Thursday, December 27, 2007

Manipur, an Impossible Paradise? Hope as Key to “Redemption”

By : A Bimol Akoijam/IFP 12/27/2007 2:31:22 AM

“What is the way to our redemption?”, a senior faculty at the Manipur University asked me after a lecture I had delivered at the same University a couple of years ago. Though his word was “redemption”, it was not about the spiritual world but the quotidian world of Manipur, a state termed by outside observers “a failed state”. The question was indicative of the desperation and hopelessness of people in the state.

Quite obviously, something has gone horribly wrong with Manipur, particularly during the last decade or so. The situation seems so hopeless that despair seems to afflict even the activists, who otherwise dare to dream and work for a change. In course of an interview, a well-known Meira Paibi leader tells me, “only God can help us” (from the present situation)!

Incidentally, not so long ago, sharing the “tidings from home” that his sister had brought back from her recent visit to Manipur, which many of us continue to call “home” despite having stayed outside of it for decades, a Delhi based Manipuri journalist told me that “Manipur is beyond redemption”!

One is not so sure whether Manipur is beyond “redemption” or not. However, one cannot deny the overall ethical, intellectual, political and material decadence that mark the state today. And that any act or thought of bringing about a change in the state of affairs for the better is confronted by cynicism, suspicions, and threats (covert or overt, real or perceived). Perhaps, such confrontation ultimately becomes insidious and takes the form of self-doubt and resignation. Consequently a feeling that only a Godly intervention can redeem us from our wretched existence comes into play. Indeed, many, if not most, people in Manipur seem to admit that arresting the decadence or changing the situation for the better in Manipur is beyond the will and deeds of the mortal beings. The expression “redemption” (as in “what is the way to redemption?” or “Manipur is beyond redemption”), which resonates a theological sense, underscores such a state of mind.

Fatalism of the Brutalized:

“Yararoi” (It won’t work) is a fatalistic refrain that invariably tends to mark or end a conversation or discussion on the state of affairs in Manipur amongst its inhabitants. Such an admission is a subconscious confession that the “little paradise” has become an impossible paradise inhabited by morally bankrupt, and intellectually and politically sterile denizens!

For some, such confession comes in the form of “history shall take its own course”, a posture that admits one’s inability to take responsibility and do something about the present situation. Referring to some puwari (history?) or puya (archaic text), a committed activist tells me that the worst is yet to come, and signs off his prediction by saying that, “poo aahum chai-nou hai-ba lei, aadu-gee ma-tung-da pharak-khee-nee” (it is said that there will be a clash of three elements, and only after that clash, better life shall prevail)! It is a vision that sees a silver lining amidst the dark socio-economic and political clouds that hover over Manipur, and the bloody mist that covers the landscape of its life. But a fatalistic posture nonetheless that affirms the impotency of the brutalized people.

Incidentally, such fatalism characterizes the psyche of a slave whose life is utterly dependent upon his or her master. It had also marked the mind of the colonized people during the heydays of colonialism. The mindset that has sustained a vicious cycle of inaction and hopelessness (or vice-versa) in Manipur today is not very different from those of the slaves or the colonized subjects of yore. Needless to say, the mindset and the unhealthy state of affairs enter into a symbiotic relationship in the state today.

Hope as key to “Redemption” :

Can there be a way (or ways) out of this fatalism? The answer, I would rather think in the affirmative. In fact, even against the material odds, I would rather fight for my capacity to hope. Because the moment one loses the capacity to hope, it would be the end of one’s existence as a (healthy) human being.

Indeed, as some psychoanalysts insist that the capacity to hope, over and above the capacity to love and work, is a crucial ingredient that constitutes health. Therefore, for a healthy society, we must first of all fight against the sense of hopelessness itself. We must restore our to capacity to hope. It is an imperative to break the fatalism and inability to respond to the challenges that the people confront today.

However, the battle against hopelessness is not going to be easy. After all, one is constantly confronted by the reality of the forces that have produced, nurtured and sustained the decadence and hopelessness in Manipur. But then, the only choice is, as they say, fight or flight. We either fight back to reclaim a civilized life or run away. But running away (say, abandoning Manipur) by the entire population is neither possible nor does it ensure the survival of the people of the state. Thus, practically speaking, the people of Manipur as a whole only have either of the two options: fight back to reclaim a civilized life or meekly surrender to live and die likes the abandoned street dogs.

To think of it, it seems only reasonable for the people of Manipur to respond positively to the challenges rather than act like the wretched of the earth with such a slavish mindset. After all, aren’t they a people of few lakhs who dominate the sport scene in a country of one billion, a people who have given a “classical dance” to a “5000 years old civilization” and produced global icons in the likes of Ratan Thiyam, Kanhailal, Aribam Shyam, Mary Kom and Kunjarani or spiritual leader like Dr. T.D. Singh? How can such a people live amidst the dirt and destitution? Indeed, how can such a people live and die like street dogs?

“Give the dog a bad name and kill him”, or worst “kill the dog and give him a bad name”, or fighting over the left-over and committing violence on one another to get one’s share of the spoil (doled out by the others) is for the street dogs, not for the human beings. Why should the culture of justifying murder and unbridled violence by calling names and accusing the dead become a way of life for such a people? Why should the culture of “percentages” of a donor-driven political economy allow to breed animosity and violence, besides the dependence syndrome and corruption, amongst the people? The people of Manipur should not reduce their life into a dog’s life.

We must acknowledge and realize that there must be something that has enabled us to exist as a people with certain sense of dignity and agency in history. And that something, call it “national character” or “collective spirit”, has to be critically engaged with so as to (re)discover its enabling and disenabling aspects under specific contexts—both in the past and the present. Such an engagement has to be an informed and purposeful exercise rather than mindless indulgence in rhetoric and compensatory or defensive eulogies of historical feats and heritages or espousal of ill-informed and motivated understanding of our situation. But this engagement can only be carried out meaningfully if we restore and retain our capacity to hope.

With this coming New Year, let the people of Manipur take a resolution to fight the fatalism so as to restore the capacity to hope. After all, all ways to “redemption” begins with hope.

Happy New Year!

The author can be reached at bimol_akoijam@yahoo.co.in

[TSE]

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