[India Today]

Published date: 31st Oct 1982

NEWS does not have to scream from the headlines to be news. In fact, it is probably one of the failings of the media that it is all too often caught up in keeping track of the more volatile eruptions of news, the easily palpable peaks and troughs of political, economic, Social and cultural events at the cost of ignoring quieter undercurrents which ebb and flow beneath the surface influencing events with a relentless force. Thus, for example, communal riots usually claim prime media space, but there is far less reporting about the tensions and passions and even political manipulations which are the cause of communal disturbances and violence.

At INDIA TODAY, there has been a conscious recognition of the fact that forces at work below the surface are often more pertinent to an understanding of the life of his country than observable events. Much of this year’s first issue, ‘1982: Year of Reckoning,’ dealt with the less tangible forces at work which have influenced events in the last few months and will continue to do so. At a more practical level, the magazine has in cover stories over the years examined the slow awakening of women ( August 1-15, 1980), of the rural poor ( March 16-31, 1980) and of the Harijans (October 1-15, 1978).

IN THIS issue, INDIA TODAY looks at an area of the country which has in terms of media attention been a victim of a somewhat benign neglect: the North-east. The tiny paragraphs in the news’ columns of the dailies briefly recounting the arrest of an insurgent, the ambush of a military convoy or search and destroy missions in the jungles hide a seething cauldron which has simmered for nearly two decades. Occasionally, it has boiled over in unimaginable violence. More seldom, the heat has gone out of the fire as negotiations have hovered briefly on the brink of breakthrough only to slide back into confusion again. Prolonged years of tension have drawn heavily on the morale of the people of Manipur, Mizoram and Nagaland, not to mention the security forces who have sought to keep the peace.

To investigate the mood of the region, Correspondent CHAITANYA KALBAG and Photographer PRAMOD PUSHKARNA spent almost three weeks travelling up and down the three states, talking with the authorities, officers and soldiers, and scores of ordinary people who have been buffeted by the relentless turmoil in the state. Departing from the usual format of political writing, Kalbag has written a story in purely human terms, sensing the mood of a troubled population and the dilemmas of an administration confronting a no-win situation. Over the last three years, Kalbag has been a regular visitor to the North-east. This journey, however, was different. As he said, “Nothing can prepare you for the experience of human suffering at close quarters especially when it is so transparent in the faces of people. Nothing I have ever seen in the North- east moved me so much.’