The Editor of a newspaper in the North East which has by its own estimation become the “only media house in the world to have fallen victim to COVID” says that despite 73 years of India’s independence, tribal affiliations continue to override all other identities in that part of the country.
“In Meghalaya, if you are a non-tribal, you will always be wrong. We have always stood up against the establishment, we have stood up against these extra-constitutional forces. This (COVID) gave them a good handle to beat us with,” says Patricia Mukhim, the Editor of The Shillong Times.
The broadsheet English newspaper is owned by a non-tribal.
Now in its 75th anniversary, the paper has not been published since August 23 due to an alleged violation of COVID protocols.
“A tribal elitist institution—Dorbar Shnong, as it is known—prevented the newspaper’s publisher from entering the premises even before the district health officer could conduct the tests in the most perfunctory way before issuing an adverse report. That’s how strident the extra-constitutional institutions are,” says Patricia Mukhim on J-POD, the podcast on journalists and journalism.
The newspaper was turned into a “containment area” on Saturday, August 22, after a worker at its press tested positive for Coronavirus, preventing the newspaper from coming out. Subsequently two others in the machine room and a driver were also found to be contaminated.
Patricia Mukhim, a former member of the National Security Advisory Board (NSAB) who was awarded the Padma Sri in 2000, avers the paper is paying the price not just for COVID but for a combination of factors—not least for crossing swords with the tribal institutions.
(In July 2020, a police complaint was filed against Mukhim by a village council over a Facebook post, claiming that it might incite communal tension. In March 2019, Mukhim was at the centre of a contempt of court case.)
Listen to the full podcast with Patricia Mukhim
Not yet democratised
“We are living in a region that has not really been democratised. To expect the tribes who lived in isolation before independence and who were little little principalities, little hierarchies, to integrate into an independent India and to be following a Constitution implanted from the West is a bit too much.
Nation-building, work in progress
“We still are in the process of nation-building over here. We still feel we owe our allegiance to these traditional institutions because we think they are representative of our identities. We think, if we do not subscribe to these institutions then we will be losing our identities. Identity has become so linked to these institutions.”
A very ethno-centric society
“The tribal elitist institutions think everybody should take a stand on their behalf. And this is what the vernacular newspapers do. They sometimes can be accused of inciting people because they will always take the side of the majority. This is very disturbing for anybody in the newspaper profession.”
Law unto themselves
“Every locality has its own Dorbar Shnong almost like a khap panchayat. There is no single Constitution that binds them. Every dorbar has its own Constitution, its own rules, its own bylaws. In one place one ethnic institution will do something, in another place it will do something else.”
Attackers are never arrested
“On July 3, I spoke out against five non-tribal boys beaten up by a group of people in a basketball court. I asked the tribal institutions on social media: ‘What are you doing about this? This happened under your jurisdiction.’ These sorts of attacks, lynchings have happened since 1979 but the attackers are never ever arrested.”
Media under pressure
“If you are anti-establishment, the government stops ads. We rely largely on government ads because we don’t have industries or corporate houses. On two occasions, our advertising ran dry because, we were told, we write anti-government stories. The so-called national media does not pay attention. If people do not know about us it is because the media doesn’t care about this region at all.”
The Shillong Times at 75
“People don’t look at the age of the newspaper. They only look at the news. If the news doesn’t suit them, those who are not happy with the news we carry, who are not happy with our investigative journalism, they are the ones who prefer to see we don’t have a voice any more. Obviously it has to be those in power at the moment.”
Also read: In Meghalaya, an Editor’s posts on Facebook prove costly as she fights (and loses) a contempt of court notice against The Shillong Times in three months flat
How COVID came in handy for tribal power to crush a 75-year-old newspaper in the North East