Inequality & flawed conception
- Hueiyen Lanpao Editorial :: September 04 2015 -
The idea of inequality in India presupposes the notion of a constant group as the oppressor and an unchanging group as the oppressed.
Most acclaimed observers in the period following the Independence of India seem to have accepted this idea without adequately addressing the unfolding dynamics at the grassroots level.
This basically means any policies adopted for the uplift of the oppressed have also remained constant without considering the tremendous changes both in the empirical and notional understanding of the entrenched dent in the historical power structure.
There has also been an excessive reliance on construction and reconstruction of “historical misadventure” by certain ethnic groups with hardly any progressive methodology or content.
While blames cannot be put entirely on the wisdom or lack of it by local elites or leaders, it has to be made very clear that the idea of inequality as understood in the bigger mainstream Indian discourse cannot be replicated in Northeast of India.
One should also note the process in which the local elites and leaders irrespective of the communities in the region are produced and reproduced in the presupposed model shaped and chiselled by the dominant discourse.
This dominant discourse on inequality has been set into motion by an understanding of the presupposed constant oppressor in the mirror image of the mainstream Brahmanical social order, perpetuated through a hereditarily determined identity.
The bringing in of caste oppression as the leitmotif of understanding inequality in the Northeastern part of India will fall short of actually grasping the truth.
Social and political contradictions inherent in the ethnic entities that make up the region are quite different from the contradictions of a deeply flawed popular concept of inequality in India.
While reminding oneself of the existing realities, there is another level of understanding the political economy of the Northeast.
Like the dominant conception, land contradictions within the indigenous communities need to be deeply analysed.
Over half a century of infusing dominant discourse into understanding localised issues have only brought untold hardships to the common people.
As of now, there seems to be no respite from the turmoil generated by flawed conceptions superimposed on certain realities in the region.
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