United we fall divided we stand

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'United we fall, divided we stand'

By: Oinam Anand *

I have borrowed the title of this essay from the caption of a cartoon by RK Laxman. 'United we fall divided we stand' were written just under the cartoon caricature of late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and HN Bahuguna that was carried on the front page of a leading English daily of that time circulated from the National capital in the early 80s. Bahuguna in order to survive his political base in UP made alliance with Indira Gandhi in the general election of Lok Sabha.

The alliance had won the vote but Bahuguna lost his identity under the shadow of Indira Gandhi. HN Bahuguna had to part with Smt Gandhi and that cartoon picture aptly mocked the stand of the politician.

I did not fail to remember these words which reverberates in my ears again and again whenever I hear the news of split of a political party, formation of a new party, a new NGO and even the formation of a new underground organisation by splitting from the mother organisation.

'Unity is strength'. The stories from the Panchatantra tell us. Even a child knows it (How many children read Panchatantra these days?)

But in the name of the unity and in the process of unification, the grim picture of our society from days after days is that things have taken a dangerous turn with more and more organisations splitting vertically and at the same time the split groups claiming that they are the true representatives of the common man.

Two events which hurt the good feeling and shock the minds of common men like me happened in the past ten days. The first was the fist and furry about the chair of president in the office of one of the oldest regional party in Manipur involving the sons of a seasoned political leader while talks are going on to forge an alliance of the regional parties ahead of the Assembly election.

The other was the detention of six editors as hostages by a faction of an underground organisation and forced the editors to issue a statement on their behalf. These series of events lead us to rethink the meaning of the word 'Patriotism' in the context of our present day Manipuri society.

The political parties, the underground outfits, the NGOs and the student bodies serve their purposes with one aim that is patriotism which means the love of the land of their birth. This is truly indeed a noble virtue which is to be possessed by every man from his birth.

But in modern times, this word has been so misused that it serves to conceal most of the selfish aims and narrow passions. In the name of liberty, patriotism, ethnic importance, self determination these pretended patriots often use to achieve their selfish ends. The result is as we have seen, the mushroom growth of organisations whose only business is to issue press notes.

What is the relationship of man to society? Society exists for man. Society is made up, put together for the welfare of man.

If those bodies whose aims are to serve the people, the common man, that is for the welfare of the society, that is for the fruition and welfare of the individual, then security for the individual living in the society should be the first aim or the agenda of the organisations.

This incudes not to suppress the voice of the people, the opinion of the public.

Yes, society is composed of 'many' not by one alone. But for the welfare of the many it needs only a one to lead from the front. That very one will not come into existence till the many ceases. But in the process of unification, the more we try to mould into one, the more we become a part of the different parts separated from the whole.

The more, we try to save the territorial integrity, our culture, our scripts the more we ourselves disintegrate. The clamorous disintegrated parts are at war with each other which pain our society. There are so many voices from every part. The voice of the parts become the voice of the one.

These chattering voices of the parts assume authority and what the society wants is the still voice coming out from the one. This is the reason why the people in Manipur persuade the civil organisations whether in the overground or underground to come under one roof, to raise in one voice. The one voice is the voice of the many if the many are silent to hear the voice of one.

But our problem is not only to hear the one voice but also to understand the composition, the make up of the many. Our problem is just like that of six blind men and elephant. Each of the blind man touched only one part of the elephant, but they sticked to in their own right what they felt about the elephant was the right one and went on quarrelling.

Just like that, in our society one facet of the whole cannot understand the whole. The whole cannot be understood through the parts and that is why we never understand, we never get the view of the whole, we are never aware of the whole, because we are so occupied with the parts.

It is so much easier to throw oneself into social and political activities by becoming a leader of the part because there are so many parts scattered here and there. This produces only false patriotism. False patriotism means selfishness on a vast scale to satisfy their own private interest. Such patriotism degrades their own private interest.

Such patriotism degrades a society, a nation to the level of a herd of brutes. We want one and unification of all the diverged groups. Appeals for unification are in plenty, yet the daily happenings we hear and activities followed by these breakway parts whether political parties or others ultimately go in a diverged ways.

We want light but we still close the window and we stand in the dark assuming ourselves as leaders of the masses.

Oinam Anand wrote this article for The Sangai Express
This article was webcasted on May 8th, 2006

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