Another example of Bengali hatred in Meghalaya; Khasi Students' Union locks Vivekananda Cultural Centre of Shillong Ramakrishna Mission

Local organisations in Meghalaya have been inciting violence against Bengalis living in the state since February this year. Last month, the Khasi Students’ Union put up posters at the heart of the capital calling every Meghalaya Bengali a Bangladeshi. This time again they tried to incite chaos by locking Vivekananda Cultural Centre of Shillong Ramakrishna Mission. However, this resistance did not last long as organisations like Ramakrishna Mission don’t do anything unjustly.

There is a festival of the Christians in Meghalaya called Saad Pamlang in the style of Thanksgiving day in America. It is basically a harvest festival which takes place in the villages. However, the Khasi Students’ Union recently locked down various government offices, schools, colleges etc. in Shillong ahead of the festival. One of them was a cultural centre of Ramkrishna Mission located at Quinton Road, Shillong. After Ramakrishna Mission agreed to close the training centre, the Khasi Students’ Union still locked the centre for showing their strength and muscle power. The resistance did not last long and Ramakrishna Mission is working there again on its own. However, with this incident, the Khasi Students’ Union yet again tried to foment trouble against the Bengali community living in Meghalaya, a name ironically coined by a Bengali Shiba Prasad Chatterjee for the northeastern state who was a Professor of Geography at Calcutta University.

The contribution of Ramakrishna Mission in Meghalaya is far greater than any of the organisations in the state. The Mission is working even for those who do not get government help for every person irrespective of their language, religion, caste or creed. The Ramakrishna Mission stands equally with the people irrespective of whether they are Bengali Hindus or Khasis. During the lockdown, the services rendered by Ramakrishna Mission increased manifold. Shillong Ramakrishna Mission has delivered food and health services to the distressed people spending around Rs 4.5 crore. After lockdown, the educational institutions started to open gradually following government directives. In accordance with it, the cultural centre of Ramakrishna Mission was opened. However, four members of the Khasi Students’ Union came and entered the Ramakrishna Mission and started talking in a threatening way. They complained that the cultural centre was kept open in defiance of the Saad Pamlang festival. The Ramakrishna Mission authorities said that they were not insulting the local festival in any way and would close the centre within an hour as per the demands of the Studens’ Union. The members of the Khasi Students’ Union did not agree to that and instead they kept threatening and finally locked the gate. Later, the authorities of the Ramakrishna Mission talked to the local police and the lock was opened finally.

The Shillong Ramakrishna Mission had allowed one-third of the students and teachers to attend the cultural centre. Also the institution was not fully open, only a part of it was open. In no way did they break the Covid protocol. Various steps were taken to help students through online classes during the pandemic. The organisation was helping about ten to twelve thousand students of Cherrapunji who are studying at their homes. The students are from every community. Many had exams the next day, so the teachers were helping them by keeping the centre open.

The Ramakrishna Mission in the Khasi-Jayantia Hills area is not something new. The Maharajas of the Mission have been providing services in the hills since 1928. When the government could not provide services like health, education, food etc. to the common people, Ramakrishna Mission did the job. They did not do the work there only for Bengalis or Hindus. The members of the Ramakrishna Mission have equally served the Christian people of the Khasi community. Thousands of distressed families have been able to lead a normal life with their help, but a Students’ Union established much later is using brute force against the Ramakrishna Mission now. The Khasi Students’ Union debuted in 1978. Their contribution is in other fields but the Ramakrishna Mission is far ahead of them when it comes to standing by the common man. However, this time they targeted an organisation like Ramakrishna Mission after being racist towards Bengalis in the state.

While countries like Saudi Arabia help the Ramakrishna Mission to build temples and appreciate their work, while the Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi promotes himself as a fan of the Ramakrishna Mission from the beginning, a student’s union in Meghalaya had the audacity to lock the gate of the Mission’s cultural centre.

This time Durga Puja was performed without idol in Shillong Ramakrishna Mission. The Chief Minister of the state Conrad Sangma himself came, ate prasad during the puja accompanied by other officials including the Chief Secretary of the state. But after this incident, none of them came forward in support of the Ramakrishna Mission or said anything about it. A local newspaper had reported against the Shillong Ramakrishna Mission.

The renowned great Hindu philosopher Swami Vivekananda had also given a speech at the Quinton Hall located in Quinton Road, Shillong on invitation of the then British commisioner. Swamiji gave two speeches which was reported by a Khasi newspaper at that time.

Tourism is the biggest financial asset of Meghalaya. Since Bengalis have an ancient connect to the state with figures like Rabindranath Tagore and Swami Vivekananda visiting the place, many Bengalis prefer to go to Meghalaya for travelling and exploring the state. However, the present government of Meghalaya is talking about introducing an Inner Line Permit in Meghalaya like Mizoram. It is a matter of question how much the state will benifit from it. The Central Government is maintaining pin drop silence on the racism issue even though various social organisations, including political representatives of Barak Valley have raised their voices against the Bengali ongoing discrimination against Bengalis in Meghalaya.