Visions in Times of Turmoil
- Hueiyen Lanpao Editorial :: September 22 2015 -

Effort to remove the baggage of history can be problematic both in negative as well as positive senses.

Most often, the efforts made are based on one of the ways of re-reading the past with some amount of calculated sequence.

The invoking of the past within the generally accepted parameters of history as a discipline also implicitly calls for fortifying the hope for future.

Most often than not, there are unintended consequences of every projects envisioned by the lead actors of social and political movements.

Under such circumstances, burying the ghost of the past should not be mistaken as performing the last rites of bitterness so as to exorcise mass guilt.

The inability to generate qualitative perspectives based on truism of history can generate shades of passion that can serve as means to an end.

While communities raise questions over the criteria of allotting preferences to political needs, India’s Northeastern States often get trapped in the turmoil defining the “Self”.

Based on the understanding of conventional dialectics, the obsession to define the “Self” can achieve commendable wisdom depending on how one generates the image of the “Other” in the flight to reinforce political objectives.

However, the project of “sapere aude” or “dare to know” does not have to be always latched on enlightenment.

The unquestionable spirit of the times can be extremely subjective to figure out what most communities in the Northeast region of India have solely depended on the imprinted benevolence of a bigger “Other”.

The subdued or skilfully crafted words of the political class can at times be meaningless when the motives are necessitated by the expediency of keeping the mass in good humour.

The reluctance of displeasing those who matter in the unfolding situation may also the sign of weakness borne out of either guilt or fear and not necessarily strength.

Harping on the issue of finding a solution can itself be the beginning of another trouble.

This is why projected visions of the future often land jeopardizing the little visions that matter.