As done in previous years, the Naharol Sahitya Premi Samiti has observed its 8th Writer's day on the 17th July last. The writer of the year award for 2006 goes to Pandit Ningthoukhongjam Khelchandra Singh, eminent scholar, historian, writer and philosopher.

Unlike in the previous years no award was given to the writers of national stature from outside Manipur. The function in Kuki Inn, Imphal began with floral tributes to the portraits of the pioneer poets of Manipur followed by the Chief Guest of the function giving his observation on the role taken by writers in moulding a society in shape.

The day ended with the recitations of the different poems of Late A Minaketan Singh by different personalities such as poet, film stars and theatre activists.

For her size, Manipur has got many writers and poets. The number is increasing. Whether the written products are swallowed or digested by this generation is another question but the reality is that in Manipur there are many writers young, middle-aged and old who can't remain indifferent to the happenings in the society.

Many literary organisations that has sprung in many parts of Manipur is a clear evidence that there are writers who are eager to find a seat in the literary platform.

The writer's role or we can call it the writer's mission in the modern society is complex. Even so there are certain features shared by all writers of the world.

The writer's mission to day is, as it always has been, to testify about man and his circumstances, and to seek to leave a mark in literature by striking a blow at the indifference and ignorance which doom society and the world to stagnation and mutual misunderstanding.

The writer's vocation is to explain to people the essential meaning of today's world, which contains the seeds of tomorrow and future hope.

The germs of the future should be discovered in the foundation of the present, and the foundation of the present for the use of the future is only laid by writers, philosophers and thinkers who are in groups in which we call poets.

The chief mission of the writer is to struggle for peace and upliftment of society in which he lives. This role is determined not only by his place in literature but also by the degree of his involvement in the society's public life.

Irawat, whom we call fondly 'Jannetta' was a fighter revolutionist as well as a writer. We wouldn't be able to think of him as a writer if he had not taken an active part in the social struggle of his time.

Since life is the source of all inspirations, serious writers cannot ignore the problems which confronts people from day to day. Therefore they set out to expose and condemn all manifestation of evils wherever they appear.

In these days of increased tension, crisis for identity, threat for disintegration, the writer's civic positions, the class and popular quality of his creative work becomes especially vital because society's moral health and intellectual climate in which people live are in no small measures determined by literature and art.

So the writer's mission is to be responsible to his own society, the awareness of his social responsibility and commitment to society.

From the writer's role in society let us climb to a higher platform where there is reservoirs for the writers. That is literature and its functions in society. Literature finds verbal expression in books. Books are the embodi-ments of manifestation of departed minds - the living organs through which those who are dead yet speak to us.

But by having the name 'book' alone we cannot call a prospectus of a school or a book on tourist guide literature. On the other hand nobody can challenge the place occupied in Manipuri literature by 'Madhavi' of Kamal.

For all these it may be said that literature is composed of those books only, which in the first place, provide aesthetic pleasure to the vast majority of men, and in the second place, deal with general human interest. Thus literature creates and recreates life in every generation.

Without literature nations or societies would be very quickly withered from mere disgust at the boring and meaningless repetition of trivial incidents which life would seem. When life seem flat and dead, literature suddenly lifts our spirits up above the din and dust of mundane existence and shows us the light that never was on sea or land.

But, then at about the end of this essay a certain thought accompanied with questions creep in our mind. What is the status of a writer in our Manipuri society? Does a writer get his deserved place and recognition?

Has the State Government taken up any step to encourage such tribe of people called 'the Writer'?