Many people say they don’t like politics. Some say they hate it and it is dirty. But the fact is you cannot dislike politics. Your everyday life is governed by it. Politics is like your parents. Like them or not, they are there to monitor your every move, your every word, your every deed. If they don’t, they are either ineffectual parents or you are an uncared for child. And that’s a matter of grave concern. I need not go into the complicated and scholastic definitions of thinkers and wisdom of the ages past. Politics is all around you. The air you breathe, the food you eat, the dress you put on is all politics.
To make myself clear, I must go into what is no-politics.
The uproar and high-pitched brouhaha that occurs every five years is not politics. That was called ‘electioneering’. Well, let’s say it is half politics. Casting your vote is like sowing a seed. It is not yet a plant. You cannot reap a harvest. You’re only about to invest. But sow you must with prudence. For, what you sow so shall you reap.
The campaign rhetoric, the fat promises, the towering oaths to build bridges where no rivers run, giving a bag of rice to a poor family of voters (supporters) once at the gap of five years, is not politics. That’s public deception. They are gimmicks of Vote Gatherers. Gimmicks are meant to dupe. And the common man is the easiest target. That is why you never saw the sworn bridge on that non-existent river. That is why all the fat promises were full of empty words. Sadly though, for a lay man, politics comes off every five years like a major festival.
But you cannot blame the players. It is their job to persuade—fair or foul. It is the choice of the electorate to bow to the trickster’s ruse or hold on to democratic rights and privileges. But again, to choose the high flying ideals of politics is not the best choice for a hungry stomach in a tattered suit. The vicious cycle seems to go on forever.
The evil eye you cast on your neighbour or relative for not believing in your beliefs is not politics. It is madness. The battle lines you draw in the ranks of your kith and kin, your denominational attachments, even the blood sacrifice you make on the altar of electioneering is not politics. They are sheer acts of folly!
As for the players called politicians, I don’t blame them. The throne they won through the sweat of their brow (read: with the power of their money) is a stake too high. If they appropriate the common man’s gold for themselves, they are making their losses good. The hole they burnt in their pockets buying fingertips, I mean votes, have to be darned. And they have to make profits. Lots of. Never call your politicians a bad name or covet their prosperity. Nobody runs a trade if it is not profitable. It is you who made them successful businessmen. You better learn to appreciate your own (un)doings.
Well, now, that’s too much of no-politics. Let me present politics as I make it to be.
Politics, actually, is so down-to-earth, so commonplace, so uncomplicated, that you never thought it is politics. Much as they are so ordinary, they also look so improbable.
The fiercest politics is your mother tongue. To whatever tribal group, clan formation, or nationality you belong you always gun for the language you speak. Language belongs to the speaker. But this sane yet simple truth doesn’t easily hit a man’s thought. So, it is always convenient to drum up the linguistic fervour if you want to send two brothers to each other’s throat. A Samte who speaks Paite will die for a Paite-cause inasmuch as a Samte who speaks Zou will die for a Zou-cause. So, naturally, if the Paites and the Zous go to war, a Samte will strike a Samte as eagerly as a huntsman strikes his prey. And both Samtes will call each other a fool. In fact, they are no fools but governed by natural laws of politics. People live and die for the language they speak. And politicians know how to harness this resource to their optimum benefit. This is politics.
To cite an instance: The Zomi visionary, Pu T. Gougin met with Pu Laldenga in Delhi on May 5, 1982. The latter was under house arrest then. Pu Gougin suggested to Pu Laldenga for a combined Mizo-Zomi effort. But this architect of Mizoram declined the proposal on the ground that Mizo is for Lushais only. And Lushai language was, at that time, a fast developing vernacular Major Indian Language (MIL) to be offered up to graduation level and was recognized by all the universities of India whereas other (tribal) literatures do not reach that standard.[1]
So, the MIL you opt for in matriculation may not be as innocuous as it may seem. In fact, it is one mighty weapon in the state’s political arsenal to drive a wedge between the linguistic fractures. That’s absolute politics.
Then, the tribe you belong to is another big politics. As the present trend indicates, every tribal group in the district/state is trying to carve out a distinct dominated area on communal lines. This not only negates the dream of tribal unity but upturned the desire of tribal self-determination into a farcical idea. If survival through single linguistic group is an impracticable proposition, political determination through efforts of individual tribal movement is an endless pipedream. Even if all tribal groups of the state unite, our number will still fall short for any practical political self determination. In spite of this glaring truth, we are still obsessed with separatist tendencies and the cracks in the tribal fabric are ever widening. It is sad that we don’t know, or do not want to, break away from this grip of vice. It is our inordinate fondness to our individuality that is a bane to our collective enterprise.
Listen to what the Father of Zomi has to say: “1955-56 was the dividing line of events so far as Zomis of Manipur is concerned. The year round was shrouded with commotions for sectarian division and every tribe, without the least care to know its ethnic background, started crying for a certificate of tribalism. The government then took the best advantage in poisoning the so-called Zomis—known by others as Kukis—into several groups, each claiming a separate entity but in fact belonging to one ethnic group by blood of which no anthropologist can prove of its negation.”[2]
That’s politics.
Then, the mundane food you eat, the traditional dishes and cuisine you prepare, our olden songs so peculiarly set to the tune of only the major keys of the musical scale, and even the liquid tobacco (tuibuk) our grandmas cannot do without, are politics. The more you promote these things, the more you gain political recognition. It may be hard to make a relation. But that doesn’t mean there is none. The simplest hint may be ‘tourism’. And to get this wide recognition, you need proper exposure, which in turn requires ‘many things’ to be fine tuned.
This ‘many things’ is the core of the realpolitik. Unless you smart these things out, you’ll always be represented by ‘Raas Lila’ or the Krishna-Radha dance of courtship and the ‘ironba’ although these have nothing to do or say about you or your culture. But that’s politics, like it or not. The national and international forums are going to identify you with them.
And, of course, money is politics. Even God is spinning money. Without it, he doesn’t work. I’m not blaspheming. I’m only putting forward a reason for all the Sunday offerings, tithes, missionary funds, building funds, and whatnot ablutions we’re giving every now and then. And the capital is invested in the Spiritual Insurance Company to generate temporal as well as paradisiacal dividends. You may blame me of making things up. But I mind to grip reality, reality. Genesis 2.10-12 says: “A river flowed out of Eden…around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. And the gold of that land is good; bdellium and onyx stones are there.” Boy! Not only God knows where gold is but its quality too. Now, you say, “God knows everything!” So easy, so easy!
Money is the all-important thing in the world. Money makes the world go round. Money earns love and respect. Money upholds law. Money directs human will. I don’t say money can buy you sweet slumber. But with no money sweet slumber sleeps you not. A bureaucrat’s truth is truer than a beggar’s truth. Money is the most powerful driving force in politics. Politics always ends or strives to end in money. Of course, we don’t call it money outright. We give names like welfare, charity, loans, grants, drafts, whatnots.
Power lies in money, in other words, economy. A healthy economy makes a nation powerful and authoritative. Do we have to think so hard why the international exchange rate is computed in terms of American dollars? Euro is competing hard to take dollar’s place. That’s politics.
To boil down, our daily economic activity is ground zero politics. Our frequent bandhs and clampdowns are self-destructive. You gain nothing by destroying yourself. A gaggle of women selling bunches of pumpkin-leaf, bean-leaf, etc., at Damkam Bazaar or Tuibuong Bazaar in the early morning, is politics. Wrong or faulty politics hit them first and hardest.
The roads you walk on, the streetlamps alongside, the lightbulbs you switch on every night, are all politics. I don’t have to mince more words on these trivialities.
Then, the book you read is politics. In other words, media—print or multimedia. Your political substance and accomplishments are gauged by the number and quality of books you write or publish or the media you produce. Accordingly so, the Mizos have more books and media than us (Zomis), so they occupy the higher rungs in the ladder of economy, society and politics. The Meiteis are still better. What about the mainland Hindus? They nearly stood on par with English literature. And so is their politics.
Well, although it may seem unlikely, number is politics. Especially, in the world of democracy. There may be instances where the minority ruled the majority, but it is still the number of the masses that forms the basis of their power. Even the church knows this. More members, more tithes, more offerings, more power-base. (Just to add: God is not interested in numbers; religion is). We are too few in number. And yet we don’t care to go for an undivided endeavour. We are all doomed to fail. I’m not being pessimistic. I’m just seeing a spade a spade. Our numbers simply didn’t add up to our ideals.
Last, but as usual, not the least. Religion is politics. Politics stems from religion but not vice versa. Church is the most dynamic political arena. It is the breeding ground of politics. That’s why churches cannot stay away from elections. There are rumours that some church elders are going a-hunting votes. I’m not eyewitness to this miscarriage of faith. So, I have nothing to say against it. But I neither find a thing wrong in a monk digging ballots for their personal favourites. It’s time we keep ourselves from bringing the pious clergy a bad name.
I think it’ll be much better if the church openly fields candidates for secular elections instead of interfering in the sly. All biblical kings are religious priests, especially those emulated today as good and wise ones like King David, King Solomon, etc. We are emphasizing only their religious prospects while ignoring their political assignments. The wars they fought were not always spiritual wars. The laws they decreed were not always religious laws. They are real flesh and blood figures like Manmohan Singh, Barack Obama and Saddam Hussein. At times, their temporal responsibilities far outweigh their ecclesiastical obligations. Today, we are separating their functions while the monarchs remained whole, rounded models.
Presently, we are adopting the American style of politicking by trying to segregate the spiritual realm from the secular while precariously leaning towards Islamic fundamentalism by presiding every turn of life with precepts of religion. Even a fleeting glimpse will tell that the American style is bound to flounder and the Islamic way poised to gain ground. The Americans themselves cannot follow their principle to the tee while the Muslims sent their bombers to Pentagon in the name of Allah. Why do we swear in politicians in the name of God? Why do we place a hand on religious books when we take the witness box in court? There must be a reason behind the practice.
Between religious and political conflict, it is always—mark it—always religion that wins. That is because religion wields the divine sword whereas politics is merely its offshoot. It is like the slave that always sub-serves the master. Whatever policy, programme or movement an organization may undertake, without the approval of the church nothing works out. That is, perhaps, why militants compulsorily sought the blessings of the church before they ventured into a mission.
The church is like a shrewd man-eater. It lies prone and passive but aggressively finishes off its victim. Unsurprisingly so, if church politics is communally coloured, then it is guaranteed the society’s secular politics will be communalized. You cannot play sectarian church politics while trying to present a united front in secular affairs. Do you know why all our churches are carved along linguistic dots? It is like trying to unite by mutually disintegrating. It’s a lie: A sham. It will be uncovered sooner rather than later. The idea itself is ridiculous and impracticable.
Religion permeates every strata of the society. Church/religion always triumphs over temporal matters because religion (to the human mind) is truth impersonation. For instance, India is a secular state. But everything—from the most intrusive moral policing to the farthest reaching national bills—is impressed upon by religious ethics and values. What about the diktat to ban cow-slaughter in India by a certain hard-line political party in their brief tenure several decades ago?
Well, on second thoughts, those people who said they hated politics seemed to say so right. But the bad news is you cannot avoid politics. The more you stay away, the more you make way for the ‘dirtier’, ‘more hateful’ elements to take over. You know, you’re making way for them to take over the reins of your very life. Then, we will be a disheartened lot, passing destructive comments, criticizing from behind, hitting below the belt, but never stepping up to right the wrong. Is there a way to give your land, your people, your nation a better thrust? A more active and productive participation in whichever way you can? Or is it really better to get out of the way, zip your mouth, and let the elements serve themselves best?
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