On CM speech at Gujarat : Safronising the NE- Hindutva style
- Imphal Times Editorial :: March 30 2018 -

Any individual in the country is free to choose his or her religion.

And any groups or individuals also have the right to spread the religion of his choice among other citizen of the country.

The beauty of Indian democracy is its secular character.

A nation, either it may be the most developed country USA, Japan, United Kingdom, France or China etc. have their own internal problem like things that has been witnessing in India every single day.

Riots between followers of different religion are not new. Hindu-Muslim riots in India, riots between the Protestants and Catholic Christians, riots between Sia and Sufi Muslim religion followers are few of the examples.

Hinduism is one religion which does not divide people – It is a religion that unit every individual who ever have faith in it.

There are Hindu followers at many countries of South East Asia, Europe and United States of America.

It is the highly advance philosophical ideology of this religion that people irrespective of which communities or nations they belongs to accept it.

After Babri Majid demolition in early 1990s, the believers of Hindu started utilising the religion as a tool for political purpose.

The rise of Hindu brigade then has been seen considered as the most powerful weapon for political purpose.

These people were driven into illusion of building a nation by safronising the entire country.

The idea works as India is a land where the maximum population are Hindu followers at which over 80% lives under extreme poverty.

There is nothing to be criticised to the Hindutva style of Safronising the nation.

But when it comes to North East Region of India it is a different.

Extremity in the Hindutva style will not only make the people of the region surrendered the highly regarded Hinduism but might even strengthen the partition movement to segregate from the nation.

Yes we are talking about Manipur. History stands to tell the fact that even during the British regime Manipur was a separately administered and not under the Indian British ruler during colonial period.

Manipur of Today, formerly called by some scholars as Kangleipak in the early days have its history of 2000 years of civilizations.

Some scholar said that Kangleipak was a nation state in the South East Asia might have existed for over 10000 years.

This need to be reaffirmed but 2000s years of civilization is as per historical records.

The entry of Hinduism in the erstwhile nation was only during the reign of Meidingu Pamheiba (1709 – 1748).

It is also a fact that Manipur was annexed to the Indian Union on October 15, 1949, two years after India gets its independence. Before the expansion of Hindutva Belt in the NE region, the political party was hardly heard in the region and was among the most unpopular political party until it hold power at the center.

Now the wisdom of the leadership has spread far and wide and even penetrated to the state where people have different faith.

Of the seven states in North East India (excluding Sikkim) six states are now rule by BJP in one way or the other.

In the inaugural function of the Madhavpur Mela at Porbandar district of Gujarat some two days back, Chief Minister of Manipur made a statement which insulted the entire people of the region.

No doubt majority of the Meitei follows Hindu Religion, but the leader of the state tried to connect the region with Hindutva mythology (perhaps a newly modified one).

May be intentionally or just a slip of tongue Chief Minister N. Biren Singh while talking at the inaugural function said, “In the time of Lord Krishna, there was no separate Arunachal Pradesh or Assam or Manipur. The entire Northeast was one entity. Now, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur and Nagaland are on the border of China. But Lord Krishna made them part of India during his time.”

Mr. N. Biren was once a well known editor of reputed vernacular daily before joining to politics in early 2000.

In almost all his writings he had advocated the merger of Manipur to the Indian Union – ‘Illegal’.

The entry of Hinduism in the country has been many times published at the paper at which he was the Editor.

It is no wrong to follow Hindu religion but connecting the Hindu Mythology with the region is something that will sabotage the history and culture of the erstwhile nation.

The Chief Minister might have been talking those very insulting words to the Manipuris particularly the Meitei thinking it as an appeasement policy to have better relations with the ruling government.

But the fact is that Mr. Biren as the Chief Minister of this state had knowingly tempered the history of this erstwhile nation – now a state of India.

N. Biren also stated,”Marrying Rukmini, Krishna had bound the Northeast with India”.

Such statement amounts to accepting the otherwise rich cultural heritage of the respective states of Northeast region as ‘Limping Cousins of Hindu’, a hypothetical claim put forward by some Indian anthropologist.

Federalism should desirously be the strength of India’s democracy. And it should holistically be reflected in social political, cultural as well as economic spheres.

But what has been witnessing in the centre-state relation with the changed political wind at the centre is the growing tendency of centralisation together with the homogenising of other cultures at the pattern of the Hindi-Hindu heartlands.

The process has the tendency of eroding and diluting the eroded culture of the politically marginalised nationalities.

It goes against the spirit and ideals of India’s democratic federal polity, ‘Unity in diversity’. The statement of the NE CMs shows their political immaturity.

By saying so, they have succumbed by weighing the worth of their culture through the yardstick of the Hindi-Hindu culture. This amounts to misreading the Hindi-Hindu homogenising process as acceptance.

Twisting narrative of history is at the cost of history itself. Falling in Hindutva line at the cost history by the new converts of the rightist ideology is destroying is the history of Manipur.

This can lead to the downfall of the present Governments in NE.

Perhaps CM Biren needs a lesson in history.