Scripting 2023 for posterity : Saluting human resources
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: October 28 2023 -

It may be premature to raise such a question at this point of time, for there is nothing much to suggest that Manipur has started walking the road to normalcy.

Yet one must raise certain posers, even if it is only within oneself, for such questions can prepare the people to look ahead and see if they have scripted a tale that the people can look back to with dignity.

How will the world, particularly the people of Manipur look back to 2023, say ten or fifteen years down the line ?

What type of story is being scripted right now that one can look back with pride, down the years ?

Difficult to say but there are facts which must not be allowed to be obliterated by those who are hell bent on distorting the history of the land and the people.

This is where it becomes very, very important for the State and the people as a whole to educate their children on the history of the land.

This is not the time when people should be satisfied with reading only the stories of the Mughal Empire or the History of Great Britain.

What is the history of Manipur before the British came ? How was the social composition and the geography of the land, say before 1835 ?

A year which has been picked on the basis of a status put up by a young man on the social media and one need to look at this with the seriousness it deserves.

History of a people cannot start in 1917 for at best this is just a mark on the calendar, a tiny speck on the whole spectrum understood as history of the land and her people.

Education, this is what is important and education here should be seen beyond the certificate that one receives after a course, but awakening the inner self to understand the present by looking at the past and equipping a mind to look beyond the immediate.

So how will history remember the Manipur of 2023 ?

For one it should go down as the year that awoke everybody to the urgent necessity of understanding one’s land and one’s people as well as one’s immediate neighbour.

This is where it becomes important to understand and know Mount Thangjing as something more than just a hill. Same is the case with Mount Koubru.

This is where the idea that the understanding of valley is inextricably linked to the understanding of hills, as espoused by a Professor of Jawaharlal Nehru University, becomes extremely relevant.

This is one of the points which the people, particularly the younger lot, should explore, digest and imbibe.

The lessons from 2023 should also mean jolting the people awake to the significance of human resources.

The battle is being fought on different fronts and each have its own significance and importance.

So while many went to the frontline to take head on the adversary, there were yet many more who went out of their way to put forth the correct narrative.

The young girl rubbishing the religious tinge that was sought to be given to the ongoing clash in front of a live audience at the United States some days back exemplifies the power of human resource.

Far away from the public eyes are the hundreds of young men and women, who have diligently sought to right the totally wrong and malicious propaganda on different media, with some even having taken up the needed steps to put across the story of Manipur before the United Nations to blunt a wrong narrative.

Yet there are countless others who have chipped in and mobilised resources to make life a little bit more easier for the thousands who are still languishing at the different relief centres set up across the length and breadth of Manipur.

Lest one forgets, Manipur should not forget the role of the drivers and their helpers who have put in everything to transport the basic necessities to the people through the National Highways which have been made very treacherous by those whose sole intention is dismember the existence of Manipur as a geo-political entity.

Ultimately it is the human resources that should be saluted for it this which has helped Manipur to keep standing on her two feet despite the over 150 crippling days.