[Assam] Sanjoy Hazarika's write-up on Map: AT 28/01/2008
Chan Mahanta
cmahanta at charter.net
Mon Jan 28 07:53:46 PST 2008
Thanks for sharing the article Uttam.
He makes good points. If more of our ' journalist
' friends take critical looks at issues instead
of merely regurgitating garbage handed to them by
the Govt. propaganda artists, things could get
better. But that would bee too much to expect ,
if the current situation is a good indicator.
At 5:12 AM +0000 1/28/08, uttam borthakur wrote:
> Chandan Da I Have made it easier for
>you:-) I though I am the only lazy one!
>EDITORIAL
>
>---------------------------------
> Redrawing the borders of North East
> Sanjoy HazarikaThe other day, I attended
>another of those Summits on investments in the
>North East at the cavernous, galleried indoor
>stadium on the outskirts of Guwahati, which has
>become the place of choice for various economic
>meetings for reasons unclear to me.
>
>All of us at the event heard the same phrases
>parroted that have become de rigueur for such
>events, where we are told to lift up our eyes to
>see the vision before us (with apologies to the
>New Testament) and forget the keecher that
>swamps us, that is destroying the world around
>us and certainly the greatest resource of our
>State, the Brahmaputra. The rivers are our
>lifelines yet we dont have a single town along
>it that has a sewage or effluent control system.
>We defecate in the open, especially along the
>river line why do our toilets face the river
>and not elsewhere? obviously for quick
>disposal of waste.
>
>The money that is wasted in such jamborees would
>have served a better cause had the organisers
>spent it in launching a campaign of private and
>public toilets across Assam, where barely eight
>per cent of the population has access to
>sanitation. But lets hold our noses a bit
>longer because Im now coming to the heart of
>this article and the specific issue I want to
>raise.
>
>The conference, for a bunch of Non-Resident
>Assamese (who come home like migratory birds
>evry winter for a few days before going to their
>foreign nesting lands), some international
>companies and a few domestic ones, was organised
>by the Confederation of Indian Industry,
>arguably the most powerful representative
>association of industry in the country, the
>Ministry for the Development of the North
>Eastern Region (DoNER) and the host Government
>of Assam. There were government delegations from
>all States of the region and ministers from the
>Assam Government.
>
>We heard how good the opportunities were for
>investment and some spiffy power point
>presentations on all that was glowing and good
>in the region. Some of the foreign delegates
>used the opportunity to beat their own drum or
>that of their organisations, one doctor from the
>UK talked about how wonderful and large the
>British Health Service was (its not, its
>poorly run, overstaffed and difficult to get
>appointments) and horrified he was at the bad
>traffic in Guwahati and how his wife did not
>even dare to cross the road all the time she had
>been in the city.
>
>But the impressive statistics reeled off by
>Jairam Ramesh left a sense of dejavu. Broad
>band connections would soar from a pathetic
>current figure of 20,000 to six times that by
>2009. And that there was no point expecting
>private players given the circumstances in the
>region and the huge gaps; it would have to be
>the public sector that would have to step in
>with funds, technical specialisation, programms
>and projects.
>
>The Rs. 50,000 crore that is to be spent on
>roads in the North East was actually a
>repetition of an announcement made in February
>2007 in Kolkata by the Minsiter for the North
>East, Mani Shankar Aiyar, at an event organised
>by another powerful business body, the Indian
>Chambers of Commerce there, where he also talked
>about the surge in air connectivity in the
>region (226 flights per week to the various
>States, better than most metros could boast) and
>other issues. Apart from the paeans of praise
>showered on each other and the need to push
>connectivity to South East Asia (conveniently
>side stepping an inconvenient and harsh truth,
>that Burma or Myanmar, one of the poorest
>countries in the world saddled with a brutal
>regime it was left to Tarun Gogoi, the Chief
>Minister of Assam, to deliver a few home truths.
>
>He said he really was not interested in just
>getting more funds, a courageous statement for a
>major political leader, but what Assam needed
>was to really build skills, deliver an education
>system that produced employable youth and
>develop capacity.
>
>All this took place in the background of a
>conference folder put together by the three
>sponsors of the meeting. And thats the punch
>line of this piece on the cover of the folder
>was a map of India with the title of the
>conference and the sponsors. Nothing special
>about that. What made it unique and this was
>repeated on the cover of the CD inside was
>that the demarcated map of the North East on the
>map of India began in West Bengal, at the
>Sunderbans.
>
>This is not a casual mistake by the printer. An
>American IT specialist who was at the New York
>Investment conference for the North-East in
>September 2007 said he and a number of others
>had seen it and puzzled by it. The CIIs
>regional office for the North East is in
>Kolkata. The Chairman of the CII Northeastern
>region is from Kolkata. And which is one of the
>biggest beneficiaries of the Look East Policy?
>No prizes for guessing: Kolkata it has a
>powerful, well organised State leadership that
>makes the Central government shake when it
>catches cold; it has fraternal connections with
>the Communist Party of the Peoples Republic of
>China and flights from Kunming in Yunnan are
>coming to Kolkata, not to Guwahati!
>
>It has a vibrant economy and strong
>administration; its capitalists are not just
>very wealthy and influential but close to the
>Left comrades who run the State; investors from
>abroad are rushing there; the infrastructure is
>good, the roads are excellent; Buddhadev
>Bhattacherjee carries more clout in New Delhi
>and the rest of India than all the eight Chief
>Ministers of the North East put together. The
>head offices of major tea companies and others
>with substantial investments in Assam and the
>NER located in this first capital of British
>India, despite the agitations of the 1980s by
>students in Assam that they should relocated in
>Guwahati.
>
>Map making is political. It is a perception
>translated from colonial ambitions and more,
>where travelers tales and measurements are
>shaped into empires and nations. These
>perceptions make demands. Above all they
>emphasize the concepts of borders, boundaries
>and frontiers, of margins, settlement and
>sovereign nations.
>
>It is not an accident of drafting but an agenda
>proclaimed, not counting mountain peaks and
>valleys but asserting political rights and
>mandates. Map making has been the preserve of
>the powerful; those without a voice have had to
>lump it for centuries. Maps are political
>statements take the Chinese map of India which
>excludes Arunachal Pradesh or the Indian map of
>Kashmir which includes Pakistan-held Kashmir.
>And what of the NSCN map of a Greater Nagaland
>that takes in parts of Assam, Manipur and
>Arunachal Pradesh?
>
>Is it the view of the Government of India,
>especially MDoNER, of the Government of Assam
>and the other States of the region, of CII (in
>the NER as well as Kolkata and Delhi), that the
>North-East, without being consulted is now part
>of West Bengal or vice versa, whether ostensibly
>for economic activity or otherwise? Is this the
>real face of the Look East Policy, Summits or
>not? The powerful prevail, often. But as in
>Perth, the underdogs do sometimes. By issuing a
>map such as this, the three partners at the
>conference have issued an unacceptable position.
>
>In 1947, Mahatma Gandhi and Lokpriya Gopinath
>Bardoloi backed by the Congress party in Assam
>and in the face of opposition from Jawaharlal
>Nehru and Vallabhai Patel stalled the proposed
>amalgamation of Assam with East Pakistan. Is
>there an effort to rewrite history, through the
>back door, as part of economic globalization?
>That this has happened without fuss or
>objections from groups like AASU and others who
>proclaim their commitment to Ai Asom and the
>people of the region is astonishing. This
>article seeks to reach a wider audience so that
>others voice not just their concern, including
>rational people, scholars, media and
>professionals, but their opposition.
>
>It was perhaps appropriate that soon after this
>event an international conference on the North
>East and its borderlands took place at another
>venue in Guwahati; the discourse was more
>academic although grassroots organisers and
>others were present. One of the issues that
>caused concern was over the opening of borders
>which would place small vulnerable communities
>at the mercy of a political-industrial
>juggernaut.
>
>
>Chan Mahanta <cmahanta at charter.net> wrote: O' Uttam:
>
>Probondhotw ontotoh uddhrito kori pothabo paarlihetentw .
>
>What shall we do now? Guess what Hazarika wrote :-)?
>
>c-da
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>At 3:21 AM +0000 1/28/08, uttam borthakur wrote:
>>Mr. Hazarika has written a crispy piece in The Assam Tribune on
>>28/01/2008 regarding the recent exercise of bringing in outside
>>funds to NE for investment and its off shoot: Kolkata centric map
>>of the NE.
>>
>>Chan Mahanta wrote:
>>I think we are attempting to split hairs over nothing.
>>
>>Just because another language differentiates between a house and a
>>home, and Oxomiya does not, one does not need to go into a fit of
>>grabbing at Sanskrit words that few use. For us 'ghor' is a ghor--a
>>house and a home too. The difference lies in HOW it is used in a
>>sentence. There are many such nuances to all languages. The
>>differentiation lies in the usage.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>At 6:00 PM -0600 1/26/08, kamal deka wrote:
>>>HOUSE = BHOBON / AWAKH /GRIHO
>>>HOME = GRIHO BAKH /GHOR
>>>KJD
>>>
>>>
>>>On 1/26/08, Alpana B. Sarangapani wrote:
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Does anybody know if there are separate words for "home" and "house" in
>>>> Assamese? I know we use 'ghor' .
>>>>
>>>> But if you need to assert the real meanings of a "real" home and just a
>>>> house with 4 walls, what are they?
>>>>
>>>> I believe it is 'ghar`' for home and 'makaan' for house in Hindi.
>>>>
>>>> Thanks for your help.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> "In order to make spiritual progress you must be patient like a tree and
>>>> humble like a blade of grass"
>>>> - Lakshmana
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
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>
>Uttam Kumar Borthakur
>
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