Keyboard intellectuals & the ILP movement

Yenning *

Student protest and clash with Police at Imphal City on July 08 2015 :: Pix - Shankar Khangembam

Even if the national media have refrained from covering the happenings in Manipur with regard to the agitation related with the passing of a new bill on the inner line permit in Manipur and implementation of the same, facebook is certainly alive with discussions and posting of photographs related with the issue. Some extend their solidarity, some decry the police action, silence of the Government and some even question the nature of mobilization. What caught Yenning's attention was a complex question clothed in the guise of innocence thrown up by a curious non-Manipuri after the demise of Robinhood on July 9, 2015. Her query was, "But my only question to all of you is did the student who died becoz of this agitation actually knew what ILP is and the consequences?"

There were 4(four) commentators to this query and three deviated from the focus of discussion. One commentator observed, "The problem is, we seem to have internalized a protesting or victim mentality. We master the art of forming JACs, hunger strike, relay hunger strike, sit-in protests, bandh, boycott, economic blockade. It's true that there is much to protest against. In the end, it's our land, our own people who are in the Government, and our protests make our own people suffer. We should protest when it is due, but too much takes the sting out of it. We elect a Government and start protesting against it the next day. Protesting is, in a way, about blaming someone, about not belonging. We, especially the Meiteis as a community, will have to learn to take ownership of our own land."

Another commented, "He has been misled by adult agitators and hence he suffered the most.... Police has nothing to do in it." The fourth commentator remarked, "We need to think beyond....can't there be another form of protest then this which can be more constructive and sends out a strong and positive message. We all live in a poor state with a very small population.... at the end of day for whom is we fighting for. Even if we did the most exemplary form of protest....no one is discussing the issue on mainstream media....there is no political implication neither at the Centre nor at the local level".

The only comment worth reading was from a learned Ojabased in a premier University in New Delhi. But rather than giving a genuine reply to the question, he ended up painting the picture of the Manipuris based in Manipur as complete idiots, a bewildering judgement Yenning must admit, considering that the Manipuris have won many an issue without "knowing" much as the learned egghead expects. Let's take a potshot at his intellectual potency.

He observed, "Some have raised this issue of whether the 16 years old boy who died in police firing in Imphal knew what ILP issue was all about?That's a valid question in some sense...but it will become meaningful only if one is equally dared to ask ...Do the people of Manipur who join dharna or protest against AFSPA or talk about EcheSharmila, etc. know what the issue is all about? Or all those who died in the wake of that June events of 2001 knew about the 'issue'? Or those who talks endlessly about international trade, tourism, development, etc. without even addressing issues like electricity or that Chinese market is not part of 'look east' know what 'development' entails?"

The question is when you demand for divorce because you know your partner is in an illicit extra-marital affair, do you have to know in detail about the different positions in which they consummated their carnal urges or bother about the uncomfortable situation you'd be placed with regard to your relation with your in-laws just because you are overwhelmed by the relationship and demand an exit via divorce.

If this sounds too mundane and out of context, let's examine the working of any democracy in the world in which "informed" debate/discussion has become currently very fashionable, do you think that really happens and that participants in any protest or movement are "fully" literate on the concerned issue. This would be asking too much. Thus, to his leveling of charges to the people who join dharna or protest, "Do the people of Manipur who join dharna or protest against AFSPA or talk about EcheSharmila, etc. know what the issue is all about?", Yenning's reply is, Oja we know AFSPA has taken away many a lives and Eche Sharmila is on hunger strike for more than a decade for the repeal of the same Act. Tell us, do you think even Eche Sharmila knows as much as you do about AFSPA say "AFSPA as disguised war". At least she was driven by praxis and is on a mission, while others simply happen to be keyboard warriors.

The learned Oja continued, "There is enough reasons to believe that he must be aware of some kind of fear or apprehension that 'outsiders' will wipe out the local population one day or something of that kind, may be stories of Tripuris in Tripura as an example, etc. something like that.... In other words, in all likelihood, that kid must be aware of the issue as much as, generally speaking, those who participate in the protest against AFSPA, etc. in Manipur know about AFSPA..."

The above paragraph indicates that the protesters and the participants were herded only when some demonstration/protest has to be undertaken. This indicates the kind of ignorance one has about the role of the Committees or units spearheading a particular issue/event and the kind of campaigns undertaken to educate the mass including students. It also indicates ignorance about how student bodies are functioning today.

Instead of elaborating on the "level of knowledge" one has to have while espousing or fighting for a cause, the learned Oja instead brushed aside the issue and concluded that Manipuris are stock of population full of ignorance and contradiction. This brings us to the conclusion that he is totally clueless on how much knowledge one must have or be informed to be a fighter for a cause.

Take for instance, in many of the examples, he elucidated, he does not make the distinction between role of raw emotion and calculative move or the purpose of a particular gathering and distinction between two distinct types of sit-in-protest.

His observation, "To a great extent, one must be asking as to what is the difference between all those sit-in protests (waaka tmifam, etc.) against AFSPA and that of people in sit-in-protest in support of the Speaker of Manipur Legislative Assembly?". His shortcoming is evident in this simple observation; the answer itself is self-evident. What he failed to discern was that there are people loyal to a political leader (as democracy demands) but they can also be loyal to Manipur just as a Manipuri teacher teaching in an Indian university does not abandon his love for Manipur.

Even in his conclusion, he does not spare the movement or the intelligentsia based in Manipur. He concludes, "Of course, I do feel sad about the young life and worried about the nature of mobilization, the instrumentality of the act, the awareness of the range of issues, its linkages with other issues that confront the state (and implications, etc.) that this issue entails...let's be brutal enough in asking the question beyond this issue, to cover all other major issues...and see who and what we are...as the wretched of the earth..."

What distinguishes Vladimir Lenin from Jürgen Habermas is no longer an academic debate today. Well articulated discursive frames of Habermas has failed to ignite people's imagination and action to undertake a political (Velvet Revolution included), but the Leninist model has continued to serve people on a political mission (mass mobilization included). To this all Yenning can say is that there have been numerous rounds of discussions and public debates on ILP regarding the range of issues and its linkages with other issues that confront the state (and implications, etc.), and along with it mobilizations at the grassroot level.

And precisely on account of it, the people have been able to gather together for a political action. The issue of ILP is closely linked with the issue of demography, labour, land, resources, militarization (as security blanket) and development, etc. Call it apprehension and fear psychosis out of ignorance or knowledge and wisdom, let us admit that the present demand is valid. The Tripura episode is one many of the ILP activists refrain from using as an example while disseminating knowledge to the common mass simply because the context is different although the outcome could be the same.

Lastly, let us not belittle young Robinhood who gave away his life as a young fool but regard him as a martyr. Let us also admit that our society needs heroes and pray that his soul rest in peace. Let his sacrifice be a clarion call to the inhabitants of both the hills and valley of Manipur and teach the sellers of Manipur a befitting lesson. And in such an endeavor it'd be great if the keyboard intellectuals also contribute their mites.