The rail risks

By Heigrujam Nabashyam *

Any small community anywhere in the world has a genuine concern to safeguard its own interests – and more so if the interest has to do with its population or the threat to the community or the threat to the demographic balance vis-à-vis the other neighbouring communities.

How the community does the job is a different matter, but this happens everywhere across the world and some are visible and some are not. It happens even among big communities like the case of the rising population of the Hispanics vis-à-vis the English speaking Whites people in the United States of America.

It also happens as a policy of the government like in China where the Chinese government pushes for the migration of the Han Chinese in the Uighur and Tibet region to consolidate its sway over its northwest and Tibet region. Similar is the case of the Jewish settlement in the occupied East Bank, a thorn in Israeli-Palestinian peace process, etc.

Now this question of demographic balance has also been a source of some serious issues in the northeast including Manipur. The indigenous population of the northeast including that of Manipur have felt the brunt of the influx of the illegal migrants especially from Bangladesh and Nepal since the last quite a few decades. Fact is, the total population of the indigenous peoples, say of Manipur is much less than the number of passengers who come to the Howrah Station of Calcutta, in a day.

According to a survey conducted by an NGO in regard to the demographic picture of Manipur, it was reported in the media recently that the migrant population in Manipur have been found to have constituted more than 30 P.C. of the total population of Manipur – a picture, never noticed before – the resultant sum of influx of the past few decades of unchecked illegal migrants.

If this is true, it certainly poses a serious threat to peace and well being of the people of the state. It is also a fact that the vast majority of the local population are not enlightened enough of the prospects and challenges of the modern world – the global village. This has made the indigenous population of Manipur all the more vulnerable, against the influx of the Spartan migrants.

The problem is compounded by the fact that the state's economy is being controlled by the business community who are mostly non-Manipuri. And coupled with this dependency, the ignorance and inefficiency of the local population have added to the abysmal affairs of this misruled state.

Sometime ago some civil society organizations had appealed to the government to re-introduce the Inner Line Permit act, to regulate the movement of people into Manipur from other parts of India, like in Nagaland, Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh, etc. to protect the interests of the indigenous peoples.

The move of the civil society organizations reflect the mood – the fear of obliteration of the indigenous communities – of the general public, which is not without valid reasons. And this fear could have been the reason for the recent issue of serving a sort of a quit notice to the non-Manipuri by an insurgent group which is inappropriate and unfortunate.

Another aspect which could also be considered is in a few years from now railways would be reaching Imphal and it has been observed that it usually come along with economic migrants of the lower strata from thickly populated regions. Now this possibility of shifting of population is a matter of much concern. Because shifting of population from thickly populated regions to the fringe tribal areas like Manipur would most likely aggravate the problems unless the state government makes proper legal provisions in time to take care of the problems.

It may be pointed out that the Inner Line Permit, as some civil society organizations strongly advocates may not – in the event of the railways reaching Imphal – be of any use. Because the Inner Line Permit acts itself would render ineffective and would not be able to survive the onslaught of the railways. The state government needs to think out other ways like amending the land law to protect the interests of the indigenous communities like in Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, etc.

It is not the intention of the writer to underrate the importance of the railways but the intension of the writer is to draw the attention of the state government to the possibility of cropping up of more problems along with the coming of the railways. Indeed railways would greatly enhance the economic activities of the state; facilitate the movements of the transport and goods to the all-time high, besides breaking the mental block of being an unconnected piece of land. True, railways reaching Imphal would be an epoch-making journey and certainly the stepping stone to the grand project of the trans-southeast Asia railways – Manipur to Vietnam.

But all this do not override the importance of the interests of the indigenous communities of Manipur and their development. After all it is the people that come first, and there should not be any confusion about it.

It is time the state government make the move to protect the interests of the indigenous communities like relooking the land law, etc. before the railways arrive; because the local population should not be allowed to be caught unaware and unprotected against the dangers of opening it to the fast and awesome pace of the railways.