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By Abraham Lotha
The assembly of about 50,000 people at the Forum for Naga Reconciliation (FNR) Meeting on Feb. 29 at the Agri Expo Centre, Dimapur, is perhaps the largest gathering in Naga political history so far. The dust has settled, the chairs have been folded up, the stage dismantled, and light showers have come and washed away the footprints of the gathering. The Morung Express was very optimistic when it claimed that “the pieces of the jigsaw puzzle are falling into place and we are almost there.” Commentators such as Thepfulhouvi Solo described the gathering as “dark clouds and thunderstorms but little rain.” Other words of appreciation have been said and done. Now is the time for reflection and analysis.

So, did the 50,000 people who attended the FNR meeting come to pray or to be preyed upon?

I was keen to attend the FNR Meeting partly because of the urgency of the moment, but more importantly, to learn what the FNR intended to do there. The purpose of the meeting, from the FNR emails and press releases, was twofold: one, “to report to the Naga people the status of Naga Reconciliation,” and two, an invitation to the Underground leaders “to stand before the Naga people and share their views on Reconciliation and their vision on a shared Naga future.” 

I sensed an air of hope and optimism as I sat and waited for the meeting to begin. It seemed like the Oriental Theological Seminary choir was the harbinger of these sentiments, with their rendition of ‘Healing of our Spirit,” and “Long, long night is over, Freedom shall be coming, Praise and sing to the Lord.” Because of the optimistic atmosphere, people did not mind the delay in starting the meeting.

Dr. Anjo’s scripture reading and sermon, Evali Swu’s special song about “God you are in control of everything, We surrender, Lord you reign,” Isak Swu’s “Praise the Lord, Praise the Lord, Praise the Lord,” Muivah’s “Until we do God’s wish, we cannot do anything,” and the hymn Bring Them In led by the OTS choir inviting those who’ve gone astray to harken to the Shepherd’s voice, made one feel like we were at a religious revival meeting.

For the most part, the meeting was quite focused. Messages from the civil society such as Naga Hoho, United Naga Council, Dimapur Naga Council, Naga Mothers Association, and from Naga elders such as Niketu Iralu, Hokishe Yepthomi were all in unison for reconciliation as a forward and upward way.

True to form the FNR Meeting on Feb 29th was a report card. The FNR deserves a distinction when one judges it for its relentless effort and commitment to reconciliation. According to the FNR report, from March 2008 to February 2012, the Forum did the following meetings and events: six important Naga gatherings with a maximum attendance of 49 Naga organizations, 82 meetings with combined Naga political groups, 12 meetings with the Joint Working Groups outside the country, 12 highest level meetings with Naga political leaders, 11 combined tours to different parts of the Naga areas, 11 other special programs and events, 278 meetings with individual Naga political groups, and 5 meetings with Khaplang. Nagas should be grateful to the FNR for such dedication and commitment to the cause of reconciliation. It only proves that Nagas have the will and commitment to pursue unity.

Secondly, even as recently as in 2008 and 2009, underground members were dying like the Dimapur flies, but the activities of the FNR resulted in a decrease in factional killings. We have to be thankful to the FNR for saving the lives of many Nagas youth, underground and overground.

Thirdly, the fact that at least the leaders of three factions shared a stage without fighting is noteworthy. It was encouraging to see the faction leaders praying together. This is a big step in the right direction from Isak’s and Muivah’s earlier stance: “Reconciliation in Christ is possible but politically,

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2012/03/a-reflection-on-the-forum-for-naga-reconciliation-meeting-feb-29th/

By Pradip Phanjoubam
The proposed and much awaited Imphal-Mandalay has a number of hurdles to overcome. The most obvious of these is the highway that is to be used. From Moreh to Kalemyo it is a two-lane highway named Indo-Myanmar Friendship Road, built and maintained by India’s Border Road Orgainsation, BRO, and though a little narrow for a highway, especially for heavy vehicles, it is still good. Moreover, at the moment, there is hardly any traffic on it so drive on it is comfortable.

However, beyond Kalyemo as the road takes to the hills alongside the Chindwin River (Ningthi Turel), towards Monywa, the condition of the road deteriorates to a very dusty dirt road. During the monsoons, it will be almost a 200 km stretch of slippery mud track difficult for motor vehicles to negotiate.

Not only this, all along this road there are numerous weak bridges which cannot be used by heavy vehicles. During the dry seasons this is manageable for buses and trucks can descend into the dry or nominally wet river beds and cross them. This would be impossible during the rainy seasons when the rivers are in spate. India is planning to extend its generosity beyond Kalyemo and stretch its BRO-built friendship road to Monywa and ultimately to Mandalay. Once this is done, Mandalay would be a pleasure drive away from Imphal. So too important cities like Pagan, often described as the Pagoda jungle, predicted to become a major international tourist attraction no sooner than Myanmar opens up.

Mandalay onwards, connectivity is a different story altogether. Today the city is connected to the custom built still half empty brand new Burma’s capital city of NayPyiTaw and further to the country’s once seat of power and today its commercial capital, Rangoon (now Yangon), by a state-of-art concrete expressway, four lane most of the time, but broadening to as much as eight lanes near cities. This expressway is the country’s one and only, and as of today there is virtually no traffic on it.

Whatever else may be said of the military junta that ruled the country for half a century before making way for a nominally democratic government last year, it did build and maintain its road infrastructure. Other than the NayPyiTaw expressway, most of the other highways, except for some like the Monywa-Kalemyo stretch, are not in too bad shape. The methodical military planning is also visible everywhere. For almost all of the 10 days we drove in the country, we say the highways constantly covered under a canopy of trees planted on both sides of the highways. Not only did this provide cool shade to the highways but also makes for very pleasant and green sights. The roads too are built well and would compare well with most highways in India. There has to be a qualification here for in states like Manipur, where thievery is considered as service perks by the almost universally corrupt officialdom. Just a look at the cement road around the newly built BT Flyover would testify this. These cement blocks should have lasted a lifetime as no heavy vehicles ply on them but in a matter of only a few years, there are already washing away. At the cost of the public, we can only wonder how many expensive cars, and marble mansions were built out of the money siphoned off. Manipur indeed has become a land without remorse.

We hope as Burma opens up, and predictably overtakes Manipur in terms of infrastructure and general quality of life, we hope our powers that be learn the lesson. But back to Burma. The country is rightly described as the land pagoda and rightly so. There is hardly any place without a grand pagoda. But of all these Pagan strikes you as out of this world. If ten days ago before I had set foot at this place, I were to wake up here by some chance, I would have been left to believe I had been abducted by extra terrestrials and left in an alien planet. 2000 pagodas, many of them aeons old, packed in about 45 square miles is a sight that would awe anybody. These ancient structures, most of them in disuse and therefore in varying states of decays, stand there silently haunting the place like benign ghosts from a past era.

Not all the pagodas wear the ancient look. Many of them, though old, look spanking new because of continuous upgrading and renovation. Why shouldn`t they be? These include the majestic Shewdagon in Rangoon. These pagodas are still in use as houses of prayer for devotees first and not primarily for tourists and tourist dollars. There are many other unused temples which can be done up to suit the taste of tourists looking for the exotic orient so why should these live monuments, still forming an important part the present Burmese population be treated like museums for the benefit of tourists and sensibilities of Western conservationists. Hence the Buddha image at Shwe Sandaw Pagoda, Pyay is made of gilded wires frames and is transparent. A kitschy halo of LED lights gives the impression of the image transmitting energy. I see no use objecting. The present is part of history and has a right to contribute to it.

At pagan, the first thought that struck me was that generally discontinued practice of erecting Phura amongst the Meiteis as memorial structures for deceased loved ones is probably a spill over of this stupa building tradition in Burma.

Pyay town where we halted a night was another fascinating place. This is where the capital of the Pyu kingdom was and there is a museum and an excavation site close by. I visited the place with a few friends, and to my surprise, the bricks used for restoration of some of the excavated walls, our guide told us were acquired from Moreh in Manipur. There was also a mass grave excavated at another place within Pyu bearing evidence of secondary burial, as in the case of the mass grave excavated near Sekta village in Imphal East. In secondary burial, the dead body is buried in the ground directly without coffin, and after the flesh have rotted and turned into dust, the skeleton is exumed, washed, embalmed and reburied in earthen pots. The Incas and Aztecs are also supposed to have practiced this form of disposal of the dead.

Inside some of the abandoned pagodas, below the statue of the Buddha were texts inscribed on stone in the ancient Pyu text. Prof. Ch. Priyoranjan of the Manipur University said the script of the Pyu, a kingdom which preceded the Pagan, was very similar to Manipuri and proceeded reading it. Our Burmese guide was surprised the professor could actually do so quite accurately. Obviously, there would have had to be some connection somewhere between the place and Manipur of the medieval times.

The structural technology of the dome is still remote in practically all of the stupas and pagodas in Burma. This is the inside of a minor stupa at Pagan.

The Chindwin, known to Manipur as Ningthi Turel near Kalemyo. This river had been the boundary between the Ava kingdom and Manipur once, and many in Manipur speak of it fondly.

In distance is the bridge over the Chindwin that would take you to the road to Monywa and beyond to Mandalay if you go by road from Imphal.

Civic sense of the Buddhist is admirable. A pot of clean drinking water placed on a small ledge secured to the trunk of a tree on the highway just outside Monywa town. The guy in the rear view mirror is yours truly.

Petrol and diesel on sale on the highway. The colour of petrol is different from ours. Petrol. I took permission to open a bottle and smell and the vendor thought I was an addict so was suspicious. Petrol sniffing apparently is a scourge here too.

A roadside eatery. You can have your choice of insects, sparrows and other small wildlife fried whole in these stalls. Very tasty (shhh…as a wildlife enthusiast, I shouldn`t be saying this).

The Majestic Shwedagon Pagoda where three strands of hair believed to be of the Buddha is preserved. I took the picture against the sun to create an ambience of abstract spiritualism.

A Rangoon Street from the 14 floor of my hotel. Rangoon reminds you of Calcutta, but as all SE Asian cities, much cleaner and kempt.

Burmese wages are very low at the moment. Even college lecturers get as low as 250 dollars a month (Rs. 12000), making it difficult for most to make pilgrimages to India, tbe birthplace of Buddhism. This is an enlarged picture of the bunyan tree at Bodhgaya under which the Buddha is said to have attained enlightenment, installed at the Shwedagon complex for the benefit of devotees who cannot afford a trip to India.

It is however not uncommon to see expensive cars like this Nissan Fair Lady parked outside upmarket restaurants in Rangoon, Mandalay and of course the custom made capital city, NayPyiTaw — the spanking new, virtually empty city of swanky shopping malls and flower beds lined avenues.

The Mandalay-NayPyiTaw-Rangoon expressway. Here our vehicles` speed limits were being tested. As you can see, we were the only vehicles on the road. It is, as some explained, a matter of getting ready for the future.

There were also roads like this with very weak bridges. Heavy vehicles cannot use them and have to drive on the river beds. Our vehicles were also virtually the only ones on these roads too.

Plenty of girls take to blue collar jobs in Burma. These girls manning a petrol pump are in a Mandalay suburb.

The starting point of the BRO built, Indo-Myanmar Friendship Road at the Moreh-Tamu border. That`s me again in the rear view mirror.

Shwe Zigon/Onzedi pagoda at Pagan. Temples such as these which still are used as houses of prayer are spanking new because of constant upgradation and renovation. Why shouldn`t they be? These temples are first and foremost for the devotees and not for tourists and tourist dollars. There are many other unused temples in various states of decay. They can be done up to suit the taste of tourists looking for the exotic orient. Just my thoughts.

A monk at the entrance of Shwedagon in Rangoon. This temple too looks brand new, and even has a lift service for visitor.

A view of the giant Buddha installed just outside the Shwesandaw pagoda at Pyay. This pagoda too looks brand new and also has a lift service.

In the next decade, when as predicted Burma changes and international tourists flock to the country, I hope the country retains its inner spirituality so evident and not sell itself too much as many SE Asian countries have. I hope sex tourism is not encouraged, I hope no ethnic parks where tribal communities are asked to surrender their privacy and make tourists watch their lifestyles for a fee begin to sprout.

A boy selling quail eggs somewhere near Pyay town. Poverty is dehumanising, but selling one`s soul for a few dollars is even more so. Whatever else Bhutan has done to discredit itself, at least in this regard, this tiny country has not sold itself or its inner integrity. I hope Burma takes the lesson.

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2012/03/travelmyanmar-is-opening-up-ii/

By Humra Quraishi
Though I’m no fan of Anna Hazare or of Arvind Kejriwal but do quite agree with their latest outburst against the politicians and civil servants of this country. Those occupying the top slots .At the helm of affairs .Those supposedly running the very governmental machinery .

Earlier this entire evening – that is , before I started writing this column – I sat for a considerable stretch , trying to come up with even one name from the who’s who in the establishment , whom one could genuinely respect . None . No , I couldn’t think of even one name from the present lot of men and women running this country …Yes, the only exception are those few IPS officers of the Gujarat cadre who have had the guts to take on chief minister Narendra Modi and expose the mask(s ) behind the 2002 massacres.

The rot in the system, amongst the top brass gets murkier by the day . Weeks back three Karnataka ministers were viewing porn right inside the State Assembly . And now comes in news of a repeat – this time in the Gujarat Assembly. Bogus explanations are getting flung about, more as a gaudy cover up . The truth , of course , lies in the fact that sub -standard and third raters sit fitted in the system . Imagine , C.C Patel – the man in charge of the Women and Child Welfare ministry of the Karnataka Government was said to be busy watching porn right inside the Assembly. Perhaps, now, after all this hue and cry , just about changed the place of porn viewing – maybe in a hotel suite or at some farm house … And porn viewing shows the very attitude of these men and that in itself relays nothing but a terribly frightening scenario …

And focusing on the communally tainted politicians the list is long. Perhaps , not ample space to offload those details. Right now just about this – the two main players in the Babri Masjid demolition and with that in the divisive politics at work – LK Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi – continue to hold sway in every possible way …Few years after that demolition , LK Advani was made deputy prime minister of this country and Joshi was made the HRD minister .

Look around and see for yourself the controversies brewing all over . General VK Singh , the Army chief of this country , is sitting flinging out goodies at this ripe old age ,at this near retirement stage. Call them distractions if you must . First his age battle. And now going overboard detailing the bait thrown at him. It seems he’d been taking a nap on both these fronts – could have had the age date controversy settled years back and if he was so disturbed by this bribe offer he could have raised an alarm right then – in 2010 .Why now , in 2012 ?

Everyday scandals are finding their way out . From every possible ministry and those who sit manning them .And it would be a folly of the worst sorts if only the politicians are blamed for this loot or rot or whatever term you’d like to use for this ongoing mockery of the very system..

What about their hand – in – glove partners : the civil servants! Without their able support no politician would be able to find his way , towards any of those ‘gates’.

ATLEAST WE CAN HONOUR THEM …

Whilst on the civil servants, there could few exceptions. Needless to mention that instead of we honoring their grit , they sit sidelined . No, no Padma awards or any of the other governmental awards for their integrity and sheer bravery .And a pity that even the powerful IAS and IPS associations do apparently little to protect these upright officers …

But the good news is that at least one of them -’92 batch IPS officer Rahul Sharma of the Gujarat cadre has been honoured by IIT Kanpur , with the Satyendra Dubey memorial award . The award, was set up by the IIT Kanpur alumni in memory of their student Satyendra Dubey, a whistle-blower who was killed for exposing corruption in the National Highway Project., rightly goes to Rahul Sharma .

And there’s this rather detailed backgrounder to this upright police officer’s role in trying to take on the Modi government, which is important to share with you readers .Let me quote from it – ‘ The Modi government has charge sheeted Rahul Sharma … Rahul Sharma is locked in a battle with the Modi government over a CD of phone calls which he submitted to the Nanavati Commission, which the government says he did without official clearance The IPS officer had been reportedly asked to assist the police in investigations of Naroda Patiya, Naroda Gam and Gulbarg Society 2002 riots cases. Sharma, who holds a B Tech in electrical engineering from IIT Kanpur and a law graduate, procured the cellphone call details of that period from Cellforce and AT& T, the telecom service providers in the city at that time.

… The explosive call details had created a stir since it implicated many bigwigs of the state polity as well as the bureaucracy. The CD then mysteriously went missing from police records. However, sensing the value of the evidence he had collected, Sharma had kept a copy of the call details while sending the original CDs to his senior P P Pandey, who headed the Ahmedabad crime branch then. He later submitted the call details before the Nanavati Commission as well as to the Justice U C Banerjee Commission, which probed the burning of the train.

While the state government had questioned the authenticity of the CDs submitted by Sharma, these call details corroborated with other evidence led to the arrest of at least two senior leaders accused in the riots — Maya Kodnani, a former member of Modi’s cabinet and VHP leader Jaydeep Patel…In less than a week after he procured the CDs, Sharma was shunted out of the probe and sent to 11 State Reserve Police at Vav near Surat. This was after the riots. Even during the riots, Sharma had played an important role as DSP of Bhavnagar. He had ordered his men to fire and had dispersed mobs that had gathered to kill Muslim children in a madrassa. Because of him, over 200 Muslim children were saved. Ironically, he had been posted just a day before in Bhavnagar. He was earlier SP, Baroda division, with the Western Railways. This was the division under which Godhra fell where the Sabarmati Express had been torched and 59 kar sevaks had been killed. After sidelined postings, Rahul took a central deputation offer and was
DIG, economic offences wing, CBI and was posted in Mumbai. He came back in 2009 and since then has been on a sidelined posting as DIG of arms unit in Rajkot…Rahul performed his duties according to the provisions of law to serve the society, used the technology innovatively, and underwent a sequel of humiliation and harassment but upheld his value systems with exemplary sacrifices. This was why he was selected for the prestigious Satyendra K Dubey Memorial Award.”

KL SAIGAL’S 108 BIRTH ANNIVERSARY – 4 April

New Delhi based former diplomat author Pran Nevile never misses a date with those personalities of yesteryears …They could be long dead , buried or cremated , but Pran Nevile is passionate about reviving , bringing to the very fore, their musical genius …And the latest in this series is a concert to be held here, in New Delhi ,on April 4 , in memory of KL Saigal’s haunting voice, those melodies …After all , its his 108 birth anniversary.

AN OFFBEAT FOCUS –

Though I could not attend Dr Vibha Joshi’s talk on ‘ The reverberative nature of the global network of Christianity : the Nagas of North East India ‘ , but found the topic rather offbeat , so let me quote from this detailed backgrounder to her talk held earlier this week at the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library …her talk which focuses on – “ global networks of religion with special reference to Christianity in Nagaland, northeast India, especially the efforts of the Church to bring a peaceful solution to the protracted Naga national movement for independence from India and to heal the conflict-ridden society. It seeks to produce a comparative framework for studying similar processes and attempts at reconciliation elsewhere, in which international sources of influence are intrinsic to local peoples’ political religiosity and their wider religious understanding. …A common feature of postcolonial globalism is the way in which Christianity, having been imported into subject areas under colonialism, has in recent decades been exported back to the original donor societies. This reverberative feature of the Christian global network is a kind of ecumene in Hannerz’s terms, though less of a generalized ‘culture’ and more of locally varying beliefs and practices connected to each other across the world by being identified as Christian. A further tendency also found elsewhere in the world, for instance southern Africa, is for Naga Christians to see their role as healers not just of individual bodies but of the community as a whole. They seek ‘reconciliation’ between combatant groups and try to heal the wounds of war. This is quite unlike the role of early Christian missions (American Baptist) which targeted key individuals for conversion and tried to spread the gospel of ‘peace and love’ in a community by using such converts as religious examples and leaders. Put briefly, while the individual was the starting point then, the community is so now. …”

And Joshi seems focused – She recently guest-curated a major exhibition on the Naga at the Museum der Kulturen Basel. She has co-edited, Naga: A Forgotten Mountain Region Rediscovered, in 2008, and The Land of the Nagas, in 2004. ‘Christianity and Healing: The Angami Naga of Northeastern India’ is her forthcoming title.

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2012/03/signs-of-the-times-this-weeks-column/