ESSAY

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A Horizon Waiting for a New Dawn

What is happening in the contemporary art scene of the North Eastern States? Does the perceivable ‘lack’ connote our callousness and apathy or the absence of an internal dynamics? Amrita Gupta Singh enquires the North Eastern ‘problem’ in her essay and says that it is high time that we look at the works created by the artists from the region.

In a report by the Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies on ‘Terrorism in India’, for the first quarter of 2008, three sites of violence have been charted out: The NorthEast India, Jammu and Kashmir and Naxal affected states in the Indian mainland. In this list, the NorthEast (particularly Assam, Nagaland and Manipur) accounted for the highest percentage of violence in India at 49.92 %, followed by Naxal related violence at 33.06 % and Jammu and Kashmir at 17.01 %. Being born and brought up in the NorthEast in Shillong, such reports are not new, since insurgency has been an everyday reality in the NorthEast since the 1960s, with armed conflict and guerilla warfare being strategies to gain independence from the Indian state and form autonomous socialist states, aimed at equitable governance. It is a very complex situation with long-drawn peace talks, continuous conflict against the state machinery comprising of the respective state governments, the central military forces and the local police combined with warring factions in the insurgency groups on ideological lines and also the presence of the ISI aiding the military operations of the NE native militants, citing trans-border ramifications. The insurgency in the NE has been based on a demand to recognize/respect ethnic/tribal/cultural identities, which is wrongly framed as the ‘backward Other’ by the people from the mainland and within the nationalist discourse. The NE separatist movements are not religious/fundamentalist in context, but rather linked along anthropological dimensions of race and the politics of difference, that of non-Indianness. Linked to the rest of the country by a narrow strip of land, known as the ‘Siliguri Corridor’ the NE has been both geographically and psychologically isolated and also has a history of resistance towards British colonialism and after independence, towards Indian colonialism. Contemporary research on causes of conflict has cited the link between the exclusions of knowledge systems and histories of the ‘Other’ in the education system and the emphasis on civilizational, racial and center-periphery contexts.

“Besides, the nationalist discourse, a dominant theme in most historical texts, which legitimizes nationhood, based on differences with ‘others’ tends to influence regional, ethnic and religious communities. Those on the periphery of a state whose heroes are not featured as heroes in the national historiography, whose cultures finds no mention in the national culture and whose religion is identified with ‘others’ and vilified are extremely vulnerable to the temptations of secessionism. Augmented by the lack of economic welfare and the collapse of governance, these disillusionments can give rise to revolts. This thesis fits the situation in North East India”. (Paolienlal Haokip- Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies, New Delhi)

As a pravasi Bengali who has been brought up in cosmopolitan Shillong, also known as the ‘Scotland of the East’, my opinions in this piece are personal in nature. Insurgency in the North East thrives on cross border flows of finance with a 'parallel economy' created by these rebel outfits via revenue through parallel taxes, extortion, ransom, foreign aid, profit sharing with corporate houses, siphoning off state developmental funds and arms and narcotics trade. Once the Robin-Hood utopia passed, families of the insurgents want their ‘boys’ to come back and the local population have lost faith in the rebel movements and the government, since most promises have not been delivered. Peace has eluded this region also due to the corruption of government officials who profit from this parallel economy. Unlike Assam, peace has returned to Meghalaya and prominent leaders of the rebel outfits in Shillong have joined ministerial posts with the government, and the few isolated voices of dissent are only making idle noises without any committed agenda, making easy money via the gun and ransom demands, it is lucrative to be a militant, the anti-Dkhar (outsiders) war cry is a strategy rather than an ideology now. Shillong has different problems now: water shortage, power cuts, traffic jams, poor garbage disposal systems, mushrooming of slums, pollution, burgeoning population, satellite townships and shopping malls, the fresh pure rains are no longer enough to wash the landscape clean. A hill station conceived for a population of 20,000 has suddenly grown without a road map.

Historical exclusion and issues of identity are definitely a problem; a key example would be of U Tirot Sing, a patriot and diplomat from Meghalaya who waged a war against the British from 1829-1833 to save the Khasi Hills from British occupation and died a martyr in Dhaka, finds no mention in the historical discourses of the nation. There are other unsung historical heroes from the North-East whose names find no mention, and also intellectuals, scholars, researchers, writers, singers and artists from the ‘seven sisters’ in present time whose work remains within the regional borders of the North-East. Regional films from Assam are very rich in content, and we do know of Bhupen Hazarika (poet, music composer, actor, journalist, author and film-maker) who pioneered for the Assam film industry to be put on India’s cultural map. In fact, Bhupen Hazarika has made a serial ‘Dawn’ which is a love story between 1940 and 1947. It is fictional, but conveys political information like the sacrifices made by the people of North-East during the Indian freedom struggle. They too were a part of the national movement.

The NE has a rich culture of music, dance and crafts, and boasts of very good educational institutions with a high literate population. Apart from folk music, rock bands are a regular feature of the cultural scene. English and vernacular languages share easy linkages and Rabindranath Tagore’s triple visit to Shillong in 1919 and his composing of ‘Shesher Kobita’ at the sprawling bunglow, ‘Brookeside’, his stay at two other houses ‘Jit Bhoomi’ and ‘Sidli House’ is of historical importance, and there are Khasi scholars who have done considerable research on the work of Tagore and also vernacular literatures. The Government of Meghalaya has declared to turn the bungalow ‘Brookeside’ into Rabindranath Art Gallery, while preserving the natural beauty around Brookside which inspired many of Tagore’s poems and novels, including ‘Yogajog’ and his famous letter ‘Shillonger Chitti’ (Letter from Shillong).

Debojit Saha from Silchar and Amit Paul from Shillong won singing competitions on Zee TV and Sony Television respectively, and Amit Paul was made the Peace Ambassador for Shillong by the government. There are annual Book Fairs and in 2006, Shillong hosted performances by international rock-bands Air Supply, Fire-House and Iron Maiden. Further, Bob Dylan’s birthday is celebrated fastidiously like a festival in Shillong. Classical dance performances organized by the Jeebon Roy Creative Arts Academy, the Directorate of Art and Culture (Govt. of Meghalaya) and the Sangeet Natak Akademi, New Delhi had two Khasi women (Ingenuity Swer and Ibapyntngen Syiem) performing Bharatnatyam, after rigorous training at Kalakshetra Foundation, Chennai. They happen to be the very first from Meghalaya to have studied Bharatanatyam under renowned gurus. Anjum Hasan’s debut novel ‘Lunatic in the Head’ has created ripples in literary circles in India.

There are many artists from Shillong, Guwahati and other parts of Assam who have studied at the Fine Arts faculties of Shantiniketan, Baroda and JJ School of Arts; some have stayed back at the art metros while others have gone back to the NE, while still continuing their art practice at their native places. The North Eastern Hill University, with its headquarters in Shillong established the Centre for Creative Arts in 1977, to promote art appreciation and art education in the field of visual arts and performing arts.  The Centre for Literary and Cultural Studies was started in 1984 to promote cultural studies, with special emphasis on folklore in the North-Eastern Region.  In 1997, the above two Centres were re-structured and amalgamated into one Centre called the Centre for Cultural and Creative Studies and inspite of limited infrastructure, has been organizing various programmes such as art and music workshops, art camps, workshops on folklore  research, series of seminars and conferences on art, music and folkloristics, art exhibitions, performances, artist in residence programmes, practicing school in fine arts, casual art and music classes, training courses in folkloristics and traditional folk music.

Art India magazine published a feature on contemporary art from the NE in one of its issues, written by Sandhya Bordewekar and now KHOJ has started its Guwahati chapter, which is coordinated by Mriganka Madhukaillya and Sonal Jain, who run the art collective, DesireMachine. Their work focuses on cutting edge contemporary practices of photography, multimedia, video and film, redefining art practice to changing contexts. There are other visual art departments in Silchar, Guwahati, Tripura and Imphal which offer degree courses. The Guwahati Artists’ Guild is active and organizes various art-related programs and publishes a journal ‘Chihna’ which has reviews and articles which contextualizes the North-Eastern art scene. Another magazine in Guwahati ‘Sa Re Ga Ma’ actively publishes on the Arts. There are government sponsored cultural centres like Kalakshetra and Rabindra Bhavan which house good art galleries and host regular art exhibitions. The artists of this region have also exhibited at national level exhibitions organized by Lalit Kala Akademi, but their representation in private galleries is minimal.

Given the above context, who says the North-East is a backward region? It has a thriving cultural scene and intellectual consciousness, but where is the active articulation of all these initiatives and activities outside its regional borders? There is no proper research on the development of visual practices in the region. The visual arts scene in Guwahati is mature with both painting and new media being practiced by artists who have brought back their knowledge and expertise from the various metropolitan art centres, while aesthetically engaging with social issues of the region. In Shillong it is in an embryonic stage, with the Centre for Cultural and Creative Studies (NEHU) as the prime catalyst, and during my growing up years, in the realm of painting, sublime landscapes and local pastoral scenes, copying from Old Masters, religious themes in church murals, still-life and portraits of national leaders and cultural icons in watercolours and oil formed the art scene. The Meghalaya Artists Guild organized art programs and exhibitions, but is defunct now, but it would be worthwhile to explore its role on a historical basis. The protracted exclusions of the visual narratives of the NorthEast India in mainstream art-discourses is but a lack of interest by metropolitan art historians and their dominant ideological agendas and intellectual arm-chair politics.

The NorthEast is alive and happening, despite perennial police presence, failure of governance and conflict. It is high-time we understood its importance and sensitise ourselves to its realities and make sincere efforts in building a dialogue around North-Eastern contemporary art.  It is not just potential market to be grabbed at as the capitalists say; it is its people, its aesthetics and creativity that deserves national/international coverage, scholarly articulation and investing in ‘intellectual capital’. Stop marginalizing on the basis of biased ‘difference’, the ‘periphery’ is as thriving as the ‘centre’!!