MSAD discusses on Communal Harmony

Imphal: Manipur Students’ Association, Delhi (MSAD) organised a discussion program on the theme “Communal Harmony in a Multicultural Society: A perspective on communal conflicts during 1990s” with a view on the ongoing political scenario in Manipur and its relevant past.

The program was organised by taking into consideration the past unfortunate historical events related to communal conflicts among the various communities of Manipur during 1990s, Makakmayum Furkan Sharief, vice-president, MSAD, in a press statement issued on Friday.

It is a known fact that Manipur was a multi-cultural State with various communities living together in a peaceful co-operative environment, where social harmony and peaceful co-existence was part and parcel of everyday normal life, added the student leader.

Unfortunately the above trend has been distorted with the forceful entry of Indian political system which uses certain religion-culture and ethnic groups as mobilizing tactics for obtaining political power and plays a divisional politics to penetrate deep through our blood. With it, the notion of tyranny of majority with majority determines everything becomes a norm rather than exception and sections of Manipuri society get infected with the same dangerous mindset of dividing Manipur’s multi-cultural ethos for their personal political advantages.

The above decadent political culture and the successive emotional blackmailing of people by some  elites of Manipur had finally culminated into full blown communal clashes among and between various people of Manipur which could be seen with the unfortunate events of communally organised Naga-Kuki clash in 1992, systematically orchestrated majority political power holder Meitei community killings of Pangals in May 1993 and later on Kuki-Paite clash in 1997.

With the above observations, MSAD is of the view that the above scenarios of we getting divided while some agents taking easiest political advantages still keep continuing. Various sections of the society should come together, look back at our past and analyse together the causes of the said and other events keeping aside the theorising of contested histories so that our rich multi-cultural ethos remains intact, where respecting and recognizing different communities living in Manipur as one fraternal community becomes a norm, said the student leader.