Perhaps, a self-introspection and a discourse is needed now in trying to understand the criminal neglect of the Manipur crisis by the Indian establishment for more than 16 months. Is this a part of the pattern or a policy meant for frontier states which had been going on for the last 75 years? What have Manipur gained after its merger with India? 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? What and how Manipur has gained in its development journey and upkeep of its rich heritage, culture and traditions after its merger to the Indian Union?
We know, one urgent necessity for bringing Manipur into the Indian Union was for ‘strategic reasons’ and not for any cultural affinity or common historical heritage. Manipur was never a part of the Indian imagination, as envisaged in the national anthem Jana Gana Mana. Now, we need to go back in history to find a connection with our present predicament through our tryst with India. 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. 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 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. And we are still paying the price of that historical blunder.
