25th Raising Day of KYKL : Oken gives food for thought -II
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, April 25 2019: Such a mentality has led to loss of self confidence amongst the people, said Oken and added that in the last 70 years since the annexation of the land, the politics, economy, and erosion of morales of the people have all combined together to give rise to a deep rooted inferiority complex.

The reality is such that today the people have become their own enemy and this is what is happening, said the outfit.

It stands that today the WESEA region is more than an 'exploitation colony' and has become a 'settlement colony', said Oken and added that this is best exemplified by the fact that today the indigenous people no longer make up even 50 percent of the population in WESEA.

The human incursion continues to this day, said Oken and added that the proposed CAB will reduce the whole region to a status over flooded by people from the core.

Tripura is an apt example he said pointing out that non-locals today make up 70/80 percent of the total population.

The mentality of the people been flushed and tweaked so much that today there are people who are siding with people from the core areas of India to support CAB, said the statement and added that situation has come to such a pass that many are ready to give up everything to people who come from the core part of India.

The important question is, what should the people do to save themselves, said the rebel leader and added that people need to be wary of those who have been spreading canards that they should take shelter with people from the core parts of India.

Nothing can be more wrong than such a mindset, said the outfit and added that the only way to counter this is not to stop the resistance movement.

Apart from this the resistance movement should take on a bigger dimension.

There are four ways to make the resistance movement more meaningful, said KYKL and added that there should be cultural resistance to neutralise the onslaught on the culture of the people, knowledge production and to weaken the hegemony spread by the adversary.

There is also the need to strengthen the armed resistance and the people's movement against the adversary, said the outfit and added that Mandela and MK Gandhi too followed this principle.

The outfit also lamented the point that only the armed resistance seems to have been given primacy while ignoring the others and added that this could be the reason why the resistance movement has not been able to gain much traction.

The mindset that revolution only means armed uprising and the thought that if one does not join the armed movement means that one can apt the people from the core areas is misplaced, said the outfit and added that the resistance can be carried out at different planes.

Citing examples, Oken said that there are two instances which one can learn from and added that they are the Black Consciousness Movement launched under Steve Biko (1946-1977) in South Africa and 'Indianismo' (Indigenism) under Fausto Reinaga (1906- 1994) in Bolivia.

Briefly expounding on Biko's thought, Oken said that his main treatise laid down that the 300 years old inferiority complex of the people dealt a negative blow to the Black people of South Africa and led them to develop a negative self image and disfigured the African past.

It also destroyed the Black imagination and made him passive and subservient.

It is to save themselves that the Blacks started a movement to promote humanity within themselves, promote positive self image, collective hope and unity and solidarity with each other, added Oken.

The thought process of Fausto Reinaga also followed the same pattern, said the outfit and added that Biko and Reinaga believed in conscientising the Black people.

To wake up the people of WESEA there is the need to launch an Indigenes' Consciousness Movement or 'indigenism,' said Oken and stressed on the need for social transformation, to launch a movement for cultural resistance and knowledge production.

Only after realising the reality, will self confidence come and people learn the art of survival without depending on others, said the outfit and added that this is the only way to save and protect oneself.

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