-
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
NSCN had looted away more than 100 weapons in a raid on an
Assam Rifles camp at Oinam. The NPMHR had managed to secure
the services of one of the best human rights lawyers in the country,
Nandita Haksar. Some of the early activists of the NPMHR rose
in the Asian indigenous peoples movement. For example, Luithui
Luingam, one of the NPMHR s founders, even headed the Asian
Indigenous Peoples Pact at one time.
The Meira Paibis in Manipur have aggressively promoted the
strongest gender platform in northeast India, one that fights against
alcoholism, drugs and other social evils but also serves as a great mass
mobilizer to prevent the possible break-up of Manipur. They have
played the lead role in the movement against the draconian Armed
Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) and some of its elderly members
even stripped naked in front of the Assam Rifles headquarters in
Imphal, with placards saying: Indian army, come and rape us. The
AMSU, the All Manipur United Clubs Organization (AMUCO) and
the Meira Paibis form a formidable triumvirate in Meitei society that
will fight its last battle against a possible break-up of the state if Delhi
decides to dissect Manipur and hand over Naga-inhabited territories
to appease the NSCN. They demonstrated their strength and social
support during the agitation against the AFSPA after the brutal killing
of a Manipuri girl Thangjam Manorama in July 2004.
The Naga Mothers Association has also played an important role
in enforcing prohibition and in fighting against drugs in Naga soci-
ety. Its pioneering role in trekking to the NSCN bases in Burma to
kick-start the peace process in Nagaland is well documented. The
NSF, the NPMHR and the Naga Mothers Association form an
effective civil society triumvirate that has helped carry forward the
peace talks between the NSCN and mobilized the support for peace in
Naga society. That yearning for peace has compelled both the NSCN
and the Indian government to keep the dialogue going despite its very
Elections, Pressure Groups and Civil Society 229
slow progress. In the years since the NSCN started its negotiations
with the Indian government, the democratic space has widened in
Naga society. The pen and the microphone have somewhat, if not
fully, replaced the gun as instruments of political discourse and there
is greater freedom of debates in Naga society on crucial issues than
was the case during the long years of conflict.
The Naga people have also made it clear that they will not toler-
ate blatant warlordism any more. Several incidents in which NSCN
guerrillas were lynched were reported from the towns of Nagaland
in recent years. At Mokukchung, hundreds of Nagas lynched two
guerrillas of the NSCN s Khaplang faction after they killed a stu-
dent in broad daylight. One guerrilla of the NSCN s Issac Muivah
faction was beaten to death at Tuensang by a mob complaining of
guerrilla excesses. Militarism has taken a toll on Naga civil society
for years. But now for the first time in almost five decades, the Nagas
are experiencing uninterrupted peace for a long time as a result of
the Delhi-NSCN ceasefi re. Having already expressed themselves
against Indian militarism through the human rights forums, these
civil society groups are beginning to take on Naga militarism with
some firmness.
In the 1970s, Brigadier Sailo s civil liberties movement in Mizoram
brought about change in the ground situation. A brutalized society
suddenly found a new voice, one of reason and sense. A generation
that has grown up hearing talk of regrouped villages , cordon and
search and preventive detention were suddenly going over the Uni-
versal Declaration of Human Rights and the provisions of the Indian
constitution that provide for fundamental rights. The Civil Liberties
and Human Rights Organization (CLAHRO) in Manipur and the
Manab Adhikar Sangram Samity (MASS) in Assam have established
the human rights and the civil society agenda in their own states on
a firm institutional footing, despite the enormous harassment and
repression they continue to face.
Like the student organizations that formed the North East Students
Organizations (NESO) to coordinate their activities through a com-
mon agenda from a united platform, the human rights groups in the
North East have developed a regional network to articulate their
concerns. The biggest challenge for the region s fledgling human
rights movement is to carry the campaign against the AFSPA and
230 Troubled Periphery
the Disturbed Areas Act to a successful finale. The Indian govern-
ment was forced to set up a committee with a retired Supreme Court
judge to examine the AFSPA but then, under possible pressure of the
military, decided not to implement the committee s recommendation
to scrap the Act. But even tough Indian policemen, like Assam Police
Chief G.M. Srivastava, have advocated withdrawing the AFSPA, at
least for a while.3
As the frail Meitei woman Irom Sharmila s unending fast for
scrapping of the AFSPA nears a decade, more and more people are
coming out in her support not only in Manipur but elsewhere in the
region and even in mainland India. As the yearning for peace grows
and the civil society shapes up all across the North East, the insurgent
groups and the government will have to heed the spirit of the times
and work to end the region s endemic confl icts. After 60 years of
strife, there is a growing realization in the North East that peace is
more difficult to achieve than war.
NOTES
1. Gurudas Das, 2002.
2. Verrier Elwin, 1959. Also see, Verrier Elwin 1964.
3. G.M. Srivastava advocated withdrawl of AFSPA, at least temporarily, in a sem-
inar organized by the Centre for Peace and Development Studies in Guwahati on
17 March 2009.
8 The Crisis of Development
any have blamed the rebellions in India s North East on the
Mregion s economic backwardness and lack of development.
It has been argued that the North East is an endowed region, gifted
with many natural resources, but the endowments have not trans-
lated into economic growth and development. That widened the gap
between expectation and achievement among its predominantly
Mongoloid ethnicities and the alienation of the fringe from the
core has intensified. Instead of investing in the region s infrastruc-
ture and allowing market forces to do the rest, the country s federal
government pumped huge quantam of funds to sustain the region s
economy. Only recently has it dawned on Delhi that such huge fund
flows have led to little development of infrastructure. The Vision
2020 document for North East, prepared by the Department of
Development of North Eastern Region (DONER) and the North
East Council, admits:
At independence North Eastern Region was among the most prosperous
regions of India. Sixty years on, the Region as a whole, and the States
that comprise it, are lagging far behind the rest of the country in most
important parameters of growth. The purpose of this Vision document is
to return the North Eastern Region to the position of national economic
eminence it held till a few decades ago; to so fashion the development
process that growth springs from and spreads out to the grassroots; and
to ensure that the Region plays the arrow-head role it must play in the
vanguard of the country s Look East Policy.1
232 Troubled Periphery
In a free-market economy which India is evolving into, the influ-
ence of globalization and liberalization will be profound. In such
a situation, the North East will miss the bus unless it has adequate
infrastructure to attract investments. The Vision 2020 document noted [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ] - zanotowane.pl
- doc.pisz.pl
- pdf.pisz.pl
- matkadziecka.xlx.pl