VIEWPOINT
Joydeep
NNN Photo
A A piece of creation.
F
our years back during the
same month, when 12
desperate Manipuri wom-
en took to the streets in protest
against the highhandedness of
the security forces, none per-
haps could have imagined that
they would strip. Similarly, when
Irom Sharmila began her fast in
protest against imposition of a
discriminatory act, none believed
she would script a new history
and draw the international atten-
tion towards a law, which they
believe draconian unlike its mak-
ers. It is again in July, (this year),
the mother of the late Manorama,
who performed the last rites of
her daughter four years after her
rape and murder, showed extreme
16 August 08
Bhattacharjee
Angst and agony
Social strife in Manipur might have taken away the
shine from this culturally advanced state, but the in-
novative minds never cease to function. So, be it art or
protest; Manipuris continue doing them uniquely.
anger by not performing the same
for want of justice.
Northeast India has been a
cauldron of chaos from the day
of India’s independence. Years of
social strife, unrest and violence
not only decelerated the growth
that has put us back by sever-
al years, if not by decades, but
has also given rise to a situation
where security issues became the
prime focus, while other social is-
sues have taken the back seat.
But that’s what we have come
to terms with, that’s what we have
started living with. Moreover this
is not my point of discussion,
which may call for paraphrasing
or further enunciation. What I find
more pertinent and interesting is
the way agitators in the Northeast
place their demands or display
their anguish.
It is in the Northeast where
you see a 1000-hour bandh con-
tinuing without any defiance. It is
here where national highways re-
main closed for months together.
Again it is here, where you find
silent protestors like the Manipuri
women who resort to demonstra-
tions in their unique way.
In 2004, when the Union
Government met the NSCN-IM
leaders in Delhi and declared that
the demand for Greater Nagaland
(of the Naga rebel group) was in
its agenda, almost immediately
the entire state of Manipur sprang
up in anger and the rest is history.
The state saw the worst kind of
violence and protests that con-
tinued for months together and
gradually spread to other neigh-
bouring states, which were likely
to lose their land in the event of
a greater Nagaland coming into
being.
But again the uniqueness of
this agitation was that the protest,
which had begun with a candle
light procession ignited a mas-
sive inferno, that not only left the
state with tell tale marks of the
brunt, but also gobbled up huge
national resources before subsid-
ing. When Manipur was burning,
Irom Sharmila was already on her
indefinite fast demanding the re-
peal of the Armed Forces Special
(Powers) Act.
Irom Sharmila was a gentle and
docile girl till November 4, 2000,
when her attention was drawn to
a gory picture of some youth ly-
ing dead in a pool of blood. Her
August 08 17