A tale of two voices - the inspired and the unsung

Rajkumar Panthoiren *

Just the other day, I was watching this rousing and hard-hitting Denzel Washington movie called "The Great Debaters" (2007), and unsurprisingly, it managed to stir me up while also bombarding me with some questions to which I couldn't give an honest, full answer. It led me to question my own education and also of my brethren belonging to the far east corner state that is ours.

To bring into context the relevance of the said movie, let me outline the basic storyline which, as it happens, was a true episode in American history (although, from the creative standpoint, there were excusable historical flaws in the movie).

It's a story about a feisty and enormously intelligent English teacher with uncompromisable morals in the small all-black Wiley College located in the backwater of Marshall, Texas who trained a formidable debate team that won the national championship by edging out the then reigning champion all-white University of South California debate team (which has been changed to the Harvard team in the movie).

Even better, 'the Great Debaters' of Wiley College remained unbeaten for a record decade. This was in the 1930s. And why was it a defining achievement for this bunch of bright-eyed, driven youngsters armed with historical and social consciousness of their place in the society they were in, and also the tough-loving yet inspiring guidance of their father figure teacher Prof. Tolson, who also was a noted poet himself?

Dehumanization, shame and resistance:

In the Jim Crow South even as the country was reeling under the Great Depression (1929-39), there was endemic racism and institutionalized discrimination ('separate but equal' segregation policy being the tip of the iceberg), where the Negroes (Black/African-American hereafter) weren't allowed to share the same space in educational institutions, transportation, entertainment facilities, hospitals, etc. with the Whites. Worse, there were disturbing instances of lynching of Blacks, particularly in the South.

It was a time of racial terrorism where the Blacks were made to feel like second-class citizens by design through intimidations ranging from as severe as lynching to the milder but nonetheless, no less sinister everyday racial slights by the dominant Whites, borne out of ignorant hatred and prejudice.

Considering this unsettling social background, the brave act of reasoned and fearless articulation in public platform by the young debaters of Wiley College which earned them a favourable reputation across the country, despite belonging to the margins, qualifies without a shred of doubt as a revolt against the unjust laws and narrow social perception to which they and their brethren were subjected with magnifying intensity. A classic case of the resilient and disciplined underdog finding their strengths, and pulling themselves through many slippery paths to ultimate victory.

The growing reputation of the debate team led to the organization of the first ever inter-racial debate in 1930 against the University of Michigan, a big and welcome change towards desegregation, at least in the mental sphere of the public. The hitherto unequals were finally on the same platform as equals, competing for a common prize. To top it, the famed Wiley College team had a woman member named Henrietta Bell Wells, who proved no less compared to the male debaters— a progressive choice by Prof. Tolson for the time.

And another young member, James Farmer, distinguished himself by growing up to be the founder of CORE (the Congress of Racial Equality), and being a towering figure in the civil rights movement of the 1960s. All of these are a fine, impeccable testament to what a great teacher could instil in their students. What Prof. Tolson did was to help them embrace their own potentialities, their worth as equal humans as the Whites, their flourishing individuality full of possibilities, and most importantly—not to feel fearful or ashamed to be a Black in those uncertain, turbulent times. They were taught by him to stand their ground backed by the power of education and exhaustive efforts to be erudite minds. What can we, especially our own teachers, learn from Prof. Tolson and his famed team of 'the Great Debaters'?

Relevance to the 'Chinky' racism - from a Manipuri's lens:

Are there certain parallels in the situation between the Blacks of the Jim Crow era and the people from the Northeast region of India, not strictly in the severity of sufferings but in the underlying modus operandi of racial discrimination adopted by the dominant mainland Indians towards the minority folks, specifically belonging to the Mongoloid stock? I am afraid so. Agreed that we are not being lynched anywhere or our bodies strung up in trees and burned. Also, we are not made to use separate public facilities in mainland India. We even get to study in different colleges across the country. Even the same laws for us as for the mainland folks. So far, so good.

But how can I possibly overlook the cases of students belonging to my region murdered in the not-so-distant past in mainland region? Should I lie for the sake of political correctness that our people feel welcome and wanted by the mainlanders? Should I ignore the curious, mocking gestures and abrasive comments hurled at our backs almost every day in the streets (even some of the so-called educated lot are worse.

I have had a brush with a racist college principal, all the more cementing the social reality, to quote personal experience)? Should I forget the judgemental looks and the severely dehumanised perception with which they evaluate our worth? Can all the stereotypical, xenophobic cynicism towards people from my region be brushed aside just like that?

And how do I say that the imposition of the draconian and heavily misused Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958 in certain states of the Northeast and Jammu and Kashmir is fair? The very dreaded act which a number of UN treaty bodies have pronounced to be in violation of International Law and which the UN, on 31 March 2012, asked India to revoke saying it had no place in Indian democracy; the very act which has been criticized by Human Rights Watch as a "tool of state abuse, oppression and discrimination". Maybe, the wisdom of St. Augustine that "an unjust law is no law at all" doesn't apply to the Indian state yet.

Maybe, the Indian state still doesn't want to acknowledge the right to self-determination, as enshrined in the United Nations Charter of 1945, of peoples who fulfil the factors required to possess the same, viz. a history of independence or self-rule in an identifiable territory, a distinct culture, and a will and capability to regain self-governance (Karen Parker - Understanding Self-determination: The Basics). Does the above sound any fair at all? If not, then who will point them out for us when we ourselves are comfortably self-anesthetized and scampering for excuses every time?

Clarion call to my lost brethren:

In this concluding and the most important section, we are back to square one. The questions stirred in me by the movie and the historical ideas it depicted which are relevant to our situation haven't been answered.

Wiley College had Prof. Tolson and his young student team of 'the Great Debaters' to raise a legitimate voice of their people's cause in the platform they best excelled in, which played an important role in busting the myth of Black inferiority as was generally perceived by the dominant Whites of the time.

What about us, the "Chinkies", as the majority mainlanders would like to call us? Who do we have?

Why are our voices heard less often than needed? Who will take up our issues?

Can you name a single college or university professor of the state who can claim to have inspired and instilled in their students a responsible sense of social consciousness in recent time? Not one. Most of them are just too content with the fat pay checks they get. Where is the leadership of both our teachers and students (no, we don't need any more of those mushrooming self-righteous, mindless "student leaders". What is needed desperately is student leadership. There's a difference)?

It's the same old sea of mediocrity normalized to such an extent that no one dare disturb the status quo. The pervasive motto, it seems, is to play safe. Now, here lies all the rot.

Not anymore, the pretentious voices masquerading as heroes will work because they fall flat as soon as the bell is sounded. As long as they are made to reign supreme while the genuine voices aren't upheld, our issues will never be taken by the powers that be with the seriousness they deserve.

Now, only one question remains: will we ever have our very own Prof. Tolson and if yes, then when will he incarnate amidst us? The answer, it seems, is blowing among the half-dead souls of this ancient, beautiful and multifariously cracked land we call home. Sorry, Bob.