Reflecting on 21st September

Deben Bachaspatimayum *

21st September is here once again today. It is also the international day of peace is least known.

Many civil society, women and students organizations will be observing this day as another Black day or Bundh and sit back recalling the national humiliation until the next important date 18th October comes to celebrate the national day of pride for having transited to a constitutional monarchy with elected representatives from both hills and valley for a common destiny only to realize growing divide between the hills and valley, once in a year, helplessly!

Although, 21st September is also celebrated as the UN International Day of Peace since 2001 as part of global efforts to leave behind the history and culture of wars and violence and enter into another history of peace and nonviolence in the 21st century, Manipur seems to have remained insulated in annual cycles of national pride and humiliation without any constructive changes in the social and political lives of the people!

This time, can we observe this day together with the UN International day of peace under the theme: Invest in Peace - everyone, everywhere and everyday for a serious reflection to march ahead with hopes armed with constructive agenda in hand for a change without forgetting the past?

Remembering 21st September 1949 as the day of formal ‘take-over’ and subsequent national humiliation of Manipur by degrading it as Part-C state under a commissioner of Assam after having historically evolved into a constitutional monarchy a year before on 18th Oct 1948 is indeed a national responsibility especially when it is done with an intention for a resolute constructive social and political agenda.

It is also important to understand and accept the facts that the ‘take-over’ was possible due to our own Anithokpi tradition - the divide between the political elite who had coalesced with the Indian national congress and the Manipur’s emerging people-hood of the hills and valley under the leadership Hijam Irabot.

A deeper reflection on this Anithokpi may also help us to understand how Manipur had evolved as a unique cultural civilization deeply connected to two great cultural civilizations of the west, the Indo-Aryan and the east, the Chinese.

By 20th century Manipur had emerged as part of the great Indo-Ayan cultural civilization and so it was obvious the King and his intellectuals council had more inclinations towards India, although, the people of Manipur share ethnic and cultural affinities with the Southeast Asian Mongoloid regions.

A socio-political tension of close affinities of Manipur with the eastern and western cultural civilizations has been both advantage and disadvantage. On this day, we must deeply evaluate the advantages for constructive socio-political changes for regional peace and security in the contemporary times.

Furthermore, the sense of national loss and humiliation must be fully compensated to our advantage when we observe the day of our national pride on 18th Oct - recalling Manipur historical evolution into a constitutional monarchy first time in the entire region in the middle of 20th century.

Even when we continue to remember how a bureaucrat abolished our historically evolved democratic institutions without any due process we must also recall more of the democratic principles our forefathers left behind for us to practice in our day to day life. Let us also remember that a national convention held in 1993 had declared the merger of 1949 as null and void according to international laws and standard procedures.

The Convention 1993 is not a date to remember but more importantly and pragmatically it also means that the Manipur Constitution 1947 is a living document that must guide our daily decision-making in family, social and political life.

Let us not forget that in the 2000 years subject-hood under successive monarch, the Constitution our hills-valley forefathers wrote together, transformed us all into the status of Right-bearing citizens by promising Equality, Liberty and Justice to all citizens without any discrimination.

The question we should be reflecting on this day is this: How well and how far we as responsible parents in the families, leaders in the community, civil society groups, political organizations, officers and elected leaders in the government have we been practicing equality, liberty and justice in all the decision-making processes?

How well did we respect the Hill Area Administrative provisions provided in the Constitution 1947? What can be done to actually respect equality, justice and liberty of all citizens of the state from today onwards? How each of one us should change our attitudes and actions towards the others?

Celebrating the International Day of Peace on this day under the theme: Invest in Peace - everyone, everywhere and everyday means we should be investing our time, personal resources and money in reflecting on our old habits which are no more relevant to the present context, getting new knowledge and skills that will help us understand the problems in much deeper and wider perspective in the global context, and take corrective actions by taking small little steps for progressive changes in life for all.

This is also a day of reflecting on how our personal, social, political and governmental time and resources have been heavily invested in an increasingly competitive ways of life while not leaving even single penny for cooperative and peaceful ways of solving all problems of life!

The economic changes that India is aggressively pursuing since 1990s to become one among richest countries in the world has made every individual compete for everything in life from birth to death which is being accentuated by the technological environment.

In this win-lose game of life, individual human rights have overtaken the importance of family and community peace and solidarity. Young people are delaying their marriage while AI is taken-over thinking and decision making works and Robots are replacing most of the jobs.

It is time for us to invest our time and energies in deeply understanding the technological, environmental and political crises of the world to save humanity first on this planet by following the principle: Think Globally; Act Locally. This is our local and national responsibility and duty as well.