Learned Factionalism
- Hueiyen Lanpao Editorial :: February 04, 2013 -

High Court complex, Imphal at Chingmeirong Imphal being inaugurated on April 07 2012 :: Pix - Bullu Raj

Factionalism as the term indicates is a conflict within an organization or nation or internal dissention.

It normally comes up when there are conflicting ideologies among the members of the same group.

These conflicting ideologies are the main causes for organizations to get split up, no matter how strong their constitution may be. India has experienced a whole lot of conflicting ideologies even among the nationalist leaders right from the time of the Indian National Movement.

The INC which spearheaded the Indian freedom struggle also split up into two in early part of its freedom struggle. Ever since, factionalism has played great role in the political sphere of the country.

Factionalism in the social, economic and cultural spheres can also be widely seen creeping up in different parts of the country.

When it comes to factionalism among different groups and organizations, Manipur cannot be left out. In fact, Manipur can be ranked top in the country as far as cases of factionalism is concern.

The State has always been in the limelight for all the wrong reasons and internal factions among the different leading organizations of the State is one main factor for creating chaos among the general public.

Right from the time of the Maharajas in the State of Manipur to the present day, Manipur has been witnessing cases of factionalism.

In the year 1886, royal family of Manipur was divided into two factions viz, on one side Yubaraj Kullachandra, Tikendrajit, Angousana and Zillangamba joined hands against the king. The internal discord among the Manipuri princes which had been going on for quite sometime, came out openly on September 21, 1890.

The incident has come to be referred by the historians as the palace revolt. Moreover, the 'June 18' incident saw the birth of UCM whose primary objective was to safeguard the territorial integrity of the State, much later after the birth of AMUCO which also have the same objective.

And today, much to the grief of the people of the State, a number of armed groups have sprung up in the State for reasons best known to them.

A good number of them have evolved after defecting from their mother organization. These organizations have seemingly come up with a strong ideology but with 'different motive'.

One recent surprising event that convinced the people that factionalism is here to stay is the birth of a new Manipur High Court Bar Association on January 31, 2013, thus giving a big blow to the already existing High Court Bar Association, Manipur.

The association is said to have been formed for making the functioning of the Manipur High Court and Subordinate Courts without any disturbance and also not to indulge in any form of strike or agitation which may result in paralyzing functioning of law Courts in the State.

Having said 'fair enough', the question still remains whether the ideologies and principles of the High Court Bar Association, Manipur was quite different from the new Manipur High Court Bar Association?

Whatever may be the case, after Manipur High Court Bar Association, what if we witnessed emergence of something like Young Advocates Bar Association or Practicing Advocates Bar Association to thrive for the welfare of the young lawyers, as is seen in other parts of the country.

The evolution of the new Manipur High Court Bar Association in spite of existence of a similar High Court Bar Association, Manipur only goes to prove that factionalism is rife among the learned advocates too.

Or is it simply yet another case of internal ideological conflicts showing its ugly face among the intellectual sections of the society?