I hope someday we would break free from these chains and fly in the clear blue skies. Up, up and away into the lost paradise – our dreamland, Zogam.
Blood has spilled. A lot of blood has spilled.
The recent fortnight has witnessed an alarming spate of violence erupting in the streets of Lamka, our dear old domain. Sporadic gunfights between armed groups, senseless hail of gunshots, extorting money from local businessmen by some scrappy hooligans, torturing innocent civilians for no apparent reasons have increasingly flared up, again and again, with alarming regularity. We have always been through such random acts of violence and to me, it seems we all have become fairly accustomed to them.
I am not going to delve into the whole lot of situation. I won’t dig further down the road. And I won’t suggest any outcome either.
But lots of innocent civilians have suffered. This has become a matter of concern now.
When the sun goes down in the evening sky, fear begins to darken the picturesque town, and cold terror lingers into the night. Armed guerillas begin to reign, roaming free around the town under the flickering neon lights, flashing their guns at people who they think belong to a particular community, and beat them up till their spines give way. And the night usually ends with a big bang. One more drip. One more death. The story doesn’t end here. The toll is likely going up in the days to come.
Following this hazy chain of unsavory events, one after the other, give me a freaking headache. There isn’t a damn thing we could do? Just how helpless we all have become! Just how far we all have been victimized! How long are we going to let loose these raving lunatics in town? There isn’t really anything we, the people could do in a land where camouflages and M-16 rifles reign. I shuddered quietly, trying to calm my racing heart. Perhaps the dawn would bring us light. That seems to be the only refuge we have.
In the latest turn of development, four persons, including a pastor, from the Mahanaim Home, a rehab center in Vengnuam, Lamka were brutally tortured on the night of July 17 in Bijang by some unknown armed miscreants. They begged and pleaded humbly for mercy. The perpetrators knew they were innocent. But still they simply were not set free. They were beaten the whole night. A couple of months ago, a mentally ill person was killed at Kamdou Veng and about a week later, some young thugs threatened a journo not to ever set his foot again in Tuibuang area and knocked him cold. We would never know why. That is left to our own reasoning.
Horrific violence seems to sprout everywhere and communal tensions are on the high, yet again. This unprecedented spasm of violence seems to push us closer to all-out ethnic war. A woman was shot dead yards from her home in Hmar Veng on July 19. Two opposing arm groups were engaged in a bloody gunfight on July 10 in Phailian and a drastic re-run of the sequence followed suit on the night of July 12. (I am pretty sure there might be some more incidents which I miss out.)
I don’t really give a damn on what’s the fuss all about. Or who gets killed or by whom or why. They are simply nauseating. But something terrible has troubled my mind. And the very thought of it makes me chill to the bone.
Ten years ago, automatic assault rifles were the most advanced form of arms our ‘guys’ used for combating. That’s during the 1997 ethnic clash. More and more sophisticated weapons have evolved and now, landmines, lethal bombs and RPGs become part of our military strategy. Bombs have now been widely used among civilians. I don’t know what would become of us say, five years down the line. This is quite disturbing. The blame could be squarely put on Meitei UGs. They are the one who invent this culture. Our precious lands are now littered with landmines and munitions. Innumerable lives were snuffed out and limbs were maimed indiscriminately. The grand, sinister Meitei spirits of death, divide and destruction are freely let loose in our land. I wonder why are we too blind to let ourselves swept along by this tidal Meitei current. When are we going to wake from our hypnotized slumber?
The time has now come, I think, for us to stand up, speak out, and fight back. The time has now come for us to get united. We had suffered a great deal, and lest we act fast, we are doomed to eternal damnation. But the sad truth here is that we just love to fight each other in our own way - and not against our common enemy.
I am quite prepared to believe that my views and writings will be misused by right-wing fanatics and extremists. I know some may even find them offensive. My solution is simple enough: don’t read the damn thing — that way you won’t be offended, if ever you were. And don’t call me a radical. I am simply being rational. Or rather emotional.
And as I sat down by the river Lanva in passing thought, multitude of repressed memories came swirling in my mind. I thought of all the good times we have had in our lovely, little town of Lamka. I thought of all the sufferings our people had to endure as a result of the surreptitious penetration of the divisive Meitei ideology into our land.
Blood has spilled. A lot of blood has spilled.
The recent fortnight has witnessed an alarming spate of violence erupting in the streets of Lamka, our dear old domain. Sporadic gunfights between armed groups, senseless hail of gunshots, extorting money from local businessmen by some scrappy hooligans, torturing innocent civilians for no apparent reasons have increasingly flared up, again and again, with alarming regularity. We have always been through such random acts of violence and to me, it seems we all have become fairly accustomed to them.
I am not going to delve into the whole lot of situation. I won’t dig further down the road. And I won’t suggest any outcome either.
But lots of innocent civilians have suffered. This has become a matter of concern now.
When the sun goes down in the evening sky, fear begins to darken the picturesque town, and cold terror lingers into the night. Armed guerillas begin to reign, roaming free around the town under the flickering neon lights, flashing their guns at people who they think belong to a particular community, and beat them up till their spines give way. And the night usually ends with a big bang. One more drip. One more death. The story doesn’t end here. The toll is likely going up in the days to come.
Following this hazy chain of unsavory events, one after the other, give me a freaking headache. There isn’t a damn thing we could do? Just how helpless we all have become! Just how far we all have been victimized! How long are we going to let loose these raving lunatics in town? There isn’t really anything we, the people could do in a land where camouflages and M-16 rifles reign. I shuddered quietly, trying to calm my racing heart. Perhaps the dawn would bring us light. That seems to be the only refuge we have.
In the latest turn of development, four persons, including a pastor, from the Mahanaim Home, a rehab center in Vengnuam, Lamka were brutally tortured on the night of July 17 in Bijang by some unknown armed miscreants. They begged and pleaded humbly for mercy. The perpetrators knew they were innocent. But still they simply were not set free. They were beaten the whole night. A couple of months ago, a mentally ill person was killed at Kamdou Veng and about a week later, some young thugs threatened a journo not to ever set his foot again in Tuibuang area and knocked him cold. We would never know why. That is left to our own reasoning.
Horrific violence seems to sprout everywhere and communal tensions are on the high, yet again. This unprecedented spasm of violence seems to push us closer to all-out ethnic war. A woman was shot dead yards from her home in Hmar Veng on July 19. Two opposing arm groups were engaged in a bloody gunfight on July 10 in Phailian and a drastic re-run of the sequence followed suit on the night of July 12. (I am pretty sure there might be some more incidents which I miss out.)
I don’t really give a damn on what’s the fuss all about. Or who gets killed or by whom or why. They are simply nauseating. But something terrible has troubled my mind. And the very thought of it makes me chill to the bone.
Ten years ago, automatic assault rifles were the most advanced form of arms our ‘guys’ used for combating. That’s during the 1997 ethnic clash. More and more sophisticated weapons have evolved and now, landmines, lethal bombs and RPGs become part of our military strategy. Bombs have now been widely used among civilians. I don’t know what would become of us say, five years down the line. This is quite disturbing. The blame could be squarely put on Meitei UGs. They are the one who invent this culture. Our precious lands are now littered with landmines and munitions. Innumerable lives were snuffed out and limbs were maimed indiscriminately. The grand, sinister Meitei spirits of death, divide and destruction are freely let loose in our land. I wonder why are we too blind to let ourselves swept along by this tidal Meitei current. When are we going to wake from our hypnotized slumber?
The time has now come, I think, for us to stand up, speak out, and fight back. The time has now come for us to get united. We had suffered a great deal, and lest we act fast, we are doomed to eternal damnation. But the sad truth here is that we just love to fight each other in our own way - and not against our common enemy.
I am quite prepared to believe that my views and writings will be misused by right-wing fanatics and extremists. I know some may even find them offensive. My solution is simple enough: don’t read the damn thing — that way you won’t be offended, if ever you were. And don’t call me a radical. I am simply being rational. Or rather emotional.
And as I sat down by the river Lanva in passing thought, multitude of repressed memories came swirling in my mind. I thought of all the good times we have had in our lovely, little town of Lamka. I thought of all the sufferings our people had to endure as a result of the surreptitious penetration of the divisive Meitei ideology into our land.
And I wept.
© vaphualization july 26, 2006
© vaphualization july 26, 2006
4 comments:
Dear Lun,
I read the “fiery political piece” – an absorbing read. In some way, it articulates the rather romanticized aspiration for our dreamland variously called Zogam, Zalengam and whatnot. The story appeals to our sense of Zomi nationalism, the burden of our educated middle class since the 1970s. But this is no innovative idea. During those days, vague nationalist sentiments were first shaped into a coherent discourse by some JNU M.Phil wallahs (especially Thangkhangin and L.S. Gangte). T. Gougin too narrated a less coherent, but more popular version of the Zomi story, ironically retold in a “discovery” style. All that was history now. The public has short memory. Of course, many things happened since then, and the public memory disc cannot store every bit of old data unless we see their possible relevance for future use.
The Zomi-Kuki ethnic clash of 1997-98 inevitably gave a new twist to the Zomi movement. While it enabled us to get the Zomi story across a wider audience through a curious media, it also widened the gap between the ranks of the nationalist between the Kukis and the Zomis. It also signalled that the mantle of leadership for Zomi movement had passed on – for good – to the Paite community. During the pre-Conflict period, the terms “Zou” and “Zomi” were interchangeable in the context of Manipur – UZO, ZSP, ZCC, ZYO, etc. This observation, however, did not apply to other side of the Burmese border. Despite the rhetoric of Zomi unity, the international boundary is becoming a real force – shaping not only our political identity, but also our cultural life-world. The recent quit notice of the Lushai Burmese in Mizoram is a stark reminder of our changing social reality. Place-based identities have a life of their own. So is gender identity. Our Zomi stories often celebrates a male, macho and conflictual view of the world, where war-like male chauvinists battle for bits and pieces of homelands. This is what feminist scornfully calls “penis thinking” – straightforward and aggressive masculine thinking. Sometimes I find our narrative of Zomi identity a bit monolithic, mystifying, insensitive, patriarchal, macho and antagonistic. We need to thicken the story line to include more complex parts of the plot. Simplified stereotypes do not make a story humane and enriching.
Ideas have consequences, stories shapes people. I am afraid that the constant negative projection of neighbouring communities (eg. Kukis, Meiteis, etc.) can become a self-fulfilling prophecy. It is better to call a rapist a rapist, a rebel a rebel, a criminal a criminal. It is unhealthy to give negative label to whole communities due to the activities of a deviant individual or a dissenting group. In an increasingly global world, we are getting entangled firmly into a network of products and people. Our interdependence on one another is bound to increase. That was the case even in the past, but the new forces of consumerism in India since 1991 gave this a fresh meaning. I think Manipur was badly prepared for the new brave world, which is forward and outward looking. The Nagas movement was a major distraction in the Northeast. I don’t understand why Muivah remains unsatisfied with the loss of 25,000 Naga souls in a 50 year old blood bath. In a place where an old crook like Muivah remains the role model for youngsters, I think the future looks very bleak. Creative entrepreneurs or even intellectual giants would rather make better role models than Muivah-type belligerent icons. It is unfortunate that most Northeast insurgents share a secret admiration for the old crook – even the Meitei rebels are no exception. The Kuki militants hate him, but this does not prevent secret admiration. We need to invent more peace-loving icons for our society. Our Mizo brothers should be able to offer help in this direction. Problem-solving is part of life, and new challenges make life worth living. But our solution does not lie in macho ethnic feuds and homeland narratives. What we need is more autonomy, local democracy and good governance. It is time to debunk the myth of ethnic or racial purity within idyllic homelands and monocultures like Nagalim, Zogam, Zalengam or Kangleipak. The natural conclusion of such story is ethnic blood bath. This had happened during the ethnic cleansing of NSCN unleashed on poor Kukis in 1992. The outcome: Nagas were evicted out of Moreh and the image of NSCN was tarnished. The Kukis sadly tried a similar abortive experiment on the Zomis from 1997-98. The outcome: Kukis were almost evicted out of Lamka and Zomi image was positively boosted. Now, this madness must find a full stop.
We have better things to do. It’s time for the serious business of social reform and re-training our human resource for employability and productive enterprise. The rise of Indian economy offers new opportunities to build a smart and vibrant economy. All that it takes is a radically new vision of a market society. This will release the full potentials of our people. A place is as good as its people and product. It is time to grow up and talk about what we can sell or market to others – to the world. In the past, we tend to imagine ourselves as a problem child demanding isolated and locked homelands from adult Indians. This is what Muivah & Co. is still demanding. He wants to have portions of all his brothers’ cake. This almost sounds like childish imperialism. In academic parlance, we called this irredentism. His father told him, “Why are your so selfish? See your brothers are resenting your behaviour”. Muivah replied that he had “a unique history”, implying that his brothers were not unique. While India is forging ahead with free market boom, NSCN still dreams of a “national socialist council of Nagaland”. In the new shining India, “nationalist socialism” is a post-dated cheque.
Enterprise culture cannot be separated from peace culture. At present, powerful rebel groups like the NSCN and ULFA are promoting gun culture everywhere in the Northeast. Remember guns never come alone, they always come with drugs. This is how the “freedom movement” gets funded. Drug money, better guns, more victims. Extortion of successful entrepreneurs and road taxes are their side incomes. The burden was finally shifted to unsuspecting customers in terms of high prices and inflation. This adds to the misery of the poor.
Democratic India is a good ally (not the enemy that Muivah dreads), the talented Meiteis neighbours are our collaborators as well as competitors, tribal Nagas are our potential customers of cultural products, our Mizo kinsmen are our brand promoters, and we need quality give and take deals with our Zomi brothers (or sisters) across the border. Lamka is a relatively new town which sprung up after World War II. Starting from a scratch, it transformed itself into the most cosmopolitan hill town and the Second Town of Manipur before the ethnic clash in 1997-98. That was possible due to the limited existence of private property in land and the open investment climate. Lamka used to exert a magnetic pull for many moneyed investors looking for good profit. The Mizo entrepreneurs started business, the Meitei imas came to sell delicacies from the valley, Marwaris and Punjabis opened new shops, some local small entrepreneurs set up paan-dukans, Biharis barbers too arrived, armies and bureaucrats from all parts of India add new colour to the human tapestry. That was how it began. The ethnic conflict disturbed that delicate human ecology – obstructing the movement of people and products. Lamka became a jungle of security gates and bunkers. However, the instinct for survival is re-asserting itself recently. We pick up the thread where we left. Khuga Dam project kick-started a new economic process. Lamka is an expanding town again with a population of 50,000 souls. The pluralist and cosmopolitan spirit of Lamka needs to be preserved at all cost. That was how it all began and how it will survive best. At present, the domineering attitude of the Paites and Thadous vitiates the pluralist vision and cosmopolitan spirit of Lamka. Variety is the spice of life; the rainbow colour of Lamka is beautiful. It really deserves to be celebrated, not decried like our macho militants do. The variety of culture is the greatest asset of the town. This is also what makes the town attractive as a potential hot tourist destination both at the domestic and international market. Peace is the precondition for our potential prosperity.
Of course, there are other attractive locations in Manipur hill areas. Ukhrul is one of the most promising spot with exotic Siroy lily and staffs like that. Compared with Lamka, Ukhrul was an old town and the centre of Tangkhul culture since the advent of William Pettigrew in 1866. Today Ukhrul has barely 3,000 households. It was an erstwhile cement manufacturing centre too. Lamka did not have such advantages to begin with. But Ukhrul has none of the pluralist ethos and cosmopolitan culture of Lamka. It is a pity to design our Zomi vision on the inward-looking Ukhrul model or its national icon (Muivah). We have more things to learn from the relative openness of Imphal or Aizawl. I was told that Aizawl in its early days was called “vai leen” by the Lushai villagers. It referred to the diversity of Aizawl inhabitants since its establishment during the British era. We need to make our towns “vai leen” or even Meitei leen. We need a bold vision to attract talented middle-class entrepreneurs to Lamka or even Singngat. Caste no bar, race no bar, tribes no bar! We need Meitei talent, Mizo entrepreneurs, Vai capital, Burmese foodstuffs, American technology, Indian democracy, Naga cultural market, foreign investors (FDI) and an innovative vision of globally marketable Zomi rainbow culture. The first step for this is local democracy and good governance. This is our only viable survival gospel – an untold story of unrealized capabilities and potential prosperity. Damned ethnic wars! Bloody sacrifices for macho homelands!
by David Vumlallian Zou,
Queen's University
Belfast, UK
Hiai pen kha sim nop mahmah eive.. Zogam.com ah pen lah mang maimah a, hiai a nana koih kha hoih mahmah e...
loved this piece...
Miteng in sim thei chiat le ut huai na e maw!!!!
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