Oh Churachandpur! The Town Of Our Birth

By: ABEL HMAR A Ccpurian

The Little town of Churachandpur, tucked away in the State of Manipur in the North Eastern Part of India. Hardly known to the world outside is a beautiful picturesque town cradled by the Hills on all sides. The natural beauty of this town is comparable to a Painter painting his master-piece and taking every bit of care to ensure that his painting is indeed the best and that it stands out from the rest.

The Painter for the unsurpassed beauty of Churachandpur is the Creator Himself. The way he has molded and shaped, and colored the hills and the trees that surrounds this beautiful valley town is simply breath taking. I think the Lord (the Creator) must have complimented himself after He created the scenic town of Churachandpur. It may not be the ultimate in beauty for others, or for outsiders, but as a Ccpurians this is our town and it sure is beautiful in our sight.

This picturesque town (the second biggest town in Manipur after Imphal) is inhabited by the beautiful people of Paites, Hmars, Kukis, Lushais, Gangtes, Vaipheis, Zo, Chin, Simte etc. And also a handful of VAIS (outsiders), and few Sardarjis who have made Churachandpur (Lamka) their own hometown. Churachandpur is a hometown for all these beautiful people. And both time and destiny had woven all the above mentioned communities into one to form the unique multi lingual, multi culture and peculiar social fabric of Churachandpur town. All the communities inhabiting this town are like their other North-Eastern Brothers and sisters are of Mongoloid races.It is said that everyday in Ccpur is a 'Pentecost day', or that Pentecost day is celebrated everyday in this town. I think we all know what happened on the Pentecost day in the Bible, when the Holy Spirit fell upon the believers from different parts of the world. And the believers from different parts of Asia and the world were able to communicate to each other in their own languages.

The same holds true for the people of this town - for the Ccpurians. Very much unlike the other towns and the capitals of the North Eastern States - The Ccpurians communicate with each other in their own respective languages. Ccpur is quite a cosmopolitan town in its own way. The Lingua Franca for this town is ones own language.And the Communities here are predominantly Christian, which is quite evident from the fact that there are Churches of all shapes and sizes in every locality of Ccpur. Let us go back in time to the early 80' and also all the decades before that. Ccpur was the most beautiful and the most peaceful town. Fear was an unknown word back then. They say that A Lady could walk alone at night with nothing to fear. The only cause of concern for the kids and the Women Folks were Local Drunkards in their drunken stupor belting out the latest Hindi film songs as they walk down the streets of Ccpur in their inimitable 'drunken style'.Beautiful Young Girls and Boys, walking down the streets of Ccpur town, with Guitars in hand, singing a song of serenade in gay abandon under a star-lit night was a common and a beautiful sight.

But Alas! Things have changed drastically now, the tables have been completely turned. As fear envelops this beautiful town, the sweet strain of the acoustic guitar is rarely heard now. The sounds of Automatic guns have taken over, as fear and uncertainty lurks around in ever nook and corner of this once 'so peaceful town'.The beautiful people of this picturesque town live out their lives in constant fear now. After the unfortunate ethnic clash (Paite/Kuki), people now prefer to stay inside locked doors once the night falls. And Security forces the Guardians of Peace patrol every inch of the town. Young-Men suspected to be 'Extremists' are often rounded up, unnecessarily harassed and often subjected to the anger of the security forces. Body Bags and folded shawls have become the order of the day. Hatred pulls the trigger, another life is taken, another body lying in a pool of blood. With various Extremist outfits like K.N.F (and its various factions), ZRA, and HPC (D) having their own are of influence. Ccpur is now a far cry from what it used to be in the past' When fear was an unknown word'An Yale Graduate friend of mine wrote an article about Ccpur in a newsletter once. He actually compared it with Uganda. He wrote ' Two places, green with hills, red with blood and Alive with Hope'. The most striking sentence of the Article that has stayed with me all these years ' My brothers and sisters are carrying automatic guns killing each other and they call themselves Christians'This hit me on the head like a 1000-ton hammer. We all claim and profess ourselves to be Christians - Followers of Christ. And we all know that one of the Commandments given in the 10 commandments listed in the Bible is ' Thou shall not kill'. May be we have lost touch with Christianity? Or are we just Christians for convenience? All I know is Christianity is not a religion of convenience and that involves a lot of sacrifices and not compromising with the hypocrisy in the Church or with the World.Jesus gave us a commandment, a new commandment He gave unto us 'That we love one another as He has loved us and that by all this will men know that we are His disciples'. But I guess we Ccpurians (Lamkaites) miss this very important commandment or we have interpreted it wrongly.

We love one another aren't we? We are loving our neighbors and our brothers, we are loving them with AK-47 and 9 mm pistols.The Church as an institution in our society has failed completely. If we cannot be united because we speak different languages or belong to different communities, then why cannnot we be united as Christians - we should be united at least as followers of the Cross. We proclaimed ourselves to be believers in Christ when the life that we lead is a far cry from what Christians should be. What we are trying to say is that we may not be united under the banner or Mizo, Zomis, Kukis, Chins, or any other names that you can come up with. But we should be united as fellow Christians as a member of the Family of Christ.We need to get back to basics, we need to remind ourselves how fragile we humans are. And that we all need each other support to survive in this uncertain and unfriendly world because ' No man is an Island'. No race or Community can live alone, No countries can stand on its own. We are all inter-dependent on each other and need each other to exist in this world.We need to redefine our relationships with each other. How can we go on with suspicious minds? Let us re-affirm our faith in the Lord Jesus and in each other. Let us try and work together in building a better Ccpur, a better Lamka. Let us try and heal the old wounds, though the scars may remain, let us forgive even though we may not forget. The Change can come from you and me. At the same time let us not be under the illusion that ' the change' will come over night. But in our own little way we can rebuild "CCPUR' and restore it to its rightful place. After all ' A Drop of water' can make an ocean.So my friends I appeal to you all to be Ccpurians, Lamkaites first and foremost above everything. We the students of today are the future leaders of tomorrow, the future torchbearers of our society. How long shall we allow ourselves to be divided and fragmented by narrow domestic walls? Because I can say without any shadow of a doubt that there will be 'No Paites, No Hmars, No Kukis, No Gangtes, No Lushais and No whatever in our eternal Home - Heaven. Let us make Churachandpur a Paradise that it once was. Let us not be Narrow Minded but Nehru Minded and try earnestly to regain this Paradise that we have lost.Every Ccpurians has to really think about this never-ending cycle of Violence, that has our town firmly in its grip? This never ending cycle of Violence have left many our of our brothers homeless, fatherless, widowed, motherless and their lives shattered beyond redemption. How long can we spend our time buying Guns than educating our sons on the need of a peaceful co-existence, mutual non-aggression and brotherhood? How long can we sway to this 'Symphony of destruction" as our live and town disintegrate around us? How long can we allow 'Our Lives 'Our town' and 'Our Society' to disintegrate before our very eyes? How long can we allow Our Christianity to be in Question?' And when we have became ' A Shame' to Christianity and the faith that we profess. After all we are humans, having the same dream, cherishing the same goals and aspirations for ourselves and for our children. Do you really think we would like to pass this 'fragmented, fractured and divided Society' to our Children who will carry on the torch from us someday? What right do we have to take a life that we cannot Create? What right do we have to take a life that we cannot make? What a World have we inherited? What example have we set for the little Children of today who will carry on the flame from us one fine day?

Our streets are filled with blood, as hatred rules our mind, our lust for blood. Our hands are red-stained with blood of innocent lives we have taken. We put a mortal man in control, and we watched him become a god, heads rolled. We turned a Killer into a Hero. Let Christ be our Hero, our anchor. Let Him the foundation on which we base our lives. And not some leaders or politicians who keeps talking about changing the world when they do not even think of changing themselves first. Let us not put our faith on world heroes who will hijack our good intentions for their own cause. We need to remember that even Mohammad Ali has only 'feet of clay'Let us rise up and build like Nehemiah said in the Bible. So that others do not mock and laugh at our differences. We do not need another civil war or another bloody ethnic clash - it feeds only the rich while it buries the poor. Let us heal this bleeding land of our birth ' this bruised and wounded Churachandpur'. ' There are no more new frontiers- no more Shangri- Las left. We all have got to make it here, to satisfy our endless needs to justify our bloodied deeds, In the name of destiny in the name of God.So my dear friends, Let us not subject our town to war and attrition again. After all this is the land of our birth where our love ones live, where our dear ones are buried. The town and the society where we will carry out our brief existence, and where they will bury us six feet deep when our faithful work here on earth is done. If we sincerely believe that we can regain the 'paradise' that we have lost, then my brethren we surely can - with a little bit of love, care and affection, and a helping hand we can usher in a whole new world, a whole new paradise. Some may say I am ' A Dreamer' but I am sure I am not the only one. And I know someday there will be many to join us.

In the end I would like to share with you this beautiful poem by the Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore(With due apologies to Sir Rabindranath Tagore)' Where the mind is without fear / And the Head is held highWhere the world is not broken up into fragments by narrow domestic world Where words come out from depths of truthWhere tireless streaming strength strives towards perfectionWhere the clear streams of reason Has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habitsWhere the mind is lead forward by thee into ever widening thoughts and actionsInto that Heaven of Freedom My Father, Let me and my fellow Ccpurians' awakeLet us dare to dream of a better Ccpur - A better tomorrow my friends. In the end to quote our President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam 'Dream will turn into thoughts, thoughts into actions and actions into reality'. Let us heal our bleeding town, and try to regain our Lost Paradise. Remember my friends! The Change can only come from You and Me, and only if we dare to 'Believe'.