NEW DELHI, Oct 8: The Imphal Free Press editor Pradip Phanjoubam, gave a talk on journalistic reportage of conflict from the standpoint of journalists as the first draft writers of history, at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, NEIS Centre, yesterday.
The editor spoke on the topic “Original Sin as Holy Grail†dwelling to the problematic nature of vanquished States on the one hand, and formerly non-historical people on the other, reclaiming identity by rewriting or inventing history.
He argued the problem is because the need of the latter is to resurrect a dead and defeated spirit, which involves overcoming the trauma of past defeats, or else indignity of exclusions.
He said the understandable resort is often to lionise almost unconditionally newly resurrected heroes and with the same brush vehemently demonise former vanquishers.
However, he said the danger is that the rediscovered self may not be always truthful, resulting in the failure to come to grip with the reality of the present or to visualise a realistic picture of the future, increasing in the process the complexes suffered by this new self.
He said this approach is also marked by a presumption that a grave wrong had been committed in the past and the absence of peace in the present times is primarily because of this.
The implication, he said is, this “original sin†will not only have to be atoned for, but reversed altogether, before the original state of supposed peace and harmony is restored.
He said the danger of this peace model is, those seeking it may eventually end up discovering they have been crying over spilled milk.
The talk was followed by a lively discussion amongst participants.
