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05/08/2010: "AN OPEN LETTER OF APPEAL TO OUR MEETEI NEIGHBOURS by Kaka Iralu"

AN OPEN LETTER OF APPEAL TO OUR MEETEI NEIGHBOURS by Kaka Iralu



First of all I want to make my position very clear that I am not writing this letter in support of any individual or faction in our present faction and leaders ridden Naga society. I also want to emphasize that I am not writing this letter to the Prime Minister of India but to our Meetei Mongolian brothers and sisters in Manipur. I say this because far away Delhi is not our neighbor but we will always be neighbors as long as the world lasts.

The Bible which I personally believe is the word of God to mankind commands that we should love God with all our hearts soul and mind and our neighbors as ourselves (Matt. 22:34-36). We also have a Naga proverb which says that a neighbor is more important then one’s own kith and kin. This is because in ancient times where our houses were build by straw, if our houses catch fire, it is not our kith and kin who douses the fire but our immediate neighbors.

Keeping these truths in the background, I wish to plead with our Meetei brothers to exercise restrain instead of provoking one another in the present ongoing crisis created by Uncle Muivah’s intended visit to his native village and the subsequent Manipur Government’s reaction. Whatever modern ethos of neighborly relation ships may be, in traditional Meetei or Naga cultures, it is never a practice in our customs that a house owner requires the permission of his neighbor to enter his own private house. As neighbors, we cannot help crossing one another’s lands and territories in our day today activities and works. However, if this necessary practice is to be banned from henceforth, then we will end up confined to our own small compounds with no avenues to interact with the rest of the world. That kind of a future would be very suffocating and frustrating for both parties concerned.

Let us therefore exercise native wisdom in maintaining good neighborly relationship so that we and all future generations of Meteis and Nagas can continue to live as good and friendly neighbors.

Very sincerely,

Kaka D. Iralu
May 4, 2010



THE REAL NAGA ISSUE VIS- A-VIS THE MANIPUR NAGA ISSUE

Kaka D. Iralu
May 5, 2010
E.Mail: kakairalu@rediffmail.com


The present Naga-Manipur issue that has arisen from the intended visit of Muivah to his native village of Somdal in the Manipur state of India is but a mere ripple of the wider Indo- Naga-Burma international issue. The bigger international issue is one of whether a European (Caucusian) race who have absolutely no land ownership rights over Asian Mongolian-Naga lands can dissect Naga lands into pieces and give it as presents to India and Burma? Secondly, the corollary issue is whether a Dravido-Aryan race called Indians and a Ava-Burman(Khonbuang) race called Myanmarese can claim these Naga lands as their own lands because Britain had bequeathed it to them?

This bigger issue is not an inter-state boundary dispute between the Indian Manipur state and the so called Nagaland state of India. It is in reality, an international issue over the rights of a nation to their ancestral geographical lands. The issue is whether Nagas, like any other nations on earth have a right to live in their own land free from foreign invasion and domination. The issue therefore is an international issue and not an internal Indian issue that can be solved by the Home Ministry of India. Far from it, its solution can come only from the corridors of an international Court of Law or an endless protracted war of self defense against invasion forces. The Nagas have been defending as well as pursuing both these fronts for the past sixty three years against overwhelming odds.

If however, some Naga leaders will pursue a Federal relationship with India or integration of Naga territories under the Constitution of India, then they will betray the Naga national cause and ripples and tensions like the one we are experiencing now will continue to plaque us for all times to come.

In this connection, one also wonders whether our Mongolian neighbor nations- the Ahoms of Assam and Meeteis of Manipur are aware of their international rights to their ancestral lands. As far as South Asian history is concerned, it is a fact that no Indian invasion forces, whether led by a Hindu king or a Muslim Emperor, had ever been able to cross the Brhamaputra River. The corollary question therefore is: How then have these two sovereign independent kingdoms and nations become a part of India after the Indian Independence Act of 1947? If they have joined the Indian union through their own volition, then the matter must end there. If however force or coercion had been used, then it is quite a different matter because in the process of this union, in the case of Manipur, the whole of the Kabaw valley and the Somra tract were ceded to Burma.

As for Nagas, even though their ancestral lands have been dissected into Burma, Assam, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh and the tiny Indian created state of Nagaland, they are still quite clear about their boundary lines. They are absolutely clear about these boundaries because their ancestors have been living in these lands from time immemorial and their offspring are still living there. These lands have been bequeathed to them by God and their ancestors and it is their most precious possession on earth. This is so, because on the whole face of the earth, this is the only land that belongs to them. Therefore let no neighbor or foreigner ever think that the Nagas will ever surrender their lands to anybody else and become refugees in their own lands.

WHAT NEXT IN MEETEI NAGA RELATIONSHIP?

Kaka D. Iralu
May 6, 2010

The much undesired incident has happened and May 6, 2010 will go down in modern Meetei Naga history as a very black day. Shooting down 74 unarmed Naga men and women and killing two (some say six) is indeed an attempt at massacre. Some of the victims told me that they were even dragged out of their houses and shot. The total casualty is still uncertain as many have fled into the jungles with their injuries. The firing started at around 11 AM but Nagaland Red Cross teams were allowed to enter Mao gate only at 2PM. I was also told that even the Deputy Commissioner of Kohima and the SP were not allowed to enter Mao gate. And even as I file this report at 7 PM after interviewing the injured in the Naga Civil hospital, on my way home, I saw siren blaring ambulances headed for the hospital. Were the Red Cross denied entry to the Manipur side so that the injured would bleed to death? Nagas in their hundreds waited anxiously from the Nagaland side of the border with first aid- all in vain. I also saw Nagas in their hundreds at the hospital where total strangers were seen paying medical bills for the injured. There were also those with flasks of tea as many had not eaten the whole day. Once again the word “Naga” will rally the Naga nation to its feet again because four million Nagas from across five different states will be hearing what has been done to Nagas again. Memories of August 27, 1948 are also still fresh in the minds of many of today’s victims. On that day too, three Nagas namely-Asusu Heponi, Modo Kholi and Marhu lorhu were shot to death and three others were injured when thousands of Nagas were marching in protest, refusing to pay taxes to the Manipur Raja because they were not Meeteis but Nagas by birth, land and history.