Chandan:
I hope I did not disturb your line of thoughts with my inputs, and that
you will come up with not only your
>Next: My Take on Why Independence - II
Why does one need independence for change?
But also : My Take on How Independence - III
How do we achieve independence for change?
It is important that you do that.
Thanks
Rajen
_____
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On
Behalf Of Chan Mahanta
Sent: Monday, February 19, 2007 9:49 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: [Assam] My Take on Why Independence - I
ULFA's emergence and the call for independence, as espoused by them, had
a number of widely recognized reasons. I doubt if there would be a
single person here in this forum, including the most vehement of ULFA
critics, who could deny or disavow the conditions that gave rise to an
armed uprising from one of the sub-continent's most docile and
historically un-assertive ethnic group - the Assamese.
The causes that triggered ULFA's emergence and the call for an
independent Assam include historical, cultural, linguistic, economic and
political. Most of these causes have been widely discussed and analyzed
by umpteen number of intellectuals, political commentators,
academicians, journalists, political scientists, politicians and
generations of the people of Assam.
I could be ill-informed about this, but what has been conspicuous by its
absence, has been discussions or analyses of, what I consider to be the
most important cause: The one involving governmental unresponsiveness,
both state and central, to the people's needs, concerns and demands and
its utter inability to deliver on its most fundamental of duties,
leading to the widely held belief, even amongst those who decry ULFA the
loudest, that Assam gets step-motherly treatment, that it is treated
like second-class citizens and so forth.
The independence seekers realized, rightly, that successive Assam Govts.
since independence and their controllers at New Delhi did not care or
could not deliver if they did. And when the people took to the streets
in protest, they got shot at, brutalized and imprisoned, almost always
without trial.THe Indian intelligentsia , so proud of their 'democratic'
government, was nowhere to be seen rising in protest against their
governments highly undemocratic actions. Such was the state of Indian
Democracy. The disaffected decided that Indian government and its
agents, the Assam Govts., would never respond to their needs. Out of
desperations they took to arms, to break free from Indian rule, and
thus, among other things, re-shape their government to fit their needs:
Political, economic, cultural and what have you.
I don't know anyone, in Assam, elsewhere in India or abroad, who would
not want to see an end to the insurgency and the never-ending armed
conflict. But for that wish to be realistic, the thoughtful person must
ask: What has changed to the conditions that created the conflict to
begin with?
And if they have not, why not?
Now the question we have to ask is how to remove those causes that gave
rise to this call for independence ? Is it possible under the prevailing
system of Indian rule?
Many in this forum, past and present, implied -- but never clearly took
a stand that I can recall, to confidently suggest that YES, change is
possible under prevailing Indian rule, backed up by credible evidence.
The discussion, as far as I can tell, is entirely absent in Assam or
elsewhere in India. Only when fresh violence erupts there is a temporary
awareness but the discourse is entirely dominated by the
'desi-sekurity-wallas', compliantly and mindlessly parroted by a large
segment of the Assam establishment.
Next: My Take on Why Independence - II
Why does one need independence for change?
cm
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