Higminashi Eikhoi production in the 90s was an attempt to ignite and spread the message of unity in diversity in a nutshell. The composition of the song, will remind you of Doordarshan’s patriotic message of India’s diverse people and culture in the making of Mile Sur Mera Tumhara that spurred patriotic emotion for many Indians.
‘Hingminashi Eikhoi’, the gentle voice calling for oneness, unity and diversity among the many tribes and communities of Manipur may perhaps seem like a new adopted smart government ‘tag line’ to promote hill and valley unity under the current political dispensation. However, that is not to be true.
The desire for Manipur in the imagining of the older and wiser predecessors the State has seen come and go, as the melting pot of peoples, cultures, cuisines, by and large carried the message of oneness and unity. This would mean, sincerity and not tokenism, respecting the culture and language of every tribes and communities living in Manipur.
It was not as if there were fighting among people during those simpler days, no. However, people in general during those innocent days understood well, that claiming ones tribe and dialect or language was better than the other was not conducive for co-existence as it directly challenged the Hingminashi Eikhoi concept of oneness and unity.
Perhaps, they understood that no other State in the country has so much diversity than Manipur. Perhaps they were proud of the oneness they saw in each other, from the beautiful valley to the hills as member of the State, which meant treating each like countrymen, like equals and not outsiders, learning to walk hand in hand. And not find solace in the plight of another community.
Mangled in politics for struggle of dominance over geography, over ethnicity, over religion, over natural resources, human history is marred in wars, conquest, occupation, colonization, extermination. History of human kind is profoundly dark. And in all of the dark history the world has seen in eschatological proportions, please be reminded that ethnicity and religion were always at the heart of the conflict.
I leave you with an editorial piece I wrote for The Imphal Free Press way back in 2015 to remind us all that the Meiteis and Meitei Pangals, the Nagas and Kukis who broadly are the major ethnic groups of people living in Manipur; professing Hinduism, Christianity, Islam, and may I also add Sanamahi are the religions followed by the vast majority of people in Manipur.
Humans are reflective beings. Given the current vicious conflict that we find ourselves in, let us once again remind ourselves that, defining every citizen by their ethnicity or tribes, or for that matter faith will only disfigure, degrade, and retard what could have been an ideally plural and diverse and happy society called Manipur!
Read my editoril piece of 2015: Ethnicity and Religion – are they always the reason to social conflict?
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