GUWAHATI, Sept 29 - The All Assam Manipuri Youth Association (AAMYA) and the Manipuri National Council (MNC) have jointly demanded that the manipuri people living in the Barak Valley be given political autonomy with the formation of a Manipuri autonomous Council.
Organising a sit-in demonstration in front of the Shahid Khudiram Bose statue in Silchar on Monday, the two bodies in a memorandum submitted to the State Chief Minister lamented that none of the MLAs and MPs in Assam in general and Barak Valley in particular have at any time voiced their concern in the Assembly or the Parliament over the conditions in which the Manipuris are living.
�This is quite natural because Manipuris cannot be represented by someone from the other community, however good he or she may be. No one except a Manipuri can feel like a Manipuri and would be serious enough to study our problems and as a matter of fact, in any democracy, the unrepresented community will become sick, disunited, disintegrated, conspire with each other and vanish in thin air because they will be absorbed by the majority community. So the language, culture, identity, safety, security and survival of the unrepresented and unprotected Manipuris is at stake in Assam,� the memorandum said adding that the only way out is political autonomy in the form of Manipuri Autonomous Council�. More than 200 youths, men and women took part in the programme, a press release stated.
In the memorandum submitted through the Deputy Commissioner of Cachar, the two organisations stated that Manipuris have been living in Assam since the 15th century and that they had socio-cultural exchanges during the evolution of the present Assamese generation as is evident from history. Manipuris are there in both Barak Valley and Brahmaputra Valley. Barak Valley accommodates around 80% of the total Manipuri population which is approximately six lakh including children, minor, adults and those unrecorded in voters list due to jobs and various reasons. Parts of Barak Valley were ruled by the Koch, Tripuris and Kacharis in different times in the past. But Manipuris ruled most parts of Barak Valley, most of the time. At the time of Yandaboo Treaty of 1826 among Britishers, Burmese and Manipuris, Cachar was still under the rule of three Manipuri princes Chourjit, Marjit and Gambhir Singh.
The memorandum further stated that before and after Indian independence, (particularly after Bangladesh war), foreign influx from Bangladesh and labour migration from neighbouring states of India, virtually inundated Barak Valley and altogether changed its demography. As a result, Manipuris became micro-minorities, barely trying to make their presence felt in the present number based electoral politics and they got plunged into the brutal game of socio-economic and political survival, unprotected and unsupported by the government. Consequently, most of the rural interior villages have gone extinct, lands taken, population scattered further, the number of educated unemployed youths have sky-rocketed, poverty looms large, poverty alleviation and welfare programmes have barely reached the Manipuri people and their voices brutally suppressed by the political majority. �As a matter of fact, only a few Manipuris are elected in panchayat elections, let alone MLAs and MPs,� the memorandum added.
GUWAHATI, Sept 29 - The All Assam Manipuri Youth Association (AAMYA) and the Manipuri National Council (MNC) have jointly demanded that the manipuri people living in the Barak Valley be given political autonomy with the formation of a Manipuri autonomous Council.
Organising a sit-in demonstration in front of the Shahid Khudiram Bose statue in Silchar on Monday, the two bodies in a memorandum submitted to the State Chief Minister lamented that none of the MLAs and MPs in Assam in general and Barak Valley in particular have at any time voiced their concern in the Assembly or the Parliament over the conditions in which the Manipuris are living.
�This is quite natural because Manipuris cannot be represented by someone from the other community, however good he or she may be. No one except a Manipuri can feel like a Manipuri and would be serious enough to study our problems and as a matter of fact, in any democracy, the unrepresented community will become sick, disunited, disintegrated, conspire with each other and vanish in thin air because they will be absorbed by the majority community. So the language, culture, identity, safety, security and survival of the unrepresented and unprotected Manipuris is at stake in Assam,� the memorandum said adding that the only way out is political autonomy in the form of Manipuri Autonomous Council�. More than 200 youths, men and women took part in the programme, a press release stated.
In the memorandum submitted through the Deputy Commissioner of Cachar, the two organisations stated that Manipuris have been living in Assam since the 15th century and that they had socio-cultural exchanges during the evolution of the present Assamese generation as is evident from history. Manipuris are there in both Barak Valley and Brahmaputra Valley. Barak Valley accommodates around 80% of the total Manipuri population which is approximately six lakh including children, minor, adults and those unrecorded in voters list due to jobs and various reasons. Parts of Barak Valley were ruled by the Koch, Tripuris and Kacharis in different times in the past. But Manipuris ruled most parts of Barak Valley, most of the time. At the time of Yandaboo Treaty of 1826 among Britishers, Burmese and Manipuris, Cachar was still under the rule of three Manipuri princes Chourjit, Marjit and Gambhir Singh.
The memorandum further stated that before and after Indian independence, (particularly after Bangladesh war), foreign influx from Bangladesh and labour migration from neighbouring states of India, virtually inundated Barak Valley and altogether changed its demography. As a result, Manipuris became micro-minorities, barely trying to make their presence felt in the present number based electoral politics and they got plunged into the brutal game of socio-economic and political survival, unprotected and unsupported by the government. Consequently, most of the rural interior villages have gone extinct, lands taken, population scattered further, the number of educated unemployed youths have sky-rocketed, poverty looms large, poverty alleviation and welfare programmes have barely reached the Manipuri people and their voices brutally suppressed by the political majority. �As a matter of fact, only a few Manipuris are elected in panchayat elections, let alone MLAs and MPs,� the memorandum added.
