Tuichawng
, Mizoram, India: Visit to Ahimsa English School
(February 2013)
Some people in the
world – including India – may have heard about Mizoram, but very few would have
heard of Tuichawng in Mizoram. Mizoram is a state of India located in
hard-to-reach Northeast India; formerly the Lushai Hills District of Assam
State, renamed Mizoram after an insurgency and subsequent peaceful resolution. Mizoram
is sandwiched between Burma (Myanmar) and Bangladesh with the northern part
connected to Assam and Manipur states of India. Even today the landlocked area
has only two connections to the world – by air through the small airport and
through a road through the hills connecting her to Assam and rest of India.
There is no formal border crossing through its long international borders with
Burma and Bangladesh. The state is evergreen and picturesque, heavily forested
with a large number of mountain ranges and valleys that straddle the land from
north to south. It is still one of the areas of India that remain inaccessible
especially because of a rule that requires a permit, like a visa called Inner
Line Permit, to outsiders including other Indians to enter the state which is available from a
handful of places in India. Mizoram was created as a Christian-majority state
with a substantial number of Buddhist-Chakma peoples living in the southwest of
the state bordering Bangladesh. (Bangladesh has a large area that is Chakma
majority; as is the neighboring Indian states of Tripura and Arunachal.) To
give Chakmas cultural-religious-linguistic protection a small area within Mizoram was designated as Chakma Autonomous District under Indian Constitutional
provision, as was given to predominantly Christian Moro peoples. Most Chakmas
live outside the Autonomous area including Tuichawng. There is a sizable non-converted indigenous Hindu population, popularly referred as Bru and Reang, who where cleansed out of the state and living in refugee camps for decades in the neighboring Tripura state.
Through a network
Probini Foundation was approached by Mr. Sudip Chakma, Secretary of the
Ultimate Truth Preaching Mission (UTPM), as they were planning to build a community
school called Ahimsa (non-violence) English School in Tuichawng village,
adjacent to a Buddhist temple on top of a mound that lacked funding. Tuichawng
is practically all-Chakma with a handful of Mizo-Christian arrivals. They also
indicated that Tuichawng is an extremely poor area by any measure. Most of the
residents are subsistence farmers with no more than a few hundred square feet of cultivable land,
and most families with six to ten people earn no more than $50 dollars a month, as we were told by hosts,
where cost of living is very high as everything has to be imported over a long
distance.
The
Trip:
As Probini does not support any organization without a firsthand report, this
writer was entrusted to do the visitation (at his own cost.) While I was at the
Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi in the fall of 2012 I discovered that
there were a number of Mizoram students on campus and that there was a Mizoram
House nearby who gives the entry permit similar to a visa for entering the state for other non-Mizoram Indians. This is the same old divide-and-rule policy started by the British colonizers. Later I was to be in Kolkata (Calcutta) in eastern India from
where there is a direct flight to Mizoram capital of Aizawl, so I got the
permit/visa in case I was able to travel. Ironically the state celebrates January 11
as a State Holiday called Missionary Day when two English Christian missionaries
J. H. Lorrain and F. W. Savidge arrived in Mizoram on January 11, 1894 to
convert Mizos from their nature-worshiping Hindu religion to Christianity.
British colonial powers restricted other Indians from traveling to the area -- even to other Assam Province residents when Mizoram was a district of Assam -- and
the same tradition is still practiced in free India. Mizos are grateful that
Christianization brought Westernization, Roman script and high literacy to a
economically backward area. Ironically, same majority Christian Mizos drove out their non-converted Hindu Mizos called Brus and Reangs to the neighboring Tripura state.
In January of 2013 a
two-hour flight east over Bangladesh took me to Aizawl airport, 29 kilometers
from the city. Mr. Daneswar Chakma of Tuichawng and Mr. Zaba, Private Secretary
of Minister Nihar Chakma were waiting for me at the airport. Honorable Nihar
Chakma is a deputy minister of the Indian National Congress Party government of
Mizoram elected from a constituency that includes Tuichawng who welcomed in his
office later that afternoon. As the flight arrived in the afternoon I had to
wait till next morning for the trip to Tuichawng, a 12-hour journey by road. I
spent the first afternoon visiting Aizwal, a city that clings to mountain ranges full
of big churches. The capital has over 25% population of state’s one million
people. From top of many of the hills that dot the city one can have a
spectacular view of the city. But for a visitor the city visit comes to an abrupt
halt as stores close by 5:30 in the afternoon as darkness fell. A common
refrain from the locals is “we have no night life except for few days between
Christmas and New Year.” The state is completely dry because of church
opposition.
To get to Tuichawng one
has to go south taking the National Highway 54 to Lunglei, the largest town in
the south and a district headquarters. The highway runs through picturesque
forests, mountains and valleys but must be a nightmare to any driver making
turns every hundred feet. Normally this journey of 165 kilometers (103 miles) by
shared taxi takes 6 hours with a break for breakfast. The winding road follows mountain
range, at times skirting valleys and gorges that are thousand-feet deep. Most
of the taxis leave Aizawl early morning so that those who are traveling further
can catch a connection during the day time. We were ready at 6:30 in the
morning as dawn broke in the winter time. We stopped for traditional Mizoram
breakfast of rice, chicken and greens at Muipang where there is a government
tourist resort. At midday we stopped at Lunglei for lunch where the washroom of
the restaurant hung 40 feet above mountainside. Lunglei to Tuichang is a mere
72 kilometers (45 miles) by a state highway yet takes another bone-shattering 6
hours, is a real hell. I don’t know if I have seen anything like this anywhere
in India, or anywhere in the world. It is a real example of Indian
incompetence, neglected community by a state government according to many residents,
corruption (as funding for the road repair has presumably been approved but held
up), marginalization of remote areas and governance failure. The scenery was
extraordinary if only one could take the eyes off the road. As we reached the
village in late afternoon the entire population was waiting for our arrival as Daneswar’s
cell phone gave them regular updates every few minutes. (One remarkable feat in
India is the cell phone that is available even with people earning $25 dollars
a month and reachable in very remote corner like Tuichawng.) Most of the homes
in the village and elsewhere are built on wood platforms with bamboo mat walls
and hung on the side of the road with back rooms often rested dozens of feet
above ground depending on the slope of the mountainside. Our welcome was headed
by Mr. Rajesh Chakma, President of UTPM, whose home was our first resting
place. I was invited by Mr. Rajesh Chakma and his wife Samita Devi into their
home for my stay there. After a walk in the village it became dark but lines of
visitors continued until real late, and hot tea never stopped coming past
midnight. The Rajesh residence had a remarkable view from their kitchen as tops
of coconut and mango trees could be reached from the window. It felt like we
were on a tree house.
Secretary & Teacher Mr. Sudip Chakma (Left) and UTPM President & Headmaster Mr. Rajesh Chakma
Next morning started
with a meeting at the UTPM office discussing various issues facing that poor
and struggling community. The entire community joined in the discussion. After
the meeting we headed to the old 120 sq. ft. one-room school at the street
level at a private home that was abandoned as student enrollment rose. The
school had no toilet. Then we headed up a hill to the present 250 sq. ft.
one-room school that runs grades 1 through 4, that is already overcrowded, and
still has no toilet. After official presentation several children sang Chakma
and Hindi songs. Apart from many core subjects kids also take Chakma, Mizo,
Hindi, Bengali and Assamese languages. (Chakma, Assamese and Bengali have the
same script. This writer was asked to discuss in Bengali as students and
parents can read and understand it.) After a presentation by this writer everybody
headed to the site where the new Ahimsa (Non-Violence) English School is to be built. This is
on the side of the hill that is being dug out to make a flat surface for school
construction. Parents, neighbors and older students are taking part in clearing
earth for their new school. This was followed by a prayer and discussion at the
Buddhist Temple adjacent to the present school whose space is rented from the temple.
In the midst of further sessions a boat trip was arranged in the fast-flowing
Tlang River that joined Karnafuli River. Karnafuli empties in Bay of Bengal
through Chittagong City, Bangladesh. Small villages dotted river banks. Many
locals told us that the state is changing many of the native Chakma-Buddhist names
to Mizo-Christian names like MatriCharra to Belei, and Demagri to Tlabang. We
spent quite a bit of time in MatriCharra as there were many people from there at
our meetings earlier and as they invited me into their homes. Anywhere one went
the hard-scrabble life and a marginalized existence was evident, but there were
no dearth of smiling faces and hot tea. In many villages the literacy rate is barely
30% as visitors were told, and a high dropout rate in upper grades as the
language of instruction changes from Chakma-Bengali to Mizo-English which
students do not understand. Banks of the rivers and streams were lined with small-scale
farming, some barely a few hundred square feet, upon which vast majority of
people depend for survival. (After Bangladesh built a dam on Karnafuli River
creating Kaptai Lake in the Chittagong Hills Tract region to produce
electricity for Chittagong city but flooded majority of Chakma farming areas. This
pushed over 250,000 Chakmas to seek refuge in India.) Some farmers have to walk
over 5 kilometers to work on their tiny plots of land. As India is building a
fence along Bangladesh border to prevent illegal migration huge trucks could be
seen plying the wretched road carrying supplies. Soon Chakmas will be isolated
from their majority cousins in Bangladesh, except for entering through formal border check. A major center like Tuichawng has no
bank, no gas station, no doctor, and no health clinic. There is a health clinic
on paper but the attendant just came for the day of appointment and then left
for her home in the big city, but still receiving monthly salary, was mentioned
to visitors. Sometimes this is a problem too in schools if the teachers are
non-local. They too would sign up for the salary but never to attend, is a
common complaint. One Rabindra Chakma works as a paramedic as he was taught how
to administer first-aid. During my stay there was an accident when a little
girl had to be transported for six-hours to Lunglei over the derelict road and at
heavy cost. Rabindra told me that each monsoon 14 to 16 people die of malaria
because of unavailability of drugs and care. There is piped water, electricity,
a bazaar, bottled gas supplied by India government, a public elementary school
and two new Church-established Christian schools; one Presbyterian and the
other Baptist, and very important that the remote area was connected to the world through Internet via cell phone technology. (Even families with income of $35 dollars per month have cell phone.) There are many churches and one Buddhist temple. The state has
limited resource, many residents are engaged in substance agriculture, barely
any industry and massively depended on public sector jobs. Unless the lifeline
road to the southwest is rebuilt the residents of southwest will find
themselves in a prison-like ghettoized condition as their main connection to the world via Lunglei is fragile while their economic access to Bangladesh
on the west is sealed off.
Probini
Visit to the New School Building Site
Dedication Tablet
AHIMSA SCHOOL, TUICHAWNG
Estd. 16. 01. 2000
Inaugurated by
Mr. K. Hrahia, SDEO, Lungsen
Date: 06. 09. 2014
Foundation Stone Laid by:
Mr. Sudip Chakma, Office Secy. TUPTM
Sponsored by:
1. Mr. S. G. Dastidar
President, Probini Foundation
New York, U.S.A.
2. Mr. Mahendra Sagar
President India Charitable Foundation
Massachusetts, U.S.A.
Built by
Ultimate Truth Preaching Mission
For the return trip we
had to leave Tuichawng at daybreak. The journey was made enjoyable by the
driver Mr. Pu, and two students – Dibbar heading to a college in Shillong in
the neighboring Meghalaya state, another 12 hour journey by bus from Aizawl,
and Sonju heading to a college at Aizawl, the state capital. A large number of villagers -- men in trousers and women in sarong with sankha pola wedding bangles of married women and sindur vermillion mark on scalp -- were present with
folded hands in that early hour to say “aabar
ashben: Come back again.”
Volunteering on Weekends
Site Preparation
Students, Parents and Staff with School Banner
NEW DORM (HOSTEL) CONSTRUCTION
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