By – Amar Yumnam
Imphal, Sept 23:
An action or a policy can have effects different from the originally intended consequences. These effects can be either positive or negative; it can have both the impacts depending upon the target groups being considered. It can be quantitative or qualitative or both. Starting a fire to relief from cold can warm the person starting it while it can cause inconvenience of smoke to persons a little away. The person, other than the initiator, nearby feeling the warmth is enjoying warmth while the persons away from the place are bearing the inconvenience of the smoke coming out of the fire; the persons nearby may feel the smoke but the warmth coming out from the fire more than compensates the inconvenience of the smoke. Thus, an action can have both positive and negative impacts. In Economics, these are called Externalities.
The present social imbroglio is naturally causing externalities abound. Before coming to the issues in debate, I would definitely love to share the absolutely emotional mood I am in; this emotional mood is acute for it is not without some historically founded reason. For the last few days, my mind and emotions are fully occupied with the remembrances of teachers who had taught us right from the first lessons in the primary schools to the highest degrees in the University; these teachers created our capability to interact with others in the larger society, and we are forever indebted with permanent debts. There are not many teachers who had taught us sixty/fifty years ago and still in this world. The solace I get now inter alia from talking with Prof Dilip Nachaneof Bombay University, Prof Atul Sarma of the Indian Statistical Institute, Delhi and Prof L Kamakhyakumar of the Imphal College is immense.
The prevailing social imbroglio does cause mental restlessness and lose our sleep. With the training in the Social Sciences given by our teachers, it is impossible not to feel and not to think about the potential causes, likely implications and the nature of functioning of the state. I just read The Anarchy: The East India Company, Corporate Violence And The Pillage Of An Empire by William Dalrymple (2019): “Writing towards the end of his life, with the benefit of hindsight, the Comte reminisced about where things had gone wrong in the Carna half a century earlier.
‘The Mughal Empire held together while Aurangzeb reigned,’ he wrote, ‘and even for some years after he died in the early years of this century [18th century].’ ..For generally beneficial laws have a certain inner strength which allows them, for a time, to resist the assaults of anarchy. But at last, about forty years ago, a horrible chaos overtook the Mughal empire: any spark of good that Aurangzeb had done to promote commerce was snuffed out.” The externality of reading this portion was such that I was immediately drawn into the scenario of prevailing social turmoil in Manipur, and inescapably bound into it.
Here we may recall a publication of the World Bank titled Social Dynamics And Fragility: Engaging Societies In Responding To Fragile Situations (2013) in the series on New Frontiers of Social Policy and authored by a team led by Alexandre Marc: “Fragility is ..not.. a static condition but ..a dynamic continuum. Along that continuum, societies can experience varying degrees of fragility, with state collapse and violent conflict at the extreme. Conceptualising fragility in this wayneed not imply a linear process; indeed, the experiences of most countries entering or exiting situations of fragility have been anything but linear….The quality of the relationships within it ultimately determines where a society falls along the fragility continuum at a given time.”
It goes without saying that Manipur today faces a very fragile social situation. There are certain realities which the Government should keep in mind for evolving policies; I am asserting this despite the fact that the government does not apply mind to the challenges being faced nowand how to escape from the social fragility.
First about the Kukis. Though transformation has been under way, the Kukis are a group engaging most in shifting cultivation. Further, the inroads of commercialisation are causing a slow but sure transformation of the property rights regime among the Kukis. The dynamics of these transformation processes have slowly but increasingly brought the social hold of the village chiefs and the neo-rich among the Kukis under change. The traditional property rights regime has an inherent assurance to continuity and enhancement of economic inequality, which are the ones being increasingly challenged by the new dynamics. The play of the dynamics against the hold of the traditional fixations is a predominant factor for the move by the Kukis.
Second, let us have a look at the Meeteis. The unemployment rate among the educated youths among the Meeteis is one of the highest in any economy under transformation. For a government in such scenario and given the economic characteristics of Manipur, the government has least bothered to apply spirit and mind to enhance the scope for forward movement by the youths.
Thus we have a scenario in Manipur where the government is pleased with allowing a free-hand to divisive articulations along the diverse groups instead of applying mind and spirit to addressing the core issues of development.
While we were growing up, we were taught so engagingly by our teachers right from the school to the university days. Today, the institutional teachings are killed and, even further, the internet also made non-available. Thus we are made to cry by the deprivation externalities caused by the absence of governance. We are made to feel even worse when we experience the qualitative externality of this information today for other places: “Companies from around the world are funnelling their money into Japan. The weakening yen is attracting bargain-hunting investors, while positive developments in corporate Japan and the economy are helping produce a more optimistic outlook for the country, especially as the Chinese economy falters.” (Nikkei Asia, 14 Sept 2024)
