Assam-Mizoram clash: Is Essence of India to be 'lost forever', or has it already been?

By Dikteii Hnamte*
According to Oxford Dictionary, an essence is ‘the intrinsic nature or indispensable quality of something abstract, which determines its character’.
In 1994, at the Miss Universe Contest in Manila, Sushmita Sen was asked, “What is the essence of being a woman?” Her answer may be summed up as “…love, caring and sharing”, which won the hearts of the audiences and the judges and this answer won her the Miss Universe Crown. If love, caring and sharing is the essence of being a woman, the absence of any of the traits would mean that the essence of being a woman is lost and a woman without love may be regarded as half a woman!
Let me give an example of a feast. The essence of a feast must be the variety of the dishes that is being prepared, to meet the taste of all and give them satisfaction. The cook who is in charge of preparing the feast has to know that the essence of the feast would be lost if he prepares it to his own taste only or according to the likes of one group of people without considering the rest. This means that a good cook should know the nature and the tastes of the people he has to feed and prepare his meals accordingly, without favouring one over another.
Another example may be taken with a flower garden. The essence of a flower garden is the beauty that everyone would see with many flowers blooming in their own time. The flower garden will bloom with different flowers like Roses, Lilies, Lotuses, Daisies, Ivies etc., all needing different kinds of soil, water and sunshine and all needing different kinds of gardening tactics.
Some will grow well in water, some in dry soil, some in wet soil, some in the sun or some in the shades. To keep the essence of the garden, a wise gardener must know how to make all the flowers bloom and also know that from the outsiders, his garden will remain beautiful as long as each flower bloom in its own time and are cared for equally.
Even if the gardener is fond of a particular flower more than any other flower; if he loves his garden, he would not uproot all the other flowers (for example, uprooting all the roses, lilies and daisies to make a pond for growing lotuses) just to satisfy himself, for then, it would mean that in the eyes of those who like Roses or other flowers more than Lotus, the garden will lost its beauty and its essence.
What is the essence of India?
When I was studying Class VIII, on my first class on Indian history, the opening line that my teacher used was “India is a land of unity in the midst of diversity” which, to this day, I have not forgotten and I can still see the face of that teacher whenever this phrase was said or mentioned by anyone, even 45 years later!
I did not know its exact meaning at that time, but somehow, it was so beautiful that it got stuck in my mind and later, I understood its significance which is that the essence of India is 'unity in the midst of diversity' – a country having different cultures, languages and religions – being united amidst the many differences. And since then, I have been reminded of the beauty of this phrase time and again.
India has over 500 tribes and the citizens belong to different religions. History tells us about the unity and solidarity that Indians have shown in the face of many odds especially during the time of struggle for independence. The Indian Army, Navy and Air Force have representatives from all regions, community and religion and they all work together as one big force under the National Flag and one is always proud to be part of India with its beautiful essence – unity in the midst of diversity.
As everyone knows, The Preamble to the Indian Constitution declares India to be a sovereign, socialist, secular and democratic republic. The objectives stated by the Preamble are to secure justice, liberty, equality to all citizens and promote fraternity to maintain unity and integrity of the nation.

This beautiful statement which has always been the pride of every citizen of India however has been a subject of doubt on many occasions when the very essence of India was threatened and put to test by many selfish politicians who will put the interest of a few before the interest and welfare of all. The unified character of India has been threatened many a times when the government failed to secure justice, liberty, equality to all citizens regardless of the background of the citizen.

Feeding Mizoram with the favourite of Assam only will not satisfy the hunger of Mizoram, and if fed forcefully, it may choke it to death

Coming to the present clash between Assam and Mizoram, and citing the example of the 'cook' and the 'gardener', what has surfaced is that the cook preparing a feast for Assam and Mizoram, seem to have forgotten that both have different taste and both have come from different backgrounds.

Feeding Mizoram with the favourite of Assam only will not satisfy the hunger of Mizoram, and if fed forcefully, it may choke it to death. Similarly, the gardener seem to be looking after only the favourite flower of Assam and planning to uproot the flower that Mizoram people have as their favourite.
If the cook would not stop preparing food considering only one group of people, or if the gardener would not plant and look after different flowers and give what every flower needs without favouring one kind of flower over the others, the essence of the feast as well as the garden will be lost.
This is what is happening now in India, starting with Assam-Mizoram, which shows a character likely to be expanding to all North-East states. If this speculation is right (I wish I am wrong), one needs to be a fool not to know where this will lead to.
Has the 'cook' or the 'gardener' taken sides?
Mother India, wake up! You are about to lose your essence, or have you already lost it?
That beautiful essence – Unity in the midst of diversity.
---
*Professor, Dept of Education in Mizoram University

Comments

Was Netaji forced to alter face, die in obscurity in USSR in 1975? Was he so meek?

By Rajiv Shah This should sound almost hilarious. Not only did Subhas Chandra Bose not die in a plane crash in Taipei, nor was he the mysterious Gumnami Baba who reportedly passed away on 16 September 1985 in Ayodhya, but we are now told that he actually died in 1975—date unknown—“in oblivion” somewhere in the former Soviet Union. Which city? Moscow? No one seems to know.

Love letters in a lifelong war: Babusha Kohli’s resistance in verse

By Ravi Ranjan* “War does not determine who is right—only who is left.” Bertrand Russell’s words echo hauntingly in our times, and few contemporary Hindi poets embody this truth as profoundly as Babusha Kohli. Emerging from Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, Kohli has carved a unique space in literature by weaving together tenderness, protest, and philosophy across poetry, prose, and cinema. Her work is not merely artistic expression—it is resistance, refuge, and a call for peace.

Swami Vivekananda's views on caste and sexuality were 'painfully' regressive

By Bhaskar Sur* Swami Vivekananda now belongs more to the modern Hindu mythology than reality. It makes a daunting job to discover the real human being who knew unemployment, humiliation of losing a teaching job for 'incompetence', longed in vain for the bliss of a happy conjugal life only to suffer the consequent frustration.

Asbestos contamination in children’s products highlights global oversight gaps

By A Representative A commentary published by the International Ban Asbestos Secretariat (IBAS) has drawn attention to the challenges governments face in responding effectively to global public-health risks. In an article written by Laurie Kazan-Allen and published on March 5, 2026, the author examines how the discovery of asbestos contamination in children’s play products has raised questions about regulatory oversight and international product safety. The article opens by reflecting on lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic, noting that governments in several countries were slow to respond to early warning signs of the crisis. Referring to the experience of the United Kingdom, the author writes that delays in implementing protective measures contributed to “232,112 recorded deaths and over a million people suffering from long Covid.” The commentary uses this example to illustrate what it describes as the dangers of underestimating emerging threats. Attention then turns...

Buddhist shrines were 'massively destroyed' by Brahmanical rulers: Historian DN Jha

Nalanda mahavihara By Rajiv Shah Prominent historian DN Jha, an expert in India's ancient and medieval past, in his new book , "Against the Grain: Notes on Identity, Intolerance and History", in a sharp critique of "Hindutva ideologues", who look at the ancient period of Indian history as "a golden age marked by social harmony, devoid of any religious violence", has said, "Demolition and desecration of rival religious establishments, and the appropriation of their idols, was not uncommon in India before the advent of Islam".

Echoes of Vietnam and Chile: The devastating cost of the I-A Axis in Iran

By Ram Puniyani The recent joint military actions by Israel and the United States against Iran have been devastating. Like all wars, this conflict is brutal to its core, leaving a trail of human suffering in its wake. The stated pretext for this aggression—the brutality of the Ayatollah Khamenei regime and its nuclear ambitions—clashes sharply with the reality of the diplomatic landscape. Iran had expressed a willingness to remain at the negotiating table, signaling a readiness to concede points emerging from dialogue.

Authoritarian destruction of the public sphere in Ecuador: Trumpism in action?

By Pilar Troya Fernández The situation in Ecuador under Daniel Noboa's government is one of authoritarianism advancing on several fronts simultaneously to consolidate neoliberalism and total submission to the US international agenda. These are not isolated measures, but rather a coordinated strategy that combines job insecurity, the dismantling of the welfare state, unrestricted access to mining, the continuation of oil exploitation without environmental considerations, the centralization of power through the financial suffocation of local governments, and the systematic criminalization of all forms of opposition and popular organization.

The kitchen as prison: A feminist elegy for domestic slavery

By Garima Srivastava* Kumar Ambuj stands as one of the most incisive voices in contemporary Hindi poetry. His work, stripped of ornamentation, speaks directly to the lived realities of India’s marginalized—women, the rural poor, and those crushed under invisible forms of violence. His celebrated poem “Women Who Cook” (Khānā Banātī Striyāṃ) is not merely about food preparation; it is a searing indictment of patriarchal domestic structures that reduce women’s existence to endless, unpaid labour.

The price of silence: Why Modi won’t follow Shastri, appeal for sacrifice

By Arundhati Dhuru, Sandeep Pandey* In 1965, as India grappled with war and a crippling food crisis, Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri faced a United States that used wheat shipments under the PL-480 agreement as a lever to dictate Indian foreign policy. Shastri’s response remains legendary: he appealed to the nation to skip one meal a day. Millions of middle-class households complied, choosing temporary hunger over the sacrifice of national dignity. Today, India faces a modern equivalent in the energy sector, yet the leadership’s response stands in stark contrast to that era of self-reliance.

Search This Blog