How far one should travel to reach Civilisation ?

Sabana Elangbam *

Manipur, our motherland is a small State comprising various communities situated in the hill as well as in the valley. It is like the bond of relationship between that of an elder brother and younger brother staying in the hill and valley respectively. This closeness is looking distance today due to less participation in social activities from both the communities in common issue of the State.

We have to consider the future of the home-grown people who are residing in the entire North Eastern States of India comprising 248 various communities. Therefore, our people, of various indigenous groups in the State of Manipur need to work collectively in order to improve our State, economically, culturally and physically in the 21st civilisation for the unity and integrity of the State for the cause of our recognition and equivalent to the other communities in mainland India.

Of course India is a democratic country but our State has got only two Lok Sabha MP and one Rajya Sabha MP whereas UP, Bihar, MP, Maharashtra and few other States have increased in numbers that is why their representation in the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha are huge and have succeeded in resolving serious issues in the beneficiary of their public.

In fact, we have many human resources in the field of Arts, Culture and Sports which are renowned internationally. We are also not lacking behind in education as well since the number of our people are trying hard to achieve their respective goals in many places within India as well as abroad. All these potentials are the future of our nation.

When there is a discussion about our ancestral bonding of the people of Manipur, irrespective of different cultural background, I sometimes feel poignant because it is a bond of more than 2000 years of coexistence which is dimmer now, so it is the duty of today’s youth who need to work hard to build up our lost glory.

My elders say that they already had this apprehension in their minds, why we became so impertinent to each other today, why we do not value each other, why we are not considerate to each other, why we are not philosophic of a civilised world.

One thing I would like to share with the readers is that we hardly visit the other cities like Mandalay, Yangoon, Bangkok, Beijing, Gouzong, Tokyo, Seoul, etc. Everything is so systematic, people are so polite, they are very hygienic and do not urinate in public, they carefully keep waste materials in dustbins, they respect traffic signals and follow the rules too. Hence, civilisation is at its peak because the society is very clean, morally and well mannered, and the cities where we travel often such as Kolkata, Delhi, Bangalore, Mumbai and so on are quite different from the previous mentioned cities, maybe because ours is a democratic country, people have their own rules, one can drive causing traffic jam, one can enter in one way right under the nose of the traffic police on duty, one can urinate, spit pan, gutkhas wherever one wants, whether it be the walls of the VIPs or some private properties, this is what our society adopts as cleanliness, I suppose.

Society keeps on changing, I agree but with all these exposure we have cultivated a blended one. One should learn and extract only the good lifestyle from other cities which we have visited and know how to abandon the dire ones which will be helpful and useful in building a civilised society. If we are not aware of certain things in the progress of life it will cause damage in the society in various ways against the interest of general public.

Again, in many countries a lot of care is taken for the public conveniences and to some extent even our people expect the same treatment. For instance, let’s take a simple example of the way we pay our electricity and water bills. People are suffering greatly in order to survive the mere livelihood in our State, due to the imposition of certain taxes, we pay for 720hrs electricity bill in a month against the consumption of only 240hrs, also in the case of public hydrant, we consumed water supply only for half an hour in a day, but our people are silent and I guess they are quite content, all these are the signs of a bright future of the State. Until one keeps a check to all these lapses with utmost care from the concerned authority, our society will remain the same in many other situations as well.

I believe that these loopholes can be solved only after we put our constructive ideas together in a healthy way, when we are serious enough in extending help and assistance to one another in the concern of all communities residing in the State.

We need systematic planning, uniform policy of the entire State of Manipur, respect for one another, maintain discipline in the society for bringing peaceful co-existence of all communities in the State.

Let us play our part sincerely and efficiently, to retain our bonding between the hills and plain people and retrieve our lost glories and track our way to CIVILISATION.