Rethinking socialization

Ibomcha *

An illustration of a popular Funga wari - Ita Thaomei

Ting ting chaoro
Numitna wanglengei wanghouro
Thabina karingei kahoure
Napa machum taro
Napu machum taro.

This song is a traditional song/recitation Meitei mothers use to sing/recite when less than a year old infant is given a good bath during the day. This song/recitation can be seen as one of the many ways of infusing the idea of consciousness into the minds of each growing up infants.

If the traditional way of parenting and socialization are analyzed in our social and historical context, this song/recitation provides one way of looking at how traditional institutions trace their origin at the familial level. For instance, the song/recitation indicates that the parents or even elderly member of womenfolk take on the task of equipping the children with identity and ideational notion of teaching how one should grow up.

Besides the old too familiar idea of keeping the infants cheerful from a very subjective point of view, the essence of the song/recitation also speaks about the idea of traditional ways of educating a child even before it gains social consciousness.

A rough translation of the song/recitation goes like this:

Grow and live, Grow and live;
Whilst the sun is up, may you grow tall;
Whilst the moon is up, may you climb up.
Let father's shadow be on you,
Let forefathers' shadow be on you.

Though it would be a tall claim to say that the formation of a living societal identity and nationhood are embedded in the song/recitation/ utterance, one can nevertheless claims that if taken as a socialization and educational process in itself, these simple bland words do necessarily communicate the premium importance given to the Meitei notion and worldview.

In short, the idea of telling a child that it should grow up and shine in the world like the sun and moon with the tradition handed down by forefathers says a lot more than just connecting with loosely defined idea of culture.

Through the song the mothers and elderly women inject the spirit of nationalism to the unconscious mind of the child. Their desire of seeing the children grow tall and shine like the sun and the moon has been anchored in a tradition of referring to forefathers while not deviating from our social norms and morality.

When we cut into the sentence, "let father's shadow be on you", we can say that the child has been taught to grow up in physical, moral and psychological image of his/her father.

The necessity of enabling our children to the continuum of their forefathers' valuable national characters has been spawned by numerous assaults on the Meitei sensibilities and morality in recent times. With the more than evident existence of socialization process of children or child care started even before it gains human consciousness, it is worth looking back how far this tradition can be harnessed to withstand the onslaught of multiple and assorted ideas from what can be described as external influence.

Numerous moral lessons were taught to Meitei children via folk tales (funga wari) especially by Eepu/Abok (grandfather and grandmother) through which children gained human consciousness. Normative order was to some extent injected through 'funga wari'.

This form of socialization through folktales is still being continued to this day. In the olden days, when the children enter the stage of adulthood (or just before it), they get their education from a social institution name 'shinnaipham' and this institution took the responsibility of giving a wholesome education to our young men and women in different phases of history.

There were phans--leisha phan and phakhang phan (two categories, one for girls and other for boys). Boys were taught in pakhang phan by an elderly man and girls were taught in leishaphan by an elderly woman. In these institutions, knowledge was inculcated.

The range of topics was very vast-- from moral lesson to sex education and even more. Every aspect of life was covered in the institutionalized form of education. Both sexes were inculcated the way of living. Social values lodged in the specific social context, norms and mannerisms were handed down to them. Not only moral principles, they were also taught how to work to earn their living (the process of production).

The young men and women were taught the skill of Thang-ta (sword n spear) for protecting their country which may in return give them the spirit of nationalism or love of his/her country. In short, all the elements needed in the historical phase were taught in the sinnaipham. The young men and women coming out of sinnaipam were taken as fit for getting married. When they eventually settle for life, they do continue teaching their children.

But with advent of modern education, it seems the traditional socialization process have lost its track in our society. The continuity of sinnaipham (leisaphan pakhangphan) is no longer seen in any form in the society today. So, there exists a wide gap between traditional socialization institution and modern institution, consequently there has been numerous deviation and aberrations which are manifested in our society.

The continuation or at least retaining the elements of pakhang phan, leisa phan should be there in our society to remove the gap between modern education and traditional education so as to enable younger generation to grow under the image of our forefather with a strong feeling of nationalism.

We also need to continue the tradition of funga wari liba for giving moral lessons to our generation. Such old forms of educational process should be modernized to conform seamlessly to the changing the world.

All one wish is to see a generation in which mothers and elders can sing "ting ting chaoro " with the real meaning embedded in it for their children. The best part of old and new should be combined and synthesized. Therefore, we need to rethink, revise and re-evaluate so that a wholesome and revolutionary form of education can be charted out.

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* Ibomcha wrote this article for Hueiyen Lanpao (English Edition)
This article was posted on July 30 2012

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