Aquarius (Jan 23 - Feb 22) - You have an inventive mind and are inclined to be progressive. You lie a great deal. You make the same mistakes repeatedly because you are stupid. Everyone thinks you are a fucking jerk.
Pisces (Feb 23 - Mar 22) - You are a pioneer type and think most people are dickheads. You are quick to reprimand, impatient, and full of advice. You do nothing but piss-off everyone you come in contact with. You are a prick.
Aries (Mar 23 - April 22) - You have a wild imagination and often think you are being followed by the FBI or CIA. You have minor influence on your friends and people resent you for flaunting your power. You lack confidence and are a general dipshit.
Taurus (April 23 - May 22) - You are practical and persistent. You have a dogged determination and work like hell. Most people think you are stubborn and bullheaded. You are nothing but a goddamned communist.
Gemini (May 23 - June 22) - You are a quick and intelligent thinker. People like you because you are bisexual. You are inclined to expect too much for too little. This means you are a cheap bastard. Geminis are notorious for thriving on incest.
Cancer (June 23 - July 22) - You are sympathetic and understanding of other people's problems, which makes you a sucker. You are always putting things off. That is why you will always be on welfare and won't be worth a shit. Everyone in prison is a Cancer.
Leo (July 23 - Aug 22) - You consider yourself a born leader. Others think you are an idiot. Most Leos are bullies. You are vain and cannot tolerate criticism. Your arrogance is disgusting. Leo people are thieving motherfuckers and enjoy masturbation more than sex.
Virgo (Aug 23 - Sept 22) - You are the logical type and hate disorder. Your shit-picking attitude is sickening to your friends and co-workers. You are cold and unemotional and often fall asleep while fucking. Virgos make good bus drivers and pimps.
Libra (Sept 23 - Oct 22) - You are the artistic type and have a difficult time dealing with reality. Chances for employment and monetary gain are nil. Most Libra women are whores. All Libras die of venereal disease.
Scorpio (Oct 23 - Nov 22) - You are the worst of the lot. You are shrewd in business and cannot be trusted. You shall achieve the pinnacle of success because of your total lack of ethics. You are the perfect son-of-a-bitch. Most Scorpios are murdered.
Sagittarius (Nov 23 - Dec 22) - You are optimistic and enthusiastic. You have a reckless tendency to rely on your luck since you have no talent. You are a worthless piece of shit.
Capricorn (Dec 23 - Jan 22) - You are conservative and afraid of taking risks. You are basically chickenshit. There has never been a Capricorn of any importance.
This genuine and trustworthy sun-sign reading was prepared by Adam Sandler...
Monday, May 26, 2008
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Games people play
Courtesy: The Sangai Express and Imphal Free Press
IMPHAL, May 21: In what could be the first of its kind, residents of Keinou village in Bishnupur district on Wednesday consigned to the flames toy guns collected from children and shops in the village at the Keinou High School ground.
The idea behind the act, according to the villagers was to save children from imitating combat fighters while playing with toy guns as it could colour their minds and motivate them to engage in criminal activities.
With toy guns, children practice mock fight with each other while imitating the militants and army, which is not a good sign, members of the Keinou Apunba Lup, observed while talking to journalists covering the event today.
They also wanted a complete ban on the selling of toy guns from the area and children to choose alternative games other than playing with guns.
Extending support to the notion of local elders, children of the area carried out a rally at the Keinou village today and surrendered their toy guns to the elders. Later, they were burnt down.
The children displayed placards like ‘We hate toy guns, we love football’, ‘We learnt from the incidents involving our friends that toy guns are not friendly to us’, ‘No to toy guns, yes to yubi lakpi’, ‘We hate toy guns, we want traditional conventional games’, ‘Don't make me blind, I love football, I hate toy gun’ etc.
The burning of toy guns was meant to change the minds of children who play with toy guns, said Amarjit Yumnam, a member of an NGO of the area.
In the present state scenario children playing with such toys may colour their minds and later may engage in criminal activities, he said.
With toy guns, children practice mock fights with each other while imitating the militants and army, which is not a good sign. Womenfolk of area observed while talking to some journalists their fear of the negative attitude of playing with the toy guns. The impact would be very dangerous for the future of the children as there was high possibility of indulging in various negative things in their future life.
Toy guns no more resemble toys for the children, as most of them look like real guns and children even use small iron pellets as bullets causing hurt to them, the elders said.
Ibemhal of Keinou area who is the parent of two children, said that she didn't want toy guns to be used by children since it caused lots of problems like hurting each other in their eyes, hands, face etc.
Such practice would also make the children think in a negative way, she observed urging that toy guns should be totally banned.
The elders of the locality also expressed concern at the financial problems faced by them in affording the toy guns when their children demanded them. They said, “Not only this, parents faced a big problem in affording these toy guns for their children as toy guns are sold at Rs. 100 as minimum price and many costly toy guns are demanded by the children from their parents.”
In every locality, mention may be made; children enjoy playing with toy guns, a change that seems to have been brought by the prevailing social conditions in the state.
With the changing times, the manners of children’s games are also going through a transformation. Children instead of enjoying playing with indigenous games or other popular games want to buy toy guns and stage mock gunfight dramas with their toy guns.
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Review of literature
The following write-up is the review of literature for my dissertation - A Critical Evaluation on the Role of Internet in tackling the Problem of Insurgency in Manipur.
Communication Technology and Internet in Contemporary Society
Communication technology in our present day world
The exponential growth in the media industry in electronic and satellite communication, and rapid advances in communication technology has changed the media scenario as never before. The proliferation of new information and media technologies has brought about fundamental changes in several spheres of human activity – lifestyles, work culture, entertainment, modes of communication and polity and socio-cultural values. In the wake of these developments, the focus has shifted from development support communication to computerization and digitization, from rural communication to satellite transmission and from information to infotainment.
Articulation of communication technology as a form of domination has become the foundation of communication research. Researchers are thinking about the social processes of electronic communication and its effects on society. For some, the emergence of new communication technologies represents a new perspective on social and behavioural processes of longstanding interests in their disciplines. Others want to draw on social science theories to understand technology. A third group holds a more activist programme seeking guidance through to improve social interventions using technology in domains such as education, mental health, work productivity etc. The researchers highlight the human side of electronic/ satellite communication. This also illustrates how scientists are thinking about the social processes and effects of electronic communication designs, applications, and policies.
Within the last couple of decades, the technological scenario has tremendously changed throughout the world. People started dealing in new conceptual moves in human communication both through humans and in machines in the evolutionary and ever changing world of communication and media technology. Gradually, the last couple of decades have undergone immense developments in technology and its applications. The developed countries through research and development efforts have created technological innovations. The developing countries have leapfrogged some of these according to their resources. Communication is evolutionary. The empirical researches changed, improved upon, reinforced, and initiate new concepts, models, theories, and technological applications.
According to Angela Wadia, the communication process in society performs three functions:
i. Surveillance of the environment, disclosing threats and opportunities affecting the value positions of the community and component parts within it.
ii. Correlation of the components of society in making a response to the environment.
iii. Transmission of the social inheritance. In general, biological equivalents can be found in human and animal associations, and within the economy of a single organism.
Different Perspectives
Ever since the launching of the Early Bird satellite in 1965, the satellite technology has been the prime mover in accelerating developments in the area of communication technologies. The Third World countries find satellite technology particularly relevant to their development needs as it helps them leapfrog obsolescent technologies.
Arthur C. Clarke, the distinguished scholar and science writer was the first to visualize the potential of satellites for the developing countries. Developing countries stand to gain most from these innovations, as they are not yet burdened with heavy fixed investments in technology that is rapidly becoming obsolete. In one of the articles – New Communication technologies and the Developing World, Clarke wrote:
But why do need such satellites, what have they got to do with the problems of the Third World? The answer may seem paradoxical, even perverse. In highly developed regions like the United States and most of Europe, communication satellites are a great convenience but are not absolutely vital. These countries already have excellent cable and microwave links. To many developing countries, however satellites are essential, they will make it unnecessary to build the elaborate and expensive ground systems required in the past. Indeed to such countries, satellite could be a matter of life and death. To put it as dramatically as possible, unless major investments are made in space, millions are going to die, or eke out brief and miserable lives. And most of those millions will be in the Third World.
In a nutshell, the need to harness the potential of New Media, especially Internet in our frame of reference, to enhance the social productivity and quality of life will remain crucial; so as to make contributions to political participations though the socio-economical and political barriers may be too deep seated to achieve these.
Interest in communication research has paralleled our concern for communication problems in social affairs. With unflagging vigour and unyielding interest, an increasing number of researchers and scholars have been engaged in both conceptual and empirical studies bearing upon desired changes in human behaviour involving interaction and communication.
Internet in our world
Telecommunication systems include a variety of well-organized fee-based information utilities that operate as closed systems. However, Internet has rapidly become the critical choice for those looking for a home for community information systems.
The Internet evolution started back when the Atlantic Cable of 1858 to carry instantaneous communications across the ocean for the first time established the first recorded description of the social interactions for communication. Although the laying of the cable was seen as a landmark event in history, it was a technical failure. It only remained in service a few days. Subsequent cable laid in 1866 were completely successful and compared to events like the moon landing of a century later… the cable remained in use for 100 years. Then in 1957, while responding to the 1866 threat of the cable in general and the success of Sputnik in particular, the US President Dwight D. Eisenhower created the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) through the department of Defense. The Atlantic Cable of 1858 and Sputnik of 1957 were the two basic milestones on the Internet prehistory.
The Internet is not based upon a single location or a centrally managed network. It is an amorphous set of linkages among computers around the world. This offers breadth, flexibility, world scale connectivity, and a self-expanding system that will grow with the efforts of all who contribute to it. For most supporters of Internet, the cost of information is recovered during its development. Free access removes an important barrier to the use of information. Besides, in the midst of confusion over which information services will predominate, internet has become the common location accessible from most all others. User demand has forced proprietary service to permit effective Internet access.
The unexpected speed with which Internet was adopted in the West is an excellent example of how unaware we often are of the future impact and potential invention of our inventions, in this case due to our limited understanding of the human need for communication. The ability to communicate any form of content (audio, video, writing etc) to any number of people one wishes is a universal human need.
The rapid growth in technology, which ushered in the Information Age, has become the basis for defining power in the modern societies. It is a widely accepted fact that no modern economy can thrive without an integral information technology and telecommunications infrastructure on board. Access to the Internet is crucial to the developments of all aspects of the nation’s economy.
Impact of Internet communication tools such as telephones and the Internet are increasingly critical to nation’s economic success and personal advancement. The advent of the Internet has been greatly described as being as important for society as the development of the personal computer, the telephone, or even the mass media. The Internet serves many functions – as virtual community, electronic marketplace, and information source, employment portal for jobseekers, research centre, discussion forum, and entertainment centre, among others. Internet brings together buyers and sellers and facilitates the flow of information, making it a key driver for trade.
To appreciate the importance the new computer-aided communication can have, one must consider the dynamics of “critical mass,” as it applies to cooperation in creative endeavor. Take any name worthy of the name, and you find only a few people who can contribute effectively to its solution. Those people must be brought into close intellectual partnership so that their ideas can be exposed to one another. But bring these people together physically in one place to form a team, and you have trouble, for the most creative people are often not the best team players, and there are not enough top positions in a single organization to keep them all happy. Let them go their separate ways, and each creates his own empire, large or small, and devotes more time to the role of emperor than to the role of problem solver. The principals still got together at meetings. They still visit one another. Nevertheless, the time scale of their communication stretches out, and the correlation among mental models degenerate between meetings so that it may take a year to do a week’s communicating. There has to be some way of facilitating communication among people and bringing them together in one place without physically coming together.
Political Background –
the Northeast and Manipur
Fire in the mountains
The Northeast India which immediately conjures a picture of being a land of violence and insurgencies in the popular imagination of both the minds of the mainland intellectuals and the common citizens is contrasted by the untold story of long years of deprivation, underdevelopment, neglect and negation of every fundamental rights including the rights of life and liberty on its part. The penetrating eyes of every responsible citizen of this country is yet to acknowledge the deep rooted sense of secular culture, polity, sensibility to reason and love and care for peace and prosperity that form the other reality and face of this region.
The failed process of State and nation making is also reflected in the existence of armed opposition groups contesting the very legitimacy of the notion of a union called India.
The region which occupies an area of 2,62,264sq km, lies in the confluence of South and South-east Asia having international borders with Bangladesh (1640km), Bhutan (650km), China(1000km) and Myanmar (1450km). On the other hand, it is connected with the mainland India through Siliguri Corridor in West Bengal, sometimes referred to as the chicken neck, which spans a meagre 21km.
Many scholars have rightly pointed out that the international borders shared by the Northeast have been forcefully created. The outcome has been the elimination of the region’s trade, commerce and other linkages that existed in pre-partition days. Using the region’s 2% perimeter as a major linkage point with the rest of India, and at the same time checking the inflow of goods and people from across the remaining 98% has been a gigantic and counter productive task. On the contrary, mainstream development debates argue that the main stumbling block for the region’s economic development is its disadvantageous geographical situation.
Heavily militarized, it remains at the receiving end of the Indian military might. Economic engagements with the neighbouring countries came to be based on the strategic and military postures of New Delhi. Successive regimes at the Centre have been unable to assess the consequences of their isolationist policies curtailing social and economic links of the region with its neighbours. While other parts of the country moves towards massive industrialization and technologically driven agriculture, the region has been left to the military and police to manage the only development objective seemed to be the building of military infrastructure to secure the frontier.
Policies and prescriptions have not been able to successfully transform the economic landscape. While it is indeed true that development of peoples has never been even in the course of human history, the capacity and ability to develop has not been the exclusive preserve of a single group of people alone.
Besides the geographical distance separating the Northeast from mainland India, the region is even farther away from the consciousness of Indian leaders. Apart from being a strictly landlocked hinterland land of India, the region is very much isolated from the international community, thanks to India’s closed-door policy towards its eastern neighbours and the infamous Protected Area Permit system in the region. Such policies negate the prospect of tourism industry in the region even as policy makers in New Delhi have repeatedly acknowledged its huge potential.
The energy-rich Northeast has substantial oil, natural gas and coal exploited ever since the British colonial period with significant areas left unexplored. Its rivers move enormous amount of water with the potential to generate far more electricity than they now do. The region also has abundant forest resources. It is nonetheless India’s most backward region. With virtually no industrial infrastructure, industrialization is yet to dawn in the region even in an otherwise technologically driven world of the 21st Century. On the contrary, deindustrialization seems to be the trend with ever increasing dependency on mainland India. The deep sense of perpetual grudge in the minds of the people, antagonism and mistrust among various sections of the society, lack of a sense of belonging and continuing communication gap have further aggravated the situation.
Superstructure Condemned
Abrupt transition from erstwhile self-governing social structures to a centralized administration with virtually little say in the affairs of the state leaves much room for discontentment. Ensuing civil strife and social unrest bog down the region with politics centred on petty ethnic issues of development.
Some of the other problems which have beset the region include:
i. Deep sense of economic neglect;
ii. Lack of value-oriented educational system;
iii. Lack of quality educational infrastructure;
iv. No prospects for those in vocational streams;
v. Growth of consumerist culture;
vi. Absence of secondary sector which has led to massive dependency in the heavily tertiarised public sector for employment;
vii. Lack of proper understanding by the policy makers to work out effective measures rooted in ground realities;
viii. Low investment in productive jobs;
ix. Presence of numerous ethnic groups;
x. Exposure of the indigenous population to colossal migration waves from outside, etc.
Massive underdevelopment in the region is compounded by the increasing trend of deindustrialization. In states like Manipur, al the districts fall under the category of ‘No Industry District’ by all India standards. Virtual absence of industrial infrastructure, compelling the region to depend only on primary sector of production even after more than five decades of centralized economic planning conspicuously narrates the saga of underdevelopment. Hence, a natural deep-rooted sense of “otherness” among political community of the region persists. The very perception of otherness is substantiated by the unimaginative and blunderous politico-economic responses of the Indian State vis-à-vis the crises in the region.
No doubt the Northeast remained shut-off from the collective psyche of mainland Indians when India came into existence as an independent state in the wake of British departure from the sub-continent. The region, both as a geographical entity and socio-cultural reality, did not find a place in the national consciousness; rather the racial arrogance being reinforced by ignorance could not perceive the existence of the Northeast beyond the Brahmaputra valley. This was a sad commentary on India’s nation building process, as successive powers in New Delhi have had to pay a heavy price ever since the late 1950s. Certain informed quarters also held the view that all the North-eastern states were carved out of Assam.
The mainland Indians, especially the ruling class, treated the Northeast as something alien to the Indian-self due the absence of any shared historical experiences. For them, the region is the Africa of the East inhabited by savage jungle tribes who do not deserve any sort of protection in the face of external aggression. It may be recalled that in 1962, when the Chinese forces reached the foothills of Kameng close to the plains of Assam, the Indian government left the people to their own destiny by the withdrawing the army troops to the west of the Siliguri Corridor to defend the mainland. Jawaharlal Nehru then poured out his feeling through the All India Radio thus: “My heart bleeds for Assam”. It was only after the 1962 debacle that the Northeast began to capture the imagination of the Indian rulers. The region can no longer be ignored especially in the view of the persisting Chinese claim over North-East Frontier Agency
(now Arunachal Pradesh). It has been an explicitly visible phenomenon that fortunes of the Northeast continue to be inextricably intertwined with the perceived or imagined Chinese threat. The outlook of the policy makers vis-à-vis the region exhibits the warped nature of the 1962 episode. Various study of the region and its body politic by a number of people from the Indian mainland primarily of a journalistic or bureaucratic background so far apparently subscribe to the logic of this perceived threat.
Illusions – Military defence shield
Traditionally speaking, the politics, culture and social development of the Northeast region was strongly influenced by historical processes emanating from the Southeast Asia. The formation of the Ahom and Meitei kingdom are testimonies of this historical process. All these drastically changed with the transformation of the Northeast region into a geo-strategic zone in the eastern theatre of the British Empire followed by the present Indian government. There is enough literature on the process and consequences of the transformation in the writings of colonial administrators. Legitimacy to conduct military operations has been deprived from the concept of development that asserts peace as a necessary condition for development makes it imperative for the state to use force. Hence, developmentalism has been a powerful justificatory doctrine of state violence against the civil population. The concept of development is employed to conceal the real intent of military operations design to subdue the armed resistance movements in the Northeast. This truth substantiates the assertion of the entire region as a frontier periphery that needs to be defended militarily. If this is this is the case, it will not be false to hold the view that the Northeast never formed a part of the mainstream imagination of Indian nationhood.
The Indian ruling elites tried to conceal the real picture of deploying security forces in the Northeast by inventing an ‘illusion’. This illusion got articulated in the expression commonly made by political leaders and army officers in the public platform or the mass media: “Insurgency is due to economic backwardness and that economic development ahs been stalled because of insurgency”. A sort of vicious circularity is implied in the statement but a deeper analysis but a deeper analysis will prove it to be a strategy to mislead the people so as to justify the perpetual military presence and their activities. Because, empirical observations reveal that insurgency is basically neither an economic problem nor economic development is stalled due to the existence of insurgency. It can be argued that if economic backwardness, regional imbalance, lack of infrastructural development, unemployment and poverty were considered as the prime factors for the emergence of insurgency in the Northeast, Arunachal Pradesh would have topped the list for having the highest number of insurgent outfits which is not the case in reality.
The lack of a consistent policy of the Indian government to deal with insurgency is reflected in its paradoxical approach to solve the problem. An economic approach rather than a militaristic one should have been adopted to resolve the crisis if the central government believed it was the case of economic discontentment. Ironically, however the Indian state fails to respond to the peripheral reaction with proper accommodation within the bounds of developmentalism instead of militarism. And this demonstrates a wilful negligence on the part of the Indian government to solve the problem besetting then region for the last many decades. It can be concluded that the existence of armed groups in the Northeast serves the Indian interest to justify the presence of its military in the region in a larger strategy to defend the mainland. Therefore, the notion of The Northeast as a buffer zone or a military defence shield still holds true even today. This is further corroborated by the simple fact that Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act is still enforced in states like Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh where armed conflict is virtually non-existent.
Manipur – Politically incorrect
Manipur, apart from its scenic and pristine natural beauty, ahs been ascribed different titles by many well-known figures across the world. Alfred Lyall (1908) described it as an oasis of comparative civilization. During the World War II, the Japanese soldiers described Manipur as Takane No Hana, literally meaning flower of the lofty heights. To Lord Irwin, it is the ‘Switzerland of India’ and to many others, it is a paradise on earth. A tiny multi-ethnic, multi-cultural and multi-religious state with total land area of just 8,500sq km, it is topographically classified into two parts – the centrally-situated oval-shaped valley (which occupy a mere 10% of the total area) and the surrounding nine ranges of hills. The long chequered history of the state reveals the deep socio-economic interdependence and cultural relations between the inhabitants of the valley and the surrounding hills.
Known through various names in the region between South Asia and Southeast Asia, history recorded its existence as a sovereign Asiatic kingdom since ancient times. Known as Kathe to the Burmese, Meklee to the Ahoms, Mooglie to the Kacharies and Cassey to the Shans, the people of this land have undergone several ordeals in the course of its long drawn history. It is generally accepted that the history of Manipur begins from 33AD. Cheitharol Kumbaba or the Royal Chronicles recorded the ascension of Nongda Lairen Pakhangba to the throne at Kangla, the ancient seat of power in Manipur. Confluence and convergence of various cultural crosscurrents vis-à-vis the interactions with neighbouring civilizations produced an economic system which included trade and commerce with neighbouring kingdoms or countries. Its geographical location provided the basis of a functional standpoint in terms of historic Silk Route traversing China, Myanmar and Bangladesh.
Lack of historical connectivity, distant geographical location, proximity and affinities with South-east Asia, existence of the state along with Assam and Tripura as sovereign political entities in the political history has contributed significantly in the preservation of socio-cultural distinctiveness from the rest of India.
Not surprisingly, the first casualty to democracy occurred when India failed to recognise the first democratically elected Manipur Legislative Assembly (under the Manipur Constitution Act, 1947) by full adult franchise under a constitutional monarchy. A sense of bitterness pervades the inclusion of this ancient Asiatic kingdom. The bitter irony, as Manipuris see it, is that Independent India, which proclaimed its dedication to democracy, wilfully refused to recognised the democratically elected government of its tiny neighbour and instead persisted in dealing with the former feudal ruler who himself repeatedly protested that he had surrendered his power to the elected Assembly. Furthermore, Manipur was not a petty state surrounded by Indian territory, but a border state more akin to Sikkim and Kashmir. It is difficult to deny the force of these arguments, and to resist the conclusion that the Union Government, in its eagerness to maximise its borders, simply annexed Manipur.
Historically Manipur was also under monarchical system of governance till the British occupation in 1891. It however, also enjoyed the status of princely state under British dominion like hundreds of territorial monarchical region in the Indian sub-continent. Manipur was merged as a Union Territory on October 15, 1949 and subsequently attained its full statehood in 1972. Centralized planning during the pre-statehood had Manipur’s economy in the doldrums. Its economy vis-à-vis the country dawdled behind in every aspect. Neither agriculture nor industry was in a laudable position for performance as a launch pad for sound economic growth.
The story of developing and creation of physical infrastructure for more than five decades of Indian administration in Manipur has produced a vicious cycle of underdevelopment and economic crises. Besides such development strategy has also led to emergence of vested interest groups comprising politicians, bureaucrats and contractors. Economic analysts in Manipur feel that there has been neither consistency of purpose nor direction in goals as far as plans in the state is concerned. How else does one explain the fact that up to the Ninth Plan, only 4.28% of investment went into agriculture and all of 78% into transport, power and social sector. Development strategy in the state is particularly based upon adhocism rather than integrated and consistent approach. This kind of development approach has produced a ‘patron-client’ nature of relationship between the New Delhi’s ruling class and peripheral ruling class of Northeast in general and Manipur in particular with the latter begging financial packages from the former rather than attempting to generate the state’s own productive units.
Insurgency in Manipur
With three major ethnic groups in Manipur, its insurgency is also primarily divided into insurgent groups of Meitei, Naga and Kuki. While the Meitei insurgents’ prime objective is to free their pre-British territorial boundary from ‘Indian occupation’, the Naga insurgents support the demand of sovereign Nagalim (Greater Nagaland), comprising of Nagaland along with the Naga majority areas of Assam, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh and Myanmar. The Kuki on the other hand support the demand of separate Kukiland for which Kukis of Myanmar are also fighting.
Encouraged with the growth of Naga insurgency, a section of Meitei youths under the leadership of Communist icon, Hijam Irabot, opposed the merger of Manipur in Indian union and set up Manipur Red Guard with a view to wage war for liberation of this state from Indian occupation. Subsequently, there was a culmination of several movements like the shadowy Pan-Mongoloid movement and the Revolutionary Nationalist Party which raised the banner of independence in 1953. This first symptom of secessionist tendency among the Meiteis gave birth to ethnicization of politics in the state. The revolt though, failed to draw mass support and gradually fizzled out particularly after the death of Irabot, ethnic politics remained the focal point in the state, which even continues today.
The insurgency in Manipur like other states of the Northeast began with an ideology for restoration of the pre-British politico-ethnic supremacy of the Meiteis, later turned into ethnic conflict and finally entered into a cross-current of socio-political whirlpool due to individualised interest of the multiplying leaders of its respective insurgent groups. With a view to restore their pre-British pride, some of the educated Meitei youths known to be the followers of Irabot regrouped and formed United National Liberation Front in 1964 under the leadership of Arambam Somerendra to launched an underground movement. With sustained anti-Indian campaign a breakaway group of UNLF later established an underground government called Revolutionary Government of Manipur under the leadership of Oinam Sudhir with its headquarter in erstwhile East Pakistan.
The perpetual unrest in the society has failed to come into any negotiated settlement owing to various factors such as:
i. Failure of the national leadership in constitutional and cultural integration of the various ethnic groups of isolated Northeast with the rest of the diverse Indian society.
ii. Multiplicity of insurgent organisations.
iii. High level of corruption in State agencies, which are responsible for utilisation of substantial fund allocated by the Centre for developmental programmes. Central government has been bearing about 90% of the state budget but economic and industrial development is negligible.
iv. Negligible benefit to the common people through developmental programmes alienated from the centre.
v. Obstacles by drug traffickers, who control huge amount of underground economy with their money-spinning strength.
vi. Prolong stay of security forces has annoyed the people.
vii. Demographic imbalance due to unabated illegal infiltration from Banglasdesh, which has not been tackled by the Central government effectively. The Central leadership placed party interest above of the nation due to vote bank.
viii. Top leaders of prominent insurgent groups are seldom interested in negotiated peace as their children study in best schools abroad and their family live in luxury.
ix. Poor generation of unemployment opportunity for the educated youths.
x. Connivance between corrupt officials and the insurgents created underground economy under the control of the secessionists.
By the end of the last millennium the estimated strength of the cadres of the various insurgent groups operating in hills and valley of Manipur reached around 20,000. They are reportedly in possession of the latest ammunition from Automatic Kalashnikovs to M16s and rocket launchers.
According to Intelligence report, 19,950 insurgents and extremists were operating both in
valley and hill areas by 2001. It listed 34 insurgent groups such as:
>United National Liberation Front (UNLF)
>Peoples Liberation Army (PLA)
>Kanglei Yawol Kanna Lup (KYKL)
>Peoples Revolutionary Party of Kangleipak (PREPAK)
>Kangleipak Communist Party (KCP)
>Peoples United Liberation Front (PULF)
>Kuki National Front (KNF)
>National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN-K)
>NSCN -IM
>Zomi Revolutionary Volunteers (ZRV)
>Hmar Peoples Convention (HRC)
>Chin Kuki Revolutionary Front (CKRF) etc. etc.
Information Technology in Manipur
Developments in Information Technology
Information Technology offers a new opportunity for economic growth, employment and knowledge based development for Manipur. Even it can overcome one of the most common bottleneck – the hostile terrains of the region – provided reliable and necessary telecommunication infrastructure along with power supply are in place. Recognising the vast potential of IT industry in the state, the Government of Manipur has accorded high priority to the Electronics and IT sector as a major thrust area of development. In the vision statement of a dynamic and co-ordinated IT policy, the state government mentions – to transform Manipur into an IT driven economy and society.
The objectives of the policy include the following:
• To set up the institutional framework to implement and monitor the IT policy.
• To use e-governance to upgrade the standard and quality of administration, and to provide citizen-oriented, efficient and cost-effective government.
• To promote investments and growth in IT industry, and encourage private sector initiative in IT related and services.
• To encourage percolation of IT literacy and education in the state.
• To generate IT related employment for the educated youth.
Manipur has vibrant manpower potential ideally suited for electronics and IT based industries in view of the unpolluted and eco-friendly environment conditions and ever growing qualitative work force.
For instance, the Manipur Industrial Development Corporation Ltd and the Centre for Electronics Design and Technology of India (CEDTI) have been established to fill up the gaps for development of electronics including IT based industries in the state. Community Information Centres with Internet connection via VSAT systems are being set up in every block of the state. CICs, apart from being information centres, provides training to the local public in computer application and work is underway to increase the utility of such centres by incorporating government-to-citizen interfaces and web content of local relevance.
Some IT areas where private participation is encouraged:
• Setting up of an IT park
• Setting up of IT Enable Service Centres such as call centres etc.
• Development of a backbone network Manipur State Wide Area Network (MANNET) for voice, data and video transmission and dissemination.
• IT literacy programme in schools and colleges
• Setting up of information kiosks
• Internet over Cable and other new technologies for Internet penetration.
Telecom infrastructure in Manipur:
• Independent satellite link with Shillong and New Delhi.
• Microwave link with Kohima and beyond.
• 40 digital exchanges
• Internet C-II Networking at Imphal with 810 connections to all district headquarters.
Reference
Books:
• Annovazzi, Jacob L. 2003. “Landlocked Countries – Opportunities, Challenges, Recommendations”. UNECE Trade 299: Geneva.
• Clarke, Arthur C. 1981. “New Communication Technologies and the Developing World”. (As reproduced in “Opening Windows – Issues in Communication”, the Silver Jubilee Celebration). AMIC: Singapore.
• Constantine, R. 1981. “Manipur – Maid of the Mountains”. Lancers Publishers: New Delhi.
• Egreateau, Renaud. 2006. “Instability at the Gate: India’s troubled Northeast and its external connections”. Publication of the French Institutes in India, Centre de Science Humaines.
• Gupta, V.S. 1999. “Communication Technology – Media Policy and National Development”. Concept Publishing Company: New Delhi.
• Lokendra, N.Singh.1998. “Unquite Valley”. Mittal Publications: New Delhi.
• Narula, Uma. 2001. “Mass Communication Technology”. Har Anand Publication: New Delhi.
• Parrat, John. 2005. “Wounded Land: Politics and Identity in Modern Manipur”. Mittal Publication: New Delhi.
• Wadia, Angela. 1999. “Communication and Media – Study in ideas, initiatives and institutions”. Kanishka Publishers & Distributors: New Delhi.
• Sachdeva, Gulshan. 2000. “Economy of the Northeast: Policy, Present Condition and Future Possibilities”. Konark: New Delhi.
• Sanajaoba, Naorem. 1985. “Basic Issues in Centre State relations”. Konark: New Delhi.
• Tarapot, Phanjoubam. 2003. “Bleeding Manipur”. Har Anand Publication: New Delhi.
Newspapers/ Journals:
• Alternative Perspectives: Vol I, Issue II, January-March 2006.
• Alternative Perspectives: Vol I, Issue III, April-June 2006.
• Chongtham, Priyoranjan. 2005. “Manipur’s Economy: Historical Roots and Structural Evolution”. Eastern Quarterly, Vol III, Issue III.
• Eastern Quarterly: Vol III, Issue I, July-September 2006.
• The Hindu. March 12, 2008. “Agenda for recolonization”.
• The Indian Express, New Delhi. April 26, 1999. “Internet sites new ‘war-zones’ for NE ultras”.
• The Indian Express, March 5, 2008. “Northeasts of India”.
• The Sangai Express, February 18, 2008. “Media in Manipur”.
Websites:
• Arambam, Kapil. “The Manipur Hangover and Search for a Solution”, http://www.manipuronline.com/opinions/September2006/manipurhangover25_2.htm
• http://manipur.nic.in
• http://www.satp.org
• Sharma, Shachi Gurumayum.” Revolution Generation”,
http://e-pao.net/epPageExtractor.asp?src=features.Revolution_Generation.html
Communication Technology and Internet in Contemporary Society
Communication technology in our present day world
The exponential growth in the media industry in electronic and satellite communication, and rapid advances in communication technology has changed the media scenario as never before. The proliferation of new information and media technologies has brought about fundamental changes in several spheres of human activity – lifestyles, work culture, entertainment, modes of communication and polity and socio-cultural values. In the wake of these developments, the focus has shifted from development support communication to computerization and digitization, from rural communication to satellite transmission and from information to infotainment.
Articulation of communication technology as a form of domination has become the foundation of communication research. Researchers are thinking about the social processes of electronic communication and its effects on society. For some, the emergence of new communication technologies represents a new perspective on social and behavioural processes of longstanding interests in their disciplines. Others want to draw on social science theories to understand technology. A third group holds a more activist programme seeking guidance through to improve social interventions using technology in domains such as education, mental health, work productivity etc. The researchers highlight the human side of electronic/ satellite communication. This also illustrates how scientists are thinking about the social processes and effects of electronic communication designs, applications, and policies.
Within the last couple of decades, the technological scenario has tremendously changed throughout the world. People started dealing in new conceptual moves in human communication both through humans and in machines in the evolutionary and ever changing world of communication and media technology. Gradually, the last couple of decades have undergone immense developments in technology and its applications. The developed countries through research and development efforts have created technological innovations. The developing countries have leapfrogged some of these according to their resources. Communication is evolutionary. The empirical researches changed, improved upon, reinforced, and initiate new concepts, models, theories, and technological applications.
According to Angela Wadia, the communication process in society performs three functions:
i. Surveillance of the environment, disclosing threats and opportunities affecting the value positions of the community and component parts within it.
ii. Correlation of the components of society in making a response to the environment.
iii. Transmission of the social inheritance. In general, biological equivalents can be found in human and animal associations, and within the economy of a single organism.
Different Perspectives
Ever since the launching of the Early Bird satellite in 1965, the satellite technology has been the prime mover in accelerating developments in the area of communication technologies. The Third World countries find satellite technology particularly relevant to their development needs as it helps them leapfrog obsolescent technologies.
Arthur C. Clarke, the distinguished scholar and science writer was the first to visualize the potential of satellites for the developing countries. Developing countries stand to gain most from these innovations, as they are not yet burdened with heavy fixed investments in technology that is rapidly becoming obsolete. In one of the articles – New Communication technologies and the Developing World, Clarke wrote:
But why do need such satellites, what have they got to do with the problems of the Third World? The answer may seem paradoxical, even perverse. In highly developed regions like the United States and most of Europe, communication satellites are a great convenience but are not absolutely vital. These countries already have excellent cable and microwave links. To many developing countries, however satellites are essential, they will make it unnecessary to build the elaborate and expensive ground systems required in the past. Indeed to such countries, satellite could be a matter of life and death. To put it as dramatically as possible, unless major investments are made in space, millions are going to die, or eke out brief and miserable lives. And most of those millions will be in the Third World.
In a nutshell, the need to harness the potential of New Media, especially Internet in our frame of reference, to enhance the social productivity and quality of life will remain crucial; so as to make contributions to political participations though the socio-economical and political barriers may be too deep seated to achieve these.
Interest in communication research has paralleled our concern for communication problems in social affairs. With unflagging vigour and unyielding interest, an increasing number of researchers and scholars have been engaged in both conceptual and empirical studies bearing upon desired changes in human behaviour involving interaction and communication.
Internet in our world
Telecommunication systems include a variety of well-organized fee-based information utilities that operate as closed systems. However, Internet has rapidly become the critical choice for those looking for a home for community information systems.
The Internet evolution started back when the Atlantic Cable of 1858 to carry instantaneous communications across the ocean for the first time established the first recorded description of the social interactions for communication. Although the laying of the cable was seen as a landmark event in history, it was a technical failure. It only remained in service a few days. Subsequent cable laid in 1866 were completely successful and compared to events like the moon landing of a century later… the cable remained in use for 100 years. Then in 1957, while responding to the 1866 threat of the cable in general and the success of Sputnik in particular, the US President Dwight D. Eisenhower created the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) through the department of Defense. The Atlantic Cable of 1858 and Sputnik of 1957 were the two basic milestones on the Internet prehistory.
The Internet is not based upon a single location or a centrally managed network. It is an amorphous set of linkages among computers around the world. This offers breadth, flexibility, world scale connectivity, and a self-expanding system that will grow with the efforts of all who contribute to it. For most supporters of Internet, the cost of information is recovered during its development. Free access removes an important barrier to the use of information. Besides, in the midst of confusion over which information services will predominate, internet has become the common location accessible from most all others. User demand has forced proprietary service to permit effective Internet access.
The unexpected speed with which Internet was adopted in the West is an excellent example of how unaware we often are of the future impact and potential invention of our inventions, in this case due to our limited understanding of the human need for communication. The ability to communicate any form of content (audio, video, writing etc) to any number of people one wishes is a universal human need.
The rapid growth in technology, which ushered in the Information Age, has become the basis for defining power in the modern societies. It is a widely accepted fact that no modern economy can thrive without an integral information technology and telecommunications infrastructure on board. Access to the Internet is crucial to the developments of all aspects of the nation’s economy.
Impact of Internet communication tools such as telephones and the Internet are increasingly critical to nation’s economic success and personal advancement. The advent of the Internet has been greatly described as being as important for society as the development of the personal computer, the telephone, or even the mass media. The Internet serves many functions – as virtual community, electronic marketplace, and information source, employment portal for jobseekers, research centre, discussion forum, and entertainment centre, among others. Internet brings together buyers and sellers and facilitates the flow of information, making it a key driver for trade.
To appreciate the importance the new computer-aided communication can have, one must consider the dynamics of “critical mass,” as it applies to cooperation in creative endeavor. Take any name worthy of the name, and you find only a few people who can contribute effectively to its solution. Those people must be brought into close intellectual partnership so that their ideas can be exposed to one another. But bring these people together physically in one place to form a team, and you have trouble, for the most creative people are often not the best team players, and there are not enough top positions in a single organization to keep them all happy. Let them go their separate ways, and each creates his own empire, large or small, and devotes more time to the role of emperor than to the role of problem solver. The principals still got together at meetings. They still visit one another. Nevertheless, the time scale of their communication stretches out, and the correlation among mental models degenerate between meetings so that it may take a year to do a week’s communicating. There has to be some way of facilitating communication among people and bringing them together in one place without physically coming together.
Political Background –
the Northeast and Manipur
Fire in the mountains
The Northeast India which immediately conjures a picture of being a land of violence and insurgencies in the popular imagination of both the minds of the mainland intellectuals and the common citizens is contrasted by the untold story of long years of deprivation, underdevelopment, neglect and negation of every fundamental rights including the rights of life and liberty on its part. The penetrating eyes of every responsible citizen of this country is yet to acknowledge the deep rooted sense of secular culture, polity, sensibility to reason and love and care for peace and prosperity that form the other reality and face of this region.
The failed process of State and nation making is also reflected in the existence of armed opposition groups contesting the very legitimacy of the notion of a union called India.
The region which occupies an area of 2,62,264sq km, lies in the confluence of South and South-east Asia having international borders with Bangladesh (1640km), Bhutan (650km), China(1000km) and Myanmar (1450km). On the other hand, it is connected with the mainland India through Siliguri Corridor in West Bengal, sometimes referred to as the chicken neck, which spans a meagre 21km.
Many scholars have rightly pointed out that the international borders shared by the Northeast have been forcefully created. The outcome has been the elimination of the region’s trade, commerce and other linkages that existed in pre-partition days. Using the region’s 2% perimeter as a major linkage point with the rest of India, and at the same time checking the inflow of goods and people from across the remaining 98% has been a gigantic and counter productive task. On the contrary, mainstream development debates argue that the main stumbling block for the region’s economic development is its disadvantageous geographical situation.
Heavily militarized, it remains at the receiving end of the Indian military might. Economic engagements with the neighbouring countries came to be based on the strategic and military postures of New Delhi. Successive regimes at the Centre have been unable to assess the consequences of their isolationist policies curtailing social and economic links of the region with its neighbours. While other parts of the country moves towards massive industrialization and technologically driven agriculture, the region has been left to the military and police to manage the only development objective seemed to be the building of military infrastructure to secure the frontier.
Policies and prescriptions have not been able to successfully transform the economic landscape. While it is indeed true that development of peoples has never been even in the course of human history, the capacity and ability to develop has not been the exclusive preserve of a single group of people alone.
Besides the geographical distance separating the Northeast from mainland India, the region is even farther away from the consciousness of Indian leaders. Apart from being a strictly landlocked hinterland land of India, the region is very much isolated from the international community, thanks to India’s closed-door policy towards its eastern neighbours and the infamous Protected Area Permit system in the region. Such policies negate the prospect of tourism industry in the region even as policy makers in New Delhi have repeatedly acknowledged its huge potential.
The energy-rich Northeast has substantial oil, natural gas and coal exploited ever since the British colonial period with significant areas left unexplored. Its rivers move enormous amount of water with the potential to generate far more electricity than they now do. The region also has abundant forest resources. It is nonetheless India’s most backward region. With virtually no industrial infrastructure, industrialization is yet to dawn in the region even in an otherwise technologically driven world of the 21st Century. On the contrary, deindustrialization seems to be the trend with ever increasing dependency on mainland India. The deep sense of perpetual grudge in the minds of the people, antagonism and mistrust among various sections of the society, lack of a sense of belonging and continuing communication gap have further aggravated the situation.
Superstructure Condemned
Abrupt transition from erstwhile self-governing social structures to a centralized administration with virtually little say in the affairs of the state leaves much room for discontentment. Ensuing civil strife and social unrest bog down the region with politics centred on petty ethnic issues of development.
Some of the other problems which have beset the region include:
i. Deep sense of economic neglect;
ii. Lack of value-oriented educational system;
iii. Lack of quality educational infrastructure;
iv. No prospects for those in vocational streams;
v. Growth of consumerist culture;
vi. Absence of secondary sector which has led to massive dependency in the heavily tertiarised public sector for employment;
vii. Lack of proper understanding by the policy makers to work out effective measures rooted in ground realities;
viii. Low investment in productive jobs;
ix. Presence of numerous ethnic groups;
x. Exposure of the indigenous population to colossal migration waves from outside, etc.
Massive underdevelopment in the region is compounded by the increasing trend of deindustrialization. In states like Manipur, al the districts fall under the category of ‘No Industry District’ by all India standards. Virtual absence of industrial infrastructure, compelling the region to depend only on primary sector of production even after more than five decades of centralized economic planning conspicuously narrates the saga of underdevelopment. Hence, a natural deep-rooted sense of “otherness” among political community of the region persists. The very perception of otherness is substantiated by the unimaginative and blunderous politico-economic responses of the Indian State vis-à-vis the crises in the region.
No doubt the Northeast remained shut-off from the collective psyche of mainland Indians when India came into existence as an independent state in the wake of British departure from the sub-continent. The region, both as a geographical entity and socio-cultural reality, did not find a place in the national consciousness; rather the racial arrogance being reinforced by ignorance could not perceive the existence of the Northeast beyond the Brahmaputra valley. This was a sad commentary on India’s nation building process, as successive powers in New Delhi have had to pay a heavy price ever since the late 1950s. Certain informed quarters also held the view that all the North-eastern states were carved out of Assam.
The mainland Indians, especially the ruling class, treated the Northeast as something alien to the Indian-self due the absence of any shared historical experiences. For them, the region is the Africa of the East inhabited by savage jungle tribes who do not deserve any sort of protection in the face of external aggression. It may be recalled that in 1962, when the Chinese forces reached the foothills of Kameng close to the plains of Assam, the Indian government left the people to their own destiny by the withdrawing the army troops to the west of the Siliguri Corridor to defend the mainland. Jawaharlal Nehru then poured out his feeling through the All India Radio thus: “My heart bleeds for Assam”. It was only after the 1962 debacle that the Northeast began to capture the imagination of the Indian rulers. The region can no longer be ignored especially in the view of the persisting Chinese claim over North-East Frontier Agency
(now Arunachal Pradesh). It has been an explicitly visible phenomenon that fortunes of the Northeast continue to be inextricably intertwined with the perceived or imagined Chinese threat. The outlook of the policy makers vis-à-vis the region exhibits the warped nature of the 1962 episode. Various study of the region and its body politic by a number of people from the Indian mainland primarily of a journalistic or bureaucratic background so far apparently subscribe to the logic of this perceived threat.
Illusions – Military defence shield
Traditionally speaking, the politics, culture and social development of the Northeast region was strongly influenced by historical processes emanating from the Southeast Asia. The formation of the Ahom and Meitei kingdom are testimonies of this historical process. All these drastically changed with the transformation of the Northeast region into a geo-strategic zone in the eastern theatre of the British Empire followed by the present Indian government. There is enough literature on the process and consequences of the transformation in the writings of colonial administrators. Legitimacy to conduct military operations has been deprived from the concept of development that asserts peace as a necessary condition for development makes it imperative for the state to use force. Hence, developmentalism has been a powerful justificatory doctrine of state violence against the civil population. The concept of development is employed to conceal the real intent of military operations design to subdue the armed resistance movements in the Northeast. This truth substantiates the assertion of the entire region as a frontier periphery that needs to be defended militarily. If this is this is the case, it will not be false to hold the view that the Northeast never formed a part of the mainstream imagination of Indian nationhood.
The Indian ruling elites tried to conceal the real picture of deploying security forces in the Northeast by inventing an ‘illusion’. This illusion got articulated in the expression commonly made by political leaders and army officers in the public platform or the mass media: “Insurgency is due to economic backwardness and that economic development ahs been stalled because of insurgency”. A sort of vicious circularity is implied in the statement but a deeper analysis but a deeper analysis will prove it to be a strategy to mislead the people so as to justify the perpetual military presence and their activities. Because, empirical observations reveal that insurgency is basically neither an economic problem nor economic development is stalled due to the existence of insurgency. It can be argued that if economic backwardness, regional imbalance, lack of infrastructural development, unemployment and poverty were considered as the prime factors for the emergence of insurgency in the Northeast, Arunachal Pradesh would have topped the list for having the highest number of insurgent outfits which is not the case in reality.
The lack of a consistent policy of the Indian government to deal with insurgency is reflected in its paradoxical approach to solve the problem. An economic approach rather than a militaristic one should have been adopted to resolve the crisis if the central government believed it was the case of economic discontentment. Ironically, however the Indian state fails to respond to the peripheral reaction with proper accommodation within the bounds of developmentalism instead of militarism. And this demonstrates a wilful negligence on the part of the Indian government to solve the problem besetting then region for the last many decades. It can be concluded that the existence of armed groups in the Northeast serves the Indian interest to justify the presence of its military in the region in a larger strategy to defend the mainland. Therefore, the notion of The Northeast as a buffer zone or a military defence shield still holds true even today. This is further corroborated by the simple fact that Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act is still enforced in states like Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh where armed conflict is virtually non-existent.
Manipur – Politically incorrect
Manipur, apart from its scenic and pristine natural beauty, ahs been ascribed different titles by many well-known figures across the world. Alfred Lyall (1908) described it as an oasis of comparative civilization. During the World War II, the Japanese soldiers described Manipur as Takane No Hana, literally meaning flower of the lofty heights. To Lord Irwin, it is the ‘Switzerland of India’ and to many others, it is a paradise on earth. A tiny multi-ethnic, multi-cultural and multi-religious state with total land area of just 8,500sq km, it is topographically classified into two parts – the centrally-situated oval-shaped valley (which occupy a mere 10% of the total area) and the surrounding nine ranges of hills. The long chequered history of the state reveals the deep socio-economic interdependence and cultural relations between the inhabitants of the valley and the surrounding hills.
Known through various names in the region between South Asia and Southeast Asia, history recorded its existence as a sovereign Asiatic kingdom since ancient times. Known as Kathe to the Burmese, Meklee to the Ahoms, Mooglie to the Kacharies and Cassey to the Shans, the people of this land have undergone several ordeals in the course of its long drawn history. It is generally accepted that the history of Manipur begins from 33AD. Cheitharol Kumbaba or the Royal Chronicles recorded the ascension of Nongda Lairen Pakhangba to the throne at Kangla, the ancient seat of power in Manipur. Confluence and convergence of various cultural crosscurrents vis-à-vis the interactions with neighbouring civilizations produced an economic system which included trade and commerce with neighbouring kingdoms or countries. Its geographical location provided the basis of a functional standpoint in terms of historic Silk Route traversing China, Myanmar and Bangladesh.
Lack of historical connectivity, distant geographical location, proximity and affinities with South-east Asia, existence of the state along with Assam and Tripura as sovereign political entities in the political history has contributed significantly in the preservation of socio-cultural distinctiveness from the rest of India.
Not surprisingly, the first casualty to democracy occurred when India failed to recognise the first democratically elected Manipur Legislative Assembly (under the Manipur Constitution Act, 1947) by full adult franchise under a constitutional monarchy. A sense of bitterness pervades the inclusion of this ancient Asiatic kingdom. The bitter irony, as Manipuris see it, is that Independent India, which proclaimed its dedication to democracy, wilfully refused to recognised the democratically elected government of its tiny neighbour and instead persisted in dealing with the former feudal ruler who himself repeatedly protested that he had surrendered his power to the elected Assembly. Furthermore, Manipur was not a petty state surrounded by Indian territory, but a border state more akin to Sikkim and Kashmir. It is difficult to deny the force of these arguments, and to resist the conclusion that the Union Government, in its eagerness to maximise its borders, simply annexed Manipur.
Historically Manipur was also under monarchical system of governance till the British occupation in 1891. It however, also enjoyed the status of princely state under British dominion like hundreds of territorial monarchical region in the Indian sub-continent. Manipur was merged as a Union Territory on October 15, 1949 and subsequently attained its full statehood in 1972. Centralized planning during the pre-statehood had Manipur’s economy in the doldrums. Its economy vis-à-vis the country dawdled behind in every aspect. Neither agriculture nor industry was in a laudable position for performance as a launch pad for sound economic growth.
The story of developing and creation of physical infrastructure for more than five decades of Indian administration in Manipur has produced a vicious cycle of underdevelopment and economic crises. Besides such development strategy has also led to emergence of vested interest groups comprising politicians, bureaucrats and contractors. Economic analysts in Manipur feel that there has been neither consistency of purpose nor direction in goals as far as plans in the state is concerned. How else does one explain the fact that up to the Ninth Plan, only 4.28% of investment went into agriculture and all of 78% into transport, power and social sector. Development strategy in the state is particularly based upon adhocism rather than integrated and consistent approach. This kind of development approach has produced a ‘patron-client’ nature of relationship between the New Delhi’s ruling class and peripheral ruling class of Northeast in general and Manipur in particular with the latter begging financial packages from the former rather than attempting to generate the state’s own productive units.
Insurgency in Manipur
With three major ethnic groups in Manipur, its insurgency is also primarily divided into insurgent groups of Meitei, Naga and Kuki. While the Meitei insurgents’ prime objective is to free their pre-British territorial boundary from ‘Indian occupation’, the Naga insurgents support the demand of sovereign Nagalim (Greater Nagaland), comprising of Nagaland along with the Naga majority areas of Assam, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh and Myanmar. The Kuki on the other hand support the demand of separate Kukiland for which Kukis of Myanmar are also fighting.
Encouraged with the growth of Naga insurgency, a section of Meitei youths under the leadership of Communist icon, Hijam Irabot, opposed the merger of Manipur in Indian union and set up Manipur Red Guard with a view to wage war for liberation of this state from Indian occupation. Subsequently, there was a culmination of several movements like the shadowy Pan-Mongoloid movement and the Revolutionary Nationalist Party which raised the banner of independence in 1953. This first symptom of secessionist tendency among the Meiteis gave birth to ethnicization of politics in the state. The revolt though, failed to draw mass support and gradually fizzled out particularly after the death of Irabot, ethnic politics remained the focal point in the state, which even continues today.
The insurgency in Manipur like other states of the Northeast began with an ideology for restoration of the pre-British politico-ethnic supremacy of the Meiteis, later turned into ethnic conflict and finally entered into a cross-current of socio-political whirlpool due to individualised interest of the multiplying leaders of its respective insurgent groups. With a view to restore their pre-British pride, some of the educated Meitei youths known to be the followers of Irabot regrouped and formed United National Liberation Front in 1964 under the leadership of Arambam Somerendra to launched an underground movement. With sustained anti-Indian campaign a breakaway group of UNLF later established an underground government called Revolutionary Government of Manipur under the leadership of Oinam Sudhir with its headquarter in erstwhile East Pakistan.
The perpetual unrest in the society has failed to come into any negotiated settlement owing to various factors such as:
i. Failure of the national leadership in constitutional and cultural integration of the various ethnic groups of isolated Northeast with the rest of the diverse Indian society.
ii. Multiplicity of insurgent organisations.
iii. High level of corruption in State agencies, which are responsible for utilisation of substantial fund allocated by the Centre for developmental programmes. Central government has been bearing about 90% of the state budget but economic and industrial development is negligible.
iv. Negligible benefit to the common people through developmental programmes alienated from the centre.
v. Obstacles by drug traffickers, who control huge amount of underground economy with their money-spinning strength.
vi. Prolong stay of security forces has annoyed the people.
vii. Demographic imbalance due to unabated illegal infiltration from Banglasdesh, which has not been tackled by the Central government effectively. The Central leadership placed party interest above of the nation due to vote bank.
viii. Top leaders of prominent insurgent groups are seldom interested in negotiated peace as their children study in best schools abroad and their family live in luxury.
ix. Poor generation of unemployment opportunity for the educated youths.
x. Connivance between corrupt officials and the insurgents created underground economy under the control of the secessionists.
By the end of the last millennium the estimated strength of the cadres of the various insurgent groups operating in hills and valley of Manipur reached around 20,000. They are reportedly in possession of the latest ammunition from Automatic Kalashnikovs to M16s and rocket launchers.
According to Intelligence report, 19,950 insurgents and extremists were operating both in
valley and hill areas by 2001. It listed 34 insurgent groups such as:
>United National Liberation Front (UNLF)
>Peoples Liberation Army (PLA)
>Kanglei Yawol Kanna Lup (KYKL)
>Peoples Revolutionary Party of Kangleipak (PREPAK)
>Kangleipak Communist Party (KCP)
>Peoples United Liberation Front (PULF)
>Kuki National Front (KNF)
>National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN-K)
>NSCN -IM
>Zomi Revolutionary Volunteers (ZRV)
>Hmar Peoples Convention (HRC)
>Chin Kuki Revolutionary Front (CKRF) etc. etc.
Information Technology in Manipur
Developments in Information Technology
Information Technology offers a new opportunity for economic growth, employment and knowledge based development for Manipur. Even it can overcome one of the most common bottleneck – the hostile terrains of the region – provided reliable and necessary telecommunication infrastructure along with power supply are in place. Recognising the vast potential of IT industry in the state, the Government of Manipur has accorded high priority to the Electronics and IT sector as a major thrust area of development. In the vision statement of a dynamic and co-ordinated IT policy, the state government mentions – to transform Manipur into an IT driven economy and society.
The objectives of the policy include the following:
• To set up the institutional framework to implement and monitor the IT policy.
• To use e-governance to upgrade the standard and quality of administration, and to provide citizen-oriented, efficient and cost-effective government.
• To promote investments and growth in IT industry, and encourage private sector initiative in IT related and services.
• To encourage percolation of IT literacy and education in the state.
• To generate IT related employment for the educated youth.
Manipur has vibrant manpower potential ideally suited for electronics and IT based industries in view of the unpolluted and eco-friendly environment conditions and ever growing qualitative work force.
For instance, the Manipur Industrial Development Corporation Ltd and the Centre for Electronics Design and Technology of India (CEDTI) have been established to fill up the gaps for development of electronics including IT based industries in the state. Community Information Centres with Internet connection via VSAT systems are being set up in every block of the state. CICs, apart from being information centres, provides training to the local public in computer application and work is underway to increase the utility of such centres by incorporating government-to-citizen interfaces and web content of local relevance.
Some IT areas where private participation is encouraged:
• Setting up of an IT park
• Setting up of IT Enable Service Centres such as call centres etc.
• Development of a backbone network Manipur State Wide Area Network (MANNET) for voice, data and video transmission and dissemination.
• IT literacy programme in schools and colleges
• Setting up of information kiosks
• Internet over Cable and other new technologies for Internet penetration.
Telecom infrastructure in Manipur:
• Independent satellite link with Shillong and New Delhi.
• Microwave link with Kohima and beyond.
• 40 digital exchanges
• Internet C-II Networking at Imphal with 810 connections to all district headquarters.
Reference
Books:
• Annovazzi, Jacob L. 2003. “Landlocked Countries – Opportunities, Challenges, Recommendations”. UNECE Trade 299: Geneva.
• Clarke, Arthur C. 1981. “New Communication Technologies and the Developing World”. (As reproduced in “Opening Windows – Issues in Communication”, the Silver Jubilee Celebration). AMIC: Singapore.
• Constantine, R. 1981. “Manipur – Maid of the Mountains”. Lancers Publishers: New Delhi.
• Egreateau, Renaud. 2006. “Instability at the Gate: India’s troubled Northeast and its external connections”. Publication of the French Institutes in India, Centre de Science Humaines.
• Gupta, V.S. 1999. “Communication Technology – Media Policy and National Development”. Concept Publishing Company: New Delhi.
• Lokendra, N.Singh.1998. “Unquite Valley”. Mittal Publications: New Delhi.
• Narula, Uma. 2001. “Mass Communication Technology”. Har Anand Publication: New Delhi.
• Parrat, John. 2005. “Wounded Land: Politics and Identity in Modern Manipur”. Mittal Publication: New Delhi.
• Wadia, Angela. 1999. “Communication and Media – Study in ideas, initiatives and institutions”. Kanishka Publishers & Distributors: New Delhi.
• Sachdeva, Gulshan. 2000. “Economy of the Northeast: Policy, Present Condition and Future Possibilities”. Konark: New Delhi.
• Sanajaoba, Naorem. 1985. “Basic Issues in Centre State relations”. Konark: New Delhi.
• Tarapot, Phanjoubam. 2003. “Bleeding Manipur”. Har Anand Publication: New Delhi.
Newspapers/ Journals:
• Alternative Perspectives: Vol I, Issue II, January-March 2006.
• Alternative Perspectives: Vol I, Issue III, April-June 2006.
• Chongtham, Priyoranjan. 2005. “Manipur’s Economy: Historical Roots and Structural Evolution”. Eastern Quarterly, Vol III, Issue III.
• Eastern Quarterly: Vol III, Issue I, July-September 2006.
• The Hindu. March 12, 2008. “Agenda for recolonization”.
• The Indian Express, New Delhi. April 26, 1999. “Internet sites new ‘war-zones’ for NE ultras”.
• The Indian Express, March 5, 2008. “Northeasts of India”.
• The Sangai Express, February 18, 2008. “Media in Manipur”.
Websites:
• Arambam, Kapil. “The Manipur Hangover and Search for a Solution”, http://www.manipuronline.com/opinions/September2006/manipurhangover25_2.htm
• http://manipur.nic.in
• http://www.satp.org
• Sharma, Shachi Gurumayum.” Revolution Generation”,
http://e-pao.net/epPageExtractor.asp?src=features.Revolution_Generation.html
Monday, May 5, 2008
Diary of a Slug III
The last time I had written something about my life on this blog was the summer of 2007. It may be coincindental that i'm continuing this hot season again, but it is rather circumstantial. Precisely, we need time to devote for our blogs and it was almost impossible to pay the cafe charges. I have been using the net on a regular basis and other than visiting Orkut, Gmail, Epao and other favourite sites, I could not afford to spend much time sitting in front of the system, 'typing' my life...
But times...they are a' changin'...I'm still pursuing Masters in mass communication and fortunately, since March 1, 2008, i have got a job in a media firm as a copy editor and much to my delight i'm getting free access to the world wide web. Thus the continuation of the slug's diary...
Well, since the last couple of weeks, i have been feeling that i should get more responsible and sensible... true to their meanings for till now, my life has been an icecream - enjoy it before it melts! But genuinely, i don't see any reason why i should get serious. The sole thing that cannot be ignored is that I need savings, at least I feel so... yeah nobody can deny it but the fact is that I feel its the only in thing to do... others are mere secondary stuffs to look after in life.
Anyways, i got one more month to complete my formal education (as of now now i don't have any intention to pursue further). It's been hard juggling between the office timing and those assignments and internal tests in my yet to be completed course. But fortunately, its only a month i got to do the thing in rush. Maybe i hope there would be more appointments once i completed my course. Hopefully, there would be nothing like if I failed to submit my assignment in time, marks will be deducted from my final score in a particular paper. Life is so ironic!
But times...they are a' changin'...I'm still pursuing Masters in mass communication and fortunately, since March 1, 2008, i have got a job in a media firm as a copy editor and much to my delight i'm getting free access to the world wide web. Thus the continuation of the slug's diary...
Well, since the last couple of weeks, i have been feeling that i should get more responsible and sensible... true to their meanings for till now, my life has been an icecream - enjoy it before it melts! But genuinely, i don't see any reason why i should get serious. The sole thing that cannot be ignored is that I need savings, at least I feel so... yeah nobody can deny it but the fact is that I feel its the only in thing to do... others are mere secondary stuffs to look after in life.
Anyways, i got one more month to complete my formal education (as of now now i don't have any intention to pursue further). It's been hard juggling between the office timing and those assignments and internal tests in my yet to be completed course. But fortunately, its only a month i got to do the thing in rush. Maybe i hope there would be more appointments once i completed my course. Hopefully, there would be nothing like if I failed to submit my assignment in time, marks will be deducted from my final score in a particular paper. Life is so ironic!
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