By: Amar Yumnam
The eighteenth century was a very long one for Europe and it is usually understood to extend from 1688 AD to 1832 AD. But this long period did produce positive outcomes for the continent to ultimately prevail upon the rest of the world in knowledge, technology and development. Above all, this led to what Margaret Jacob calls, in her book published this year, The First Knowledge Economy: Human Capital and the European Economy, 1750`”1850. This book underlines the significance of rising importance of knowledge and human capital in productive activities and social functioning rather than the traditional artisanal skills. Theodore Roosevelt said: `Character, in the long run, is the decisive factor in the life of an individual and of nations alike.` The social and knowledge transformation of the long eighteenth century must have impacted positively on the psyche of the European people and ultimately resulting in the emergence of the first knowledge-based economy. This outcome gave a perennial strength to the European economy to forever evolve and acquire capabilities to dynamically adjust to any altering global scenario. It is this strength which enables Europe to continually follow a policy of openness instead of shunting-out and exclusivity.
Given this prime example of development, we may look into the scenario of Manipur over the years and ponder into the future. In the case of this land, the unique reasons for examination arise from two grounds. First, the Indian phases of development transformation have always been far away phenomena for Manipur. Second, Manipur has never had a sustained development phase though there are instances of periodic positive interventions. We keep hearing of the knowledgeable talking of the landmark innovative development interventions during the reign of King Khagemba. His innovations did have lasting impact positively influencing the social life and character of people though it is no longer alive. We are also aware of the interventions put in place by the early government after the province gained Statehood under the Indian dispensation. But there is a character in development interventions. The positive impact and innovativeness of the impactful interventions need to be renewed forever continually so that the social transformations are both led and followed. Unfortunately this seems to be exactly lacking in Manipur.
Manipur`™s one grudge has been the lack of development and the accompanying explosion of corruption in recent periods; Manipur has been looking, it seems, for her century of development. Our parents and their contemporaries used to repent continually while they were still alive about the declining social character and eroding atmosphere of social trust. But the attainment of the Statehood and the consequent initiatives in development interventions showed promises to reverse this lamented trend and usher into a phase of lasting and positive transformation. Unfortunately this has not happened. All the institutions established in this phase of positivism and expectations have by now lost all the original idealism and have not acquired any new positive character on which social development can be founded on; they have however shown `strengths`™ of sliding downward and pulling the social character down affirming the Roosevelt dictum `Character, in the long run, is the decisive factor in the life of an individual and of nations alike` in the reverse format. The very character of the state in all its manifestations and as exemplified by the multitude of functionaries has invariably decayed almost to the point of the governance becoming irrelevant to societal functioning and emerging rather like a constraint on progress. We could have been able to afford remaining undisturbed by this if Manipur alone were the globe and unaffected by anything happening elsewhere. The contrary however is the case. Times are a changing really fast. During the last few months, particularly after a new government has come into power as the Union Government in Delhi, the whole world now feels the pace of functioning and depth of commitment to action of the new government in Delhi. As a result of this the global attention on the North East and ipso facto of Manipur is now much more intense and focussed as all the neighbouring countries sense the vigorous seriousness of the new Indian government on the Look East Policy. It is exactly at this juncture that we are experiencing the crisis of decaying character and continued disconnect with the rest of the world in both thinking and policy frame. Here it would be rewarding for a society like Manipur`™s presumably absorbed with the issues of identity what Tim O`™Riordan and Chris Church wrote at the turn of the millennium: `Globalization and localization unite at all spatial scales. There is little, and maybe nothing, that is global that does not have some sort of a local manifestation. And each local manifestation changes the global context. Place-centredness is the amalgam of global change and local identity. Every place reveals itself at a variety of scales. Local perceptions are shaped by global influences, the combinations of which process local actions. These in turn are fuelled by local aspirations, many of which are the product of global images and expectations. All of these local activities accumulate to create chaotic but global outcomes. `¦.. Globalization and localization are processes of change that impact on economies, cultures and environments in ways that are both global and local. Such changes may take place at any scale and at any level of social organization. Globalism and localism are socially and politically framed interpretations of these changes that have meaning through processes of personal experience, patterns of trust, connectivities of reciprocity, and social networks of interest and bias. These two discourses entwine to form social identity, the basis for self-actualization and the bedrock of any transition to sustainability.` Instead of attaining sustainable development, Manipur`™s identity would be subsumed by the evolving global one completely in the absence of any self-initiated contextualised global policy. There is no harm in this except that Manipur`™s development century will forever be lost without ever being experienced by the society and her people `“ the never-ending century of non-development for Manipur. Who cares?