Inner Line Permit (ILP) is our last hope of existence on
this planet
by Khuraijam Jibankumar
Photo: A scene from the movie, The Last of the Mohicans |
Only 15 lakhs indigenous Manipuris
are living on this 100+ crore populated country. Are we going to be diluted and
lost in this Aryanisation ? The present situation (in wake of extending railway
lines up to our state) reminds me of a novel "Last of the Mohicans".
During my visit to Tripura, I was disheartened by conditions of the indigenous
Tripuris. Indigenous Tripuris are now minority in their own state. Do we know
how ? Dev Burmans, the royal clans inclination towards Hinduisms and Bengali
culture led to complete dilution of their culture, arts and traditions. They
prefer to speak in Bengali rather than their own language. Their royal family
live in Shillong and Kolkata. Sachin Dev Burman was very fond of Bengali music
and he was icon of his time who completely changed arts and culture of the
Tripuris. Same thing happened in Manipur, our film directors, musicians,
singers and composers used Hindustani music [under the influence of music of
Bengali, Hindi, Tamil (recent)] that suppress our own arts and culture.
Drama/theatre directors inorder to get awards in Delhi/mumbai based their
stories on Mahabarat and Ramayana or Rabindranath Tagore's work. Our present
youths with little light of knowledge now began to blame our kings and our
ancestors but they appreciate music composers who are degrading our culture by
using south indian music. Its like listening dubbed south Indian or Hindi movie
songs.
Why emphasized mainly on music and
art forms ? Because we live in a land where sports and arts are our first attention.
We are fond of music and art forms whether it may be drama or films and it
influences our day today lives.
Present situation in our state can
be regarded as DARK AGES OF MANIPUR. Everyone is living without any aim.
Militants and military are looting and killing us in the name of safeguarding
us. We are left to decide of our own existence.
Who knows we are the last of the
Manipuris to walk on this planet !!!!!