The Sheep
- Part 2 -

By Nameirakpam Bobo Meitei *

I want him to reveal the enemy and in what manner the 'chief enemy' had exploited his people.

'They called us 'savage' and they would ostracize us for being savage, they have been in charge of almost everything in the region. We want them to suffer like our people suffered, you know.'

He makes his points with a malicious face. 'Did they do the same to your people like the Germans did to the Jews? ' I put to him.

The malice is his face has abandoned him and he speaks in a less malicious tone, 'No, uhmm..nothing like that. It's just that they had been exploiting us. You know, when some group treats you like some outcast because they happen to have a defined culture and a distinct literature, and because of these they treat you as though you are some low-quality breed is unacceptable.'

' Why do you think they have things that you don't have? Did they have to import language and God from the West like you are trying to do?' I enquire.

He is again offended and this time he tries not to suppress it, ' What do you mean my 'importing God and language' ......'

He leaves his enraged query unfinished and his breathing becomes heavy, with this his head lowers and the chin resting against his chest, when his head is lifted he struggles with an explanation, 'I know, I know. We have imported English, but we'd better use this language instead of the crude version of some language from mainland India. I just hate it when I realize that what we dislike is what we inevitably need and to accept a Western language is an act of defiance, you see.'

I ask him promptly, 'So, you mean it could be Italian or French?' He is amused by it and is quick to reject it with a trace of smile 'No. No. I know what you mean.'

When the thin smile has disappeared he speaks further in an apologetic tone 'We have too many people speaking too many dialects and no one has tried to bring up one of them to the level where it can be called a language.'

'I heard that most people were animists and they were known as great warriors. After the arrival of the new faith people were forbidden to engage with the old faith and they were compelled to look at their own faith with contempt and eventually it had eaten into their mind and now has become a part of the confused identity.' I add in.

He doesn't like a bit of what I said but he doesn't deny it 'I'm not confused, but I know many are confused. It's a part of the process through which we are soon going to gain what we have been striving for. And this is what has been imposed on us by our chief enemy. If you listen to our City Chief you know how bad they were to him. He goes to almost all the villages and tells his anecdotes of how he was treated and what we should do. I believe he is right and now people have swarmed around him, that's why I'm going home to join the crowd.'

He has forgotten about his failure in the city where he intended to stay on and the Chief he admires is someone he has never met in person. He says the Chief is like a cult figure, but he doesn't say he is an intellectual one nor is he untainted.

He doesn't want to admit the fact the Chief is responsible for ethnic cleansing. Had he done it in some civilized country he could have been hanged, but in the thick jungle human voices are muffled, muffled by crafty hands.

There is no questioning of someone who has been revered by the majority and to defy is to challenge the whole system. Who really cares if he is responsible for massacre of so many innocent as long as he stands for his own people?

Besides he moves about reciting his communal anecdotes among the people who have flocked to him. 'We are going to block their food and medical supplies because we want them to come crawling to us. We'll pull down their supplies and split them between us and whatever we don't need will be thrown away or burned.

When they are at our door then we can put a leash and our kids can drag them around like some hounds. I have been speaking to some of the people who are quite close to the Chief and they think this is the fitting punishment for them.'

He speaks flawlessly. I ask 'Did you really go to university?' His lower jaw drops and words seem to have faltered on his lips, his hands feel the end of his black T-shirt and they run over the front pockets.

*** To be continued.....: