Along with states in the Hindi heartland, Mizoram will also go to the polls at the beginning of next month. On the face of it, there is nothing in common between the small northeastern state and other states from the mainland in terms of issues. In Mizoram, the battle is not between secularism and Hindutva. Nor is cross-border terrorism a problem, as it is for Mizoram’s neighbours like Tripura and Assam. Yet the heartland has a presence in Mizoram and this is in terms of what is seen in Aizwal as cultural degradation.

For long, there has been much talk about so called bad influences on the Mizo way of life. Such influence is seen as being largely the result of contact with the outside world. So the Mizo People’s Conference, the chief opposition party, has come out with a list of what contesting parties should not do in their bid to get people’s support. The list, in all likelihood, will be ignored; the call to maintain cultural purity generally tends to fall on deaf ears.

Public feasts, for one thing, have been frowned upon. And not unreasonably. This traditional tribal hospitality has come to be debased by Mizo politicians who arrange for feasts more sumptuous than those of the rivals to garner more votes. As such, feasts are no longer the community meals of yore, but bribes.

Senior citizens did not like this (“a bad influence from the plains”, as a Kohima resident had once complained), the Election Commission has rules against such practice, but politicians insist that these feasts are simply a part of tribal tradition and gloss over the real purpose. It is an evil wind from the dusty plains far away that keeps on blowing over the hills of the Northeast and that is what binds Mizoram with Rajasthan or Madhya Pradesh, and not just at poll times.

Congress leader and former chief minister, Lalthanhawla, for instance, is burdened with serious charges of corruption. There obviously has been a shift in Mizo public life from the days when Aizwal used to wake up to the singing of Christian hymns. The hymns are perhaps sung even today but is the spirit still there?

There are other areas of commonality among the political parties and thankfully, those not as depressing as the bond of corruption. By all accounts, the current insistence is on more young candidates as also on greater woman participation. However, tribal societies, more than others, place great emphasis on age and experience. Neither Lalthanhawla of the Congress nor Thenpunga Sailo of the MPC were born yesterday; nor is the present chief minister, Pu Zoramthanga, exactly young. As for greater participation of women, again it has to be kept in mind that the prevailing culture in Mizoram ensures that in all matters, women obey men.

Amidst the call for a new outlook, there is the spectacle of the Zoram Kuthnathawktu Pawl, a farmers’ union, contesting the polls. The ZKP had so long been critical of all political parties and now it itself is in the fray. And thereby hangs a tale. It obviously thought that in an essentially agrarian economy, it would not achieve anything by remaining outside the system. In other parts of India, individuals also felt the same, like T.N. Seshan who, after lambasting all and sundry, contested an election and lost. All in all, if Mizoram is far away from the heartland it is only in terms of kilometres.