Col Satish Singh Lalotra (Retd)
“Exactly when people are in turmoil is the time that the change has been at its best”… Anonymous.
The very prophetic saying by an unknown personality but not so unknown the world over , the feeling of change is best felt when it seems all has been lost to the vicissitudes of events with things hurtling down the ladder of human aspirations at a speed which is uncontrollable . That precisely is the “cusp event” which ought to be seized with full force by the right thinking people of a society/civilization. Often this “cusp event” comes with very subtle hints which only a very few evolved personalities are able to identify and act upon in all their sincerity. It has been a bane of human mankind that often the turning point in history has been clouded by extraneous factors one of which is the “siege mentality”, a by product of years of systematic alienation from the real world ,often a forced one foisted upon by circumstances beyond its control. “Seige mentality” is a shared feeling of victimization and defensiveness derived from the actual experience of military defences of real sieges. It is a collective state of mind in which a group of people believe themselves constantly attacked ,oppressed ,or isolated in the face of negative intentions of the rest of the world.
Although a group phenomenon the term describes both the emotions and thoughts of the group as a whole and as individuals. The result is a state of being overly fearful of surrounding people and an intractably defensive attitude. The human mind is capable of affecting both on individual and group level this debilitating tendency, the end result of which is often catastrophic for the society as such. The rise and shine of a society is a long and laborious process which often undergoes a metamorphosis in its life time and may last for few hundred of years to even a thousand . If we cast an eye around us on the planet we live ,we will find that best of civilizations /societies prospered over a period of time with less time equally to decline in oblivion. Cases of Mesopotamia, Indus valley civilisations /societies prospered over a period of time and are an excellent example in front of us as a prime example of upward mobile societies ,but withered into oblivion under the deluge of time and tide of events. The causes of decline of the societies are plethora ,which often gets so intermingled in themselves that it becomes difficult to pin point the single largest cause for their decline. But if the causes are addressed in the right time frame with an equal amount of sagacity ,the trends can be reversed .
Turning our gaze towards various regions/communities in India which though having a glorious past are today much in limbo (forgotten, ignored), we find that the Dogra community comes to the fore. The actual collapse of a society is much like the bankruptcy of an organization which goes kaput in a time frame and surprises even the most ardent of observers. Eminent anthropologists and historians like Sir John Glubb have very eruditely put forward his views on the rise and collapse of societies in his famous treatise of 1976 “The fall of empire” which hold true even today to its last word. In fact we can see co-relations that cannot be just coincidental with passage of time in case of our own Dogra community regarding the postulations made by Sir John Glubb in his masterpiece. We can see our own relentless march towards the abyss now facing in Dogra community. I have tried to superimpose the template given by Sir John Glubb as propounded by him in 1976 over the Dogra society/community from ancient times to its present state of moribundancy to pin point certain flaws /fault lines that existed then and are still being retained in its some form of originality. The first stage of evolution of any society as per him is the “stage /age of pioneers”. In the “age of pioneers” we encounter courageous individuals with great passion and vision who set out to conquer the world territory often taking huge risks over existing civilisations which are in decline.
Their mentality is expansive ,and experimental; they are the prototypes of their generations. They are action takers, have strong values, often great devotion to duty, a sense of honour and a shared purpose of strict moral code. The decaying empire they overthrow is often weary, but defensive and contracting in its vision ,but history shows us that this is not the case always. If we refer to the early Rig Vedic period , Jammu region was already part of Madra kingdom extending from Sutlej to the Indus river region. According to vedic legends, King Vyushitashva of the Puru dynasty was ruling this region. It’s the same Puru dynasty which repulsed the Attacks of Alexander the great and almost defeated him . However modern history states that the foundation of the Duggar Pradesh started around 6th century which saw rise of number of other hilly states. For instance states like champaka (Chamba), Durgara (Jammu) Trigartha ( Jullundur), Kuluta (Kulu) came into being during this time period. Another region of Durgara was spread from Lakhanpur to Sialkot, through Erwan, Hiranagar, Samba, Bahu etc. Ever since the Dogra rule was established ,many people settled around the trade routes for livelihoods in different locations with about 22 Dogra principalities. The 11 states were in the Jullundur circle and 11 in the Duggar circle. Interestingly modern historians have not shed such positive light on these ancient kingdoms of yore.
The “age of pioneers” in case of Dogras says lot of about them in so far as their qualities of head and heart were concerned .But can the present state of our Dogra clan claim the same attitude of pioneering in the present times ? The answer to this intrepid question lies ahead in this write up . Closely following on the heels of “age of pioneers” was the “age of conquest’ .Conquerors bring with them their military might and often their own behavior . The conquerors many times adopt the military ways of the empire they have conquered and are always more disciplined ,professional and organized in their military campaigning than the civilisations that they are conquering. Same was the case with the Dogras. The age of conquering for the Dogras began with the consolidation of all these principalities /small states led by Maharaja Ranjit Dev in 1773 .His actions covered and extended over entire area from Jasrota to Kaluwal on the Chenab and from Roras to MandiKail in Gurdaspur . This age of conquest was further given a fillip by Maharaja Gulab singh who carved out a separate state of Jammu and Kashmir via the “treaty of Amritsar” in 1846 from the Brtishers.
His notable Generals like General Zorawar Singh, Baz Singh etc in fact extended the national boundaries of India till Tibet and Chitral just short of the famous Wakhan corridor . But look around you and see where are the Dogras of today? Are they still in that conquering mode today with all their splendor in attendance? Leave alone conquering ,the Dogras of today are a motely crowd fighting an identity crisis exacerbated by themselves and no less foisted upon themselves by their own follies.
The stage or age following closely the above mentioned is the “age of commerce” often the barometer of progress of a human society. The power of military support by the public guards and controls the new territory so that commerce can flow. In the first stage of this age, there is still some sense of personal honour as the new civilization searches for new forms of wealth . But as wealth pours in ,values such as honour, glory of the race soon disappear. Same is happening with the Dogra community as such. The influx of money whether by legitimate means or ill-gotten has bred a dangerous trend of cynicism in the Dogra community with consequences far beyond comprehension. Closely following in the heels of the “age of commerce” is the “age of affluence”. According to many anthropologists this “age of affluence” silences our virtues and morals. In fact the aspirations of generations of Dogra community have changed from honour and glory to that of selfishness, greed and monetary gain often at the expense of spiritual wealth. A quick look in the province of Jammu will open our eyes to the decadent culture of “show off” often to the peril of locals.
The last but one stage of Dogra society’s slide into decline is very much evident in the “age of intellect”. The key trends which emerge in this “age of intellect” and cast an ominous shadow over the Dogra society is the proliferation of “intellectual chatter” which leads to endless theorizing ,talks and pontificating as a veritable babble of discussions to no end. While the Dogra land has innumerable intellectuals ,administrators ,think tanks etc in its fold which adds up to positive learning what is its use when the credibility of the state and its supporting systems erode for lack of action. Mental agility trumps emotion and intuition ,and thinking is elevated to a state of beyond feeling and sensitivity while emotional intelligence is superseded by intellectual smarts. In fact civil dissension and division has increased in the Dogra land leading to political factions becoming more and more polarized . As if all these were not enough, this community has surely been done in by the last “stage of decadence” which like a quagmire has sucked our entire Dogra society as never before. The present Age through which the Dogras have been passing is marked by frivolities, hedonism ,cynicism ,consumerism ,fatalism, nihilism and other negative traits that has suffused its very being. The province of Jammu is witness to a cabal of insiders accruing wealth and power at the expense of the larger citizenry fostering a fatal opposition of interests between the have and the have-nots . Adding fire to the fuel is a double whammy which has been delivered on them in the form of abrogation of article 370/35 A as also reduction of the erstwhile state to the status of UT by the center. The Dogras thought that the above actions would ameliorate their cause but as is evident from the writing on the wall no such earth shattering change has affected their daily lives ,thus pushing this community further into a morass of despondency . The way out of this morass will have to be found out by the community itself by adopting a simple methodology i.e reversing all the trends witnessed in all the six stages as enumerated by the famous anthropologist Sir John Glubb and thus lifting the self imposed siege.
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