[Assam] Sentinel editorial

[Rajib Das]

Can anyone here with enough background throw some
light on the Meitei cultural resurgence?

As I understand they chose to revive the old Meitei
script by throwing out the Bengali one. Is there an
undercurrent from the religion's perspective as well?

--- Ram Sarangapani <assamrs at gmail.com> wrote:

> Umesh,
> 
>  >I wonder why would there be attack on newcomers
> ISKCON in the state and
> not on foerign >Christian missionaries over the
> decades. Who is attacking
> whom?
> 
> Why should there be an attack on anybody? Does it
> matter if they are
> Christian missionaries or ISKCON?  The stark reality
> is that for gun-toting
> hooligans everything is fair game.
> 
> --Ram da
> 
> 
> 
> On 8/24/06, umesh sharma <jaipurschool at yahoo.com>
> wrote:
> >
> >  I wonder why would there be attack on newcomers
> ISKCON in the state and
> > not on foerign Christian missionaries over the
> decades. Who is attacking
> > whom?
> >
> > Umesh
> >
> >
> > *Ram Sarangapani <assamrs at gmail.com>* wrote:
> >
> >  Bikash Sarmah makes some very good points and has
> been able to
> > differentiate between an 'insurgent' and a
> 'terrorist'.
> > **
> > **
> > **
> > *Given This Brand of Insurgency
> > THE REALITY MIRROR
> > Bikash Sarmah
> > *T he grenade attack on the International Society
> for
> > Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) temple in
> > Imphal last Wednesday when ISKCON devotees
> > were celebrating Janmasthami, is yet another
> reminder of the changing face
> > of terrorism in the Northeast. There are
> discerning observers and
> > commentators in the Northeast who are averse to
> using the word ''terrorism''
> > to describe the militias in the region. They would
> rather call it
> > ''insurgency'', theorizing — pretty convincingly
> too — the conflict in the
> > region as the one that stems from a sense of
> alienation of the people from
> > the Indian mainstream, a sense of a ''colonial''
> India exploiting the
> > innocent masses here, a sense of history that
> would narrate the romanticized
> > tales of freedom of the past that seems to be lost
> now, and, of course, a
> > deep sense of fear of the gradual loss of ethnic
> and indigenous identities.
> > There are columnists who argue that since what is
> being witnessed in the
> > Northeast is not terrorism but insurgency, the
> only way out is political
> > solution, not a military one. True, the country's
> armed forces, who
> > otherwise defend the borders and become martyrs,
> fighting valiantly the
> > enemies of the nation, should not be seen fighting
> and killing their own
> > countrymen. But it is also equally true that
> 'insurgents' are not expected
> > to kill their own civilian brethren — as randomly
> and bestially as the
> > savage terrorist would do. They, as 'liberators'
> and 'revolutionaries', are
> > not expected to extort money from the ones who
> earn money of sheer hard
> > work, and to run an industry of sorts, quite
> lucrative, quite easy — because
> > it is so easy to threaten unarmed civilians to
> loot them — and hence quite
> > sustainable. Surely, then, our 'insurgents' are
> not expected to cross that
> > thin line of difference between insurgency and
> terrorism in their own whims
> > and fancies just because it suits them so — to be
> insurgents when they
> > invoke history, to be terrorists when they want to
> make their presence felt.
> >
> > This long introduction to this column is deemed
> necessary because, over
> > the time, some self-styled experts on insurgency
> and conflict resolution
> > have grown and 'matured' in this region, who would
> not acknowledge the
> > impossibility of conflict resolution at a time
> when the contours of the very
> > conflict seem to be ever-changing,
> ever-stretching, and quite arbitrarily at
> > that. There have to be better theories to tackle
> the menace, let alone solve
> > the so-called problem or issue. My considered
> opinion is that there cannot
> > be a political solution to attacks like the one at
> the ISKCON temple in
> > Imphal; there can still be a political solution,
> but if and only if the
> > framework that would yield a political formula is
> so worked on that there
> > may be scope to call our insurgents sheer
> terrorists as and when they become
> > terrorists. The theory is refreshingly simple:
> when an insurgent throws
> > grenade at a place of worship or a busy market
> place or buses and trains, he
> > instantly becomes a terrorist — cowardly. When he
> kills women and children,
> > he is a terrorist whose cowardice knows no lower
> bound. But when an
> > insurgent fights open battles with the state — its
> armed forces — because
> > his insurgency is against the state and its
> machinery, he remains an
> > insurgent. The fight has to be open — it is
> meaningless to talk of even
> > guerrilla warfare. So how many insurgents do you
> have here?
> > The All Manipuri Students' Union (AMSU) did well
> by calling the ISKCON
> > attack ''an act of terrorism''. It could not be
> otherwise. The most
> > interesting thing to have happened in the wake of
> the attack was some
> > prominent Manipuri militant outfits coming out
> with statements denying their
> > role in the attack and condemning it. The first to
> have done so was the
> > Revolutionary People's Front (RPF) — the political
> wing of the People's
> > Liberation Army (PLA). According to reports, an
> RPF spokesman told the media
> > that his outfit considered such attacks
> ''thoughtless and cowardly''. The
> > United National Liberation Front (UNLF) also
> denied its hand in the attack.
> > Later, even the ones against whom fingers were
> being pointed, such as the
> > People's Revolutionary Party of Kangleipak
> (PREPAK) and the Kanglei Yawol
> > Kanba Lup (KYKL), denied their involvement. These
> denials are interesting
> > because they show how restless the militant
> outfits in the region become
> > when the occasion comes to them to prove their
> insurgency characteristics.
> > They also know it well that such occasions are
> rare, and that one needs to
> > perfect the art of identifying the best occasion.
> For, these are the
> > occasions when public anger runs high — even
> against insurgency. These are
> > the occasions when an alert and active civil
> society as Manipur's (remember
> > those elderly Manipuri women stripping naked in
> full public view to protest
> > Thangjam Manorama's brutal rape and murder by
> Assam Rifles jawans in 2004?)
> > would question the very basis of militant violence
> in much the same way as
> > they would question state violence. It is quite
> natural, then, that
> > following the ISKCON temple attack, blogs on the
> internet surfaced, with
> > ''challenge'' to the militants involved in the
> dastardly act, asking them to
> > reveal their identity and ''fight man-to-man''. It
> surely cannot be a
> > response to insurgency or any liberation movement.
> It is a response to
> > terrorism. And 'insurgents' find it hard to accept
> such response of the
> > civil society.
> > There is another theory doing the rounds. It is
> that the attack on the
> > ISKCON temple is an outburst of the Meitei
> frustration at the growing
> > ''Indianization'' of Manipuri culture and
> tradition. In the wake of the
> > attack, some internet blogs had messages that
> glorified the attack as the
> > one that would protect the indigenousness of the
> Manipuris. Such messages
> > must have emboldened outfits like the KYKL that
> calls 
=== message truncated ===>
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