The sacrificial lamb called Manipur

The sacrificial lamb called Manipur

Samarjit Kambam *

"Bring me your daughter
To the slaughter"
-Iron Maiden

It's true, Manipur, the small daughter state of India is being decapitated
bit by bit, just like an animal in a slaughterhouse.

Firstly, the first Prime Minister of India Pt Jawaharlal Nehru gave away
the naturally resourceul Kabaw Valley to Burma now known as Myanmar
including the Ningthi Turel, a bountiful river in terms of precious
elements such as gold, other metals and varieties of precious stones as a
way of negotiating a truce of peaceful-co-existence as a neighbouring
country with Indian Union as well as flaunting that India has embraced
democracy since its independence from British Colonial Rule. After that
Djuko valley has gone to Nagaland. Now, it's Holenphai village or Choro
village's turn to be cut and thrown to Myanmar.

The issue regarding Kabaw valley was quite complicated. Like an
illegitimate or an on and off relationship Kabaw valley was possessed by
Manipur and again by the erstwhile Burma when the Burmese invaded and
occupied Manipur creating a Seven Years' Devastation.

But King Gambhir Singh by making an alliance with the British drove away
the Burmese and re-conquered Kabaw valley and became an intrinsic part of
Manipur but at a price i.e. the nefarious design of intervention in the
affairs of Manipur by playing the cat and mouse game by the imperialist
British and its tradition of divide and rule policy.

Since then, the valley continued to be a bone of contention between Manipur
and Myanmar thereby giving the Burmese renewed zeal and vigour to claim it
as theirs thus intensifying the gravity of the issue of Kabaw Valley. As
per historical facts Kabaw valley, no doubt was a part of Manipur during
the 18th century when Manipur was a princely state.

At this juncture, I sincerely thank Prof. Budha Kamei, a member of
post-doctoral fellowship of Manipur University for his effort in depicting
a crystal clear historical viewpoint of Kabaw Valley through his intensive
research and making known to the public that Kabaw valley was very much a
part and parcel of Manipur.

The Burmese had already seen a soft corner in the great Indian democracy,
little did they knew that the softness lies only at the outside whereas
internally it a kind of democracy with draconian laws such as AFSPA(Armed
Forces Special Powers Act 1958) where the security forces are licensed to
kill innocent civilians at the slightest pretext of suspicion while giving
away precious land to other countries to portray that democracy is a
liberal and generous entity with Manipur always being the loser.

Another internal issue is the Djukow Valley that once belonged to Manipur
but now has become a part of Nagaland. "Never forgive and injury, never
forget an insult" is what the neighbouring states or countries of Manipur
are and "Forgive and Forget", that is what we the Manipuris are, an
inherent inborn trait. The issue of Djukow Valley has already been
forgotten, kept inside the cold storage for forever and a day and the
incongrous and inconsiderate leaders forgiven.

Experts revealed that the area of Holenphai Village adjoining border pillar
No. 76 is the summative assessment of the size of the district of
Churachandpur. It has been claimed that this portion of land was about to
go away alongwith Kabaw Valley but was strategically saved by some
patriotic group of people.

Meanwhile, the proposal of barter of Choro Village of Ukhrul district in
place of Holenphai by the government is totally against the will of the
villagers. The very term 'barter' indicates the high probability that
things are not going to end, which can be clearly made out that either one
of the village is definitely going to be sacrificed to Myanmar.

India is far ahead than Myanmar in almost every field be it economics,
defence, infrastructural development, education etc. In fact, India is much
more powerful than Myanmar.

The maintenance of sovereignty of India lies with the central government
the power of which is vested with the President of India. India can flex
its muscles as is utmostly required so that no part of Manipur goes to
Myanmar.

Questions keep on cropping up whether the central government is maintaining
import-export trade with Myanmar at the cost of Manipur. The people of
Manipur are still shocked at the loss of Kabaw Valley.

Its really unfortunate that Pt Jawaharlal Nehru without thoroughly going
through the insights and historical relevance of Manipur had hastily acted
that the problem of a long uncharted border issue between Manipur and Burma
has been solved amicably by giving away the Kabaw valley.

It is high time that we the sons of soil of Manipur regardless of caste,
creed or community instead of going for separate homelands stand together
and pressurise the central government and carry out together whatever is
deemed fit and necessary to protect parts of mother Manipur from losing to other neighbouring countries.

* Samarjit Kambam wrote this article for The Sangai Express
This article was posted on September 27 2013 .