minister Mukul Sangma said the Meghalaya Government wants to partner with the people through various modes and the recent creation of the district-level arts and cultural societies is an effort in that direction.

DURGA PUJO, SHILLONG 2012