The thing itself

There is no war in the insecure constituencies that has multiplied internally displaced persons, landmine victims, torture, and all sorts of events resulting in gross human rights violations. But there is a strong battle. Battle to live as human. Battle to realise ones rights. Battle to exist as free and independent individuals. Battle to be free from fear. Battle to celebrate the beauty of life. Those constituencies are the danger zone described as "disturbed areas" and what not. Those constituencies are in our own treasured land, Manipur. Sad but true. Are we progressing to ruin? Yin? Or yang? Everyday grow new enemies. New warriors. New identity. Is this the reason why the defence budget keeps increasing every year? Small things, called it issues, blow out of proportion. But they seem to reflect the reality as they ooze with blood and loss of lives. The grim reality that we have been living with for many decades. They comprised the unclaimed baggage. Ignored. Unrepresented. This sudden outburst, many a times, put a big question on the reality. Questions like, are they possible? Or are they real? But they are where we are. It is, but entangled in the web of ignorance. Well, there is no war, but everyone knows there's a strong move towards armaments, taking into account the implications of security and power factors seemingly hidden in them. The state is a militarised compartment. There is no need to ask what the Jammu and Kashmir regiment or the Rashtriya Rifles are doing out here when the cow belt are also not actually celebrating peace. However, they believed they are exactly where they were raised to be. In this midst, there are actors who are trying to champion interventionism with a mixture of moral solidarity and hubris leading them to embark on the adventure in attaching the inhumane experiences to the issues of rights. But above everything, there ought to be a strong moral obligation to save Manipur so as to save ourselves. My concern, today, here is with moral obligation beyond our tribe, beyond our nation, community, beyond our families, language, dialect or religion.

In the movie, Blood Diamond, one of the character wished that oil were not discovered in the blood inflicted diamond rich land. There is reason to ask if we had discovered diamond or oil in Manipur? It is too bloody already. During the more than fifty years of the Cold War, the presence of one superpower's agents, spies or mercenaries in any ethnic war guaranteed the presence of the other on the opposing side. Does the end of Cold war means an end to the presence of imperialist or superpower interest? Can we say that there is no narrative of imperial rivalry or ideological struggle that stirs the once secured constituencies to become insecure and make those zones their business?

This taxing process has churned out Shakespeare's "thing itself" within us. Despite the swell of interventionist internationalism, it still is "Am I my brother's keeper" with us. That’s morality swinging strongly with us. Obligations to human beings beyond our language, identity, community and what not, has become the most difficult thing to exercise. We have become a corner in ourselves. Too cornered, at times, to be reached. Unaccomodated. Irresponsible. Insensitive. "The thing itself" has been accepted deliberately. Without any question. That's when the modern universal human rights culture found its up-hill task in finding its route into our small geography, but big challenges and issues. Everyday there are some sort of protest ex-pressions, though. From nude protest to self-immolation and hunger strike. The ex-pressions overflow. But it is cornered to be, now, a thing in itself. That's the irony.

The more sad truth is that the civil society seem tired and burnout by resorting to disengagement. Disengaging from the chaos as well as peace. That's more of fulfilling that "thing itself." That throws the question, can we be someone other than the victims. The question that follow is, can any engagement make things better? Those questions are inescapable in a failed state that is caught between the barrel of armed state actors as well as armed non-state actors. This is the reason why the growing insecure constituencies, despite no war declarations, are living with war torn effects. But we still need to ask what and who should represent our moral stakes in these grim situations? Will the new government that is installed with supposed democratic levers be representative? What should be anyone's first move here? Well it would be to move out of the particularist ethics and culture of narrowing our attachment to one's own language, community or identity. That would save us all from the ride towards degeneration. On the part of the state, it ought to be responsible, transparent, accountable and sensitive. Not just governing by hook or by crook. In this desperate context, we all should engage ourselves to find the moral vernaculars and options for the seemingly incorrigible tribalism and miseries. Otherwise, we are extending the insecure constituencies where we continue to create perilled strangers to fulfil that thing itself.