O..! Churachandpur

By: Ninglun Hanghal

Quoting popular introduction, Churachandpur (sic) was the most peaceful district in Manipur, officially and acknowledged by the inhabitants and those from outside as well. Indeed it was true. At least 10-schedule tribe with various non-tribals resides in the district without any breaking news or ‘headlines’ to be reported on violence and killing or worst communal violence. But that was history now and fondly remembered by many, as ‘those were the days’.

In terms of development and growth the district was recorded to be more advance than the others specifically the district headquarter town. Sadly enough, life was fast and ‘modern’. The town was infamous for modern diseases like HIV / AIDs. Since post independence and beginning of the 70s, people have slowly underwent a process of change in terms of socio – economy. In the late 90s and ever since the clash of the ‘ethnic brothers’ in 1997, the town and its surroundings became the hot spot of communo – ethnic war zone. Along with, this decade also saw the emergences of political consciousness among the tribal groups in the district.

This political consciousness have originated basically from experiences of social exclusion and concept of nationalism / nation building brought in by education. This was further aggravated by the fear of losing control over resources, as community resources ownership was no longer possible in the modern governance system. For administrative conveniences and easy management of the ‘backward people’, tribals were classified into various ‘recognized tribes’ with nomenclatures on the basis of language, traditional dress etc. Thereby serving as tribal identity and the tribals too identify themselves based on these classifications. Subsequently as a tribal, the need to emphasized and protect ‘identity’ becomes so strong that it led to an extent of militarizing themselves to stand as a distinct tribal group.

Many have written and talked about Churachandpur limping back to normal and is picking up the pieces of the post ethnic violence. Yet, it is quite evident that the scare of the ethnic violence still remains and the after effect seems to breed more ‘conflict’. Whatever was there, both the social order and development paused ever after ‘97. The once upon a time happening town became still and lifeless. Five o’clock in the morning is too early, and five o’clock in the evening is late, and by 6 p.m the whole town is as silent as a graveyard. The only difference is that in a graveyard you can hear sounds of the souls, while in this town one can hear sounds of bullets amidst silences. Issues such as conflict and communal topics became too hot to be discussed (and if you dare touch, it burns you). At times the sounds of silence were too loud.

Rs 20 crore vanished in thin air with the recent decision of the government to withdraw the mini secretariat project due to the tussle among the public leaders over the location to set up the building. The project was drop but was diverted as the project money was already sanctioned (as per media report). Drop the project, was the best decision the Government could come up with, simple..!.and that was the conflict management strategy from the side of the authorities represented by public leaders, caretakers of secular democracy. In this particular decision the common mass will never come to know where it was diverted and for what other purpose the money has gone. It was always opined that conflict have always been propagated by the non-state actors, specifically in this part of the state, where communal violence was understood as an act of some underground activities. It is true to a certain level that the armed groups propagate communal tension. But here the interesting part is the tussle between the ‘community leaders’.

Some of the models of conflict resolutions or conflict management include use of police force or military forces, giving more autonomy to certain sections, negotiations with outfits in armed conflict areas and one of the most common in regions like North East India is through development packages.

The main reason, which the Government has provided in the case of the mini secretariat project, was the public leaders. Here the government and the civil society working on conflict could now add one more strategy that is resolution through leaders, say, “management of community leaders”. Another important aspect in tribal areas is the local governance system like the village council, of which many believed that issue such as conflict could very well be settled by the village council. But, of course provided village council still does exist today.

Ri leh EI iki ngainat lou leh...

Laigialtu: Tv. Mangmin Zou Singngat

Ni dang in ZSP bang a um chiang in enjoy na mai mai in ka jang jel hi.Tu in ahi leh jin ngun te thu gen ka ngai leh thu hoi nam lang toh ki sai ngen a gen uh chi ka thei hi.Ken jong i NAM ka zoupi te i hin khua man dan ka gel pei vevo hi.



Tua chi ma bang in ei lah ah hoi ka sah lou jui thei leh jui ding thil kang gen ut hi.I ZOPATONG bang monthly magazine hi mel january to may chi pou a suah jumhuai hi lou.tua te koi mo e.Ei amipi te mo i hi uh ajieh chuki lei ut lou mi lei sa kom(lend) chou ki thanuam.Editorial board te'n ha teng ah hing sua ut tham tham ahi.Tua ban ah agent ten' jong submit di bang a summit lou in ka thei.En nei val aki bol hi lou in i nam gel na leh a met them khat ding jiah ki bol ahi.A met jong en seng ding un ka ging ta sih ki tou del thei nang in ngaina chiat in lei piah siau siau ta vaui.I market uh neu ahi man in.Tam i na lei piah jel pen i nam a dia i pang na khat ahi..



MIN(name) lang ah

Ei zousuan te'n min i phua chiang un ki tappi i nei u hi.Tua ten deisah tah a i nu i pa toh ang phua piah un pasian mai ah siampi te hing thum sah u hi.Tua jiah in a ma uh hing phua piah dan jang ton tung vai.Etsahna di'n mi khen khat hu te jang no'n lou un james,terry chi dan deu bang jang uh.Lai bu khat ka sim na ah ei zomi te mini khual hing jin un tuanah a vanleng tuang na uh vang siat huai tah in hin accident hi.Tuachin hukim lah a ZYO na um kha un a minlist a et uh leh zoumin khat um in thang lian mang.A ma un jong tua pa sui ngal un a mu un na si kha in.govt kuah exgracia e nget pi un lungman mu u hi.Aleh khat pa'n bang dia mu lou?A man william chi'n a min gel in abuai pi ding um lou hi.



Tualeh i min fill up nang bang a um leh eg.thang biah lal zou chi dan deu in fill up lei.News vel ah na result uh ang suah chiang e ei zou te jong a tel vele.chi'n na zoupi te a ki pah lou um lou ding ahi.ZOU teng teng na ki pah ding ahi



Tondan leh ki jep dan ah.

Mihing in nam puan nei chiat uhi.Nam tuam tuam toh teng na ah.eg,singngat, sugnu,lamka, shillong, delhi leh a dang dang ah CELEBRATION vel um chiang in i NAMLAM(sannem lam) lah (show)na nei chiat lei mi'n i hi na hing thei van jong ki min thang ding in ka ging ta.Tua leh programe i nei leh numei te'n nam puan teng a pasal te'n zou necktide oh kim chiat lei a doi et lom di e.Tua ching hei mun ah i ton dan uh i pasian uh mang hil sih lei..en i tondan i kep lou leh koi in kem ding.



Ham leh pau ah.

Malaysia a i zou um ten motion picture la a bol uh.tua nah i zouham jong jumpisih vai achi pen dih ka sa hi.JUMPIlou in toisang vai.Bang chi toi sang ding?Zouthai bawl te jong i ham toisang khat ahi.Zouflim, motionpicture bol te loi jong atoi sang ahi.Tua leh ei zouham ma in mi houpi lei atoi sang i hi ding.ei leh ei i ki huai/itt lou leh koi in hing huai ding.

from:mang min zou.

EXILED FROM NO MAN'S LAND

-Lunneo Zou

With anger depressed and emotional out-burst, I lie down in my bed, take a deep breath and dream of a land-my Motherland, where I can spread my wings to exercise liberty without any hindrances and discriminations. Weary of being called duplicate foreigners or second class citizen treatment meted to me even by the beggars, the illiterate auto drivers& bus conductors who consider me as barbaric & inferior to them, I decided to return to my root to live peacefully rather than living in a splendid life without honor and dignity in the metropolitan city.

Childhood memories are still a fresh like morning dew, where the Church bell is the only vibration or sound pollution, which are the music to every ear at night. The calm, breeze & cheerful night that we enjoyed, merry making & morning jogging with friends and midnight social gatherings are considered as a natural occasions. December is the most special and blessed one where everyone in foreign’s land came home like birds returning to their nest at night. I still remember, my parents calling me to spare time for the winter vacation to visit my grandpa’s place in spite of tight schedule. Thirty days of winter vacations is like spending a day, betting goodbye to see again next year.

Time fleets by, but not everyone make a positive transformation and my mother land, Manipur- Zoland/Kukiland is not exception. The day to day administration and civil society total broke down or paralyzed. State machinery & other social organization become irresponsible and tools of the malefactors. The govt. is in chaos & law and order are tremendously deteriorated. There’s not only a loss in market productions or properties, but also irrecoverable loss of human life, that can not be compensated in cash or kind. The genocide committed in Yugoslavia, Iraq, or civil War in Somalia, Cambodia, Kenya or other African countries not only make headlines to every newspaper, we now are the daily hot topics to every media or discussions.

With the existence of Zomi-Taliban (the term coined by Pu Fidel Haupu), things turn from bad to worse. The only motive is to crush the peace loving Zou peoples, thereby losing innocent life for the cause of Zomi ‘SWARAJ’. Their patience and tolerance for greater interest and unification are construed as their weaknesses. The atrocities committed by them are unfathomable. Though the Wolf (vested interest Politicians) within the Zou community forgives, how could the Lamb forget? The British policy of ‘Divide and Rule’ Politics is like a peanut in comparison to the ‘Divide and Crush’ Politics perpetrated by the Zomi-Taliban to the Zou community. The way the British fragmented our ancestral land into different parts/region or country, Zou community is at the dawn of fragmentation into different tribes, groups or clans. Guess, the accomplishment of minus politics of the Zou’s fragmentation by the Zomi-Taliban and Zomi-Council is paramount than acquiring legitimate homeland.

Under the defacto leaders, it is mentioned that no outfit can be formed other than Zomi-Taliban within the Zomi umbrella. But the Zomi-Taliban is none other than the up gradation of ‘Paite-Commando’ – a resistance group against the Kukis. The formation of ZRA does not get the mandate of all the community who accepted Zomi as their imposed nomenclature. As a result various outfits like ZDV, USRA, & ZRF are the products of the maltreatment and minus politics perpetrated by their mother. They neither get the right to rule the other community nor authority or license to kill whosoever against their self centred policies and programme. Since the wise or learned persons are the soft target causing the strong survive and weak/wise perish, the Zomi-Taliban transformed one of the most elevated and beautiful Zo-Hills into a ‘state of nature’.

With the passage of time, the Zou peoples who are suppressed, tortured, rape, persecuted and made subservient to the Zomi-Taliban are now conscious and pledge to pay blood to blood and life to life. People wary of the grave consequences, though the corrupt surveyor claims it as extinct, sooner or later, the dormant Zomi volcano will be erupted and the construction of Taliban’s Babel Monument will cease their work. Some will shed tears glad fully, do others mournfully, for they will show what the Zomi-Taliban sowed.

The constant meddling in Zou internal affairs is the last nail in the coffin of the Zomi politics. No constitutional/political term can defined the untimely election of the United Zou Organization. It’s neither mid-term nor by-election, as the elected leaders are physically & mentally sound and some more years left for the expiry of their tenure. It is none other than a political coup or self style ordinance pass by the Songtal Court (SC). The elected UZO leaders who got the mandate of the Zou peoples are dethroned by the selected leaders. They now enjoyed their powers and office during the pleasure of the Zomi-Taliban by pleasing and praising them in their den, negating the plight and grievances of their people. The blood of the Zou peoples, innocent lives and its ancestral land are the dowry in marriage to the Zomi-Taliban. Money tics are the rule of law, where justice is like a commodity which the ‘haves’ and sympathizers of the Zomi-Taliban can only possess. Who authorize them to determine the election of UZO? Who made them to rule and judge over the Zou peoples? They need to learn from their past experience that the maltreatment or torturing by other UGs to the Paites is not different than what they did to the Zou peoples. To avoid explosion of the Zomi Volcano they should completely abstain from interfering in the affairs of the Zou politics.

In general, minority bore the brunt of the sectarian and vested politics, which have no constant position but flexible decision to bend to the tune of the changing wind. Though no visa is required, whosoever cross the artificial boundary are under constant vigil or suspicion. Guess, anybody who believes in re-incarnation will pray that he will not be re-incarnated in a minority group. They are the victims of power game politics, every mother shed their tears to mourn their near and dear ones. To live and lead a peaceful life in a buffer zone-No Man’s Land is next to hell.

With all these intolerable situations I now realized and woke up bursting No….! No……! No human beings have spare life. How can I dream even in my wildest dream to return back to my root where my rights or liberty are curtailed- the right to speak the truth or exercise liberty under the surveillance of the gun. I’m exile from No Man’s Land- a land where the law of jungle prevails. I’m a citizen of this country enjoying equal rights & freedom, so I’ll try to make the best used of it. No matter what comes, I’ll take each day as it comes, serve my master with humility and live a secure life in dignity rather than drowning in Zomi-Taliban’s trouble water.