The seed ye sow, another reaps;
The wealth ye find, another keeps;
The robe ye weave, another wears;
The arms ye forge, another bears.
- Shelley, Song to the men of England

When people waited too long for something due to them they naturally became impatient and frustrated. This is true also to the voiceless masses of Sadar Hills.

The Sadar Hilliests have waited now for more than three decades for the concretisation of the much talked and politicised Sadar Hills 'inauguration' that was passed by our august Parliament way back in 1971 under the nomenclature "Manipur Hill Areas Autonomous Act" and subsequently became an Act together with the Manipur Statehood Bill. This undue denial of justice has its fruition in the form of various multi-directional and many-sided socio-economic and political problems.

The people of Sadar Hills are now encapsulated within a dungeon of agonizing suffering not of their own making but from the injustice meted out to them by the successive State Government in being impartial in arrangement of administration and development. Let us glimpse through some of such implicit socio-economic and political implications besetting the people of this obsessed land.

Social disorganisation: After venturing into a new sphere of free nationhood from colonialism, the foremost task was, and is the urgent need to develop the economy of the drained masses, especially the tribal Indians. For this end in view, Sadar Hills was also included in part of the same attempt.

The sole object of such move was for the speediest development of the people in the proposed district covered areas in particular. Since this objective is not yet fulfilled the economic pulls and structure along with developmental obligations have belied the social cohesion of the different groups of people inhabiting Sadar Hills.

In the course of their struggles for economic survivability, social disorganisation has crept in to the very fabric of the Kuki society, most prominently among the Thadou tribe. One may wonder why 'social disorganisation' is taking place and that how the same conjecture is applied to such a myopic context of Sadar Hills?

But any simple methodology and a few samples will stand for this fact. Take, for an instance, that the larger chunk of the people are under the subjective weather of clannish feeling that haunts them at every moment so much so that this clannish feeling or clanism has become the main factor in deciding and in carrying out every known and unknown activities.

Meanwhile, many social organisations too are apparently working for the public. But the mandate they got from the people they purportedly worked for are looming in dubious situation of that social set up. Since an 'Act' of the Parliament, perhaps the largest democratic country of the world has failed them, their loyalty to democratic principle of 'Government by the people and for the people' and that the application of such generally accepted principle in their social life has appeared to have little bearing in the working of social organisations in Sadar Hills in particular and the Kukis in general.

Unlike those vibrant and public-oriented social organisations elsewhere social organisations in Sadar Hills either infrequently address the social problems of the people through public discussions, debate, and most importantly with genuine interest or individually take, may be all kinds of decisions, for reasons known only to them.

Two factors may be ascribed to such unfounded social failures:
1. The general public shows little interest in electing and supporting any such organisations and its leaders because
i) They have a little faith in the integrity and honesty of such leaders; and
ii) Some past experiences might have influenced them for taking such extreme step of aloofness and reservation.
2. May be those social leaders, on the other hand, distanced themselves from the influences of the people because
i) These leaders may be, by nature, autocratic and have no more than one democratic value, to be elected by the people, inbuilt in them.
ii) They find difficulty in dealing the masses due to their unorganised character, haughty nature and disapproving traits.

Economic factors cannot be ruled out in these tormenting situations that are also, of course, heralded by political manoeuvring which are described, like below.

Political implications: The injustice endures by the Sadar Hilliests became a first-rate electoral springboard for those self-seeking and clan-infested leaders, whose buttresses too are based on proponents of clanism and self-centred individuals. These feudal Lord-like political leaders have apparently consolidated their political chairs; primarily through the mass support and sympathy they gained out of an issue of 'undue denial' of rights that had also paradoxically remained dormant this far.

The next probable steps our political chiefs may take just to prolong their political power are undoubtedly the use of resources that feel right in the doctrine of 'might and power' of Chinese's Mao Tse Tung. The current wave that is blowing crisscrossing the length and breath of the semi-district is no less an indication of that impending fear.



The consequent of this blunt choice shall be surely befalling on the nerves and blood of the unaware and innocent public. It is a serious matter of concern for the fact there is a diminishing of 'trust' our political leaders keep on the public support and voices and consequently opted to bring in to the domain of public life, a method and doctrine of uncivilized word that had been the choicest weapon belonged only to the barbaric days.

More important is the situation being a very grave problem of 'trust and faith' between public leaders and the public in a cultured and democratic country. This situation has equally depicted the true personality and political ignorance-ness of both the leaders and the ruled.

The people, both educated youths and the general public, are traumatized year by year by the fact that the State Government prejudiced them on all fronts. This ill treatment of all types from Government has culminated in the form of political manipulation of the larger and illiterate voting publics. The escalating but dehumanising impoverishment of the masses, which is no longer within the reasonable limit, is the off shoot of such a continual negligence on the Sadar Hills people.

Closed-circle political coteries, including many chiefs of villages, tribe leaders or better called clan leaders, the so called NGO's leaders, and relatives of socially and politically influential individuals bountifully harvest out of the labours, which illiterate and voiceless masses suffered for while the latter remains thin and unruffled.

The gap between the haves and the have-nots are unbridgeably widening. And no remarkable community developments are seen in Sadar Hills that can bridge the crack between the rich and the poor.

Very recently, some NGOs, after meeting Union Ministers in Delhi reported that Oscar Fernandes, the Union Minister, asked them if the Kukis have any elected representatives. The Minister was also reportedly wondered if the Kukis have any, and if they have, why those MLAs are saying nothing for the Kukis. Very sadly this is an obvious contribution our elected representatives gave to their represented people.

This meant that something, somewhere is badly going wrong among the Kukis. This speculation will not be an illusion. The second choice is pertinent to the question Who are the ultimate decision makers for changes and development in a democratic system of Government? The voters absolutely are.

Economic disorientation: By their very nature the Kukis are hard manual workers. They were used to the habit of toiling in the fields for survival. But with the growth of population cultivable-land became limited and depleting fertility of soil have the wanted the traditional workers from their old habit and thus they are now more or less dependent on the subsidies of the Government.

But it is very sad to know that the only 10 percent of the electorates got the subsidy from or through their elected representatives is a paltry amount of Rs. 150-500 that is also paid in advance-form at the time of elections. The remaining 80% got subsidies in the form of intimidation and oppression year by year and term after term.

The introduction of electoral politics has also undignified many of the choosers of that degrading way of living. To barely 10 percent of the voting public go all developmental funds and schemes. Surprisingly, only, if any, subservient voters may occasionally have a share of 1 %.

There are thousands of displaced persons in almost every part of Sadar Hills. They have no land, no house and no food. They have been languishing in no-man's land and in tent-like structures. They are collectively looked upon as an object of economic embarrassment.

The distressing social responses they got from their own tribe's men, and from the Government plus the land they loved so much that rendered them homeless and crippled their family made them to become refugees the second time. Mental agony and physical distresses shall continue to trouble them even in the time of their posterity .

No public leaders bother for what these unfortunate refugees (in their own lands) eat and drink. But the sum of Rs. 6.7 crores, sanctioned by the Central Government either for repatriation of displaced persons or for their proper settlement in Manipur has been certainly gone to those self-proclaimed public leaders?

As reported by some NGO leaders another Rs. 8 crores is being sanctioned very shortly. If it happens, be minded of your Ps and Qs!, at least this time. At any unforeseen natural failures all category of leaders will be once again blessed with the masses of dead of relatives and love ones.

Public distribution systems are either failed or controlled by those frequenters of Babupara, Babus' village. Even when food items are available, hardly 10 percent of the total population of the area could afford to have access to that fair shop. No durable and public utility assets are noticeable; and no public-oriented economic programmes are being undertaken.

No horticulture and no agricultural developments are envisaged. No local runs shops or in any way could control the circulation of his or her hard-earned money. Those accommodating businessmen from outside have been draining the people of Sadar' Hills of their resources and wealth. On the contrary, the only accessible chief resources and wealth of the people in Sadar Hills has become clanism election and shooter-stuffs.

Education extermination: In spite of producing a good numbers of elite officers both retired and present; many social, religious and political leaders from grassroots level to the state level; and it being the birth place and home of many revolutionary organisations the education system and its qualities are left to the mercy of many money-conscious proprietors and strictly quantity conscious parents in Sadar Hills.

Government schools and colleges have not only collapsed but also turned into evils workshops for both the teachers and the students equally. This shattered condition of educational centres pave the way for the mushrooming of private schools which alarmingly drain away poor parents of all their incomes and energy. Those non-teaching teachers and admission-means-degree students are the real regulators of the society in Sadar Hills. No body dare to speak out against these the 'well-of' section of our society.

Because they self-professed to have constituted the first class section of the society. Indeed they are for there is no higher echelon in the society beyond them in term of living standard.

The people of Sadar Hills could not go beyond this economic status. The government has destined this pathetic economic sustainability for the Sadar Hilliest unless we are redeeming.

The haves and those parents who are better conscious of quality education keep on seeking 'outside' the state for quality and 'standard' education of their wards with results of many flying sons and daughters instead of getting results with flying colours. I believe they seek too far a place for the right education.

The so-called public leaders who had already accumulated wealth and the have sent their wards to far destination either for good or bad and pretended to have no interest in the local educational affairs. The poor are left to decide for themselves. And again in many of the schools where these poor children attend, the authorities and the teachers are no better than the attitude of the haves.

Good qualities teachers are rarely working in these schools. Leaving aside the illiterate parents and innocent students, schools' authorities and teachers' downright subscription of unprofessional conduct merely to popularise their respective school is not uncommon. Parents are made to believe in such hollow achievements. Pity indeed! At the same time disturbances of all sorts are also regularly rampant.

In conclusion, it is at the fitness of things to say that economic condition is the over-all regulator of any tribal society. In our context, a young boy of 15-20 having a regular source of family income sufficient at least for his schooling shall not leave that comfort to become a nuisance for both his parents and society. Members of a society whose wealth and resources are evenly distributed shall stay away from inferiority feeling and partiality; and favouritism based on clan/tribe or village shall meet its own end.

The way people views course of events affects the way they behave. The Sadar Hills people have implanted quite enough seeds into the brains of our younger learners, whether good or bad, but mostly bad, that shall still be counter productive in the next generation. Chapters for one generation are learnt.

To further these chapters would be too unfortunate. To do injustice is more disgraceful than to suffer it. Let our government bring to an end its unjust and bias stand. Let every concerned human beings stop.

Let us stop! Enough!