Yet another Nupi Lan comes :: Double standard has to go
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: December 12 2017 -

It is a calendar event and yet another Nupi Lan is here.

Manipur continues to observe Nupi Lan in remembrance of the women heroes who rose as one against the British Raj and their policies and the spirit of the day continues to highlight the identity of Manipur to the outside world.

Maybe it is not the day, Nupi Lan, alone which identifies Manipur to the outside world but in many ways it is the women who have been the flag bearers of the place and the people and the history of Manipur can never be complete without a reference to the numerous women centric attributes in Manipur.

A description of Manipur without referring to the Ima market will never be complete and so will be her history without a reference to the Nupi Lan, which is observed annually at the State level on December 12.

It was a woman who etched the name of Manipur on the map of the Olympics when Mary Kom landed the bronze in boxing at the 2012 London Olympics.

It is the same at the Asian Games, with Mary Kom and L Sarita doing the State proud. Earlier there have been Kunjarani, Sanamacha and recently Saikhom Mirabai who won gold at the World Weightlifting Championship held at the US.

This is about sports in brief but women have been putting Manipur on the notice board of the world, and no place has produced a crusader like Irom Sharmila, who fasted for over a decade against the continued imposition of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act and drew global attention to the draconian Army Act.

Again Manipur gave the Meira Paibi movement to the world and what started as a movement against alcohol abuse in every leiraks and leikais of the land, today, Meira Paibis have carved out a distinct identity of their own, taking up issues which matter to the land and the people.

And when one talks about the women of Manipur who can forget the historic nude protest in front of Kangla which then housed the Assam Rifles, after the bullet riddled, battered body of Th Manorama was found after she was picked up by Assam Rifles personnel the night before sometime in 2004.

That nude protest aptly summed up the angst of the people and it told the story of not only how the people of Manipur have been a battered lot all these years under AFSPA but also told the story of womenfolk once again taking up an issue of the land and the people.

It is against these realities that Manipur will come together to pay obeisance on Nupi Lan day but yet at the same time it is also important to question where actually women stand in today’s Manipur society.

Does today’s Manipur fit the bill of a place which gave the Meira Paibi movement to the world and celebrates Nupi Lan every year ?

How about crimes against women ?

Why is it that most households welcome the birth of a son more than the birth of a daughter ?

Are daughters treated equally as the sons in all the families ?

These are some questions, but important questions no doubt for the reality compels that such posers be raised.

So even as the State celebrates Nupi Lan and even as Imphal is home to the unique Ima Keithel, let all come to acknowledge the fact that for too long, women have been placed on the pedestal in the public sphere but reduced to something of a punching bag inside the confines of one’s house.

Acknowledge this reality and teach all the youngsters to respect women.

This would be the ultimate tribute to pay to womenfolk of Manipur.