November 2012
The land of hills, Mizoram shares two international borders with Bangladesh and Myanmar. Do not ask for a sight seeing spot in Mizoram because anywhere you stand, you get to enjoy dense green hills and a chill breeze. A liquor banned state with close to 11 lakhs population and 91% literacy, Mizoram is one of the seven sister states of India.
We, a group of eight visited five
villages across India – Bangladesh borders at South west of
Mizoram; with about 50 houses/huts in each village and a BSF post.
Three trains, cars and a boat is what you need to take to reach this
village. You do not have a reservation or you have a reservation of
the berth or you do not have a ticket at all – do not worry, just
get into the train and travel for 3000 kms is my take away from this
journey.. Long tunnels, beautiful sunsets, green fields and many
rivers is what you get to enjoy, that only your heart can capture and
say 'Bharath Mata ki Jai'
A continuous 5 days of strenuous journey
from Bangalore to reach Tablabag and this is what a common man can
afford. Even if you are blessed with too much of money, you cannot
avoid a 12 hours of minimum journey on road just to cover 276 kms,
the last lap from the nearest airport.
The beauty of Sangh is better
understood by non swayamsevaks I should say. We had few non-sangh or
rather 'new to sangh' people in our group. They were surprised and
very happy to see people waiting for us at different stations,
welcoming us with food, ensuring our safety and thanking us for being
there. These swayamsevaks who had traveled a certain distance to
stations at odd hours to welcome us touched the hearts of these new
comers to sangh family. We take our fellow Swayamsevaks for granted I
guess or we are very used to such humbleness and never appreciate any
effort and love :)
Mizo tribes are a dominant group at
Mizoram. The five villages we visited at the borders are Chakmas, a
minority tribe of Mizoram who are mostly Buddhists and a few recently
converted Christians. The statistics above is self explanatory to you
all about the efforts of Christian missionaries.. One highlight of
the trip is 'We were approached by a Baptist Church group at
midnight 1 while we were travelling on state highway.' You
definitely know the result of asking a Swayamsevak to get converted
and the same thing happened here :) . It was then, our sumo driver
Mohamad Azar revealed to us about the 1 lakh offer his friend got to
follow Jesus at the capital of Mizoram, Aizawl.
We got an appointment with the director
of NIT, Silchur in Assam. His words were are not very encouraging
because the word development comes along with threats in NE. His
efforts to get good schools and IT skill centers ended with
threatening calls from Indian Mujhahideen. He was shocked to hear
that we travelled by Road from Guwahti to Silchur. Keep in mind,
Bangalore roads are heaven after travelling in NE roads.
'Samparka' never ends be it Bangalore
or Mizoram :). We visited few schools, many houses in the villages
to understand their living which is the same as any remote village in
Karnataka. But being in borders, seeing jawans and rifles is a common
sight to them. We feel 'Fencing' is a solution to the infiltration
problem; Later I realised that it is not an ideal solution.. Why?
there are many reasons:
1. Rusted fence will definitely fall
down the years. They are not maintained.
2. We have 2 jawans for every
kilometer. Is it possible to keep a vigil 24/7? There are no
technologies to alert us when somebody cuts the fence.
3. Our villages does not have
electricity all the time. Hence the same with Fence. Do not expect
any shock treatments when you touch it.
4. How do you feel if there is a
fencing between Jayanagar and Basavanagudi when you have your office
on the other side, when you have your relatives on the other side?
Same is the feeling of the Chakma tribes. They have there lands on
the other side of border and crops is their primary occupation. They
have their fellow chamkas on the other side and those people realised
very late after partition that they were in a separate country called
Bangladesh.
Vande Mataram, Bharath Mata ki Jai
filled the skies on the banks of Karnaphuli river that separates
India and Bangladesh. A Human Chain of 400 people including jawans,
villagers and our team was a sight never to be missed in life. A 100%
contrast item was a 2 year child and 85 year old ajji participating
in the chain.
We could ourself see that getting into
India is not at a big deal at all at these places. Who ever gets in
can also easily get any thing - be it narcotic drugs or fake
currencies. Is our Army not competent to handle such infiltration and smuggling? BSF answers NO. Their hands are tied up, with no
powers to attack any suspicious activities. It is clearly lack of
political will is what I could understand. Also it is political
pressure to allow illegal immigrants and as a result you can meet
people with voter ID of both India and neighboring country.
My few other observations:
It is women who works both at field and
house. Male spends most of his day with cards. Even in the market at
Aizawl, I could see only women in shops and hotels. At the beginning,
I made a point that liquor is banned in Mizoram which only implies that you need to pay a lot more money to get smuggled alcohol. A good thing
that I noticed is there are public toilets everywhere and they are
clean too.
The nearest market for these villagers
is 2 hours Bangladesh way and 4 hours in India. A nearest equipped
hospital is 6 hours inside India. Where should they go?
It is more than 15 days since returning
from my 15 days travel to North Eastern states of India. I might have
missed few points and will try and add them as soon as I recall.
