A Noble Mizo Move

The Mizoram government, led by the Mizo National Front (MNF), has issued a circular urging government employees to wear traditional Mizo dresses to office voluntarily at least once a week. The circular, issued last Monday by the commissioner and secretary of the general administration department, P Biaktluanga, has the approval of Chief Minister Zoramthanga. “The conservation and protection of cultures, traditions and customs of a society depend much on how they are embraced and nurtured in the contemporary society,” says the circular, adding that the Mizoram government “desires to encourage” all employees, including those in public sector undertakings, boards, bodies and agencies, to wear “Mizo traditional, cultural and ethnic attires” at work place at least once a week, preferably every Wednesday, with the hope that it would “inculcate closeness to culture and tradition, and simultaneously promote innovation in designs and production of cultural attires”. The intent is subtly noble: to encourage thoughts and practices that could lead to greater bonding with one’s roots in an era of alien cultures invading the pristine tribal societies with their unique histories and cultures that must be protected and furthered. “Closeness to one’s culture and tradition”, which the circular emphasizes, is what is under attack, and this, the MNF government, with a strong regionalist underpinning, wants to counter.

There are two takeaways. One, the circular stresses that what is being urged is not mandatory, but voluntary. This is significant in the sense that there is no forced imposition. Rather, the employees would do well to evince interest – or have the natural will – to don the traditional attires of the State just once in a week. It must come from the heart – that is the message. And two, when government employees begin to wear traditional dresses even as tokenism, it will go a long way in encouraging innovation in production and design among the locals; it will doubtless encourage both creativity and entrepreneurship. Local items will then get a boost in the market. And this is a beautiful thing to do for the economy. But does anyone in Assam remember that the BJP-led government here too had tried to do a similar thing about two years back only to be resisted by the employees on their way to ‘modernity’?