MANIPUR'S MORAL IMAGINATION TAKES OFF AFTER A CRASH

The grief following the death of two Manipuri women in the Ahmedabad crash cut across the state's ethnic divide. Empathy over common suffering brought the warring groups closer

- PRADIP PHANJOUBAM

TWENTY-FIVE months after a violent ethnic conflict broke out between Meiteis and Kuki-Zo tribes, and four months into president's rule, the guns have more or less fallen silent in Manipur. There are sighs of relief everywhere, yet none is fooled into believing that this is peace. It is, at best, the proverbial peace of the graveyard.

There is little to be surprised about this. The inferno that raged in the state for two years was unprecedented and bloody, claiming over 260 lives and displacing an estimated 60,000 people. There has also been a matching scale of losses of properties to arson attacks, and worse still, the two sides have mutually cleansed each other from their traditional home-grounds.

The Meiteis are primarily in the Imphal valley and the Kukis-Zo in the foothills adjoining the valley. In the higher reaches are the Nagas.

Probably fatigue and a realisation of the senselessness of continued hostility are ensuring this semblance of calm. But for this 'negative peace', as Johan Galtung called it, to transform into 'positive peace', a reconciliatory process is vital. There can be no gain-saying that horrific atrocities have happened, but in paving a path to reconciliation, both warring sides must first overcome their victimhood syndrome and have the courage to acknowledge they have been both the victims as well as the perpetrators, depending on the locations of riots. Casualty figures bear testimony to this.