30th Anniversary of Pangal's Black Day
- 03rd May 2023 : Delhi Association of Manipur Muslim Students -

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3rd of May, 2023 marks the tricennial anniversary of the unfortunate and unprecedented violence of 1993, when the massacre of around 100 Pangals took place. Each year the coming of 3rd May marks an inescapable remembrance of a painful memory for the Pangals, about the heinous genocidal violence where innocent women, children and helpless labourers were murdered in cold blood on 3rd and 4th of May 1993.

Pangals across the world continue to observe this day as the darkest day in the history of the community in Manipur. This year’s observation is of more importance as it marks hitting a landmark three decades of ensuring injustice to the Pangals.

Over and above the loss of lives and those several hundred physically injured, the immediate impacts of the violence included loss of property, complete uprooting of villages, internal migration, displacements, and diverse impact to the student community. The whole community have had discernible psychological trauma and a cloud of distrust and insecurity had appeared upon the people. A deep injury was casted in the sense of belongingness amongst the Pangals and an unfortunate and unprecedented fault line began to appear between the two communities.

As there were co-ordinated attacks on the Pangal villages located at the peripheries, many had fled from their villages and turned into destitute in their own homeland. This had caused adverse impact in the socio-economic conditions, cultural and other aspects of life of the impacted Pangals.

However, despite the call of peace from all quarters of our society in the days after the incident, the lack of any discernible steps by the state to ensure justice to the Pangal victims despite the recommendations of a judicial commission, and the lack of an impactful gesture for a quest of reparative possibilities from the Meitei community continues to inflict pain and trauma to the Pangals.

Except for providing basic immediate needs for the affected people and distribution of only Rs. 20,000 for each deceased person, the state has neither shown any effort to pay respectable ex-gratia to the bereaved family members, nor has it listened to the demands made by some civil and political Pangal organisations for disbursing a reasonable ex-gratia amount and an apology from the perpetrators.

However, there has been reflection of historical trauma and legacies of violence continues in the last three decades. This could be seen in manifest and symbolic forms in the numbers of cases of lynchings, prejudices, stereotypes, and other forms of subjectification of the Pangals as if they are lesser beings.

Unfortunately, the fault line between the two communities seems to deepen with time. Yet, the majority community’s choice for maintaining a calculated silence and a politics of forgetting the heinous violence continues to induce pain to the Pangals and a cloud of uncertainty persists in the peace-making and harmony building process. It is well known that none of the cases of violence including the lynching have had proper legal closures where the victims are ensured justice and the perpetrators booked.

This legacy of going by symptomatic treatments by each successive powers in the state and its institutional machineries not only gives an image of incompetency and unreliability but it also induces fear and anxiety to the state subjects particularly amongst the Pangals for an unforeseeable repetition of history. The question of maintaining peace and harmony in the State has since been facing this needless stumbling blocks.

On this day, we at Delhi Association of Manipur Muslim Students (DAMMS) bring up the same age-old demands with the hope that one day our voice will also be heard if not now. We demand-

o Constitute an independent Special Investigation Team (SIT) and ensure all the perpetrators are made public with their deserved punishment.
o The state must give reasonable and respectable compensation to the bereaved family members and all those destitute brought about by the incident.
o The majority community should make a public apology to the Pangals at large and ensure similar incidents will not happen again.

We at DAMMS would like to appeal to everyone to remember the names of the victims of the horrific incident in your prayers. May Allah (SWA) bless them to the highest place in heaven. Lastly, all the progressive minds and organizations must join hands in fighting cases of injustice brought about by subjugation and oppression of any kind and ensure ourselves that history of the same kind does not repeat anywhere and anytime in the future.

Delhi Association of Manipur Muslim Students (DAMMS)