It is strange, nobody is talking about the urgent need for finding a workable solution to the ethnic crisis in Manipur, but public discourse has turned to the ensuing parliamentary elections, even though muted. It has been more than 10 whole months that the ethnic unrest had been raging on with no solution in sight. And both warring sides seem to have dug in to their respective stances.
While Union Home Minister Amit Shah keeps on ‘monitoring’ the Manipur situation, Prime Minister Narendra Modi continues to ignore it totally. Maybe the Home Ministry mandarins are hard at work trying to work out a solution or waiting for the unrest to die out with time. So many lives have been lost, hundreds are maimed and injured, several people young and old are missing and thousands continue to languish in relief camps and makeshift homes.
A collective trauma haunts both the displaced and people at large which the so called leaders continue to engage in rhetoric of mutual hatred. There has been no respite ever since the clashes broke out. In the valley, the Meiteis had to forego its biggest festival ‘Ningol Chakkouba’ and in the hills ‘Christmas’ was a muted affair among the Kukis. Now comes the Yaoshang festival and Thabal Chongba season and there is already talk of foregoing it. Yet, these same elements are keeping quiet on the travesty of an election while we are in deep mourning.
Yaoshang is one of the most important festivals of Manipur which is celebrated for five days during the Meitei lunar month of Lamta. The month of Lamta is significant in the sense that womenfolk come out in the streets to appease the spirits on every Saturday (Lamta Thangja) with offerings collected from every household in the locality. As it happens with the onset of Spring season, it is also associated with the age-old tradition of Thabal Chongba which is in fact a formal occasion for young boys and girls to meet. What is Thabal Chongba and what it means for the Manipuri society?
One often tries to get away with the simplistic description of a popular folk dance during the annual Yaoshang Festival and even a literal definition of Thabal chongba as ‘dancing by moonlight’. The only other occasion existing till today albeit only in some rural areas is ‘Likkon-Saanaba’ where young boys and girls gather for a game of dice. Perhaps it is because of the stars, adolescent urges to understand members of the other sex begin to develop in the Meitei month of Lamta as a prelude to the onset of the creation festivities like Lai Haraoba season in the month of Kalen.
Every youth has gone through this phase and no one has bypassed it. Thabal Chongba is one such occasion where the adolescent urges or itch is channelised ritually through a merry dance. It is not just holding hands and dancing away the night with gay abandon. For two consecutive years during the pandemic, we have banned the Thabal Chongba ritual or festivities. It means bottling up the itch or adolescent urges and it could most possibly lead to negative social situations which we all would want to avoid. Maybe, we should forego Yaoshang Thabal this time also in view of the suffering and mourning among the people. But, we must also ponder upon a question whether this election is going to bring peace and normalcy in the state.
(The views expressed are personal)
