Who brought in the concept of breaking Manipur ?

Hejang Misao Hangmi *

Map of Manipur :: Pix - TSE

Manipur – a land endowed with natural beauties inhabited by God chosen people was no doubt a land where communities lived peacefully without any question and reservation of which and what community one belongs. Problems were owned together and blessings were availed in equal manner.

History tells us that people from the hills and the valley live together in harmony without any room for prejudice, hatred and discrimination; rather they lend a helping hand to one another in time of need. The fact that when the Meitei King in the valley was badly in need for reinforcement, the Kukis Rajas (Chiefs) from the hills came to his aid cannot be denied and ignored. Tragically this generation fails to count.

In the hills Kukis and Nagas live side by side. In the olden days the tribal Naga attacked each other, burning down of villages and taking of heads were rampant and a common phenomena. The less stronger Naga villages seek protection from the Kuki Rajas which were extended with good intention that is protecting the vulnerable villagers from the ferocious onslaught of the blood thirsty villages. Sadly, history is written in distorted manner by people full of prejudices and portrays the community that helped the weaker community as the perpetrator of all wrong doings. This distorted history sows the seed of hatred and division among the people who at one point of time live in tranquillity, because this generation lacks the guts to search for the truth rather complacent with what has been written.

Unfortunately when stories are recounted they are done with bad intention by the old people or whoever tells the tales to generate vengeance mindset in the unsullied heart of the young generation. Sacred hearts of the young people are scripted indelibly with communal tone bereft of truth that bred division, hatred, chauvinism, restlessness etc. of which the state is currently undergoing and struggling with.

Recently some section of the Meitei communities in the name of International Meitei Forum (IMF) made full attempts to further sow the seed of division among the communities in the backdrop of the demand for Kuki State with their concocted and uncooked (not even half cooked) story about the Kukis which I perceived is a ploy to appease one community at the cost of another. Dear friends nobody will buy your make up stories and theories. You also cannot change the hard earned history but can create new. Unfortunately they are working hard to create history of lies full of venom.

The advent of Hinduism in the land of no mainstream religion is one of the factors that put into asunder the communities who at once live peaceably. Meitei community embraced Hinduism and discrimination creeps in, the tribal communities can no longer mingle freely with the people of the valley as was before. The division began with the coming of new religion.

The Tangkhul community who were the first to convert into Christianity in Manipur were also the first to get better education which means they are the forerunner in all aspects of life. Sadly rather than being the harbinger of peace and advocate for a just society they are the first to play the western politics in the virgin soil of Manipur putting into disarray the age old bonds of belongingness and oneness. Their politics started the concept of divided Manipur first by dividing a community.

History clearly says that the so called present Nagas of Chandel district belongs to Kuki community, but in post independence Tangkhul politics in the name of NSCN (IM) gain momentum and in the search for identity many of them switch over to Nagas, coercion cannot be ruled out. The 1990s Naga-Kuki conflict was well orchestrated and cleverly manoeuvre that Ukhrul, the Tangkhul dominated district, was safe and sound comparatively. Interestingly, when Mr. Rishang Keishing, the then Chief Minister was asked by the centre why he (as Naga chief minister) cannot reigned in the Naga to stop the fighting, his reply was 'there is no Naga and Kuki conflict, the fighting is between old Kuki and new Kuki only'.

Added to the wound was the silent spectator the Meitei community played in such desperate situation despite the bloods shed for the protection of the territory.

In any society the larger community or society is used as reference by the smaller one. For instance the United State or Western countries have been used as reference by today's world – our lifestyle, cultures etc. are, no doubt, adopted from them. Therefore would we consider too much if I say the Meitei -the major community in Manipur - and Tangkhul, the first Christian in Manipur are responsible in one way or the other for bringing in the concept of dividing Manipur?

Added to these is the double standard politics played by the government. Only under pressure from their godfather sitting in Delhi the idea of developing the hills at par with the valley comes to their mind which comes in the aftermath of the sustain release or outburst of grievances by the hill people in varied forms.

Off late the resurgence Kukis began to assert their identity and feel necessary and inevitable to have their own state which I should say is the result of the doing of the Tangkhul divisive politics and Meitei unstable politics. Who wants to live under constant fear and insecurity? Needless to mention the numbers of live lost and maimed by the landmine and our beautiful damsels bearing the stigma of the rampant rape by the valley insurgent groups.

Manipur at present is the political field of three communities – the Kukis, the Meiteis and the Nagas. They are vying for hegemony and the power struggle among them rendered common people suffering with untold miseries.

Dear friends my vision of Manipur is peace and just society where every community live in harmony and love, where every community got its share of development equally, where communalism has no foothold, where the word Manipuri is enough to identify one another.

But...........damages made are so deep that my mortal thinking sometime told me that they are irrational and impossible because the issues are political in nature. Yet, deep in my heart I still believe peace and just society is not something impossible which, I believe, can be done by building an individual by giving him/her the fifth space – self to society. We are responsible to make our world a better place to live in, nobody else.