The Multiple 'Real Imagined Spaces of a Hill- Station'
Guest Editor
Rahul Saikia
Rahul Saikia
Fig.1: Shillong – A view from the locality
of Madanriting
‘Writing
Shillong’ is a collection of articles that initiates an exploration into the
various spaces, histories and cultures which make up the contemporary landscape
of this hill-station. The writers on this forum are attempting to look beyond
the immediacy of popular opinion and stereotypical interpretations in order to
open up new ways of discussing and representing various facets of Shillong. The
aim here is to critique and to analyse, and in the process of doing so, to
arrive at alternative representations which will both compliment and supplement
the existing perceptions and portraits of the place.
Apart from this
introduction, ‘Writing Shillong’ starts off with an article by Mereleen Blah
Lyngdoh entitled ‘Print and Power in the Khasi Hills - A look at two historically
important works on the Khasis’. In
it, she takes a closer look at two influential texts published at the turn of
the 20th century; both of which have played an important role in the
making of a Khasi identity. The theme of cultural production continues onto the
next piece entitled ‘A very brief foreword on the Shillong writing scene’ written by Abner Pariat, in
which he discusses the dangers of class and culture based exclusions within the
newly emerging niche space of successfull ‘English writers’ coming out of
Shillong. In the next article, ‘Shillong: The Making and Unmaking of a Cosmopolity’, Binayak
Dutta charts out a contemporary history of Shillong, tracing its evolution from
a colonial undertaking with strong cosmopolitan traits that subsequently
collapsed under the weight of communal strife in the post-colonial era. The
fourth and final article on this forum has been written by the author of the
present introduction, and is entitled ‘Caught Somewhere in Time - Early Bengali
influences in the commercial heart of Shillong’.
Why Representations Matter – The
multiple ‘real-imagined’ spaces of Shillong:
The ‘ideas’ and
‘realities’ associated with a place are intimately woven together – each one
shaping, contesting and complimenting the other – as people try to make sense
of their changing environments. To begin with, the ‘idea’ of Shillong as an
idyllic hill-station, is often contested by the ‘reality’ of its rapid urban
expansion. At the same time, the idea that Shillong is becoming like any other
Indian city, is one which fails to grasp the enduring reality of its
particularity as a hill-station with colonial origins. In the same vein, the
reality of Shillong’s colonial origins (as
an entirely new British station created over a space free of prior indigenous settlements)
is bound to come up against the idea that the hill-station was setup on lands
purchased from the King of Mylliem (implying
the claim of a local Khasi ‘pre-history’ with regards to the site on which
Shillong was created). Such opposing imaginations of the hill-station also
emerge with regards to contemporary community based claims over the settlement.
One common ‘tribal’ ideation is of Shillong is that it is ‘first and foremost’
a settlement for the Khasis. This particular view is contested by an equally
common ‘non-tribal’ opinion which sees the hill-station as a space historically
created and nurtured by a plethora of communities like the Bengalis, Marwaris,
Nepalese (amongst others) for whom Shillong is also a home. It should be noted
that in the case of all the above mentioned ‘opposing imaginations’, there
exists a sea of varying opinions which cannot be neatly categorized into either
camp. Over the course of its contemporary history and into the present moment,
such ideas about the place (of what it is; and what it should be) have often
found themselves translated into individual and collective actions which have
had a great impact on the urban landscape and social fabric of this settlement.
Far from remaining impotent within the immaterial domain of thought, some of
these ideas have managed to play a significant role in re-shaping the destiny
of both the individuals and the communities who make up the populace of this
hill-station.
Fig.2: Meghalaya – From Autonomy to Statehood – The sustained
re-articulation of ‘tribal difference’ became the main driver behind the
movement for a separate hill-state.
It also important
to consider these ‘ideas’ of place as arising out of perceptions and
experiences of ‘reality’. This in turn leads to a blurring and overlapping of
the two categories. There is often a strong tendency for individuals and
collectives to see their imaginations of a place as ‘reality’ itself. When we
consider the possibility that there are as many imaginations of a place as
there are individuals and collectives, we begin to accept the existence of
multiple spaces within a particular site. Being both real and imagined on
various levels, the term ‘real-imagined’ becomes an effective way to describe
these spatial multiplicities. To return to the title of this forum, ‘Writing
Shillong’ may therefore be seen as a preliminary and partial exploration of
these multiple ‘real-imagined’ spaces in the landscape.
In themselves,
the articles on this forum are also ‘real-imagined’ since they are themselves
representations of some aspect of reality that has been communicated through
the medium of ideas. These ideas in turn reflect the particular experiences,
influences and biasness of the respective writers. The term ‘bias’ is used here
not only as a ‘cautionary’, but also as a source of creative energy deployed to
‘selectively’ capture some of the many cultures which make
up the landscape of Shillong. A word of
appreciation goes out to the contributing writers who have shared their
valuable time and insights into making this project possible.
The ideal
situation would be one in which each culture/sub-culture would be able to
adequately express their own ideas of Shillong with equal clarity and
resonance. Looking back through the contemporary history of the hill-station,
one realizes that this has hardly been the case. Apart from a few voices of
originality and rebellion, the realm of representation in Shillong seems to
find itself made hostage to a succession of exclusive ideas about what the
hill-station should be like.
Such exclusivist
claims over the hill-station can be traced back to the manner in which the
British cordoned themselves off from the local tribal population and other
communities; whose lands and services they were quite eager to exploit. After
independence such hegemonic tendencies were appropriated by various sections of
the non-tribal population who tried to recreate the hill-station in the image
of their own cultures. Statehood for Meghalaya in 1972 followed by the riots of
1979 announced the emergence of a ‘new tribal elite’ with their own ideas of
exclusion and ethnic purity with regards to Shillong. Throughout its
contemporary history, the hill-station has found itself being constantly and
sporadically affected by such an exclusionary politics of space. However, it
should be kept in mind that despite all the turmoil, there have always been
countless people from all communities who have always condemned and opposed
such acts of violence and discrimination. All too often, the limelight of
adoration and critique falls upon the champions of controversy, whereas the
silent contributions of ordinary people are hardly ever discussed. Any hope of
creating a ‘new cosmopolitan Shillong’ will rest upon the continuity of such
acts of everyday cooperation and coexistence. More substantially, it will also
depend on the accommodation and involvement of those multiple cultures and
classes which make up the many ideas of this hill-station.
Acknowledgements
–
1. The Shillong
Times Office in Shillong for granting permission to photocopy some of their old
issues.
2. The
Government of India Photo Division for old black and white photographs of
Shillong (Used in some of the subsequent pieces on this blog).
Rahul Saikia is a M.Phil research scholar at the Department
of Geography, Delhi School of Economics.
No comments:
Post a Comment