Scarred by violence, Manipur writers appeal for end to conflict

Bhubaneswar: Violence in Manipur has not only scarred lives of the communities involved in the conflict, it has traumatised people living in the entire region. Writers are no exception who are no longer writing on love and nature, but about lost humanity, mistrust and man-made boundaries.In the city for the All India Tribal Writers Meet, writers from Manipur told TOI that it worries them that people have begun to adapt to the violence. “Violence has been continuing in Manipur for more than three months now. People have started adapting to the violent incidents, which is terrible. No sufficient measures have been taken to ease the conflict,” said A Khoshow, a 30-year-old writer from the Senapati area of Manipur.Khoshow, an IT engineer who travels 60km into Nagaland to access internet, said Manipur is “a very delicate state” where the situation “needs to be handled carefully”. “The video of two women revealed how grave the situation is in Manipur. There are hundreds of such incidents that go unreported. As a human being I am very disturbed,” he said.Khoshow said it pains him to see that in small villages where everyone knew one another and lived together for years, people have become enemies all of a sudden. “They are after each other’s blood,” he said. Khoshow is going to present a poem on conscience, humanity, boundaries and how human values have degraded.R Ngupani Tao, another writer from Manipur, said efforts by governments are not enough to end the conflict. “All stakeholders should be consulted. Government offices, schools, hospitals have stopped operating. People of Manipur are feeling insecure and are not sure if they will return home safe or not. When people are killed, it is very difficult for a writer to produce literature that will please readers,” he said.As many as 70 tribal writers, poets and storytellers in 49 tribal languages from 16 states took part in the meet organised by Sahitya Akademi and Siksha O Anusandhan (SOA) Centre for Preservation, Propagation and Restoration of Ancient Culture and Heritage of India (PPRACHIN) here on Wednesday.“The programme will feature multilingual poetry readings, short story readings and discussions on challenges before young writers in tribal languages and preservation and development of Indian indigenous languages,” said Dr Gayatribala Panda, eminent poet.
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