One of the preconditions of creative thinking is the ability of the rider to think faster than the horse. Pretty elementary stuff when you reflect on it, but a piece of wisdom often left at peril by unwarranted neglect by the rider presuming there is no other way than for him to be always in command of his steed by virtue of his position even without any effort on his part. It is not so much a case of the horse exercising a conscious will to dominate the rider but of the horse becoming prone to derelict in the absence of clear, unambiguous directions coming from the rider as to what it must do next. However, as David Bohm in “On Creativity” says, this is just the necessary ground on which creativity can grow and not by any means creativity itself. Bohm is talking about creativity in any walk of life, including the exact science of physics. As he points out, Lorentz’s hypothesis of the all pervasive “ether” within which light travels as a wave, mathematically explains nearly everything that Einstein’s Special Theory of Relativity does of the behaviours of light. Yet, Bohm says the latter is now more or less officially preferred by the scientific community over the former not for anything else than that the latter is far more aesthetic. Aesthetics, in this sense is a function of a constant interplay and mutual assessment process between subjective outlook and objective, experimentally verifiable reality. Bohm, if there is any need for a reminder, is a well known physicist, having been part of the Manhattan Project, and also considered one of the foremost social thinkers of the 20th Century.

Probably the picture of the horseman thinking faster than the horse as the ground for creative thinking is relevant to everybody and every institution. However, private lessons to be learnt is one thing, what is much more relevant is how public institutions, in particular the government, would fare on this scale of creative thinking. Is the Manipur government able to think faster than the horse? Is it always left to respond to situations as well as provocations by others rather than be the proactive agent setting the agenda for others to follow and respond to? The answer at this moment seems to be weighted heavily against government, which is why the state is left facing what in retrospect always seem emergencies and crises which could have been avoided. Take for instance the uncertainty of Manipur’s lifelines, in particular the NH-39 traffic along which was frozen for two months both in the Manipur sector as well as in the Nagaland sector. Two other highways which could also been alternate lifelines, NH-53 and NH-150, the first of which fortunately passes only through Manipur territory before linking up with the network of national highways, hence much more under the control of the Manipur government, were never developed. In a classic case of the horse thinking faster than the rider, these alternate lifelines come to government consciousness only when crises erupt on NH-39. Each time the government found itself stranded and helpless. Yet, the issue gets shelved the minute the crisis in question gets resolved, dooming itself and the state to more visits by the same crisis periodically. It also does not necessarily have to be a political crisis as the one just witnessed. It could also very well be natural calamities such as landslides and landslips which can as severely disrupt the state’s lifelines.

Let the state then begin exercising a conscious effort to think faster than the horse. It can begin with the lifeline question. Let it begin orienting its policies on a priority basis towards developing land connectivity of the state to the outside as well as within the state. Build as many lifelines and highways as possible alongside improving existing ones. NH-39 is important, and will remain important. Not in neglect of it, but in addition to looking after it, the government should begin giving much more importance to NH-53 and NH-150 than it has been doing so far. It should also consider building another one parallel to the rail line which it is in the process of building, for then half the work of clearing the path for it would already have been done in executing the rail project. At least on this count, the news yesterday that the chief minister, Okram Ibobi was pursuing the issue of improving state highways with the DoNER minister, was encouraging. Let this thought not be abandoned until the mission is accomplished. In the meantime, the effort of the government in all its policy imaginations should now be predicated by the creative principle of thinking faster than the horse.