Manipur Conflict: Spectre of Broken Dreams
Dr. Denim Deka tells us a story that reveals the devastating impact of the Manipur conflict. Ongoing ethnic clashes have left a generation of youths with shattered dreams and an uncertain future.
Classrooms are great repositories of knowledge, structured/unstructured/impromptu learning, engagements, face-to-face interactions, and memories. It is a space that sets a foundation for educators and peers to explore each other’s ideas and opinions. However, bottled emotions, lingering tensions, and insecurities also has a subtle existence in the same classrooms. While most of the times we try our best to conceal it in a bid of not disrupting the flow of learning, at times we do end up sharing our woes. I have recently experienced one such instance where one of my students, Enriq (pseudonym) opened up about Manipur, his hometown.
He spoke at length about the prevailing tension particularly among youths arising out of the ongoing ethnic clashes. While mainstream media has now diverted from reporting it, he highlights how it does not rule out the presence of active and passive victims of the conflict. Two years of the ethnic clash (2023- up till now) between the Kuki and Meitei communities has exposed the deteriorating condition in Manipur. Lives lost, livelihood jeopardized, relations strained, ethnic bonhomie distorted, but is the persistence of an overall gloominess, and uncertainty. In the midst of such an environment, stands the youth population of Manipur who is oblivious of the future.
Seeing the state slide into chaos, young boys like Enriq, feels the pressure of the ground realities. Acknowledging that violence and clashes have hit the state hard, he expresses the lack of adequate intervention and solution. At this juncture it is intriguing to hold onto his political awareness, and consciousness. He laments how both the centre and the state has shown negligible interest to deal with the long standing issue of the two tribes. While everyone just condemned the violence, there is particularly no one to address the issue, lest solve it.
The state, he says, has been engulfed by burgeoning corruption, misuse of power, unwillingness on part of powerful authorities to cater to public outcries, and most of them messed up in their own internal games. In addition, there is the operational activities of the anti-social beings (re-emerging after being dormant) who are involved in supporting anti-nationalist, and divisive communal agendas. These groups often make deliberate attempt at spreading misinformation furthering tensions, and hostility among people. Today, the hard-earned peace has collapsed in the state.
Currently, with President’s rule imposed in the state, stability seem to have crawled in, however, the horror of instability looms large. Enriq believes that under such circumstances, the future in their state is grim for youths like him. According to him, as unemployment hits record high, he wonders what opportunities would the state offer them after graduation/post-graduation or even Ph.Ds. Many youths also have been lured into politics and unreasonable engagements owing to the current scenario of minimal work to no-work. While outsiders like us denounce it as deterioration of human rights and lives, only tertiary victim like Enriq knows it to be unavoidable. The portrait of transition from conflict to peace is blurry and this is what distresses youths there. Even though he has surrendered to this disturbing experience, he wishes to complete his studies, and start an entrepreneurial venture later. The longing for security and certainty is evident even though it large seems non-permanent for him.
Enriq further elaborates of many fatalities and displacement taking place, and most people have been facing insufficient living conditions. Economically sound families have also convened of abandoning their home forever, and migrate to the metropolitan cities. Inter-wined with the families are the youth who have to leave behind permanent homes, friends, neighbors and neighborhood, environment and the memories of growing up. In the new place, their realities and stories would be transported, some families would be accepted, some will have to face disapproval, and pondered on by new neighbors. It is saddening to think about these youth populations who have built their lives on structures of hope, aspiring ideologies and dreams. But today, troubled by sufferings, life has seemed to get out of hand revealing about ongoing resentment and destructiveness.
Conflict-torn regions give scars, and the pain lingers on. This is the cruel reality of the experience that claims live, livelihood, and memories. The people are soon washed off the false impression of permanent security and aliveness. A mysterious conversion between impending danger and loss constantly keep brewing in the backdrop. It actually takes courage to thrive though such circumstances, make every attempt to resist the disharmony, and bridge the difference self and other.
Hungry to discover more in life through fair and honest means, youth like Enriq has decided to hold on to the impulse of optimism. He informed how people have been living in discomfort, bumps and bends, and waiting for transition from the current time to another. At this juncture, I can only accord respect to all youths and other affected people in Manipur for being able to bring rigor, resilience, and livability in their world of chaotic sounds of conflict. Understanding the layered complexity between freedom and belonging, especially, these youths are trying to find themselves and their purpose. For it is not easy to find oneself with rhythms, and needs in an unnatural setting of ambiguity.
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