7 armed rebel groups call 12 hour total shut down in North East India on Indian Independence Day
Source: IT News
Imphal, August 10 2017:
After NSCN-K, 7 more armed rebel groups of the region today called total shut down on August 15, in the entire North East India, which they term as WESEA to ban celebration of Indian Independence Day.
The total ban on the celebration of Indian Independence Day was made in a joint statement signed by Publicity Secretary, Hynniutrep National liberation Council (HNLC), Ksh Laba Meitei, President, Kangleipak Communist Party (KCP), Jiban Singh Koch, Chairman, Kamatapur Liberation Organization (KLO), N.Oken, Chairman, Kanglei Yawol kanna Lup (KYKL), B..RFerengga, General Secretary, National Democratic Front of Boroland (NDFB), Sengphui Borok, Organizing Secretary, National Liberation Front Twipra (NLFT) and J K Lijang, Chairman, People's Democratic Council of Karbilongri (PDCK) .
"As a part of this continuing resistance struggle, we, the undersigned representatives of our respective revolutionary organizations, declare to ban India's Independence Day celebrations in our WESEA region.
In order to successfully materialize the same declaration, we call for total shut-down of the entire region for 12 hours, that is, from 6 AM to 6 PM of the day, the 15th August, 2017.We call upon all peoples of this subjugated region to do the needful to make this ban a success", the statement said.
It further added that India had never been a country or a nation until 1947, when the British colonialists left this part of the world.
The rebel group said that India was a massive sub-continent inhabited by a number of diverse communities, most of which were large enough to be independent nation-states.
"Colonialism is the real mother of the present Indian state.
About this nation-making process, Henry Cotton wrote in 1885 that a new nation was rising before his own eyes", the statement said.
A brand new history of this new nation was constructed by Indian scholars as a part of what Sudipta Kaviraj called 'the imaginary institutions of India'.
The rebels' statement said that Nehru's so-called masterpiece, the Discovery of India is, in reality, the Invention of India.
The past was restructured to shape the present and consequently, the future.
"With the departure of colonial masters, the new country embarked upon an ambitious project of occupation of the rim-lands, through every possible means, political and military.
Using uncivilized and sometimes, inhuman tools, the entire WESEA region have been subjected to forceful occupation of the mainland Indian regime, it added.
"With the birth of a new state, the on-going Indian nation-making process has been accelerated with coercive state power, both hard and soft.
It is natural for ultra-nationalistic and overenthusiastic mainland leaders of a multi-ethnic and multi-national 'state-nation' like India, to go the extra mile to transform it into a mono-ethnic and mono-national 'nation-state' as soon historically as possible.
Logical consequence of this nation-making process is total assimilation of the rim-land non-Indians like us, the Weseans.
Assimilation is nothing but collective death of assimilated communities.
"To perform this jingoistic task, the present Indian establishment uses both violent and nonviolent actions.
The present-day descendants of Gandhi have no qualms in using the ultimate forms of violence � like annexation of new territories, state-terrorism under AFSPA, collective fine, rape with immunity etc.
But Gandhi hated violent nationalism and termed it a 'curse'.
To reinforce their hegemony over the peripheral non-Indians, in addition to the hard violent tools, they use soft ones like education, mass media, films, literature, arts and culture, and symbolic instruments like the national flag, national anthems, observation of national days, celebration of national festivals, ritual obeisance to national heroes etc.
"Observation of Indian Independence Day, which falls on the 15th August, is one of such symbolic instruments, sacred and unassailable for mainland Indians, but vicious and malicious to the colonized peripheral non-Indians.
Celebration of such occasions can create a false consciousness of enjoying political freedom in the minds of subjugated people.
To resist Indian occupation and hegemony, almost all communities of this WESEA region haverisen up in arms and armed struggle is still going on.
As a part of this continuing resistance struggle, we, the undersigned representatives of our respective revolutionary organizations, declare to ban India's Independence Day celebrations in our WESEA region", the statement added.
Comment
