Matamgi Manipur

BY AMAR YUMNAM This article was originally published by the Imphal Free Press on 21 April 2014 The ongoing elections for the Indian Parliament have just been completed, except for the counting and announcement of results thereof, in so far as Manipur is concerned. It has been almost like a province-wide randomised experiment to observe and test the connectivity of the Indian democratic process with the behaviour of the populace of the land. It gave us an opportunity to see the identification of the people of Manipur with the Indian polity. It is an event for testing the connectivity, similarities and differentiations with the larger Indian perception of the event. It is also an event for observing the sensitivity of people of the province as to the level of significance they attach to the parliamentary elections as an important component of Indian democracy. Further, it is an event for assessing the engagement degree of the provincial population with the issues supposedly importan...

Robin S Ngangom takes a closer look at some of the poetry written in English language This article was originally published by the Imphal Free Press on 19 April 2014 It would be pointless to ask the new generation of poets from the Northeast who writes in English why they have chosen the colonizer’s language. The politics of language no longer concerns them; linguistic quarrels for them might well have been consigned to the archives of literary history. On the contrary, the new generation writes with a confidence which would be the envy of their older fellow poets.

This article by Prof E. Bijoykumar Singh (Economics Department, Manipur University), was originally published by the  Hueiyen Lanpao and posted by E-pao on April 12, 2014. Looking east from the north east has become fashionable. Questions like - what is there for us? Are we prepared? Are we adopting the right approach? These are some questions we have been trying to answer through seminars and conferences. During March two important seminars on India's Look East Policy were held in Manipur University. One was the one day national seminar on Indo Myanmar Border trade and its emerging pattern organised byThe department of Economics, Manipur University and Manipur Economic Association. The department has been studying several aspects of Indo Myanmar border trade at Moreh as part of a UGC Special Assistance programme. This was the third seminar organised by the department.

This article by Dr Khomdon Lisam was originally posted by E-pao in April 2014 We, the Manipuris tend to celebrate election as a festival without much thinking about the consequences. At the time of election campaign , anybody can go to the candidate and ask for money or chak chanaba or shumang Lila or even for drinking wine or Heroin drugs (No-4) and that too in the name of democracy. The politicians also distribute money through their agents to win the election. Rampant corruption and bribery starts from the time of election. At the time of election, we tend to forget core issues of Manipur like Corruption, AFSPA-1958, Inner Line Permit, unemployment, electricity , water supply, economic blockade, rape and human rights violations, dharnas, bandhs, strikes, petrol queue, rising price of petrol, LPG and many other core issues. During economic blockade, we have experienced many suffering and hardships - Rice selling at Rs.150-200 a kilogram, a liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) refi...