A 'Khwai Movement' (pooling of intellectual thoughts) for Kangleipak

Longjam Tony Angom *

Flag of Manipur flying high on Observance of 285 years of Puya Mei Thaba at Hanjing Meekollok, Heingang :: Pix - Deepak Oinam

If there is a sin in the world it is the weakness, avoid all weakness, sin is death. Anything that makes you weak – physically, intellectually & spiritually, reject them all, a greater path of life follows. Though I can't write as Shakespeare did, can't I follow the path of Gandhi, can't I set up a revolution as Che Guevera did, I'm writing, following & setting up an intellectual strategy to resist the merciless onslaught as it appears to me as the highest form of duty towards the indigenous people of Manipur who have been the victim of extra-constitutional injustice, the victim of a planned conspiracy plotted by the mighty British East India company plus the wandering sanyasis of its time, the victim of civilization progress by exterminating the lower races & the victim of future shock in the second wave era.

The people of Manipur had a history of more than 2000 years old & a civilization of its own & the appearance of the new set up in which all the other princely states would either join India or Pakistan was a bit hurry. India was just a new political formation & there were a large number of conflicts among the princely states in terms of opinions, feelings & aspirations.

People were thinking in terms of exercising their own political relationships between the ethnic communities, they were also thinking in terms of modernising themselves & organise a constitutional rulership. And our king Maharaj Bodhchandra himself had agreed to share some of his powers to become a constitutional monarch. Therefore in the early pre colonial feudal state, there was an experiment as to whether the government could share power with the people or not.

In 1947 after the departure of British, Manipur had two years of independent existence & a democratic assembly of its own. On the other side, integration of all the princely states became a major burden for the Indian Union. But the Manipur experience integration as a Part C state was not very democratic in the way in which our king was summoned to Shillong, put under house arrest & finally intimidated to sign on the document of the merger (15th September, 1949). Therefore, it had not given any political power to the newly elected constituent assembly of Manipur.

I picked up this topic "KANGLEIPAK" because the harmonious existence of the state has been consistently disturbed as the idea of one group often clashes with the other. For instance, NH-39 has always been an epicentre for raising any pseudo demand by the brothers of the same peripheral societies of the north-east. I must ask them "aren't there any other democratic means for achieving all their needs rather than resorting to the so called economic blockade which is not only affecting the meeteis but also the socio & economic existence of tribes, muslims &non-manipuris as well.

The moment they impose a blockade on the road, the very next morning one can find is a 300-500 metre long line of waiting persons near a fuel pump. It's a state of inflation where supply doesn't satisfy the demand of the people. However, none argues if this so called inflation is a real one or something that explains bureaucracy. Why don't we understand that it is a classic example of capitalism i.e. "an economic system where capital assets are privately owned & items are brought to the market only for profit." Sixth schedule of the Indian constitution grants us the "provisions relating to the administration of tribal areas of the northeast." It means protecting & safeguarding the tribal from assimilation, encroachment, suppression & domination by the numerically larger, socially more advanced & economically self-reliant dominant communities.

To be precise, the constitution provides a provision to prohibit any non-tribe from buying even a piece of land belonging to the tribal & allows him/her to enter & settle in the hill areas only with a pass known as Inner Line Permit. But this provision exists only for the name sake as the Inner Line Permit has become void & the government has remained mute besides knowing the fact that this, to a larger extent hampers the demographic balance of a smaller tribal community. Therefore, the need of the state finally falls to a "deaf ear" as politics has its own complicated answers against the people's wish

I never seen any instances of liberal democracy, what I've been through is a world of violence, repression & an obsession under a particular act the AFSPA. It's like the Rowlatt act of 1919, where any British policeman can search, arrest or even detain any Indians on the grounds of mere suspicion. Article 21 of the Indian constitution says "right to life", article 29 says "right to protection of interest of minorities" & article 32 under "right to constitutional remedies" gives any Indian citizen the right to approach the Supreme Court for the violation of any fundamental rights.

But where is the constitutional commitment at present? Of course, there's a commitment & it lies only in terms of picking our brothers & sisters, killing & raping them in front of us & making this harmonious state a bloodshed one. I don't know about AFSPA & I don't know how it hurts but what it does shouldn't be done to the innocent people.

Don't show your power with a gun in your hand as it could be an act of cowardliness. The jury says Eche Sharmila's twelve years of hunger strike is a suicide under the preventive detention act, but for god's sake she is only pleading for peace & space for people to smile. Her twelve of hunger strike could be a message in the form of a song, a song for peace & freedom, a song for home, a song for tomorrow sung today. And this song is for all of us in the suppressed land of AFSPA, where it has given us a reason to mistrust the mainland INDIA FOREVER...

Alvin Toffler in his book THIRD WAVE says, "recognition of necessity is freedom." Therefore, in a social, economical, political & cultural setting of deprivation & oppression, the sole precondition of anything & everything is the recognition of necessity i.e. "freedom." There had been four types of genocide done on us. 1st - cultural genocide where hindu sanyasis started preaching Ramaandi dharma in the monarchical era, 2nd – religious genocide where indigenous people were obliged to follow Vaisnism, 3rd – political genocide i.e. the incident of merger, 4th – militaristic genocide i.e. AFSPA.

Also the premise on which the Indian constitution was built i.e. SATYA MEV JAYETE (truth must prevail) has nothing to do with the context of Manipur as it does not pay any attention to the vertical right to self determination. Therefore, I must say SATYA MEV JAYETE is now completely broken beyond repairs.

Now, it has become a matter of life & death for us but it appears to the mainland Indians as an effort to maintain their colonial hold on our people. But it is very disappointing that the present generation seems casually calm & relaxed even when we have been abandoned for 60 years as if we are destined to live under apathy. Such complacent & passive nature of the present generation renders the sense of nationalism questionable? However, arm conflict is not a solution as it is finding a tremendous amount of resistance by the youths & non-state actors of Manipur. In fact the situation of Manipur can only be brought to a peaceful solution by understanding the international codes of humanitarian laws & involving certain sections of people who are in the love of peace, who would like peace to return.

So, a KHWAI MOVEMENT (pooling of intellectual thoughts) is the "final solution" to the host of issues in Manipur. Therefore, it is time for people to join hands together & lend their support for the legitimate integrity of KANGLEIPAK instead of reducing ourselves to the status of pawns & create enemies within ourselves. "

"It's time to fight the cancer of injustice with the simple sword of truth"
"Achumbana yaiphare"
(truth excels)