Politically too, not all the high hopes we had, have been fulfilled. We still face in the eastern part of our country a most difficult problem of nation building. A section of the Nagas have taken to arms in pursuit of an independent State for themselves. Similarly a section of the Mizos chose to defy the Indian Government in support of the demand for an independent Mizo State. The Naga and the Mizo rebels pose basically a political problem of integration. There cannot be, in the long run, a military solution for this problem. Again in Kashmir there is a secessionist movement which questions the present status of Jammu & Kashmir as part of the Union. The developments over the years have settled once and for all the questions of the accession of the State to India. However, there are several political, economic and social problems of the State which will have to be solved with understanding and patience.
Alongside there have been some disturbing developments in the rest of the country. One would have expected that with increasing economic development, and with the spread of education among a much wider section of the people, outdated attitudes based on religions or caste or regional animosities and prejudice will give way to new attitudes based on modern political values. Instead, we have seen a regression into tribalism. Communal and caste hatreds have flared up time and again. They are a daily reminder of the persistence of much that is irrational in our society. As if these hatreds were not enough to poison the body politic, regional conflicts break out now and then. In a fundamental sense the values of parochialism have gained ascendancy.
This intolerance has bred violence. No society can be totally free from violence, but the effort of all sane and rational societies is to regulate political and economic conflict within the bounds of law. When violence takes place and is suppressed by the counter-violence of the State, the result is a diminution in the stature of the political institutions where opinions are offered and decisions are taken on the basis of rational debate. In the last 19 years, the graph of violence has shown a steady rise. Protest and dissent have become synonymous with violence. This is not the kind of soil in which the political institutions of a liberal democratic system can take firm root. I wish above all to point out the connection between violence and the erosion of democratic values.
