Dr Tasongwi Newmei
Assistant Professor,
NERIE-NCERT, Shillong
As members of a particular tribal society, we all want our society to change and change progressively in the right direction. And yet, the more we try, the more it seems we land ourselves and the society at large into the sinking sands of unintended quagmire. What could be the reasons for such a pathetic plight? An attempt is made here to see if our contemporary societal issues and its crisis/dilemmas can be located in the structure of the tribal society itself as a result of the incipient class system.
Sociologically speaking, any given society has three broad categories of class or the strata of society namely, the Upper Class, the Middle Class and the Lower Class. These broad categories of class in any given society are characterised by their own ideology, patterns of behaviour, thinking, feeling, acting and being. While the Upper Class would always be status quoists because in any given set up, the prevailing dispensation is maintained, controlled and even manipulated by them to serve their own class or personal interests. As for the Lower Class, they remain by and large, fatalistic and resigned to their fate in any situation even proclaiming it as destined by God. So social thinkers place their faith in the educated Middle Class for effecting any societal reformation or transformation of any given society.
It is pertinent to ask here as to why social scientists place their hope on the Middle Class to bring social reforms and the desirable forms of societal transformation. The Middle class is marked by its capacity to read, analyse and think critically and analytically. In other words, they are endowed with a certain degree of intellectual wherewithal to understand a society and its crisis in an objective manner. They are expected to be able to take informed decisions and rational choices. This Class is also supposed to be the ‘conscience keeper’ of a society. Ideally speaking, they are inspired by ideals of a ‘good’ and ‘just’ society for realising their dream of a ‘good life’. Hence, the ideal Middle class is supposed to be in favour of reforms, renaissance, revival of what was or is ‘good’ and ‘desirable’ in any given societal value system. While the Lower Class by and large remain ignorant, fatalistic and resigned to their fate as God given destiny, some among them may have some intellectual wherewithal and yet they cannot stand up against the structure of a given system because they lack the capacity to stand on their own in terms of financial or other resources. As stated earlier, the Upper Class would always be status quoists as any prevailing structure of system serves its own interests. Hence, it is usually the Middle Class that has both the intellectual and the material wherewithal to take on the system to change, reform or transform it.
It is imperative here to ask ourselves as to why tribal societies are not changing in the desired or positive direction in spite of the fact that today we have the Middle Class among them? To be able to decode this predicament, we need to understand that the Middle Class is not a homogeneous entity. It is itself divided into three divisions—the Upper Middle Class, the Middle-Middle Class and the Lower Middle Class. The Middle class is used more as a heuristic device or framework of analysis as it is such a widely diffused set of category. Anyone with a modicum of sustainable income or with a certain level of education would claim that he is a middle class. What adds to the complexity of the Middle Class among the tribes is that any salaried/govt. employee or say a Group A or Class I officers would claim that they are middle class and that may not be wrong. However, the problem with the Middle Class among the tribes is that they are actually the Middle Class Elite or rather the ‘Super Elite’ of their society!For instance, a class I or Group A officer/public representatives from a tribal community, if he/she is placed in the pan Indian context would fall either at the Lower Middle or at the most Middle-Middle Class category. But in their own tribal contexts, he/she would be the Middle-Class Elite or the ‘super elite’ because there is no one above him/her as the tribes do not have Upper Class in the form of industrialists, feudal lords or landed aristocracy—the bourgeoisie. Placed in such an advantageous position, the tribal Middle class behaves more like an elite in their overall value orientations, ethos and practices in everyday life. Hence, instead of living out the true creed of being a Middle Class, the Middle Class Elite weave narratives, discourses, etc. around social issues that suit their vested interests and ends up manipulating all forms of public discourses so as to ‘manufacture consent’ which ultimately leads to their hegemony. The problem gets compounded when this Middle Class Elite can buy off the key functionaries in the armed nationalists/insurgent groups as an extension of their own voices. Even those who know the truth supress such truth or refrain from expressing it due to kin, clan or other such ties and connections. In such a situation, the voice of sanity, rational discourses and any forms of democratic dialogues take the back seat and society is driven by those who can pay the proverbial pipers. So just like the Lemmings, the society is led into the dark abyss where we commit ceremonial suicide with ‘sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidities’ and nothing can be more dangerous than this as stated by Martin Luther King. In such a situation, the so called ‘oppressed’ becomes the ‘greater oppressors’ of their own societies. Everyone becomes the ‘leader’ and nobody is a ‘follower’ or ‘listener’ as the tune is determined by those who can pay the piper. The overall result is that society is helplessly and hopelessly divided along any axes such as states, ranges/areas, religions, clans, political party affiliations, regions, etc. The unprecedented proliferation of so called Civil Society Organisations that we witness among the tribal groups epitomises the predicament of the societal crisis as a fallout of the emergent class structure and the manipulation of society by the middle Class elite.
What then is the way forward? The way forward as cogently articulated by Prof.Dipankar Gupta, perhaps lies in ‘revolution from above’—those among the tribes who had crossed a particular threshold of life both in intellect and material aspects—must willingly get themselves soaked in the system, sacrificed their own interests and serve the society against all odds with both convictions and commitment. We also need to cultivate the culture of democratic discourse with an ‘agree to disagree’ principle and entertain ideas and discourses that may or may not necessarily be considered right at once. However, every idea or thought must be made to stand the scrutiny of facts once there are evidences to do so and go by it. The other misconception among the tribal communityis the tendency to think “public opinion” necessarily means the opinion of the majority of people and therein lies the problem. As Sir Edmund Burke argued, ‘public opinion’ in its true sense has to be defined as the“reasoned” and “conscious opinion” of that of a dominant/enlightened section of a society based on “General Will” and “Common Good”. It is here that we need to value intellectual discourses on any social issues. Social scientists suggest that whenever there is a crisis, it is time to call in the thinkers and have a long and hard look at the issue in an objective manner. Hence, for society to progress or transform itself, we need to promote a culture of debate, discussions and dialogue. For these activities to be relevant and meaningfully navigated, scholars, researchers and intellectuals/social thinkers need to become what Jürgen Habermas described as “free Floating Intelligentsia”—intellectuals whose ultimate loyalty is to the truth and not his or her social position, class, tribe, ethnicity, clans, religious affiliations, etc.
In conclusion I would like to say that walking fast is not the same as going on a destination. Raw enthusiasm may look good and appealing but it alone is not sufficient for progress in any field. We need enthusiasm to be tempered with knowledge and integrity. As Samuel Johnson argued, “Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful”. While we may have very few people/leaders with both knowledge and integrity, we have lots of the middle class elite or super elite among the tribes who have no integrity and may not even have the right kind of knowledge but have the capacity to manipulate issues and its attendant discourses to serve their own vested interests and not that of the larger society. It is this class of people who invariably becomes the collaborators of the oppressors only to promote themselves as the greater oppressors of their own society and the contemporary crises reflect this sociological reality among the tribes.
(This is my own personal opinion and does not reflect the institute/organisation I work for)
