For 52 long day’s people of Manipur had borne the brunt of your wrong doings, hoping you will come to your senses. However your statements carried in the media show the contrary. You have become more emboldened by the appreciation which came from the PM of the country, the CM of the State, besides a host of the other NGOs for your wisdom to suspend the blockade.
There is an old saying “Ta-khat, Ta-khat-laga Kirak-Tare” which says, “if the going gets tough, one get used to it.” Peoples got used to what you and your compatriots did to hurt them the most. It makes them more determined to face the difficulties. You are a part of the people of the State, you must be aware that for more than 500 years, the peoples of Manipur were in perpetual state of war before the British came in the region. At one point of time the Burmese defeated the people and tried to exterminate the whole population known in history as “Chahi Taret Khuntakpa” (Seven year devastation). Yet the people fought back and drove the Burmese upto Mandalay. That was history.
Today we live in a democratic world. All of us acknowledge that democracy is the best. There is no alternative. It gives you the opportunity to change the government whenever it is not popular just by voting. The power is in our hands. The charm of democracy is so much so that even authoritarian dictatorial countries like North Korea takes the name of democracy. Democracy has no problem with the difference of language, religion or ethnicity etc. Indeed, India has more then 1000 ethnic groups/community of which Manipur’s share is a little less than 3 dozen. But the beauty of democracy is that ethnic consideration is no hurdle in the process otherwise there would have been at least 1000 different states in India.
To demand a separate State on the consideration of ethnicity is obsolete and redundant. It will not help anyone – the claimant or others. Finding a past fault or a mistake against anyone is vindictive, and is not going to solve any problem.
Manipur is the home of 33 or 34 odd indigenous communities, spreading across the whole length and breadth of the State. There is not a single area of a sq. km. of inhabited land anywhere in the State which is exclusively inhabited by a single tribe or a linguistic community. It is like a mini-India where different linguistic and religious communities live together. Coming to your democratic economic blockade of the highways – your intention to tell the world that:
(i) You were right in blocking indefinitely the national highways to pressurize the government to concede to your demand/You were seeking justice and making efforts to resolve the issue. But it was the State govt. who failed to reciprocate your goodwill gesture and hence the State government was entirely responsible for the sufferings of the peoples.
(ii) It is the birth-right of the Nagas to live together under one administrative unit and the Manipur Government has come in the way.
(iii) The Nagas are one ethnic community who are forcibly disintegrated by the State and the Centre.
Now, as for your 1st contention: There are certain accepted norms to pressurize a government. But your action of enforcing indefinite economic blockade on the national highways making the people suffer is neither democratic nor an accepted means to pressurize the Govt. It is like the terrorists taking the peoples into ransom.
For the 2nd contention: Your idea of the birth-right is misunderstood. Let us not forget that we live in a democratic society. The people’s representatives take the charge of the State or the country. There is no ethnic State or authoritarian government like in Islamic countries or a Nazi Germany based on religion or an exclusive nationality.
Manipur is the home of many small ethnic or linguistic community of not less than 30 such community. If a group started claiming that they have the birth-right to claim that a particular area belong to their forefather and hence it is their land, then there will be no peace and instead it will cause mutual suspicion and hatred among the peoples, which no civilized society can tolerate and more so no meaningful government would agree to it.
As for the Naga being one ethnic community: I am afraid your idea of Naga ethnic community is a political one. Linguistic groups like Anal, Chiru, Chothe, Maring, Monsang, Moyon etc. who inhabited mostly in Chandel district belong to Chin-Kuki ethnic group, against whom NSCN(IM) had a violent clash in the name of Nagalim. But these Chin-Kuki ethnic groups are taken as Nagas, which shows that the Naga is a sort of a social club or an organization formed for a purpose which is questionable.
Interestingly the President of All Naga Students Association, Manipur (ANSAM) belongs to a tribe which is a non-Naga but to the Chin-Kuki family.
Let me remind you that today we live in a democratic world. There is no identity crises whatsoever in our society. Religion, language, custom etc. are no bar to live together in a democratic society. Therefore let us not confuse ourselves of ethnicity, nationality and identity. They are no anti-thesis to democracy, development and peace. This is what is happening around the globe. The democratic world which we see as role model.
Let us not forget that any divisive move will only increase our miseries. Tactics like indefinite economic blockade should never and ever again be resorted to. Instead we must change our mindset, putting a side our empty egos for the sake of our children. Why cannot we emulate civilized societies like that of the Chinese, Malay; Tamils in Singapore or the French, Germans and Italians in Switzerland which are hardly a few hundred years old, instead of trying to be highwayman and allow our children to grow in a peaceful atmosphere.
Noboshyam Heigrujam
Singjamei, Imphal, On email
