The ongoing Manipur crisis in India by now has received considerable exposure both in the print and electronic media. We see innocent people suffer, their houses and properties gutted. They are murdered, their places of worship get desecrated, their women get humiliated -- all because of belonging to some ethnicity.
History is replete with examples where people were subjected to brutality and even annihilation because of their ethnic or religious identity. Conflicts are common over domination of land and property, means of livelihood, religious belief, cultural practices etc.
Communities with stark dissimilarities in terms of language, culture, religion, and other social practices are living together in harmony in spite of being different in many aspects. But when the sky is overcast with tumultuous clouds of mistrust, hatred and vengeance, a small spark anywhere is good enough to ignite communities to find all their differences, disliking, hatred, intolerance and brutality.
The fight between Tamils and Sinhalese community in Sri Lanka was one of the longest such conflicts which caused untold suffering in terms of loss of human lives and assets. LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) were among the most well trained and well-equipped insurgents the world has ever seen. The conflict which resulted in a civil war continued from 1983 till 2009.
Each and every crisis is unique in nature, though there could be commonalities in their causes, propagation, and consequences. Conflicts between the strong and the weak, rich and poor, majority and minority, immigrants and original inhabitants are but indispensable parts of human history.
There are instances that through such conflicts, the communities reemerge with their rights restored, dignity regained, and prospect of progress enhanced. Of course, this happens at a cost.
The Kigali crisis was one of the most brutal but short-lived nightmares that the Rwandans went through. Rwanda now is a prosperous nation where the people took reconciliation and nation-building seriously, with special emphasis on their justice system, education, job creation, and women empowerment.
Are there lessons nations around the world could learn from Rwanda and Sri Lanka as to how to deal with such crises, bury their miseries and hatred, make room for the rivals, and move forward?
It doesn’t take much to initiate a conflict, but taming it and resolving it may need very serious and prolonged effort. Before communities react violently, there are stages when all their apprehension and sense of deprivation continue to accumulate.
Ethnic or communal conflicts in one country often draw sympathy and support of neighbours sharing the common ethnicity, language, religion, and culture. Sri Lankan civil war is a good example where Tamils received overwhelming moral and material support from their kinsmen of Tamil Nadu in India.
Ultimately India got embroiled into a quagmire but that didn’t save the day. Repercussions reached deep inside the heartland of India, causing death to one of its prime ministers.
The Indian north-east has been a troubled area for decades. The thriving separatist movements of the Nagas, Mizo, Tripura, Assam are intertwined with each other. Bangladesh can claim to have played a very positive role as a responsible neighbour when as a state policy, we don’t let our territory be used against any of our neighbors. Our role has been instrumental in ending violence in our neighbourhood.
An Indian scholar in a recently published article has opined that every nation has its own Manipur, meaning communities living in a volatile atmosphere with mistrust and hatred towards each other.
Hence, he cautioned that there shouldn’t be any feeling of schadenfreude, which is the experience of pleasure, joy, or self-satisfaction that comes from learning of or witnessing the troubles, failures, or humiliation of another. It is a borrowed word from German, with no direct translation. It is meant to be a kind of a malicious joy in English.
Are we entitled to feel good at someone else’s suffering? Is it morally and ethically correct?
While such communal conflicts are not very uncommon in India, it is unfortunate when such severe crises are not promptly acted upon, and even more provocative when a government in power is blamed for not doing enough or found to be siding with a party to the conflict.
While Manipur is still reeling from the brutal consequences of the conflict, there are outbreaks of violence in Haryana between the Hindu and Muslim community.
The communal violence which was initiated in the township of a Muslim-majority area in Haryana has spread even close to Delhi to Gurgaon, causing death and destruction to life and properties of Muslims over there.
There is severe criticism of the government response, with many pointing fingers for undertaking brutal repressive measures against the victims. Houses and properties belonging to Muslims have been mercilessly ravaged as part of a collective punishment beyond any kind of legal norms.
The most reassuring thing about India, a vibrant democracy, is that their parliament is active where voices are heard and debates, discussions, and criticisms are welcome, and government actions are questioned. We have all the hope that the conflicts will be resolved soon with steps taken to correct the situation before it gets any worse. We hope that warring communities will come to their senses to give peace a chance.
Brigadier General Qazi Abidus Samad, ndc, psc (Retd) is a freelance contributor.
