Dear Ms. Ete
Many thanks for your email. Let me say at the outset that I personally
propound the policy known as "the right to be left alone". As a
consequence of that I oppose intrusive interference and top down
prescriptions from officious/ignorant babus (and snakeoil salesman
@Modis) promoting "development" as the panacea to all ailments
allegedly afflicting tribals.
I have some knowledge of the NE, which I can encapsulate briefly as
examples of what ancestors did right (and what we are doing wrong).
1) I am a direct descendant of Gunabhiram Barua the famous playwright
of Assam. My paternal grandmother was his grand-daughter, and they
lived in Shillong as my grandfather was at Cotton College Guwahati
heading its English Dept and then as Principal.
2) From my mother's side, my great-grandmother's sister was wife to
Lakshminath Bezbarua, the bard of Assam. She also owned what is now
the famous monument "Jitbhumi" in Shillong.
But as you know things have changed after the troubles, and nobody
wants to remember discuss ancient history and times when diverse
peoples could coexist and occupy the same space in harmony.
Sarbajit
On 11/17/13, jarjum ete <jarjum@gmail.com> wrote:
> Dear Sarbajitji,
>
> Hmmmm.... thanks for enunciating the in-betweens.
>
> As thinking citizens sharing the umbrella of the nation state called a
> modern India, perhaps we also must be held responsible for what goes wrong
> in the country but not for what our ancestors and forerunners did wrong.
>
> As a tribal from the far north-eastern state of Arunachal Pradesh (which
> again are not words from any of the tribes here ), I have no issue about
> history so long as we can, collectively, responsibly share the burden of
> taking the nation ahead. Without the small being subsumed. Without the
> diversity being homogenised. Without the potentials being undermined.
> Without the positives being negated.
>
> Regards.
>
> Jarjum Ete
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