I am quite shocked by the rise of juvenile crime in and around
Yesterday, on my way to Ziro around 9.45 AM (IST), I saw a truckload or rather a TATA mobile full of people carrying dao (traditional sword), followed by equally large number of people on motor bikes and cars with daos on them. I thought why was this large number of people and where are they heading to? Was there any religious festival? Wasn't carrying of dao banned at this district headquarter? Then I remembered, there was a report of murder of one 15 years old boy from Godak, whose body was found thrown at a small rivulet on the way to Hong village on the wee hours of Saturday morning. Was this large crowd got to do anything with the death of the boy, I thought?
Yes, it was. When I returned, I was told that the victim was buried at General Ground (Subansiri Stadium) by that crowd and that Cr.PC Section 144 has been imposed till further orders at the twin
Though, I fully sympathize with the victim's family and pray to God to give them strength to bear the irreparable loss they suffered and pray that the departed soul may rest in peace and believe that they might have carried this act in a fit of anger over the murder, I still wonder, shouldn't they had thought once, atleast once coolly before burial at general ground (though for me also at that time it could have appeared to be the best action) considering the impact it would have on the denizens of Ziro-Hapoli Township? Besides, shouldn't they have faith in the justice system and let the law takes its own course? Apparently, those involved in the murder was reported to be arrested.
This entire incident has totally shocked me out of my wits. I was shocked by the murder of a minor by a minor; I was shocked by the repercussion of the relatives of the victim and above all, I was shocked by the administrations way of handling of such situations. However, I should and must appreciate the denizens of this Twin-Township of Hapoli-Ziro for keeping their cool and for not letting this incident flare up communal tension. And this incident has made me question the credibility of the claim of students' body being the guardian of society (though I still detest their involvement in activities other than students' welfare); Where were they when they were needed the most (being the guardian of the society) to diffuse the tension at that time which could have flared up communal tension?
forgive my confusion, but if i am not wrong, the ground you are referring to is the football ground?
People get murdered for various reasons even in the most developed or peaceful countries.
There is no point in taking personal vendettas out on the state or general public.
This practice of burying dead people( murder/road accidents etc) in exact place of occurence(eg middle of road/ middle of shop) or in Public or Govt property(eg Talang Hira in Itanagar) and then using that pretext to later lay claim on prime public property should be dealt with mercilessly by the Govt.
I suggest the Govt exhume the corpse and hand it back, or, on refusal re-inter in Govt burial grounds. or at the least, raze the 'memorial'and level the ground over the grave, so that players can continue with their activities as usual in this case.
I commend Apatanis for their extreme tolerance of provocation( both a negative and a positive trait?)
@Speechmaker,
You are right, it's the 'football ground' that we commonly know of.
@Buru,
The present instance and the instances earlier has shown how civilized we are and how much weak the government and the administration is.
Regarding exhuming the body I would say there is no point now when the administration couldn't prevent it earlier. It would only lead to further complication and communal tension. Also, from your comments and that of speechmaker, it seems that both of you have misunderstood (from my post) body to be buried at the centre of the football field. The body is buried just near the entrance of the general ground and not at the center of the football field.
"both a negative and a positive trait?"-could you elaborate more on this?
a slight relief there that its not in the centre (whew!). yes, but then, i share what buru said about the practice of buryhing at the place of death. what if the death is at home? if this practice continues, the only logical conclusion is the entire state will be a burial ground.
we need proper regulation on this and hopefully the government can look forward to setting aside land for this purpose.
whats the tanii take on the burial? we also do it around homes right? i mean in ziro? or correct me otherwise.
The other day I heard people saying-General Ground would become General Burial Ground now. How true! considering the lack of government notified burial ground and the precedence shown by this particular incident.
"what's the tanii take on the burial?"-why tanii alone, I guess this burial is beyond comprehension of any sensible person-general ground being public property and not private property.
"we also do it around homes right? i mean in ziro?"--Yes, even though such burial do take place at private property, it shows how primitive we are still; how hard we may shout that we are civilized.
Hi AG, you started with two murders within a short span of time and have not elaborated on the other murder. What was the other murder case?
Actually, burying the victim's body in the accused home after destrying it is very common among Apatanis. Just walk through para-line or old Ziro or within bylanes of hapoli township and you will find memorials erected in the middle of destroyed homes.
Moreover, I would commend on apatani's patience because this has little to do with being provoked and maintaing patience, but it has more to do with weak administration. Why should any denizen of Ziro come out and try to stop group of furious mob?
What I meant was i wouldnot commend on Apatani's patience.
YY,
Ziro denizens does not have to come out on the street and try to stop such madness--that would indeed have been tragic. But a less tolerant society would have at least created a very strong pressure on the administration/security to act--thereby potentially raising the ante.
@Yasiyalow,
If you remember, quite sometimes back may be less than a year before, there was a murder involving minors at Gurudwara colony. They were friends and went to picnic during the day but later one of them murdered another over some quarrel.
Though the practice of burying the dead(murder/road accident) after destroying property of the accused/culprit is common in Apatani Society-the question is should this practice be carried on for eternity and how justified is the act?
"i would not commend on Apatani's patience." But this time I bet you should because if Apatanis had retaliated on reports of Apatani's being manhandled at Raga as a repercussion towards the murder and slaughtering of innocent animals at the ground, there would have been lot's of lives lost that day as the administration was just an onlooker. And putting pressure to administration for not allowing burial might have been seen with communal color which could have risked the lives of Apatanis posted at Raga etc., (there was little chance that the administration would have safeguarded people against repercussion at the outpost when they couldn't contain the situation at district headquarters)and may be this thought of safety of people had made them patient.
Now, ALLSU (All Lower Subansiri Students' Union) is demanding administration for exhuming the body from public ground and shift it to proper place. A right gesture, but I wonder, where were they (being the neutral body) when the incident took place? I was told that the President, Secretary etc. of this union had switched off their mobile that day. Had they present that day, I guess the incident wouldn't have occurred in the first place.
@Buru,
May be by not putting pressure on administration/security by Ziro denizens was what you meant with showing negative traits but then as you have said it would have potentially raised the ante and it would have been taken taken as communal and flared up communal tension.
AG,
Yea, that's why I said its both a negative and positive trait.
On the one hand societies with such ' negative' traits do progress much better than society's that tend to have protective 'herd' mentality--though in the short run the former may look disadvantageous in a retrograde society like AP.
Thats because the biggest determinant of the growth of a nation/culture/tribe is the amount of personal ambition and industry prevalent in that society, in a setting of freedom( to put it in a more understandable context--Democracy + Capitalism). Such societies often look indifferent and cutthroat from afar but is nevertheless successful in the long run. All the successful nations on earth eg USA, Western EU, Oz, Japan etc follow this trait. And all the successful ethnic groups of this world show this trait too eg Chinese, Jews, Japanese.
Herd mentality and/or despotism/violent societies never progress eg Communism, Arabs
Apatanis are on the right track, generally speaking.Sorry for long-winded lecture:)
Buru,
I'm flattered by equation of the Apatanis with the Chinese, the Japanese, the Jews, the US etc., but don't you think it sounds too much :) Though I've appreciated the patience of the Apatanis to this incident, I personally feel that most of the times Apatanis are timid and easily subdued even to the extent of having their rights denied and I don't know if this trait would be determinant or detriment to the growth of Apatani Society in a days to come and may be this trait of the Apatanis has made YY not to commend on Apatanis patience.
And to tell you the truth, I long for your insight on almost each and every post of mine, so do keep commenting-be it short or long-without being sorry;)
""I personally feel that most of the times Apatanis are timid and easily subdued even to the extent of having their rights denied ""
True to an extent. I have seen Apatanis whose house compounds have been taken over by aggressive locals in broad daylight --and all the owner did was actually OFFERING to split his own house compound 50:50 with the aggressor(who came as a gang from a faraway district with zero rights) and in fact was ' happily' going about putting the marker to divide his property with an unknown interloper!!
It really pained me to my deepest core to see such blatant injustice taking place ,and also such supine acceptance of injustice. And such incidents are common apparently.
Buru,
I guess, the solution to such problem lies with scrapping of 'customary law' which runs parallel with judiciary and let judiciary alone solve the cases both criminal and civil. And also people has to grow up and know their rights.
AG, what I meant was reaction to burial in the ground was not called from general public of hapoli as it was administrative issue. Worse incidents have happened where apatanis have remained a timid spectator and borne it with self illusion injustice.
Let me tell you of my own case. I had a small piece of land adjacent to Natinal higway. Behind my land was owned by one gentleman, who, one fineday erected fence walls till NH, completely encroaching upon my land. Among many dialogues that took between us he claimed it on two logics :-
a) That my land was infront of his land so naturally that is his land.
b) That if I feel injustice has been done, than, I should either go to court or resort to yalung. And If I caanot take this steps, then there is no injustice.
Well, I smiled to myself after coming out his house and left that place. Now, he has constructed a huge house over my land.
In a hindsight I really dont blame him and am bit shy of self blame. I simply want to keep away feeling of being victim. I had a choice to remedy the injustice, but I didnot. That is simple and frank truth. Well, I have lots of reasons and excuses, but I cannot rub away above facts.
Apatani's as I know are human beings like all others and there are good and bad people depending upon perceptions.
AG,
I forgot to add that my observations are limited to capital complex and surrrounding areas only. I am not fully conversant with what happens in Ziro valley so will reserve my comments on that.
""there are good and bad people depending upon perceptions.""
While this cliche is true, we can still recognise the general trends of a society--wherein the majority determines whether that society is termed violent or timid, predatory or pacific, easy going or industrious.
For eg. Can anyone disagree that Tibetan society is more pacific than Afghans, even though there must be violent Tibetans and non-violent Afghans? Can anyone argue with the observation that Japanese are more workaholic than, say Indians--even though many Indians work hard and some Japs must be lazy?
It was in this spirit that I gave my observtion on Apatani society.
@Yasiyalow,
I guess I have been misunderstood from my post. I commended the general public not for not reacting to the burial, which of course was the administrative issue but for keeping their cool even after provocation post burial. I guess, slaughtering of domesticated animals at general ground and at Ziro soon after the burial was more than enough to challenge the crowd, considering what place the domesticated animals holds in the society. I commended them for that for not letting the situation go out of hand. Now I wonder, was FIR lodged for slaughtering of animals by the owners?
Hi Buru,
Point taken. I agree with you to a large extent wrt apatanis.
Hey ag,
Frankly speaking I am not aware of ground realities of what happened.I was, you, in present place of my posting.
Anyway thanks for what is happening in AP.
AG,
What happened to that incompetent ADC? Still suspended or re-instated?
Nothing. And this has irked the students body (ALSSU) to call three phase Bandh beginning tomorrow.
ALSSU has called off it's Bandh tomorrow citing ongoing state board exams.