CIRCA shares thoughts on Tripura incident..Calls for united stand of indigenous peoples
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, August 25 2016: Expressing deep concern over what happened when a group of indigenous people of Tripura were staging a rally and demonstration to save the local people on August 23, the Coalition for Indigenes' Rights Campaign, Manipur (CIRCA) today said that the underlying meaning should not be lost on anyone.

Taking cognizance of the fact that the Mongoloid people of North East India and Western South West Asia (WESEA) face the possibility of extinction, the North East Peoples' Parliament (NIPP) was held on November 10, 11, and 12 in 2015 and the campaign to save the indigenous people started.

After this, the NIPP Tripura chapter was held on March 12, 13 and 14 this year, said CIRCA and added that the Assam chapter of the Parliament will be held on September 24 .

What happened on August 23 at Tripura where the indigenous Tripuri were targeted by CPI (M) workers is a clear testimony that there is an agenda to obliterate the indigenous people of North East India, added CIRCA.

This is the time for all the indigenous people to come together and strike a collective stand.

The people should be aware of the divide and rule policy of the Government of India, alleged CIRCA and added that if care is not taken, then there is the possibility of all the indigenous people disappearing.

Citing examples, CIRCA said that ethnic communities have been set aside against each other such as Naga vs Kuki, Meitei vs Naga, Meitei vs Meitei Pangal, Naga vs Naga and Kuki vs Kuki and recalled the great loss of lives and properties.

At this juncture an agenda is also underway to obliterate the indigenous people by letting the huge population of India and Bangladesh infiltrate into the North East States, said CIRCA.

Situation is such that today the indigenous identities of Tripura and Assam have been eroded to an alarming extent.

It is time for the people of the North East, its leaders and CSOs to understand each other and take cognizance of the fact that in the face of globalisation the existence of different communities of North East will be put on trial.

It is at such a point of time one should understand the observation of Fidel Castro that the poorer Nations should come together and unitedly face the challenge thrown up by international politics and globalisation.

On the communal crises witnessed in the North East region, CIRCA said that the main factors are, the unitary system of governance of India and paying only lip service to the federal structure and making the State Governments of North East subservient to the Centre; reducing the markets in the region to captive markets and flooding them with capitalists from mainland India; human resource development stunted within the colonial education system; Indianisation of the intellectuals and political leaders through the education system to such an extent that they are unable to think and act for the people; survival of the common people being dictated by the capitalists and as such unable to do much for the indigenous people of the region, added CIRCA.

Even though India has completed 66 years of existence as an independent Nation, the smaller communities existing near mainland India have lost their language and culture.

These smaller communities are today forced to live in slums as their resources have been taken over in the name of building industries, hotels, and shopping malls, said CIRCA.

The language and culture of these smaller communities have today been swallowed by the bigger communities.

The number of the homeless people in mainland India outnumber the total population of Manipur, Nagaland, Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Sikkim, said CIRCA.

As such criminal elements from mainland India have been intruding into the region.

Even in the cities of the North East, capitalists from mainland India continue to bring in their labourers/workers from mainland India.

Pointing to a number of examples to cite the gradual erosion of the identity of the people of the region, CIRCA said that Tripura is today at that stage where its indigenous identity has been erased to a large extent, 80 pc of the people in Assam have also lost their Mongoloid identity due to inter-marriage while the bigger cities have all become the fiefdoms of non-local people, in Meghalaya, the incursion is such that even a non-local man has become the Speaker of the State Assembly, in Nagaland the main language is today a mixture of Hindi, Nepali, Bengali and Assamese.

The impact of the incursion is such that in many of the major cities and towns in the North East, Hindi has become the lingua franca, added CIRCA.

The statement said that taking all these into consideration it is time for all the indigenous people of the region to come together and take a united stand and added that when the region is connected by train 50,000 outsiders will arrive on a daily basis.

As such it is important for the indigenous people to be ready so that they do not become homeless people in their own State.

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