CM Biren Singh must apologize to the people of Manipur

30th March, 2018

MSAD has successfully organized an emergency discussion on the theme cultural appropriation and assimilation going on inside Manipur by various inside and outside reactionary political opportunists for personal political mileage.

The said discussion has been ignited by the recent trends of cultural appropriation and assimilation upon minority cultural identities like de-recognition of ‘Sajibu Cheiraoba’ of the Meetei Sanamahi religion, ‘Good Friday’ of Christianity, and the subsequent controversial and illogical statement made by N. Biren Singh who is the Chief Minister of Manipur in Madhavpur Fair with regard to the issue of Manipur civilization where he located Manipur civilization within the framework of hegemonised and homogenized idea of one nation one culture as propounded by mainland Hindutva version of Indian civilization.

In the said discussion, everyone is of the view that the recent statement made by N Biren Singh is a great historical blunder and does not represent the civilizational identity which the people of Manipur recognize themselves.

Everyone is of the view that whatever he was trying to prove ( in front of mainland Indian) was just an another attempt of trying to appease his master for his personal political opportunities.

It is a shameful act on the part of people’s representative who sell out our cultural identity to another hegemonised and oppressive cultural identity (which systematically denied the existence of the distinct Manipuri culture). It is an insult to the people of Manipur who has its own civilizational history.

MSAD is of the view that in order to sustain the colonial psychology among the oppressed community ,colonial educational system is systematically fed to the oppressed community and various inside and outside forces are being used for the said purpose.

In an oppressive structure, the oppressor colonized the mentality of oppressed by reducing the identity of oppressed to things and it becomes very hard for the oppressed community to develop a critical education which will liberate them from the chain of oppression.

The oppressed ,for the time being, in order to prove his existence within the oppressive system, try to prove their existence to their so called masters with the arguments of being similar to the oppressor with the phrase like ‘we are just like you’ , ‘I’m just like you’ ,reducing and subsuming the oppressed identity into the fold of oppressor’s identity.

It is within this framework that the above cited example can be looked into as a part of cultural appropriation and assimilation of minority communities within the fold of oppressor’s cultural identity.

In view of the above statement, MSAD is of the view that the people of Manipur will stand united and resist the oppressor’s ploy of trying to divide the people of Manipur by derecognizing and subsuming the identity of minorities with the presentation of oppressor’s identity as the only recognized identity.

MSAD further apprehends the same ploy will be played in future by the oppressor and its agent to push the same agenda. Until and unless we recognize the problem of oppression and fight it from the roots, the same problem will arise again in the days to come.

To counter and fight the above oppression, taking into serious considerations of the above incidences, MSAD resolutes the following:
1. N Biren Singh must apologize to the people of Manipur.
2. N Biren Singh must stop his agenda of dividing the people of Manipur and recognize and respect the multi-cultural ethos of Manipur Society.
3. MSAD appeals to all section of Manipur Society to remain united and fight the common oppressor and its oppressive ideologies.