Celebrate More, Observe Less
Let celebrations dominate the contemporary history of Manipur
Seram Neken *
13th - The Great June Uprising Observation at Kekrupat Martyrs' Memorial complex, Imphal on June 18 2014 :: Pix - Shanker Khangembam
It is natural that members of a family fight one another some or the other day for one or the other reason. However, it should not be emphasized in the history pages of the family.
When my nine year old son enquired 'what June 18 is all about', I reluctantly narrated the story behind the unfortunate incident, for the story involves hatred and antagonisms between communities. Every child belonging to different communities of Manipur will one day ask its parents regarding the meaning of 'Black Day', 'Integrity Day','Unity Day', so on or so forth.
Whenever the Meiteis, the Nagas or the Kukis observe their unfortunate events, its children will demand the story behind such incidents. Will history be a mechanism to instill hatred among various groups?
Contemporary history of Manipur is replete with observances manifesting the inherent antagonisms among the so called brotherly communities. From June to August every year, Manipur witnesses various hues of functions recalling the unfortunate incidents arising out of seemingly-communal mindsets.
We see more observances of such nature, and negligible number of celebrations marking unity, integrity and harmony among the various communities. Why not the various communities of Manipur find out a Day to celebrate their love, brotherhood and unison?
If we celebrate a Day marking an effort to unify all the communities inhabiting the state, it will brighten our common history and the generations to come will be obliged to maintain the historic event.
When we observe the unfortunate events happened in our family among the very brothers and sisters within, the children of the next generation would always be reminded of the past hatred routinely. Is not it time for us to endeavour to forget the negative pasts, while reminding the generations of the positive things occurred ?
So called 'Black Days' will always be black in the minds of the people. If we can insert a 'White Day' in the list of our annual celebrations, it would create room for brotherly association at least once in the 365 days.
The prevailing atmosphere of hatred among the various communities of Manipur can hardly be concealed, when it openly comes out in streets, placards and newspaper headlines. Without naming any organization or community, I would suggest the civil societies belonging to numerous communities to come out with an all encompassing celebration, on which all people irrespective of their groups show allegiance to 'Manipur as a nation'.
One obvious question that comes to my mind while writing this piece is that some civil society bodies accommodate members from all communities, while some others do not give room for others. All civil society organizations and all students' bodies must accommodate members of all communities in them, if the communal forces are to be wiped away from the social set-up.
While upholding the importance of state level observances recalling the tragic communal incidents, organizations based on various groups should also spare their time and intellect to celebrate an act of unity, harmony, integrity, brotherhood and compositeness. Human beings create history, it is up to them whether there would be a constructive history or a destructive one for the future generations.
The present generation, through history books and historic celebrations, need to convey to the next generation that various communities of Manipur worked together for a unified Manipur, in spite of a few sporadic incidents of detestation among them. It is natural that members of a family fight one another some or the other day for one or the other reason. However, it should not be emphasized in the history pages of the family.
Contemporary history plays an important role in instilling a positive mindset among the people of generations to come. Forgetting the negatives and recollecting the positives is a must for a better future. As long as we remain glorifying the reminiscences of our tragic past, we will never get peace of mind.
Human development will be a far cry to one who always goes back his awful past. It is high time we endeavored to forget the ills in our past, while glorifying the prolific precedents. It is we who are going to pen the history for the future generations. Let us praise the glorious past and forget the sick ones.
Let us tone down the observances and magnify the celebrations.
* Seram Neken wrote this article for Hueiyen Lanpao as part of 'The Voiceless Speaks'
This article was posted on July 10, 2014.
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