To be brutally concise,the Dalai Lama was in Imphal as a messenger of the West.
We can safely glean the Manipur-specific messages from the whole Dalai Lama speech and his verbal public interactions by striking out those usual and routine(and thus,non-pattern making) stuffs.The usual stuffs are universal brotherhood,non-violence and love.We can easily see those stuffs in Dalai Lama in whatever places he descends.
Now,the unusual and non-routine(and thus pattern making) stuffs:
1)India as a world model for being peaceful despite having all those diversities.
2)He hates feudalism and concentration of power in a single person(Replacing 'person' with 'institution',we can see the Dalai Lama pointing to Chinese Communist Party,which is currently holding its 19th Congress in Beijing).
3)He wants Asian Union in the line EU.
His Holiness expounded these three thoughts despite having told reporters in Imphal itself that he retired from politics when he attained 65 years of age!
But we should not be distracted by such a tiny flaw in the long life of the practising monk of His Holiness.
Instead,we should be brutally focussed.What's presently lying in line of our focus needing urgent note are the thoughs no 1 and 3 of His Holiness.
Thought no 1 tells us that India is peaceful(thus developing or likely to develop) despite populating by vast numbers of peoples speaking different languages and following equally different cultures.Add to this presently available stew yet another flavour in the form of the thought no 3.Then,we find India 'loosening up'a bit in the line EU.Immediately,Nagalim comes to our mind.This must be the reason why His Holiness is universally regarded as a wise monk!
Still,we are not done with the business of adding flavours to the presently availble stew!!
Now,let's add another stew in the form of "Jain as a national minority'.Why Jain in particular?This is a legitimate question.
To answer this question,we need to take note that whenever we talk of Buddhism(where is Buddhism when the Dalai Lama is here?),the shadow of Jainism cannot be far behind us.In their heydays,they were furious rivals.So much so that Jainism is still known as the Buddhist heresy.
Second,Jainsim was accroded the constitutional status of a 'national minority' as recent as 2014.
From the above two points it's compelling to link the Dalai Lama's Imphal visit with Jainism as the recent convert to 'national minority'.
What do the Jains get when they had been given this Statutory recognition as the sixth national minority?(The other five are Christian,Budhist,sikhs,Parsees and Muslim).
First and foremost,the Jains can now manage their religious,cultural and social institutions with minimum interference from New Delhi.
In their educational institutes,they can now reserve 50% of the seat for the Jains.
They now have more flexible elbow room in devising syllabus regarding Jain religious,cultural and social matters.
All these point to the enabling environment for the preservation of what is commonly known as 'identity'--here in our case,the 'Jain identity'.
Now,let's try substituting the words 'Jain' and 'Naga' with 'Manipuri'.Now,we have Manipuri,with all the Constitution safeguards of being a 'national minority' in a geographical set up called Manipur,having much more political elbow rooms by virtue of joining in a 'loosened-up' India,more or less in the line of EU.
Would that be the panacea for the preservation of Manipuri identity?Everybody in present day Manipur knows that it's a life or death question in the backdrop of the agitations for checking of influx of outsiders and Constitutional safeguards for the people in the valley.
Last but not the least,everybody in Manipur knows in the innermost core of his heart that another question needs to be asked as urgently as the first one.
The question:
Is the above path shown by His Holiness,the Dalai Lama a viable trade-off for 'Nongpok Thong'?
We can safely glean the Manipur-specific messages from the whole Dalai Lama speech and his verbal public interactions by striking out those usual and routine(and thus,non-pattern making) stuffs.The usual stuffs are universal brotherhood,non-violence and love.We can easily see those stuffs in Dalai Lama in whatever places he descends.
Now,the unusual and non-routine(and thus pattern making) stuffs:
1)India as a world model for being peaceful despite having all those diversities.
2)He hates feudalism and concentration of power in a single person(Replacing 'person' with 'institution',we can see the Dalai Lama pointing to Chinese Communist Party,which is currently holding its 19th Congress in Beijing).
3)He wants Asian Union in the line EU.
His Holiness expounded these three thoughts despite having told reporters in Imphal itself that he retired from politics when he attained 65 years of age!
But we should not be distracted by such a tiny flaw in the long life of the practising monk of His Holiness.
Instead,we should be brutally focussed.What's presently lying in line of our focus needing urgent note are the thoughs no 1 and 3 of His Holiness.
Thought no 1 tells us that India is peaceful(thus developing or likely to develop) despite populating by vast numbers of peoples speaking different languages and following equally different cultures.Add to this presently available stew yet another flavour in the form of the thought no 3.Then,we find India 'loosening up'a bit in the line EU.Immediately,Nagalim comes to our mind.This must be the reason why His Holiness is universally regarded as a wise monk!
Still,we are not done with the business of adding flavours to the presently availble stew!!
Now,let's add another stew in the form of "Jain as a national minority'.Why Jain in particular?This is a legitimate question.
To answer this question,we need to take note that whenever we talk of Buddhism(where is Buddhism when the Dalai Lama is here?),the shadow of Jainism cannot be far behind us.In their heydays,they were furious rivals.So much so that Jainism is still known as the Buddhist heresy.
Second,Jainsim was accroded the constitutional status of a 'national minority' as recent as 2014.
From the above two points it's compelling to link the Dalai Lama's Imphal visit with Jainism as the recent convert to 'national minority'.
What do the Jains get when they had been given this Statutory recognition as the sixth national minority?(The other five are Christian,Budhist,sikhs,Parsees and Muslim).
First and foremost,the Jains can now manage their religious,cultural and social institutions with minimum interference from New Delhi.
In their educational institutes,they can now reserve 50% of the seat for the Jains.
They now have more flexible elbow room in devising syllabus regarding Jain religious,cultural and social matters.
All these point to the enabling environment for the preservation of what is commonly known as 'identity'--here in our case,the 'Jain identity'.
Now,let's try substituting the words 'Jain' and 'Naga' with 'Manipuri'.Now,we have Manipuri,with all the Constitution safeguards of being a 'national minority' in a geographical set up called Manipur,having much more political elbow rooms by virtue of joining in a 'loosened-up' India,more or less in the line of EU.
Would that be the panacea for the preservation of Manipuri identity?Everybody in present day Manipur knows that it's a life or death question in the backdrop of the agitations for checking of influx of outsiders and Constitutional safeguards for the people in the valley.
Last but not the least,everybody in Manipur knows in the innermost core of his heart that another question needs to be asked as urgently as the first one.
The question:
Is the above path shown by His Holiness,the Dalai Lama a viable trade-off for 'Nongpok Thong'?
