Leader writer : RK Lakhi Kant
It is with a total lack of sensitivity that those in the Manipur government and at the centre are viewing the unfolding of a disastrous event in the hills of Manipur. The Mautam famine as it is known in the local dialect of the hills is giving the people of the hills a dreadful time with rats in the thousands destroying and eating up grains in the villages and the farmlands of the hilly areas. The matter assumes an all the more poignant tone as it takes almost double the amount of effort to nurture a farm in the hill slopes than it does in the valley areas of the state. Foodgrains as a consequence are scarce in these highlands and with the hard grown farm products being ravaged by rodents the future of the affected areas is very bleak in the coming years. It is another matter that these hardy people depend also on food products gathered from the jungles for their survival. This has may be prevented any starvation deaths, but the absence of deaths is not the only yardstick for gauging the impact of the famine. Thousands of households are going hungry and are severely affected economically too. This means that many children of the largely poor families in the remote hilly areas have also been forced by circumstances to drop out from school. The hills already have their handful of problems and the present famine has only compounded their woes. While the affected people in the hills have been appealing time and again to the governments both at the state and the Centre for relief and also calling for declaration of the Mautam famine in the various hilly regions of the northeast as an national calamity, the authorities have responded with hardly any interest or concern. It is not to say that other national calamities like tsunamis, cyclones, earthquakes etc. are handled in a manner any better than this but the present famine is happening in a very remote region of the country and the world does not have much knowledge about such regions. As the problem has not been taken up properly by the media too there is lack of awareness about the event in other parts of the country and the world. As such the people in these remote regions are not getting the much required aid from national as well as international agencies. As far as our own government in the state is concerned it could have done well to project these issues in the proper fora so that at least the magnitude of the problem could be known by the people in the country and the government at the Centre.
While the above is only one of the examples of how the hills are being neglected and uncared for, there are other matters which need to be sorted out for the well being of the people of the hills. Today people in the state have come to a point where there is a schism in the masses inhabiting this land according to their geographical settlement areas. In fact it is not only a matter of geographical divisions but a more intense and inner need for getting free from the shackles of a mindset imposed by history on the people of especially the hills. The hill people have been on the receiving end all the while, at least in the modern times. The fact that the villages in the hills were the fiefdoms of the kings of Manipur in the past is only one side of the story. We must remember that the relations of mutual trust existed only because the Meitei kings of yore were men of integrity and they were very liberal in their relations with the hill people. Most of the Meitei kings were also spiritually inclined and would have never thought of cheating or exploiting their less fortunate countrymen. However, we cannot view the circumstances in the same manner as it was done in the past. Today the majority community in the state has lost much of its past social sanity and people are as degraded as in any other part of the world. Under the circumstances we cannot expect the hill people to remain loyal to the valley people or consider them their protective gaurdians. Times have changed and so have the people. No one can command any respect from others without actually deserving it. So with the crop of today’s leaders in the state we cannot expect even ourselves much rather than others to follow their guidelines for a peaceful and prosperous life. When even we cannot trust these men to run our lives how can we expect other people from other communitities to believe them. The modern Manipuri mind must may be discard its prejudices and be more accomodating towards people of other races, religions and communities if we are to do any good to ourselves and others.
IFP
It is with a total lack of sensitivity that those in the Manipur government and at the centre are viewing the unfolding of a disastrous event in the hills of Manipur. The Mautam famine as it is known in the local dialect of the hills is giving the people of the hills a dreadful time with rats in the thousands destroying and eating up grains in the villages and the farmlands of the hilly areas. The matter assumes an all the more poignant tone as it takes almost double the amount of effort to nurture a farm in the hill slopes than it does in the valley areas of the state. Foodgrains as a consequence are scarce in these highlands and with the hard grown farm products being ravaged by rodents the future of the affected areas is very bleak in the coming years. It is another matter that these hardy people depend also on food products gathered from the jungles for their survival. This has may be prevented any starvation deaths, but the absence of deaths is not the only yardstick for gauging the impact of the famine. Thousands of households are going hungry and are severely affected economically too. This means that many children of the largely poor families in the remote hilly areas have also been forced by circumstances to drop out from school. The hills already have their handful of problems and the present famine has only compounded their woes. While the affected people in the hills have been appealing time and again to the governments both at the state and the Centre for relief and also calling for declaration of the Mautam famine in the various hilly regions of the northeast as an national calamity, the authorities have responded with hardly any interest or concern. It is not to say that other national calamities like tsunamis, cyclones, earthquakes etc. are handled in a manner any better than this but the present famine is happening in a very remote region of the country and the world does not have much knowledge about such regions. As the problem has not been taken up properly by the media too there is lack of awareness about the event in other parts of the country and the world. As such the people in these remote regions are not getting the much required aid from national as well as international agencies. As far as our own government in the state is concerned it could have done well to project these issues in the proper fora so that at least the magnitude of the problem could be known by the people in the country and the government at the Centre.
While the above is only one of the examples of how the hills are being neglected and uncared for, there are other matters which need to be sorted out for the well being of the people of the hills. Today people in the state have come to a point where there is a schism in the masses inhabiting this land according to their geographical settlement areas. In fact it is not only a matter of geographical divisions but a more intense and inner need for getting free from the shackles of a mindset imposed by history on the people of especially the hills. The hill people have been on the receiving end all the while, at least in the modern times. The fact that the villages in the hills were the fiefdoms of the kings of Manipur in the past is only one side of the story. We must remember that the relations of mutual trust existed only because the Meitei kings of yore were men of integrity and they were very liberal in their relations with the hill people. Most of the Meitei kings were also spiritually inclined and would have never thought of cheating or exploiting their less fortunate countrymen. However, we cannot view the circumstances in the same manner as it was done in the past. Today the majority community in the state has lost much of its past social sanity and people are as degraded as in any other part of the world. Under the circumstances we cannot expect the hill people to remain loyal to the valley people or consider them their protective gaurdians. Times have changed and so have the people. No one can command any respect from others without actually deserving it. So with the crop of today’s leaders in the state we cannot expect even ourselves much rather than others to follow their guidelines for a peaceful and prosperous life. When even we cannot trust these men to run our lives how can we expect other people from other communitities to believe them. The modern Manipuri mind must may be discard its prejudices and be more accomodating towards people of other races, religions and communities if we are to do any good to ourselves and others.
IFP
No comments:
Post a Comment