Meghalaya in 1970: Chris Evans recalls ‘historic’ moment
By Mr Chris Evans
FEATURE | July 09, 2019:
This article is a recollection of Mr Chris Evans of Moral Re-Armament (MRA) while he was in Shillong as a young man to bear witness to the "historic event" during the inauguration of Meghalaya as a semi-independent state in 1970.
In Mr Evans' words: My 48-year-old memory
I visited Meghalaya in March and April 1970 in my gap year, nineteen years old and straight from a farm in the West of England. Arriving in Gauhati by train from Delhi, I remember the bus straining up the road to Shillong as the scenery and vegetation changed before my eyes.
I was part of the travelling cast of a musical revue from Europe called "Anything to Declare", an initiative of Moral Re-Armament (or Initiatives of Change as it is now known). There were 70 of us, young Europeans who wanted to say that our continent had something of value for the world. We imagined ourselves reaching the boundary of Europe, and being asked at the customs barrier, "Do you have anything to declare as you enter the rest of the world?" The revue was our answer.
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To our great surprise and delight we were invited to Assam and Meghalaya by a stellar group of leaders, as per the letter of invitation below.
Few of them had seen our show, but theyknew the value of the work being done in the region by Moral Re-Armament.
We arrived in Shillong, and were offeredaccommodation in homes and guest houses all over the city. I stayed at theSericulture Silk Farm. I wonder if it is still there….? And we put on our showfor the public of Shillong, meeting many of them after the curtain fell eachnight.
I think we received far more than we were able to give. Not only did we have the privilege to witness the inauguration of Meghalaya as a semi-independent state, as part of a huge crowd addressed by Mrs Indira Gandhi; we also learned direct from key actors some of the background to how the agreement to form the new state came about.
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In particular, Stanley Nichols-Roy (whobecame Minister for Industry in the new cabinet), and his wife, Helen, weremost generous in giving us their time. They told us very candidly how Stanleyhad decided to mend some fences with Helen, and that, encouraged by thisexperience, he had reached out to a political adversary, B P Chalihah, ChiefMinister of Assam. Of course he could not tell us what they talked about, buthe did say that in conversation he had apologised to Chalihah, not for hispolitical stance but for his personal antagonism, and that trust had started togrow between them where there had been none before.
The causes of such a settlement, whenviolence had been widely expected, were no doubt many and complex. Buteveryone, including Mrs Gandhi was talking about the unusual level of trustthat characterised the negotiations.
We felt we had not only witnessed one of the unequivocally good news stories of 1970, but that we had been given a privileged insight into how it had come about. It made a great impression on many of us, and in my case has affected everything I have tried to do since.
(Mr Chris Evans is a member of MRA, an initiative which was instrumental in guiding our leaders during the movement of Statehood of Meghalaya)
It may be mentioned that Meghalaya Chief Minister, Conrad K Sangma recently met Mr Evans during his visit to Switzerland to attend the Caux Forum.
Met Mr Chris Evans in Caux, Swizerland, a member of MRA which was instrumental in guiding our leaders during the movement of Statehood of Meghalaya. Mr Evans was a young 19 year old boy who was present in Shillong on the day Statehood was given to Meghalaya pic.twitter.com/HEHyj9048L
— Conrad Sangma (@SangmaConrad) June 27, 2019
