Manipur : Not A Poor Paradigme

By Lunminthang Haokip *

The Nehru-mind: The Indian Parliament was in session. The illustrious Jawaharlal Nehru was the Prime Minister. An opposition MP, in a spirited bid to score a debating point, took a personal pot-shot in sarcasm at the PM, "I would like to draw the attention of the august House that, for all the talk of pedigree and aristocracy, the Nehrus have nothing much to be proud of. The PM's great great grandfather served as an ordinary peon in the court of Bahadur Shah II".

Statesmanship Won: Pandemonium broke out. However, the seasoned leader was all calmness and composure. Flaunting his characteristic charm, he waved the enraged treasury-bench MPs to sit down and coolly said, "I congratulate that Hon'ble MP from the opposition who made an issue of my ancestry. In trying to pull me down, he had magnanimously conveyed to the house what I'd been trying to prove since I took charge as PM, that I am a man of the people". The statesman's statement silenced the House in awesome admiration .

The Rebuttal: A thought-provoking, but rabble-rousing article titled, "Manipur, a poor paradigm for Meghalaya", which was first published in The Shillong Times on 10 August, 2001, was reproduced verbatim in the 31 August 2001-issue of The Imphal Free Press. The critical column inked by a lady correspondent was well-written but ill-conceived in portions. When I was contemplating upon a rebuttal—rhetoric for rhetoric--a senior brother, Mr. C. Samarendro in his letter to the Editor of IFP on 5th September 2001, seemed to have stolen words right out of my mind. I am glad that in a satirical low-tone, the retired bureaucrat could ventilate the grieving grouse of thousands of IFP-readers.

Let Us Be Cautious: The Correspondent's relentless crusade against frequent bundhs called by KSU and her vociferous exposure of political hypocrisy in her own land, simply deserves plaudit. But the same cannot be said of her journalistic brinkmanship in waxing negatively eloquent about a state she might not even have paid a visit to. State-bashing has the potential to whip up sentiments to a frenzy. So, let's hold in check impulses to be narrow-minded that we may remain.

Food For Thought: Nehru-minded. Taking a clue from our first PM's soothing expression in the historical anecdote cited earlier, I'd liked to use the said writer's polemics to my advantage as a basis to echo the little known realities about a well-known state like Manipur. I thank her for providing me fast-food for recast-thought. At the same time, it impressed upon me that the wrongs in imagined opinion on Manipur needs to be righted.

The Shoot-Out: The daring columnist mentioned in her terse tirade, "Manipur must hang its head in shame for not being able to give minimum security to students from other states ". She might have been referring to the unfortunate shoot-out in the RIMS-premises that the entire state lamented over. To that I ask, which provincial govt. in the country provides fool-proof security to its educational institutions before they are being threatened seriously ? And who can foretell where lethal encounters will take place? It's a part of the global madness sane people have nothing to do with.

Picnic Panicked: There were a few instances when Manipuri officials and students studying outside passed away under mysterious circumstances. Such deaths included employees too. But we had always been giving the benefit of doubt to the claims of the witnesses at the spot of occurrence. Recently, a Kuki boy and girl from Churachandpur district were drowned near Sweet-falls (which should be renamed as Bitter-falls) in the outskirts of Shillong.

Reportedly, while they were posing for a photo-shoot, the earth below their feet slipped and sank down. They were brought home dead. What if the bereaved families blamed the Meghalaya administration for not displaying sufficient warning-signs to panic first-time picnickers around eroding river-banks ? Will that hold water ? No. Tears of sorrow were shed in silence, holding grudges on none. Accidents are accidents. Lives and deaths are in the Creator's hand.

Civility To Strangers: Credit should be given where it is due. I am a 44 year-old tribal by birth and a professing Christian by conversion. For the better part of my life, I'd been hobnobbing with the majority Meiteis--in school, college, university and offices. I don't remember any situation when I was roughed up or bombarded with diatribe on account of my tribe, or given a raw-deal for the sake of my faith. Neither do my children and relatives. Meiteis are highly cultured as a people. Youngsters respect the counsel of the elderly. Tradition vouches for it that a valley-brother, in his proper frame of mind, never harassed a stranger in his locality.

Good Samaritans: In my social circles, I came across guys who can sing pretty well in English but can't speak a sentence of it correctly. Likewise, we have men who can drive super-fast but know nothing about piecing nuts and wires together. Such amateurish motorists don't have to feel jittery. When a vehicle happens to conk out in his 'leikai', a Meitei-brother, equipped with his own lamp and tools, will put to use all the mechanical knowledge at his command to somehow repair the damage, restore its roadworthiness and see it off. The collective endorsement of such a "Good Samaritan"-like concern, by itself, is security enough to cover an outsider from harrn and danger in any Meitei neighbourhood.

Safe Environs: During my university days in the late 1970s, I was housed in an old sub-urban JNU (now MU)-Imphal Centre hostel. Being a movie-freak, then, every alternate day, I used to cycle back from city-theatres after late-night shows. Passing through Naorem Leikai, a much-feared residential colony, was inevitable. However, on the way back to my secluded Canchipur shanty, nothing pricked my peace of mind nor shook my sense of liberty, except, perhaps, the barking of a street-dog.

Shillong: A Gift from God: The writer also questioned "Do we have a rush of students from Meghalaya seeking college admission in Manipur? But we have hordes of students from the accursed state seeking admission here in Shillong". The awful author must thank God and the former British rulers for having first discovered the foggy township far away from the maddening crowd. Whatever the Whites touched turned into gold.

The climate, location, altitude and the non-too-steep rolling hills of Shillong made it picture-perfect for a summer capital. And that was why it became—Assam's Rajdhani. Regional offices had to mushroom. The lush-green vegetation, refreshing air and clean environs, all God-gifted, attracted Missionaries to run reputed schools. Tourists were on cloud nine. And for young-in-heart parents, dropping children at the drizzling town during the monsoon was a kind of repeat honeymoon.

Well-Fed Hill Station: Therefore, if there is a mad-rush for college-admissions in the picturesque hill-station, is there anything to brag about for the local ? Meghalaya ought to be grateful to the other North-Eastern states for their craze for quality education and the enrichment of its coffers in the bargain. Remittances in favour of students enrolled there surely keep many home-fires burning. For all the patronage of the neighbours, a localite is often heard boasting, "Remember, this is Shillong". With paranoiac and parochial, outburst of emotions on the rise, as the prolific writer herself pointed out, the Meghalaya may no longer be as hot a scholastic destination in the future.

Prejudiced View: Another premature comment from the otherwise brilliant pen-pusher-in-issue was, "To look for one honest person in government there would be to look for a needle in a hay-stack". The needling implication is that there's none who's upright in GOM. Well, corruption is not the creation of my state. It's an all India-weakness and a world-wide-web that ensnares every worldly-inclined fellow. But to draw a conclusion that there is no single honest employee in the GOM will be like saying there's no other church except the Presbyterian in Meghalaya.

The Elijah Syndrome: I hope the columnist of the write-up-in-controversy is a believer and reads the Bible. In any case, her anxiety is akin to that of Elijah in 1 kings 19:14, " And he said, I have been very jealous for the Lord God of hosts; for the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thy altars, and slain thy prophets with the sword: and I, even L only, am left.."

The Remnant: Incensed by the prophet's conquest at Mt. Carmel, Jezebel, the wicked queen of Israel, was after Elijah's blood. He fled and began to indulge in self-pity thinking there wasn't one soul, other than himself, who worshipped the true living God. But soon-after, God corrected him in verse 18, "Yet I have left me seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal; and every mouth which hath not kissed him".

The Invisible Crusaders: Yes, there are many who do not bow down before mammon in officialdom, here. I knew of bureaucrats in high places who risked the wrath of their political masters in stick¬ing to their guns not to compromise. Years ago, an honest Collector prepared FCS-rice for the CM of the day and his entourage, which is not the done thing here. The DC told the VVIPs that he could only offer what the Authority supplied; better supply— better offer.

Small-size Pockets: Besides, there are Engineers who fine-tune their hearts with God's own and won't touch the ill-gotten stuff, even to save their lives; and Lecturers who live dangerously as they zero in on and show zero-tolerance upon any kind of unfair-means in exams. We also have Graduate Teachers holding SMD- Spiritual Master's Degree . When the Lord revealed the evils of proxy-teaching, defying the cares of the world, they resigned and restituted as they could.

Suffer For Christ: Another Range Officer of excellent integrity, fearing God who commands," and fire shall consume the tabernacles of bribery (Job 15:34)", shunned graft and endured social sanctions ever since. For their aversion to filthy lucre, several incumbents in the white-collar cadres, suffer isolation, reviling and mockery of their own peers and kindred. Such black-tea sipping and bicycle-riding ilk of other-worldly govt. servants are in no position to school their children in expensive places like Shillong. It's doubly frustrating when ignorance presumes that there isn't a single clean hand in the GOM.

Better Equals: The natural-man wants to equal his betters and better his equals. When he doesn't possess what others do, he feels left behind. The desire to take graft will never be outgrown as long as a man cannot do without certain comforts and luxuries he pampers himself with. And when he gets hooked on to a habituated standard of living, he can't settle for anything less. This accelerates the desire to grab even more.

It's only when one isn't fussy about inconveniences, is immune to others' point of view on him and take life's indignities with dignity, that one will be contented with what one is and has. The Bible says, " But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition ". " For the love of money is the root of all evil: (I Timothy 6:9 & 10)".

Change d System Required: We Christians are constantly reminded of these verses and many more that upbraid bribery, like, " And you shall take no bribe: for a bribe blinds the discerning, and perverts the words of the righteous (Exodus 23:8)". It's sad that most of us Christians do not have victory over it. Those who refuse to mend their greedy ways have many excuses and maintain that the ends justify the means. But to be accepted by God, both the means and the ends need to have the stamp of His approval. Instead of resorting to blame game, we must tire our brains to bring about changes in the system that righteousness may become a fashion; and not an exception.

Self-Searching First: Obedience, any day, is better than sacrifice. You can't hit the bull with the butt facing it, can you ? God is to be worshipped as He pleases and not as man does. After a century and a half of Gospel-preaching in our region, if most followers of Jesus, still find it tough to show forth consistent Christ-likeness and transparency in public life, how can we point a finger at those who had not even heard the Word of God ? And if we do, three of our own fingers are pointing at us, aren't they ?

Manipur is no perfect state. It's inhabited by over 23 lakh fallible mortal humans. They have their own strengths and weaknesses, triumphs and defeats and hits and misses. To understand the 'whys' and 'hows' of the behavior patterns of its citizenry, one has to be well-versed in its history, geography and sociology.

Any judgment on the land-locked province will be lop-sided unless the strides it made in the fields of sports ( at national and international levels), medical science, Urbanization, Agriculture, Dress-sense, Technical Pursuits, Dietary Excellence, Classical Dances, Theatre, Cinema etc. are taken into consideration. At the same time, In earnest zeal, I implore my dear fellow-Manipuris to admit our mistakes in certain areas and policies and deplore to rectify the attitudinal errors. We'll do well not to ignore the bitter truth that we have become shakers, movers, news-makers, and a point of reference, all for the wrong reason.

Need For paradigm Shift: The unsavoury remarks of the said pen-pusher were quite unflattering. She faltered in bits, blundered in parts, and reveled in half-truths. Nevertheless, her vehement affront in writing wasn't without an element of truth. Let's face it. Coming to terms with the truth about oneself, by itself, will help one to delve deep from sole to soul; and with renewed vigour and revived rigour, adopt a fresh system of living, earning and giving that would redress societal ills and usher in a new era of peace, liberty and prosperity

"And you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free (John 8:32)". What and who is the truth? "Jesus said to him, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me (John 14:6)".

An Appeal For Verdict: : It's true that Manipur is rocked often by ethnic and political upheavals. But by such surges, its people will be purged. It's also true that the wholeness of my state's amalgam occasionally threatens to burst; but it's certainly not true that it has degraded so low to be a poor paradigm. Given the option to settle there, I strongly feel that Manipur, for all the accepted norms we flout and the assorted clout we wield, is still a better place to dwell in than the abode-of-clouds called Meghalaya. And I sincerely believe that we have better quality natural, financial and human resources to make our state the best in NE India.

Lunminthang Haokip

* Lunminthang Haokip, a resident of Old Lambulane, Imphal is a regular contributor to e-pao.net.
The writer self-describes himself as 'an occasional pen-pusher and a regular reader of E-pao!!!' . He can be contacted at minth8657(at)gmail(dot)com.
This article was webcasted on August 18, 2010.