By: Mangkholun Touthang
We live in a state where there are lots of communities living together. We have our own unique culture, tradition, and history. We share almost everything together: we play all kinds of sports together, celebrate our well-known festivals such as Chavang Kut, Yaoshang, and Shirui Lily festival together, marry each other, go to school and college together and share a lot of other good things. And this is what makes the people of Manipur unique, and we are respected for it. It’s crucial that we should nurture it and harness it. But albeit we live together, the relationship between us is not always good. But looking back at history, there were times our forefathers lend a hand to each other for fight against foreign rulers who used to try to invade the state. They assisted each other in a lot of ways and this is proof that the communities living in this state were once united and peace loving people. There were no feelings of hatred toward other communities and every community sought peace. But now, when we look at the situation of our state, it seems hatred prevails over love which is very heart-rending.
At past, love between communities was practical but now it has become only theory. We do talk of promoting love and peace among us but it seems we don’t really mean it. We have become greedy and mean, every community concerning for itself without showing any pity for other communities. It has become very typical that when one community does something good for itself, the others would denounce and oppose it right away. It seems we don’t want other communities enjoy their lives, prosper and wealthy. We look only for ourselves, help only ourselves, and worry only for ourselves. We don’t care about the other communities as long as our own community remains fine, intact and healthy. These are what make us greedy and selfish, these are things we have to let them go. And it’s so unfortunate that despite the fact that we live together in the hill and valley, there is no real cooperation and understanding between us and it’s obvious we really don’t trust each other. These are the main reasons why there can be no peace and tranquility in the state. Though we dislike each other here, people from the mainland India consider us as one. For our looks are not different, we eat the same food, and our lifestyles are almost alike. Therefore, the fact that we hate each other instead of love each other is one of the most unfortunate things we live with.
So it’s time we come together and look forward to better future. There are a great deal of past differences and conflicts but we have to let bygones be bygones if we want this state to prosper and be tranquil. Let’s keep in mind that what we have done to each other in the past has absolutely no role to play in our future. If our minds focus on the negative things that had happened in the past, it’s obvious our lives will move in a negative direction. Our lives move in the direction of our dominant thoughts, so whatever we set our minds and focus on is what our lives and emotions will follow. Instead of setting our focus and thinking about all the negative things that had occurred in the past, all the heartbreaks, all the things we’ve lost, all the not so proud of situations, let’s start to recycle all those thoughts and replace them with positive thoughts.
Let’s think about how prosperous and famous would our state be if we join hands and start working together, throwing away all the animosity and bad feelings we have for one another. Let’s start seeing the best in other people and begin ignoring their shortcomings. Seeing the good in others is thus a simple but very powerful way to feel happier and more confident, and become more loving and more productive in the world. Finding faults on other communities and defaming them would do no good to you and them too, it would only create a gap between us. Therefore, for peace’s sake, let’s begin to see the best in other people so we can live peacefully in this state.
Let us begin to respect each other, be faithful to one another, and let’s be generous toward each other. This way, we can uphold love, peace and generosity among us, and by doing these we’re protecting the tranquility of this state. For example, studies on Mauritius, the most peaceful nation in Africa, have found intentionality in how members of different ethnic groups speak with one another in public. Mauritians of all stripes tend to be respectful and careful in their daily encounters with others. This even translates to differences in how journalists and editors report the news, and how teachers, politicians, and clergy take up their roles in society. These findings suggest that the citizens of this highly diverse nation do not take their peacefulness for granted—they recognize that it must be cultivated and protected.
There are Christians, Hindus, Muslims and other religions living in the state and none of the religions sympathizes hatred toward other communities, instead they uphold peace, love, and generosity toward other religions and communities. Therefore, if none of our religions doesn’t teach us to hate other people or communities, why then do we have to loathe each other so much? After all, we’re all human beings and we only live once, so how about we live together peacefully while we have this short period.
