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shodhyatra |
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Bypassed Innovations: Unseen Institutions, Mizoram
28th Shodhyatra, January 2012 – Part II |
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Amid a breathtaking panaroma, we stumbled upon some effective institutions for conservation, community action, hygiene and sanitation. Hardly three decades old, fruitful practices safeguarding nature stem from these institutions. If these practices were emulated elsewhere in the country, we would have had much better hygiene.
Starting on January 10 from Sailam, we met Pu Talanglawama, a healer who had developed a formulation for treating skin diseases. He wanted us to send a report to him after experimental verification. It is not often that healers ask us to verify and inform. The way he developed this formulation was interesting. He took one of the well-known plants and mixed it with other intuitively selected plants.
Later in the day, six school children were recognised for their participation in the biodiversity competition. While walking through the village, in some houses, we noticed pseudostems of bananas being boiled in big vessels, apparently, to be fed to the pigs. These plants are abundant in the mountains. We had the opportunity to savour fruits from some local fruit trees like sertawk (Citrus medica L), sapthei (Passiflora edulis Sims), serthlum (Citrus reticulata Blanco) and khawmhma (Rhus sp.). We had a cup of tea at the house of the village head and observed an efficient cooking stove system in the kitchen.
On the way to the next village, several shodhyatris passed by without noticing an interesting innovation in the use of a circular serrated saw for cutting wood. In Gujarat and many other states, when the saw gets heated up while cutting wood, one has to pour water on it to cool it every now and then. Here, a local wood-cutter had placed a used glucose drip in such a way that the water kept on dripping on the lower part of the cutting table, cooling the saw regularly. This increased the efficiency of the saw and the work did not have to be stopped intermittently. We were told that this was a common practice among many local wood-cutters there. Pu Laltluanga had been practising this for the last three years. In machine workshops, such a practice might have been prevalent among woodcutters but the yatris certainly had not seen it earlier. We walked through nine kilometres of forest to meet Lalhunthara at Sialsuk. Starting at a much younger age, the 33 year old had innovated several products. One of them was a wireless transmission
system for the guitar so that people could listen to him while sitting at home, within a kilometre radius. He showed us an old Mahindra pickup vehicle in which a battery operated hydraulic system was fitted alongside several other modifications, which the original vehicle did not have. Besides this, he had also designed a hydroger for lifting water.
On their way out, the shodhyatris visited Lalhunthara’s workshop to look at other experiments that he was working on. The night halt was at Samlukhai, where a meeting had been organised in the community hall. Several local craft workers had come with bamboo products to show their acumen. Some of the innovations scouted by the Honey Bee Network were shown with the help of a cell phone based projector, which evoked a lot of interest. The next morning, two herbal healers Tlanachhanlrana and Lalrinsangi, were felicitated at Chamring village for sharing the treatment of toothache, throat pain and muscle sprain.
The journey to Samsuih
The path to Samsuih took us through beautiful turns around the forest-clad Mount Hmuifang, which stands 1619m tall. Shodhyatris took photographs of the sun rays peeping through the clouds with mesmerising hues. On the way, somebody had put a small bamboo leaf to let water oozing out of the rocks fall at a distance so that people passing by could drink it. Several travellers stopped there to fill their bottles. While the villages were extraordinarily clean, the main road was littered with waste thrown by bus passengers. This was an unfortunate spectacle in the sanitation capital of the country.
A little girl sang a song impressing all the shodhyatris. Her mother was also known to be a singer and she had apparently trained her seven year old daughter quite well. Several bamboo crafts were displayed. Some children were involved in various creative activities including paintings by R.V. Prakash and others. They all sang a farewell song and proudly showed their paintings. The next morning, the walk to Thiak village began. On the way, yatris stopped by the house of a centenarian woman, Pi Pkaphnuni. It was one of the most memorable moments of the trip.
After touching her feet and felicitating her, the yatris requested her for some words of wisdom. Immediately, she asked everybody to fold their hands and summoned a collective prayer. Praying together, perhaps, generated a collective spirit; one that could not be achieved alone. In Thiak, the yatris met the villagers in the community hall. Lalthangzuala, a class eighth student displayed a miniature house made from bamboo with extraordinary details. It cost about Rs.500 – 800.
An idea competition was organised and a six year old kid, Van Lal Hnaiha proposed the use of bicycles with thicker or bigger wheels for muddy roads. An elderly healer, Pu. Sanghana Chhagte (63) was honoured for sharing many herbal practices related to blood pressure, kidney problems and centipede bites, among others.
The next destination was Maubuang village. The name Maubuang comes from ‘Mau’ meaning bamboo and ‘Buang’, a brownish or yellow colour. The bamboo growing on the slopes used to turn brown or yellow due to soil nutrient deficiency and hence the name of the village. Lalramzauva, a herbal healer experimented with bamboo vinegar for use in pest control for paddy and also as a medicine for stomach problems and intestinal worms. Since, the shodhyatris were very keen to understand the process of making and using vinegar for pest control he explained that unfiltered dark bamboo vinegar was effective for pest control and the filtered one was used as a medicine.
The captain of the women’s football team of Mizoram, Pi Janet Vanneihsangi hails from this village. She was honoured and appreciated for her extraordinary achievements. While walking to the next village, Aibwak, through a forest, the shodhyatris observed small seedlings on the roadside being sheltered by makeshift wooden protective rings. Young men and women volunteered by cutting dried wood; the income generated by sale of wood was to be used for community and church activities. Though, without these activities, no community can really maintain autonomy and self-reliance. Such practices are rapidly disappearing in several villages around the plains.
Aibwak was a bigger village with a small pharmacy. It was also evident that as the direct dependence on nature decreased and that on market based products and services increased, the institutional strength subsequently declined. The sanitation standards went down and the willingness of communities to engage in dialogue about sustainable living and managing resources diminished. The planned meeting with the villagers could not take place in the night. However, the local community leaders came to the community hall to meet the shodhyatris. A farmer from Nepal, Sandesh Rai, had come here as a labourer, years ago. He was adopted by the community upon marrying a local girl and was, thereafter, called Zonunkhara. In his orange garden, he used ash to repel the pest with good effect. He also wanted yatris to send him solutions for the problem of leaf curling and premature falling of oranges. A feedback session for the shodhyatris took place at night.
The next morning was the last day of the walk. After trudging on for eight kilometres, the shodhyatris stalled at Muallungthu village in the noontime. After lunch, a village meeting was organised in the community hall where an animated discussion took place; a young girl, Lalhmingmawii, sang a lovely song that filled everyone’s heart with joy. Later in the day, we honoured a centenarian - Pu Zahmingthanga. The last leg of the journey began with a visit to the royal house. The village chief had got the permission for us to visit the royal house where various dignitaries were received and important meetings were held. This was a completely wooden structure without nails to hold it firm. There was a huge pillar in one of the rooms through which the prayers were to be sent up to heaven. Outside the house, whorl of grass with knots was hung.The nature of the knots conveyed the venue and the time for a meeting.
After coming out of the royal house, all the shodhyatris sat under a tree and reflected on the lessons they had learnt. The agro-biodiversity in the fields was visible everywhere. Most Mizos are literate and have an extremely clean environment in and around their houses. The common roads are quite clean with dustbins at regular distances. The children have been brought up in such a way that they never had to be told about civic duties.
The role of women is very prominent in the Mizo culture. Women there clearly have an independent voice. Music runs through their veins and defines their identity. It is not surprising that some of their bands and choirs are receiving national attention. Every village has toilets for men and women, a rare sight in most Indian villages. In one village, we observed that the local women did not let the shodhyatris assist them in cleaning the dishes as they did not trust us in terms of judicious water use. The Young Mizo Association (YMA) is one of the most powerful and influential organisations of Mizoram. The volunteers of YMA and the village council members organised the food and lodging in every village and facilitated community interactions. Having learnt about more than 500 traditional and contemporary practices, the shodhyatris were truly indebted to the villagers. The extraordinary hospitality and warmth touched everyone’s heart. The fact that local standards of sanitation and water conservation could inspire the entire nation may have been ignored by policy makers but was certainly not lost on the shodhyatris. Everybody was touched by the individual and community action for conservation and sanitation.
It will not be inappropriate to suggest that states which boast of much more economic progress like Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra could learn by sending community delegations to Mizoram to study how local communities can set such high standards of social and ecological responsibility. |
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| Volume No. |
Honey Bee 23(2) 4-7, 2012 |
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