Seven scholars, filmmakers, social activists and journalists from Meghalaya came together on 22 August 2024 at the Meghalaya Roundtable online organised by BOOM. They spoke on a wide range of concerns ranging from border haats along the international Meghalaya-Bangladesh border, film-making in Northeast India, systematic efforts to tackle human trafficking, cultural preservation, and more.
Contestations and change in societies of the Northeast
Shobhan N. Lamare, Professor of History, specialising in Modern India and North-east India, at North Eastern Hill University (NEHU), spoke of the resistance movements against colonial rule in Northeast India. He briefly talked of his interest in the recent trends and critical interventions on society and culture. In a short span of time, Northeast India has witnessed massive visibility and promotion of cultural ideas and philosophy. The rapid change in Northeast India has led to massive changes in linguistic and cultural productions, producing numerous contestations, he said.
The Impulse Model and strategic anti-human trafficking efforts
Hasina Kharbhih, the founder of Impulse NGO Network and Impulse Social Enterprises, has been prioritising focus on strengthening the Impulse Model, an innovation that won the World Innovation Prize in 2012. She highlighted the need for shared leadership in addressing unsafe migration and how it leads to human trafficking. Another aspect of her work, the Impulse Social which works with 30,000 artisans from all Northeast Indian states, aims at providing economic upliftment and a resilience market to give women a choice not to migrate unsafely. Unsafe migration has been taking place over the last 25 years.
Hasina and her team collaborate with numerous organisations and leaders to collectively work towards ending human trafficking. The Impulse Model stands on 12 pillars - 6 Ps (partnership, prevention, protection, press, prosecution, police) and 6 Rs (report, rescue, rehabilitation, repatriation, reintegration, restitution). With the rise of online sexual exploitation, the anti-human trafficking units have been equipped with technology to take up speedier action in addressing human trafficking.
Film-making and telling stories that matter
Dominic Sangma is the co-founder of the Kelvin Cinema Festival of Films and runs the production co. ANNA FILMS. He spoke of how the Garo community enjoyed his films, Ma.Ama (2018) and Rapture (2023), when he brought them back to Garo Hills. While studying at the Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute, the exposure to world cinema made him realise he needed to make films at home. Filmmakers from Northeast India are always looked down upon as “regional filmmakers”. By labelling these films as “regional” or “indigenous” in Indian film festivals, a separate bracket or category is created, which creates a sense of difference. However, when Northeast films travel to Hong Kong, Cannes and other international film festivals, it is mentioned as Indian Cinema, not as Northeast cinema. Sangma announced with pride that Rapture is considered one of the top 3 Indian films by the Association of Film Critics all over the world.
Garo folk arts and cultural preservation
Dr Barbara S. Sangma, who works as an Associate Professor at the Department of English in Don Bosco College, Tura, talked about how she started reading Garo books. At Don Bosco College, she collaborated with the Department of Tura and initiated a certificate course for arts (CAFA) on folk arts, which is in its 3rd year now. She opened a club called Bosco Ranggore Cultural Club and the membership is open for present students and alumni. The importance of preserving cultural heritage in the modern age was highlighted. She said that many Garo customs can still be preserved within the ambit of Christianity.
Khasi folklore and orality
Dr Auswyn Winter Japang, who currently works as an Assistant Professor of English at St. Anthony's College, Shillong, highlighted the immense opportunities that folkloric research has for a state like Meghalaya. Being a folklorist has offered him the ability to venture and re-discover the rich folklore and culture from the point of view of people of his generation. Folklore can be treated as a literary genre, a process, and a historical artefact crucial especially for Meghalaya’s indigenous people with oral cultures. Following this thought, he referred to how a historian once lamented that Khasi history and language have been reduced to mere writing in the Roman script. He pointed out the necessity of Khasi people to rediscover and use folklore in their day-to-day experiences.
Through his participation in The Forgotten Folklore Project with the Sauramandala Foundation, he wanted to communicate with the younger generations and people across different cultures, since folklore is intricately linked to indigenous people’s lived experiences and realities.
Stories from the grassroots
Ibankyntiew Mawrie is the Co-Founder of VoxCrest Media and Editor of 4Front Media. Her first stint in journalism was at The Shillong Times, where she worked for three years. She realised she needed to get into electronic media and worked as a stringer for ANI and local media outlets.
Along with two other professionals, she started 4Front Media in August 2023 to create a space/platform that sparks vigorous debates for communities to express their concern. Through this initiative, she wants to ensure that grassroots stories are told and heard. As a testament to her belief that journalism is a profound responsibility, they strictly follow the motto of “Engage, empower, and elevate”. They have held campus talks, had discussions with educational institutions on the NEP and CUET, and organised a local series for all people to discuss different issues. She mentioned a profound Khasi saying, “You search for knowledge across the world but you do not know anything about your own state” to highlight her motivations for working closely with communities in Meghalaya.
Border Haats and Border Crossings
Banshanlang Marwein, who is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Political Science, St. Anthony’s College, Shillong said that the idea of the traditional market has slowly become irrelevant with the advancement of global capitalism. At present, there are two border haats in Meghalaya - one in the West Garo Hills and the other in the East Khasi Hills. 4 more border haats are being set up. After the recent fall of the regime in Bangladesh, the Government of Meghalaya stopped the operation of the border haats for a while, due to fears of illegal immigration. These border areas can serve as areas of engagement between India and Bangladesh. 20% of the Meghalaya-Bangladesh border is unfenced and has become a safe haven for illegal activities.
After the first round, H R Venkatesh, BOOM’s Director of Training and Research asked the panellists a thought-provoking question, “What do we get wrong about Meghalaya from a mainland perspective?”
Professor Shobhan Lamare replied that the term “mainland” is a misnomer, including terms like “buffer zones” and “peripheries”. He addressed the contestations over the terms of different tribes and highlighted how the Jaintias would resist any move of being categorised as “Khasi”. He advocated for respecting Jaintia sentiments. Hasina Kharbhih criticised false notions that women wield authority over men in Meghalaya and emphasised the gender imbalance. She also threw light on how the state’s 443 km-long border with Bangladesh leads to political uncertainties and heightens factors leading to unsafe migration.
Barbara Sangma explained that the terms “Garos” and “Achiks” are the same. The people themselves prefer using the term “Achiks”; it is only in books that “Garos” is used. There are two meanings of A-chik – the first means “hill dweller” and the second, it is a mix of two words – “A” meaning soil and “chik” meaning “to bite”, a reference to stories that the Achiks used to bite the soil while taking oaths. Auswyn Japang narrated instances of people assuming “Shillong” is a different country. He addressed another misconception, where Kongthong was dubbed the "Whistling Village”, though the village folks refer to this as “The tunes of the ancestral mother”. Moreover, the Khasi never call themselves “Khasis”, a lasting colonial imprint.
Ibankyntiew Mawrie pointed out that most journalists in the Northeast working for mainland media houses are stationed in Guwahati and travel to other states only for stories. Furthermore, due to a shortage of journalists, they are unable to cover the region in a holistic manner. Dominic Sangma expressed his shock at how people in mainland India are unable to differentiate between Meghalaya and Shillong (state capital). Though many mentors tried to help him “cater to the world” by changing some details in his film proposals, he remained firm that his films need to be understood by his people first. The reception is always best in his hometown, Tura.
Banshanlang Marwein addressed popular misconceptions that Meghalaya is a steep and mountainous state like Sikkim, it is always raining in Meghalaya, or that all people in Shillong play musical instruments, all of which are false. Meghalaya, he said, is an important strategic location for India and can leverage the Act East Policy to position itself better in the international arena.
The roundtable sparked lively discussions and thought-provoking questions about issues in Meghalaya. It made the attendees aware of the rich scholarship and works being done to address core issues in the state.
The Meghalaya Roundtable is part of a series of roundtable discussions that are being put together by BOOM as part of its North East Facts Network. Dr. Sabina Rahman, the Project Lead for the project put together the panellists for the discussion.
See more of the session here.