"United we survive, divided we perish"-I
Source: The Sangai Express
Imphal, November 23 2016:
While extending revolutionary greetings to all the people of Manipur on the occasion of the 52nd raising day of the United National Liberation Front (UNLF), the outfit's Central Committee has categorically stated "Let us not forget the maxim�� United we survive and divided we perish" .
A statement issued by the Central Committee reiterated that the Manipur-India conflict is engendered by the forcible annexation of erstwhile sovereign independent Manipur in 1949; ie, this core issue is the genesis of the National contradiction between Manipur and India.
The conflict that had developed between India and Manipur could only be resolved with the restoration of Manipur's sovereignty and independence which cannot be compromised at all.
This is the question of survival or extinction of all the indigenous people of the Manipuri Nation, said the outfit.
It is for this very reason that UNLF took up arms for National liberation struggle.
All colonial masters, whether of the vintage varieties or the contemporary ones, share one thing in common � contempt for the subjects.
Though, India poses as the second largest democratic country in the world (in terms of geographical size), and pretends to be a defender of democracy and human rights in the region hoodwinking the eye of the international communities it cannot hide its true skin as it shows its colonial legacy of suppressing the legitimate struggle for the sovereignty and independence of Kashmiri people and WESEA people as well.
With draconian laws like AFSPA in hand, the Indian military machine is violating basic human rights with impunity, taking the life of the innocent populations of these regions at their whim in a routine manner.
In the recent months, the full scaled war-like repressive measures taken up by the Indian military to suppress the ever increasing voice of the innocent Kashmiri peoples who were agitating against the Indian occupation is a stark example of this, added the outfit.
In Manipur's case, the promulgation and continuance of the Armed Forces (Assam and Manipur) Special Powers' Act, 1958 for the last half a century and more which abrogates the inalienable right to life, is one such instance which highlights the contempt the Indian rulers hold the people of Manipur, claimed the statement.
In contemporary times, this contempt for the subjugated peoples like the Manipuris and other Mongoloid peoples from Assam, Arunachal, Nagaland, Mizoram, and Meghalaya and Tripura have given rise to a form of demeaning racial discrimination often culminating in physical assaults in mainland India.
Racial profiling and typecasting have also engendered sustained racial violence against the Mongoloid peoples of WESEA region.
These are the new layers of subjugation that seek to dehumanize people of WESEA.
Brute force and utter contempt for the people is not the only suit in the armour of Indian rulers.
Divide and rule is another classic stratagem used by colonial rulers to devastating effect to sustain colonial rule and poison relations between and amongst the subject people, further said the outfit.
Increasing inter and intra ethnic animosities amongst Meiteis, Nagas and Kukis attest to the havoc created by the divide and rule policy.
Not all ethnic antipathies are, however, the handiwork of the colonial rulers.
Much of it can also be traced to the respective insensitivities of the ethnoses themselves to one another's aspirations.
Though the indigenous peoples of WESEA (Western South East Asia) have superficial and temporary issues of difference and petty contradictions, these people share the same social systems, long historical journey together, and mutually interdependent economic systems, and also from sheer topographic and physical geographical features which could not separate one from another.
"And close kin settlements make us inseparable.
We are now facing the urge to be united together, and we are experiencing this necessity all the more", the Central Comittee asserted.
Comment
