Keviyachü Liegise
Alder College, Kohima
“A text without a context is just a pretext for what we want it to be...”
Ben Witherington
(This article is written as a result of small informal group discussions where it was strongly encouraged that we should begin expressing our opinions and beliefs on matters that we consider important, never mind how simple or small, in the hope that we educate ourselves further and which may also help others in various and helpful ways).
There is a saying that everything that are relevant are valid, but everything that are generally valid need not necessarily be relevant, given a particular time and place. This is applicable to all situations faced by human beings in society, be it social, educational, political, economy, etc. The message here is that both concept and context must be compatible for anything to be meaningful and, therefore, beneficial. Let us discuss this some more with few examples and suggestions, with special reference to our Naga society.
Example One: Story is told of a health team comprised of a young doctor, few nurses and attendants, who went to an interior area to provide basic information on hygienic living. They went armed with the latest literature on health and demonstration techniques. After a short speech, the enthusiastic young doctor announced that those who use fork and spoon should raise their hands. No one did. The reason is pretty obvious. No one in an interior village uses fork and spoon, neither is it necessary. The concern here is the importance of healthy living practices and therefore the relevant education is to teach the villagers to wash hands before and after having meals, not the ‘validity’ of fork and spoon mentioned in the health book. This simple example can teach us many things in daily life, and how we should plan and execute public education in a way that is relevant and effective.
Example Two: Change will come about in society whether one likes it or not. It is a dynamic force which no one can stop. It is akin to flowing water which cannot be contained except to channelize the direction of the flow to avoid landslides, provide irrigation, and so on. Change is as old as society and how a society copes with these forces define the nature and conditions in that society. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, world thinkers strongly held the view that education alone can bring about true progress in society. However, what really happened was that the tremendous increase in education and knowledge led to the two World Wars. This is when it became absolutely clear that knowledge without values is useless, even dangerous. This principle or reality applies in modernization without the balancing forces of tradition (a people will be lost without their roots), development without environmental considerations (our towns and cities will become concrete jungles without the benefits of jungles), and so on.
How are we then, the Nagas, coping with these forces of change – westernization, modernization, urbanization, development, knowledge explosion, etc? These issues cannot be explained in a few sentences as they are varied and often times complicated. However, for our purpose here, I will simply provide a few examples which have been gathered from highly enlightened sources, and the reader can work out his/her own concept and context application.
- In a survey of river sources and courses in a certain district, a team member ‘declared’ that the source of one river is the leakage from the water tank near the office of the Deputy Commissioner of that district. (This is of course unofficial).
- The Managing Board of a certain project held more than 100 emergency meetings. It has since become defunct many decades ago, one main reason being that of over-staffing.
- A group of students went on a dignity of labour programme but considered that making bamboo garden fences was too much work.
- During the initial years of the introduction of Village Development Board, some villages made wise decisions and constructed roads, steps, water tanks, canals, etc, while in some others, few leaders wore coats but walked in old rubber slippers; one or two reportedly even wore two watches.
- A group of educated unemployed youth went for donations to a person who happened to be an uneducated employed. The latter offered them tea but admonished them for their lax conduct.
Example Three: It is a widely accepted view that in school education there should be no detention of students at least at the primary level. The concept is that all children have more or less equal level of intelligence and therefore there is no reason to detain anyone through a terminal examination. However, for this to be successful there need to be a system of continuous and comprehensive evaluation in which the teachers must be thoroughly trained and committed. Simply declaring the policy of no-detention without the preparation is bound to result in a huge mess, as happened in our State and many others, consequent upon a national policy. It is good to learn from reliable sources that efforts are being intensified for requisite measures both in policy and teacher preparedness. This is the only way to ensure that education remains relevant and meaningful.
Example Four: Several years ago, a veteran Naga politician, in his address to a big group of students, said that there is no need to spend huge sums of money on many years of research to study the status of Nagaland economy. All one needs to do is go to the Kohima War Cemetary, sit near the three roads junction, close the eyes and listen to the sound of trucks coming from and going to Dimapur. The former will be coming slowly in first gear because it is laden with goods while the latter will be almost speeding and making loud hollow noises because it is empty. That, he said, is the state of our economy – everything to take and nothing to give. Of course, this is a rather sweeping statement and one could debate on details, but the fact remains that this comment is largely true. So much so that our proclamation of self sufficiency (no beggars, etc) could actually be described as mere subsistence. Of course, we have so much resources and potentials that can make ours a vibrant economy if we really put our minds and actions on them.
Conclusion: Much as I wish to continue writing on more issues and examples, I need to end here for now due to constraints of space and readers’ time. Allow me to conclude with this - The decision of the Government to ban single-use plastic is extremely important which deserves the active and immediate support of all citizens. May there be no conflict between concept and context for the sake of quality of life, indeed for life itself.
