Ever since Manipur got merged into India, people had been living on edge with no certainty on the integrity of its composite territory as the Indian establishment plays with ethnic aspirations in the region. Maharaja Bodhachandra, the heir of a once independent nation at the crossroads of South Asia and South east Asia, was made to sign the controversial Merger agreement on September 21, 1949 after which Manipur became formally merged to the Dominion of India on October 15 that same year.
The British colonialists were not the only ones who humiliated the Manipuris as a race and a nation with more than 2000-year old history of independence which once held sway at the crossroads of South Asia and Southeast Asia. The pride and glory of a once independent people and nation was crushed by the British by hanging its bravehearts in public in 1891 and Manipuris are still struggling to cope with the collective trauma it faced then.
As if to add insult to injury, the Indian establishment once again humiliated the Manipuris after the controversial merger by placing the state among its lowest rung of newly acquired princely states and territories, that is of a Part C state headed by a mere Chief Commissioner. Like in New Delhi, the state of Manipur was informed of its independence and lapse of British paramountcy at midnight in the intervening night of August 14 and 15. But, monarchy was not completely done away with.
The Maharaja-in-Council took over the administration. Manipur became the first state in the Indian subcontinent to enact a constitution of its own. The Manipur State Constitution Act, 1947 was adopted on 26th July, 1947 and elections were held based on adult franchise from June to July, 1948. This happened before India became a Republic with a constitution of its own on 26 January 1950.
Leaving aside the interpretation of the merger or the chronology and events preceding the ‘signing’ of Manipur Merger agreement on 21 September 1949 to political pundits, we must say Manipur once again faced humiliation at the hands of the Indian establishment through its degradation to a Part-C state, when it was formally merged to the Dominion of India on 15 October, 1949. And India is yet to apologise to the general public of Manipur for that humiliation.
It was only in 1965 that Manipur was upgraded to the status of a Union Territory with a Lt Governor, that too after granting statehood to Nagaland comprising some uncharted districts called the Naga Hills of Assam in 1962. The Nagaland statehood was given after a full-bloodied war by the Indian Indian establishment against Naga hostiles led by AZ Phizo. But the die had been cast for the birth of insurgency in Manipur and thus the United National Liberation Front (UNLF) came into being in 1964.
Full statehood for Manipur came in 1972 only after widespread agitations. When the British left Manipur in 1947, it had a self-sufficient agriculture economy with even surplus food production for export. However, 22 years of semi-central rule in the state had reduced it to a beggar at the mercy of Central largesse. By the time it became a full-fledged state in 1972, it was all over. The ethos of a once independent nation which held sway at the crossroads of South Asia and Southeast Asia had vanished and a servile political class backed by a bureaucrat-businessmen-contractor nexus took over the reins of power in the state.
Seventy-five years hence, the state is still in a limbo and going about with a begging bowl every time the state becomes bankrupt with massive overdrafts. Its territorial integrity is under perpetual threat from both domestic and foreign forces, with the Indian state still non-committal to a Constitutional guarantee of its boundary and borders. Our Kings and ancestors had once guarded the boundaries of Manipur even with their lives.
Today, our borders are uncertain and fragile in the hands of the Indian establishment and its forces. So then, where is the charm of being an Indian state? What is it to be a proud Indian? Does it envisage sacrificing our boundaries so zealously guarded by our ancestors or forsaking our age-old cultural traditions and practices besides the historical legacy that we had inherited? If so, we must say a big NO.
