Manipur News

History cannot be the sole issue, neither can any belief inbrotherhood past or present. The ultimate deciding factor in the present political face off between Naga integrationists and Manipur integrity defenders will have to be rooted in the current reality. It will be good if the two can exist side by side without the need for each to obliterate the other. As we have been consistently arguing in these columns, we see no reason why this cannot happen given the will, imagination and most importantly, accommodative spirit. Why must the boundaries of identity, both cultural and political, be rigid and absolutely non permeable. They can work in non-antagonistic concentric circles, whereby someone can be a Meitei, but also Manpuri, an Indian, an Asian etc, and ultimately a human being at the outermost circle. What then is the current reality? Two perspectives are obvious: One, the aspiration of the Nagas to come under one political roof and two, the survival question of Manipur, whereby its two geographical constituents, the valley and its surrounding hills cannot but remain together under a single administrative control.

In a reversal of the popular portrayal of the scenario, we would even say that the Manipur integrity issue is not about emotions at all at its core, although on the surface it does appear to be so. Quite to the contrary, it is about hard-nosed political geography of survival deep down. As we have argued so many times before, a valley and its surrounding hills must complement each other and form one composite living space. The valley, any valley for that matter, will never let go of the hills that surround it, for it is a matter of its survival. Asking Manipur to give up its hills, would be like asking Israel to give up the Golan Heights. They will never agree, for it would amount to asking them to disintegrate voluntarily. The rightness or the wrongness of their refusal becomes only a matter of perspective and subjective judgement. But if Israel’s right to exist, or Manipur’s right to exist, are to be acknowledged, their right of control over territories extremely vital to their survival cannot but also be acknowledged. To not acknowledge this would amount to war. Leave aside the Israel parallel, but must this right necessarily have to limit the aspiration for Naga integration. The challenge must be to work out a political dispensation where Manipur integrity and Naga integration can happen simultaneously without crossing each other’s core interests. The manner in which even independent nations are melting down borders to evolve into common regional entities, gives hope that this can work.

If the engine that drives the Manipur integrity campaign is emotional only superficially, we would also argue, without attributing any value judgment, that it is the Naga integration movement which is emotional. Disparate tribes, discovering a fraternal bondage in a generic name may be a transcendental journey as Prof. BK Roy Burman puts it, but still it is nevertheless an emotional thread that is the binding force ultimately. It must however be acknowledged that this emotion is a powerful reality that must be factored into any lasting solution to the problem that is unsettling the region. The other reality is that this is the age of partnerships. We do not refer to only the Naga integration-Manipur integrity equation, but also to their relation with India. It does not have to be a binary antagonism always. As in all partnerships, conditions that suit each partner can always be worked out so that relations are cemented in mutual benefits and hopes. If a pride in the self and an all round prosperity can be guaranteed through these partnerships, what else is there to fight for. The ability to come to terms with these realities will be the key to the return of peace and normalcy. It will also be the definition of the true calibre in our situation.

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“In the animal kingdom, the rule is, eat or be eaten, in the human kingdom, define or be defined” said wrote Thomas Szasz, capturing a concern of much of the hitherto inarticulate world of the modern times, in particular various native non-European and indigenous communities which have relatively recently come to belong to the modern literate world. The statement undoubtedly is profound. It says much of the notions and mechanisms of identity formation. We bring up this idea up in contemplating what postcolonial identity has been for various communities, in particular the indigenous world. It is not surprising that much of the identities we know of today were given and brought forth from within. Thanks to new energy given to scholarship in this direction, we are now cognisant of how much of the identities that have come to be internalised amongst not just outside observers who caused these identity formation but also communities given these identities, buttressing in the process, and contrary to what William Shakespeare implied in the famous statement in “Romeo and Juliet”, there is a lot in a name, for often it is the name which gives an identity. The Northeast was a nomenclature once defining a certain cartographical location on the Indian political and geographical map. Today it is an identity. The same can be said of the Arunachalis, Mizos, Nagas, Manipuris and Assamese, and as a matter of fact, Indian. Do these identities conform to ethnicity or do they signify domicile and citizenship status, are some of the problematic questions. Without going too deep into these queries, suffices it to say that once upon a time, people who today profess these identities, never knew of themselves by these identities. They were given these names by others to broadly define them, and today, many of those thus defined, would zealously defend these identities as their own intrinsic self understanding, even to violent extents.

That these understanding of identities have their liberal shares of inner tensions and hegemonies is also an undeniable fact today. Indeed, much of the conflict situations we witness in the region are a manifestation of these tensions within. Again, there is no gainsaying these understanding have a profound bearing on the way policies and programmes of the government are formulated and unfolded. This being the case, we are proposing a need to deconstruct these identities which although were given to the communities have crystallised solidly, and attempt a reconstruction in the manner that French philosopher, Jacques Derrida recommends. This is important, because the new identities thus constructed would be informed by inner needs and dynamics of the communities rather than imposed from outside alone. They would also have shed the redundant and at the same time incorporated answers to new challenges, which indeed different times always throw up. We can begin this process by asking some very basic questions like who is a Manipuri or Naga or Assamese etc. Honest and probing queries into these seemingly simple questions should bring in new and refreshing lights as to how many of the tensions within our societies can be resolved.

It goes without saying that this exercise must not mean the total rejection of what is already there. History can never be reversed and historical events cannot be erased. So if certain identities have evolved because of historical logic of a time, even if it meant identities forming out of nomenclatures assigned to peoples for the convenience of anthropological conveniences of outside researchers of the past, they have become engraved in indelible ink as historical experiences of the place, sparking off myriad chains of other historical events, which in their turns set off other chains of events and these too their own chains etc, in a never ending process. In other words, what has happened has happened and cannot be reversed. They have come to have strong historical roots of their own. But acknowledging the limitations of the circumstances they came into being and the consequences they have caused, should be the beginning of a new dawn of understanding of the way forward for our societies in resolving many of the issues of conflict embedded within. As for instance, new courses can be charted in which the old and the new understandings of identities can confluence and evolve more democratic and mutually acceptable ground for coexistence, and in time perhaps even evolving new identities which are inclusive of all stakeholders in an equitable way informed by the noble idea of justice for all.

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IMPHAL, July 24: YCCIC and COSMO ended in 2-2 draw in today’s match of the Super Six Hockey Tournament held at Khuman Lampak Hockey Stadium.

The goal scorers were W Jiban and y Helendro of YCCIC and Amarjit and RK Bikramjit of COSMO.

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IMPHAL, July 24: Sagolband United and KSC Lambulane has ended in a goalless draw in the first ground of 12th  Birendra Singh Imphal West Memorial Super Division Football League held at Chajing Kangjeibung.

In the second ground, THAU Thangmeiband defeated CYCL Chingamathak by 2-1 goals.

The goals of THAU were scored by Vicky and Romen while Chingthangkhomba made the lone goal for CYLC.

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IMPHAL, July 24: The 19th State Level Kickboxing Championship will be held from August 5 to 7 at Oriental Club, Khongman Mangjil.

Altogether 400 kickboxers from eight districts will take part in the championship under the categories of sub-junior, junior and senior.

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IMPHAL, July 24: Kh Joykishan has sponsored a sum of Rs. 3.5 lakh for 6th Manipur State League, 2011 which will be organized by All Manipur Football Association (AMFA) under “Vision Manipur” project.

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A lot many water bodies have died out from the Imphal Valley. In their footsteps may follow the rest of the remaining natural water bodies in the valley, including we dare say, the Loktak. Purely from common sense, the lifespan of a lake in a land-locked valley, with little or no drainage system to flush it in a continual process, cannot be that very long. For regardless of whether a river system drains water away from a valley, there will always be more rivers that drain into it bringing down tonnes of silt perennially from the surrounding mountain catchments areas. It can quite well be imagined why the battle to save fresh water lakes in small valleys have been almost always a losing battle. The best that have been done is to delay their deaths, but the cause for optimism is, advancements in science have come up with ever better techniques to increase the longevity of these lakes. Perhaps someday, it will become a reality when this delay of lake decay can be perpetual. But the fact remains that without this radical sort of intervention of science, valley lakes cannot live forever. This is what Manipur should be cautious about, and in fact be ready to face.

It needs no experts to tell us rivers can change their courses, and so when silt raises their bed high enough for the water to find another alternative path of least resistance, it will take the latter path. This phenomenon is not altogether unknown even in Manipur’s recorded history. In fact there have been records of artificial dredging of river beds through compulsory contributory labour under various kings, and even of artificial diversions of river courses. Considering the sizes of the rivers here, these projects could not really have been too awesome or daunting. All the same, although of a totally different dimension, the current talks of river linking etc, in the larger context of the vast Indian sub-continent are not any logic that escaped the notice of good administrators in the state’s history. Even now, in spite of what the critics of the river linking project say, we do feel it will be an experiment worth the while in Manipur. Just one case should suffice to illustrate. Diverting the Nambul River from the heart of Imphal city would do miles to the health of the river as well as in flood control within the Imphal municipal area. The water too may acquire more irrigational value in the process. The stretch of the river bed thus dried up can become part of the master plan of an Imphal city sewerage project, as and when such a project comes up.

Saving our lakes, most particularly the Loktak, will be a far more difficult proposition. But perhaps this will also have to be linked up with a river management project. Perhaps the solution is in devising a way to have our rivers safely deposit their alluvium loads they bring down from the hills in special reservoirs along their meandering courses before they empty into the Loktak. But it is not only silt or the fate of its lakes that the ecology of Imphal Valley is threatened by. The inescapable fact also is, whatever material is introduced into its soil will remain there forever precisely because there is very little draining out of the valley. Take for instance chemical pesticides or chemical fertilizers, or for that matter chemical effluents from factories in the future. Most of the residues from these are simply going to continue to accumulate in the soil. Who knows what effect such residues will have on the soil in a couple of hundred years. Just suppose it begins turning acidic or alkaline, or in the worst case scenario, poisonous. Considering pesticides are poisons, this is not altogether impossible. Again in the absence of a flushing mechanism, it will take eons before these soil conditions can be neutralized. This will indeed be a nightmarish scenario. Abolishing chemical pesticides or fertilizers can also mean present day disasters and it would indeed be stupid to recommend such a measure unthinkingly. What must however be done is to make sure that to the extent possible, only bio-degradable alternatives are used. Or even if there are no real substitutes to chemical agriculture boosters, their long term consequences must be closely monitored and regulated. While we all celebrate the fecundity of the alluvial soil of the valley and its salubrious climate, have the obvious fragility of the valley ecology ever been part of any serious reflection in official policy making or the general understanding of the issue? We are afraid to say there have been very little of it and this is most unfortunate.

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