2023: A dark chapter in the history of Manipur
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: January 01, 2024 -

The year 2023 is now a history.

But unlike all other years gone by, it will not fade away from public memory any time soon.

On the contrary, this particular year will remain etched in public memory for many, many long years to come and the political impacts and ramifications of the events that unfolded during the 12 months of 2023 on the geo-political entity called Manipur will be felt for a lifetime, if not more.

The events that unfolded in 2023, particularly in May and thereafter will certainly leave deep impressions on the collective conscience of the people, and these impressions, we fear, will have far-reaching consequences.

It was on the fateful day of May 3, 2023 that a large number of fully prepared and heavily armed Kuki militants literally declared war against the Meitei community.

On the same day, hundreds of Meitei houses were burnt down and thousands of Meitei people were rendered homeless.

In the following days, all the Meitei people were effectively driven out from the Kuki dominated areas of Churachandpur, Kangpokpi and Moreh. Within days of launching an undeclared war against the Meiteis, several Kuki CSOs and political leaders raised the banner of separate administration.

Since then, a long drawn armed conflict has been raging across the State, and the conflict is unlikely to calm down with the arrival of the New Year, 2024.

One interesting aspect of the conflict was the concocted narratives churned out and propagated far and wide by the aggressors.

The conflict was first portrayed as oppression by the majority upon the minority.

Then it was portrayed as a clash between tribals and non-tribals.

Later, the same conflict was depicted as a clash between Christians and Hindus.

For quite some time, the aggressors were fairly successful in portraying the victims as aggressors and vice versa.

Though counter narratives emerged in the later stage of the conflict and the falsities of the concocted narratives were exposed one after another, the aggressors’ fabricated narratives had already impressed quite a many uncritical public, including a number of media houses based outside the State.

The European Parliament’s statement of condemnation against the alleged Hindu majority’s atrocities against Christian minorities only exemplified how far the concocted narratives influenced the public opinion.

Challenging and correcting these misleading narratives is as much important as engaging the aggressors in battlefields because one who controls the narratives can steer the public opinion of international communities in their favour.

In fact, 2023 was one of the darkest chapters in the long history of Manipur.

The Chin-Kuki aggression of 2023 is perhaps the third biggest challenge to the geo-political entity called Manipur after the Seven Years’ Devastation (1819-1825) and the Anglo-Manipuri War of 1891.

The aggression laid bare the vulnerability of Manipur before the whole world.

The aggression has exposed the ever growing threats faced by the indigenous people as well as the hostility of the aggressors.

No doubt, the aggression and the resulting conflict brought a sea of woes to all sections of people.

At the same time, as the saying goes, ‘Every dark cloud has a silver lining’, the aggression has certain positive sides in the sense that it awakened the indigenous communities to the bitter reality.

The aggression has brought to the fore that the security and future of Manipur cannot be entrusted to New Delhi in totality.

The survival of Manipur and the indigenous people will depend on how they face the current crisis.

After all, a Nation can progress and march ahead only after overcoming such challenges.

This is one lesson which one must learn from history. 2023 is now a history but there are scores of lessons which the indigenous people of Manipur can learn from the events of the previous year.