An initiative by a group of young individuals, Burning Voices' primary objective is to bridge the gap between creative instincts and the contemporary lived experience. In the same breath, this initiative also tries to reflect the quintessential spirit of the individual as the creator of arts deeply rooted in the given socio-political realities. In short, Burning Voices mirrors the knotted angst of a generation and their appetite for creativity, often trampled upon and silenced by spiraling political turmoil.

Our Private Literature

Road

Volume II Issue II

Burning Voices

Our Private Literature by Burning Voices Volume II Issue II (e-book edition) www.burningvoices.com 2010 Published by: Burning Voices www.burningvoices.com First published: 21st Aug 2010 Price: Rs. 0/- Designed by AMASOONG Edited by Sumitra Thoidingjam Printed and bound in New Delhi by Burning Voices

Contents published under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License

Contents Introduction i Synergy 01 Highway heroes 02 A Home on the Road 05 In the land of Worshippers 07 Walk our Walk 08 Nothing 10 Operation summer storm!! 11 Monsoon Blues 14 Curfew 16 Broken 17 Roadwidener 18 Haiku 22 Reflecting about roads and not so much about the Chicken (article) 23 END (visual) 06 Freedom Street (visual) 12 Modern Parasite’s Artery (visual) 21

Introduction For roads, it’s to connect. Connect man to man, culturally through exchange or even through assimilation; commercially, through occupation of viable means like ‘give and take’ or even through exploration, as new vistas; and sometimes through individual locus. But there are some roads that never connect. In fact, these roads do not exist to connect. Such roads create divisions by promoting a marked geographical entity rather than creating a homogenizing parley of different communities. So at times, we need to deglamorise these connecting Roads and delimit its extent as mere link between two destinations. There is no denying the fact that the roads indeed help foster relationship, connectivity, trade and commerce amongst different groups of people. But with the growing insecurity to the existence of nation-states, the very purpose of road has also been altered dramatically. The main reason for laying a new road to a distant corner of the country is more of a strategic deployment in the name of security, rather than reaching out. And in the process, the demographic structure of the area is altered conveniently to meet the desire result of building a nation. Further, it invariably translates the exchange of cultures and ideas into a chaotic rhythm without appreciation. Tussles over the safeguarding of cultural identity lead to the malaise of resentment over liberal compromise. Societies/groups that are at the receiving end of this expanse will slowly but surely go out of existence. We tried not to use the word “Road” as a theme. But sometimes, it’s not possible not to give names to certain things! We opted for it, because of the veracity it carries for a word. We are also aware of the politics it carries within it. In this edition, we try to understand the very concept of road through all sorts of medium.

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The poems in the current theme are in one way or the other ‘connected’ to the theme of ‘Road’. Some also talk about the suffering of people when the ‘connection’ is brutally cut off as was seen during the Economic Blockade. The article “Reflecting about roads and not so much about the Chicken: Making sense of roads in India’s North East” by Ram Wangkheirakpam gives us an in depth analysis of different kinds of roads and problematizes its implication in the NE (North East) region of India in general and Manipur in particular. Haiku, which is one of our most popular sections, comprise a plethora of themes inspired from our daily life. Roads now are as much about inaccessibility, about profound lost as much as it is about communication and accessibility. They have seen a play out of struggles of various kinds. Each crater marked road whose tar fades away somewhere has seen the markings of pain, starvation and somewhere a dead end. We look forward to suggestions and inputs from you all.

Synergy Raju Athokpam We don't need the name We don't need to draw the line We don't need arms or riots We don't need Manipur or Nagaland We have different ethnicity We eat different food, speak different languages But too narrow to differentiate As we evolved from one root, back in time The dark past has embed our fragmented history Personal to political violations We sufficiently have learnt from the past Let us keep aside win-lose and play win-win You and I are neighbors And always will be until the world ends You and I are the used one Be it in economy, politics or religion Let us unite and be who we are And a synergy will prevail everywhere We are just one We are brothers and sisters in arms

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Highway heroes R.K. Brojen When I open my eyes with the morning newspaper headlines blockades cutting the national highways. For every blockade shouts in the name of democratic voice and non-violence the common man in valleys and hills starve. The Government agents of essential commodities enjoy their democratic rights and freedom in fixing the new prices of the commodities and the common man become victims of everything. For every blockade on NH-39 Ministers remember NH-53 They investigate the highway conditions in assembly debates and have been repairing it since for a long time on Assembly tables and in local newspapers. Tomba, my friend from Mayang Imphal the truck driver in the national highways does not believe in the modified fortune forecast made by our local astrologer after getting money from his parents. But he is real devotee of God for unknown unforeseeable events he could encounter on his highway journeys.

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He is very simple but clever enough to face undirected tax bullets and is well experienced in bargaining at each named and unnamed check posts. However, the whistle of the tax takers are not meeting at a point with the horns of the paying drivers. He never afraid of gambling his life with the landslides which does not have a fixed time and place stamped on them. and take all liberty whenever they fall. He has detailed accounts of damages of the road where his life is at risk. He has all the names of hotels and vendors on both sides of the way ahead. He knows where to stay where to hide and where to run. The missing stones on the roads don’t have names or numbers on them But can be found on the walls of the leaders’ homes or in their bank accounts in different places of the world. But my friend volunteers and donates money to repair the missing stones on the roads. On the way the heat of the mid-day sun reminds him of the fire that broke out in the forests along the boundary of hills and valleys that seems separating the two but connected forever. But who lit the fire that’s the only question which matters.

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He saw and felt the raining clouds never have the bias to all thirsty dry seeds waiting to sprout and to the burning fires. But Where is the wind blowing from That’s the only t question that matters. So he used to sing in the dark side of every nights lighting the dark ways of long highway with his truck's head lights. But his songs are not loud enough to break the silence of hills and valleys it does not have the taste of ethnic civilization the tune is not connected to the blockade cries words free from all narrow minded hearts. His songs are very popular in hotels and vendors pan and grocery shops among the common people irrespective of hills or valleys. But when his journey stops the artificial starvation prevails the common man starves. The truck drivers are real life heroes On the national highways.

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A Home on the Road Kundo Yumnam Is it not trivial, To seek the shape of the 3 p.m. sunlight Casted on the northwest wall Of the space that I often call home? This skewed patch of punctual light That clings on the off-white, Comforts me over a cup of tea. It’s a mundanity in my life. I am curious, What about the homeless ones on the road; Driven away from space to space? Without a consistent sunlight shadow, What comforts them in the afternoons? Can a home be not guarded On all four sides by walls, windows and doors; And move without restraints Like a wheel on the road? I would have to be a nomad, living on the road, To see the 3 p.m. sunlight falling Sometimes on a sunflower leaf, Sometimes on a smooth black pebble, And perhaps, sometimes, maybe on a stream. Today, I will pack my things, To chase the afternoon light Falling on twigs, turtles, sand and temples. And make my home on the road.

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Korou Khundrakpam

In the land of the Worshippers Laishram Ratan Singh Prays to God Every community Worships God Every family Chants His name Every person. Chanting God’s name Worshipping God Praying to God Ceases to lower Prices of the goods Continues to increase Number of the thieves. Screams to one other “I’m not responsible” Heaps blame over others “They’re responsible” Pot-belly officials Seven-abs liberators Who can’t walk But use wheels to roll over The half-dead people. Gods took to wings One monsoon night deserting The believers-cum-worshippers Not to the hills, surely not But far away To the land of the Atheists One told me before His flight “At least they’re true They don’t acknowledge my existence.” (Translated from Manipuri by Homen Thangjam)

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Walk our Walk Rojio Usham A voice is headed by the side of the road, and up ahead of the hill, wearing no artificial tone of solemnity or sorrow, but cried as we always like chirping birds in circle flight. I am the soft star among the shining ones at night. I am the soft wind among the thunder winds. Why cry for a soul set free, who choose the right path, not the two highways that connect the vampire land. Ships sail and I stand, Price rose up and I still stand. Standing for the moment, when someone says She is gone. No I am not standing for that, Ima. I am standing for those peasants, who have never had two-course meals, I am standing to find a road, a road that smoothly leads to the green paddy field. All that bombing must have given you the passion and compassion. At night when all silent brakes, and sleep abandon others eyes, we will hear only boots rumbling on the road. Will rainbows and radiances

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Be seen on your trek Or will smokes reign And sweet memories wreck. We all can talk, walk our walk, Let us see the light, Direct us through the night. See good reasons why To make another road try, Don’t give up the fight. Let’s save us from ourself.

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Nothing Priya No pain of loss No angst or pathos The footsteps gradually die The breeze flies carrying a scent Memories -some faded some discarded Nothing was left not even a tattered shred Not even the scab of an old wound

Operation summer storm!! Chaoba On the day of Cheiraoba1, My eyes were eagerly looking at those empty vessels in my kitchen. My son was crying and shouting so that I feed his empty stomach. I was looking at the dark empty road, Just like a miracle would come across in my way. I don’t know why I’m living on this earth? While I was lost in my own thoughts the cry of my child wake me up again, My child is crying again to feed his empty stomach. The tired corpse like body of my husband Lying on the cold muddy floor, Just like a dead body, So that he can hide his pain and anguish Over nothingness, Over his own faith, His eyes were red and wild, He starred at me and laughing loudly Taunting my thoughts He was laughing at me for the reason I was looking for, Why I’m still living on this earth? Silence was broken again with the cry of my child, He was shouting again so that I can feed his empty stomach!!

1 Cheiraoba is Meitei New Year which usually falls in April. Apart from welcoming Spring season, it is a day of feasting and festivity in each an every household, rich or poor. A number of traditional delicacies are prepared in each household and shared with neighbors too. For many, not having anything to cook on Cheiraoba would imply that the family would go hungry the entire year.

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Monsoon Blues1 Homen Thangjam A traveler I met in a dhaba, pathetic Wore around his neck a rainbow, illusory By the side of a ghost highway, forbidden From an ancient land, raped Of its tea, oil and timber, dwindling On a quest to steal, peculate Thunder from the mountains, burning Lightning from the skies, churning And heal the land, dripping. Billowed smokes in gasps Downed his drinks in gulps Stroked his beard in grabs Spoke he in grunts Bloodshot eyes twinkling Of the strange time he lives in, wherein Frogs are afraid of the rain Dark clouds are the devil’s incarnates And he sleeps with his plants. He’s a traveler, ghostlike Heavy body on feet, fleet Has seen or so told me, by God The Mandap of the Govindaji Temple, towering The walls of CM Bungalow, intense In Kangleipak a land, bleeding Replicated the two in exactness, indeed Around his paddy field, green A dome and a levee against the rain, flooding. At the stroke of midnight Alert he left the dhaba, saying

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River, land and mankind are in tears, wet Mountains and the skies, cannot Hold the thunder and lightning, long Hummed a ballad as he walked by, fading Of orgies with his plants, wild A love song, ethereal To comfort cries of misery, pathetic. 1 Dedicated to the stranger in the dhaba on NH 39 from the Brahmaputra Valley who wore a rainbow around his neck, which brightened the dark monsoon night.  

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Curfew Akhu I Starving fathers and mothers spitting saliva defying hunger sitting at their courtyard sipping black tea talking insanity of Mr. Ibobi while their children walk out on the roads giggling wiping their watery nose. with white chalks writing on the deserted road whatever they have learnt in schools whatever they have heard in songs "Unity in Diversity" "Thanaleipak Money-pur" II Dangling phaneks and bras Blood stained petticoats and panties singing freedom in the wind of wild east from the top of their lungs. wind kissing the fallen leaves burning tyres spinning towards the military trucks broken mirrors singing "Cut me if you can" and the last cry, cupped by silence, looking again for its way to find its destiny in history, in books, in speeches.

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Broken Shreema I am home and they are still here These streets still scarred These hills still in reverie Which one is more sore? The broken strings of your guitar Or the broken notes of their Pena This is hour for wounds and maiming There will be a time for mending and healing There will be hours for mantra and magic Of course I wait for the Maibi Who feels the meagre pulse on my wrist And tells the fortune of this land She tells over my body The fever of this land My pulse, the broken throb of our antique drum My bosom, the angst of a missed progeny My forehead, the warmth of the fresh pyre The malady of this land is mine This home gave us everything A corner to live and die A corner to croon and sigh Though it could never give a tiny corner To rest at long last Broken bones of our hearts

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Roadwidener Korou Khundrakpam A Roadwidener does just that. It widens roads. I was only six when I first saw a Roadwidener myself. I was walking along the east-dyke when I saw it lazing around sprawled on top of a mound of earth. It was lying perfectly still. I would have thought it was dead if not for its tongue slipping out from its closed mouth occasionally to lick the damp earth beneath. A single lap every five six minutes. I stood there slouched against the earthen wall for about an hour observing it, so I know. In those days they were few in number and very hard to find. So it was natural for a six years old child to be intrigued by the beast. Far from the uninspired picture of the Roadwidener in my school textbook, seeing this huge beast in real was very overwhelming, what with the rows of booted legs and the perpetual grin on its face. And it was not that it was grinning at me. It didn’t even notice my presence. They are extremely shortsighted creatures, a thing I learnt later on, and its other organs of perception are equally blunt. The grin was a permanent attribute of its face, it remained so whether it was grazing or walking or drowsing off. And it had these long rows of horns sticking out along both sides of its belly. Like the kind of huge boats you see in movies with oars sticking out from both sides of its hull. They looked dirty and worn out, with mud still dripping off from it. It is just back from work perhaps. After quietly observing it for some time I thought I would let it let it rest in peace. And I had to reach home before it grew dark too. This is how I first saw a Roadwidener. That was almost twenty years ago and since then, their population has steadily kept on increasing. In fact, since the last few years some people have started voicing their concerns about the alarming rise in their number and the impact it may have on our lives. Well, I won’t want to comment on it as of now. But all these years I sure have been fascinated by the sheer enigma of its existence! I have spent a fair share of my idle days scouting for a Roadwidener and

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observing it at length when I found one. I even used to maintain an exclusive sketchbook where I made sketches of the beast from observation. These sketches, now yellowed, are strewn with notes I made on its behaviour. It is again that time of the year when you can’t take a walk around the neighbourhood without passing by at least three of them on the way. They are often seen idly basking in the summer sun. Not that I claim to be an expert in physiology or behaviour of the beast, but I learnt a thing or two about it from my observations. They are solitary creatures and fiercely territorial. While on the move, and terribly slow they are, it makes a peculiar rattling sound from its huge belly. One would think its rib bones are all broken and hanging like wind chimes inside. Some say it sounds like drum beats, and some like a hailstorm. How they first came to our village is still conundrum. Some say they were brought with the influx of migrants from the west. Some discern they have been here since the beginning of mankind, citing primitive charcoal drawings found in the southern caves that vaguely resemble its form. Recently, a rumour is doing the rounds that they are in fact reincarnation of our Gods. And that they are here to save us from our predicament. The most fascinating of all idiosyncrasies regarding the beast is the Roadwidening Parade. However it is not as much an aspect of the beast as it is of us humans. It is a ritual carried out with much furor and an almost religious zeal. It takes place when the Town Lord decides a particular road needs to be widened to let in a free flow of good fortune. The Parade is led by the Town Lord wearing a grin on his face as a reverence to the Roadwidener. He holds a long barbed leash in his hand. The length of the leash is equal to three fifth of the width of the town along the path of the sun. Next in line is the Roadwidener led by the barbed leash. But the length of the leash is such that there is a span of several days between the times the Beast and the Lord reaches a particular place. And by the time the beast arrives, the road will be properly dug up by the barbed leash like a freshly tilled field ready for sowing seeds. The beast then goes down to work, widening the road like it was born just for that. Its movements brisk and economic, as if guided by an instinctive impulse vital for its survival. One of the fourth cousins of the Town Lord rides on the back of the beast. It is often someone with a tongue black from frequent contact with the leather of black polished boots. He

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lashes his tongue at the beast in an effort to either push it on or slow it down. I was never too sure about it. Believers from all over the town gather to witness this ritual, which they are convinced, will bring them great fortune from beyond. They follow eagerly behind the beast as it advances forward. Those who were standing along the path of the Roadwidener either runs off to a safe distance or joins the crowd behind the beast where it is both safe and hopeful. Those who somehow happen to be on the way on the beast are either crushed by the horns on its belly or trampled upon by its rows of booted legs. But it is a rare incident as people themselves are very cautious of their life and the Town Lord takes special care to avoid such mishap. At times when such cases arise, it is the general consensus that it be deemed a sacrifice necessary to bring in great fortune to the town. It is customary for new creatures from outside the town to join the crowd as the parade advances. The people of the town reckon them to be symbolic of the fortune promised of the Parade and, with the consent of the Lord, build shrines all over the town where the creatures are shown reverence and gratitude with offerings of fruits of the town. Today I am spending a few idle hours observing a Roadwidener again. It is a rare chance to observe it closely while it is performing in a Parade. I have taken out an old sketchbook with a few blank pages. I like sketching on old discoloured paper with its quaint matured texture; I don’t mind sacrificing longevity for splendor. I am scribbling this on my sketchbook as I wait for it over a cup of red tea sitting on my porch; from where I will get a view of the beast as close as can be. A requisite sacrifice, I hope.

Rakesh Khundongbam

Haiku:

The rain still cannot drench the blood stained shadows by

our neighborhood tree.

Leika Yumnam

One whole April night My starvation wrote haiku

While they were eating

Akhu

Not a Peace Protest Why Economic Blockade?

This is Civil War!

Raju Athokpam

Grass grew everywhere. Until one day, someone came

And walked a new path.

Kundo Yumnam

Long it has been since I saw smiling Sunflowers

Have I missed a lot?

Billie

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Reflecting about roads and not so much about the Chicken:

Making sense of roads in India’s North East

Ram Wangkheirakpam1

There are many types of roads and one might begin with the two well known ones: the road to heaven and road to hell. The politics of these two routes are too wide for me to address here. Many might have taken these routes, and since we cannot be sure of the existence of either of them, my paper will instead talk about earthy roads which you and I, for real, know exist!

Just as roads are known to connect people, villages, towns, cities, states and economies, they can also be instruments of control, suppression and resource extraction or even bringing in the ‘market’ at the doorsteps. At the backdrop of this understanding, the paper shall make an attempt to make sense of roads in the North East (NE) with additional focus on Manipur, where a lot more people are currently ‘thinking’ about roads!

Kinds of Earthly Roads

To start with, there is this category of roads, which evokes ‘romantic’ feelings to the urban and ‘modern’ people, popularly known as the village roads. They are usually small, narrow and winding, and people use them to make connections with their neighbors or to go their jhum land. In this category, I wish to also include the village-connection roads where bullock carts or bi-cycles or sometimes buses pass through. They typically meander curving and bending whenever nature does not permit. Modern roads do not follow nature, they overpower them. In the past, village roads were over thousands but today it is a dwindling tribe. Security and/or ‘state roads’ and/or ‘farm to market’ roads built by various agencies with the logic of bringing ‘inter-connectivity’ and ‘development’ to the villages have literally led to their downfall. This

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category of roads are not even considered as real roads by ‘modern’ standards. They belong to the ‘primitive’ kind that requires some sort of ‘conversion’ to even get into the ‘modern’ landscape.

The second category of roads is the ‘social’2 kind built by the state3 to inter-connect districts and villages. They also serve to connect different states (also known as National Highways) and seek to bring everyone under a single administration and within the reach of the state.4 On this category of roads marches the agencies of the state, viz. the police, administrators, medicos and so on, to ‘administer’ and ‘control’ the people. No doubt, shopkeepers, religion mongers, contractors, NGO workers, etc. also use these roads. This is the public facade of these roads, but then there are hidden agendas behind these roads which, then, take us to the third and the fourth kind of roads.

The third category of roads are the ‘security’ roads which the army, para military, border army, etc. use to reach the enemy within and may be also to defend against the enemy without. From the British to the Indian ‘expansionist’ agenda, such roads have been built in the plains and on the high mountains of the region. The primary organization involved in conceptualization and building of such roads is the Border Road Organization.5 These roads are not just the ones we see being built at the border areas but majority of the roads that we see in the NE can fit under the security road tag. In other words, roads being built for social and economic reason can also be security road. Such roads facilitate subjugation while displaying a public facade. It is argued that state sponsored road projects were largely framed from the perspective of ‘national security’ and that these efforts are also to nationalize the frontier space which will result in nation building and integration.6

The fourth category of roads consists of the ‘trade’ and ‘development’ roads. Such roads include those which facilitate trade, movement of raw materials, semi-finished and finished produces of North East and India and those that connect with the neighboring countries. Roads which are also primarily meant to help move trucks for construction of dams, mining activities, and produce from the ‘farm to the market’7 can also included in this category. Such roads are not new to the NE8, but have been given a new thrust and impetus in recent years. With new funding agencies such as the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank9

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designing, actualizing and implementing, such roads marks a new turn in the history of road building in the region.

Thus, in the North East, we witness three major categories of roads (second to the fourth category) being mixed to a concoction – subjugation road mixed with social road and now being reinstated as development and trade roads.

Some Reflections

Locking and Unlocking

Since the mergers, annexations and accessions to ‘India’ of the many territories of the ‘North East’, there has been a hardening of the Indian state in terms of boundary as exigencies of a nation state. Since then , we have been trapped10 in the, now called, North East. For more than 60 years, all ‘roads’ to the other side of the ‘border’ were cut off costing the people(s) unfathomable losses. How do we connect with our kith and kin across the border is an everyday question for those at the ‘border’? Another question of significance is: who will compensate for the losses pertaining not only to economic, social and cultural but also political ruin?

Meanwhile, there is now a well concerted attempt to un-lock the North East. Following India’s Look East Policy (ILEP), some government controlled official holes were made on the border by opening border trade. This trade has little that relates with those locked (on both sides)11, and this is known by the fact that despite the current trade volume of USD 1.2 billion between India and Burma, for the current 2009-2010,12 the only visible sign in the NE is the dumping of ‘goods’ from across the border.

More are on the pipeline. The NE will soon witness the grand Trans Asian Highway (TAH) and the Trans Asian Railway (TAR) criss-crossing the region in addition to the other routes under preparation13. We are to worry and must be worried as India and the ASEAN have put great efforts into liberalizing their trade regimes along with infrastructure preparation while there is little preparation made for the people in the NE. Preparation for forcibly plundering resources and

transferring them away from and through the region cannot be construed to constitute ‘development’ of the region.

In project documents of both TAR14 and TAH,15 the North East is one region which is ‘landlocked’ and is one of the ‘missing links’ and that will require substantial resources to open up. As one may note here, the need to open up the NE and link it with the global market is being emphasized. While there are already ‘forced’ internal preparation in the form of reforms in legislative and institutional systems in order to provide favorable conditions for privatization, what is to be noted here is that the locking of this region was not on its own nor the un-locking itself. After a meeting in Imphal about the possible scenario after the TAH is implemented in Manipur, a participant quips, “Our neck will pain watching the trucks pass us by.”

Reading the number of reports, documents, studies, minutes of numerous conferences, and agreements on Trans Asian Highway and the railway, and also the preparation in India for joining this piece of missing link make one realize, that behind a road lies a vast amount of politics, planning and decisions that will remain unknown to most users.

Chicken Neck gone

When the chicken’s neck16 is ‘replaced’ all the walls around us will collapse. There will be a gush of the ‘world’ rushing in with few survivors left. This is precisely what is going to unfold here in the NE. With new road projects and other routes17 opened with Tibet, China, Burma, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan; the ‘importance’ of the chicken neck will go away. This imply that our people, land, water, air, forest and all else will be fully exposed to the vagaries of the market.

Road to Development

Another kind of road projects in the region, in addition those of unlocking roads which supports the idea behind the unlocking, are those which are meant for dam building, mining or other forms of resource extraction including those of farm to market kind.

A good example of the above is the Trans Arunachal Highway. Arunachal or previously the Northeastern Frontier Agency (NEFA) had very few modern roads with density as little as 0.17 Km per square

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kilometer and moreover, it is impossible to move from one district to another in Arunachal without first going into Assam. In this context, the people of Arunachal ‘welcomed’ the Trans Arunachal Highway. Little were they informed about the main master plan behind building this highway, i.e is to help build the 100 and more dams which are being planned to feed the 8 % percent GDP growth of India. It is natural to doubt the intention – when the government was silent for a long time and ‘suddenly’ there is a proposed road project of more than 2000 Kms.18 While the frontier security angle will have been included in this project, the intention for the dam building is clearly reflected in a February 2010 report by an Inter-Ministerial Group titled “To evolve a suitable framework to guide and accelerate the development of hydropower in the North East region”. The Group of Ministers was emphatic about the need to provide all round support and to complete the project in specific time frame so as to enable the construction of the dams. It is now for the people of Arunachal to decide the fate of the road. The dilemma of proximity19 is a difficult option to choose from for the local people or even for the activist to stop it.

Highway Blockade: AH1 to replace NH39

People in Manipur are particularly thinking about the highways nowadays. It sounds un-natural that majority of the small population like Manipur spends so much of their time in discussing the highways. One is sure that their time is spent not beyond Highway 39 and/or 53 with the exception of a few who are aware of the fact that soon there will be no NH39 but AH1 in its place. There are more important associated issues besides blockades, illegal taxation, etc. that need to shape out keeping these roads in mind. Critical questions such as how do local issues such as highway blockades and bandhs go along with the agenda of the Indian state as well as global agenda? Or plainly speaking, how does the numerous political movements and global economic agenda look at each other?

The mountainous terrain of both NH39 and NH53 is difficult and history seems to indicate that the ‘connections’ of the king of Manipur was more with those with the lesser difficult terrain towards Burma. History

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also tells us that the kings used routes along the NH53 as a way to escape or to bring the British and other allies intp the kingdom. History also informs us that NH39 was the creation of the British for colonial purposes. We also saw one of the fiercest battle of the WWII when the British tried to defend the highway leading to Kohima from Imphal. But those days are gone and another kind of politics is underway on this very road. Roads by itself are not apolitical, however, the use of highway shutdown for political bargaining does not seem right when it has un-ethical overtones of cutting off food supplies. This might be considered a bad tactics even during war time, but were we all not being cut off for all these 60 years!

In the capital of Manipur, Imphal, where consumption is most robust, the intensity of discussion on using national highway 53 or 39 reflects the poverty of discourse on food and energy sovereignty. Highway taxes and loots are are also issues which needs to be addressed but the present moment calls for a focus on the soaring dependence on supplies of food and energy, which reflects the current system in the state. While this is not to underestimate the crisis and those making all effort to get the essentials, there is an urgent need to understand the situation from and what will unfold from it, in the next 5-10 years and beyond. This include new trade regime like the free trade agreement of India with the ASEAN, India and China’s dangerous economic expansion coupled with their project manifestations such as the Trans Asian Highway and Railway which will pass through the NE.

The current National Highway 39 is likely to be converted into Asian Highway 1 or AH1. This conversion from a national highway to Asian Highway will have significant implications for the region and its people. In the most likely scenario, there will be movement of ‘goods’20 between Asia and Europe, and the North East will act as a bridge between South Asia and South East Asia in this scheme of things. How local politics (including Highway ones) will be played out when a full scale international trade movement is put in place remains to be seen, but what is critical to understand for the people in the North East and particular for Manipur is that first, there will be accompanied militarization of the AH1 so as to ensure safety of international movement of goods. This of course will make highway blockade more

difficult if not impossible. Second, the possibility of goods being dumped from all over the world killing local producers. And third, likelihood of labor migration that can have serious demographic challenges. Will these impending changes affect the current language of our road to freedom? Yes, surely indeed!

Following from the above, the other important issue is about building internal self-sustained food and energy security system. Within a week of blockade of the NH 39 , we witness the collapse of various institutions. For example, schools, offices, hospitals, etc. begin to shut down. This is indicative of problematics in the way we have ‘progressed’ in the last many decades. While part of the answer may be political in nature, there is also a need for an internal audit about the way we have been treating our agricultural lands, on what we grow (cash crop or food that we eat), and policies that promotes fossil fuel use rather than looking at options available for reducing fossil fuel use as well as promoting alternative energy systems. A simple question - “Why should my rice come all the way from Bihar or China?” must guide the direction of our thoughts. This will help reduce our dependence on the roads and also the food miles21!

Notes & references  

1 Ram Wangkheirakpam is member, Forum for Indigenous Perspectives

and Action and one of the Coordinators of North East Peoples Alliance. www.nealliance.net

2 The categories are not mutually exclusive, they overlap. 3 The agencies under the state include, Department of Road Transport and

Highways, National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), Border Roads Organization (BRO), The Ministry of Rural Development, The State Governments, The Ministry of Development of North East Region (DONER), and North Eastern Council (NEC).

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4 According to the report ‘Perspective Transport Plan for the Development

of the North East Region’ March 2003, NEC, it is estimated that the North East Region’s road network inclusive of national and state highways, district roads and those built by the Border Road Organization (BRO) is 145000 Kilometers.

5 Border Road Organization or commonly known as the BRO is a civil engineering institution responsible to provide civil (construction) engineering cover to the Armed Forces of India, during war and peace. The organisation is manned partly by civil engineers drawn from Corps of Engineers of the Army, but mainly by those recruited exclusively for BRO. The latter complement of manpower is called General Reserve Engineer Force (GREF). The organisation is under Ministry of Defence for specific deployment but placed under Ministry of Highways for general administration. The GREF troops, like soldiers of other Armed Forces, are governed by Army Act, 1950. See: http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/india/bro.htm

6 Dzuvichu, L., “How many Roads must the State Build?”in Biblio. Vol XIII Nos 5&6. May-June 2008

7 Farm to the Market roads are those roads which link the village farmlands to district, state or highways where farmers can sell their produces. Usually, cash crops are promoted in large scale in rural areas and these produces are then being carried to markets.

8 It is believed that the ancient southern silk route passes through parts of North East.

9 Both the banks are involved in designing and implementing roads in the NE. To understand their role in the NE please see:

10 Interestingly, India’s then Minister for the North East (MDONER) Mani Shankar Aiyar refers to the region as in a Geo-political trap. In a six-page concept paper that presses for invigorating India's 'Look-East Policy', Aiyar called for an “imaginative leap” in foreign, defense, internal security and international trade policies to “liberate” the North-East from its “geopolitical trap”. See: http://www.sinlung.com/North%20East/1047.html

11 If the ILEP is also about understanding the reality and aspirations of the North-east, with policy flowing as a natural corollary to this, there should be a very different set of priorities. The first step would be the democratization of the North-east — and of Burma. Present thinking in the corridors of power seems to shy away from engaging with this path. It seems to be easier to push through a host of development projects, including roads, in a largely undemocratic manner. Mani Shankar Aiyar nearly got it right when he stated that the North-east needs to be “liberated” from its “geo-political trap”. Instead of telling the complete truth, Aiyar promptly went on to give solutions to the problem —

solutions directed from New Delhi and beyond, and not those based on local aspirations and needs.

12 http://eversion.elevenmediagroup.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=733:myanmar-india-trade-volume-hits-us-12-billion&catid=43:biweekly-eleven-eversion&Itemid=110. Download on 7aug2010

13 Other route preparations include the Trans Arunachal Highway, Kaladan, Barak and Brahmaputra Waterways, ADB funded North Eastern State Roads Project, Bengal Corridor road project among others.

14 http://www.unescap.org/ttdw/index.asp?MenuName=TheTrans-AsianRailway 15 http://www.unescap.org/ttdw/index.asp?menuname=asianhighway 16 This is not to argue that the chicken neck should be the only channel that

we maintain without opening our borders, but rather that the opening of the walls or borders should be based on our wishes, needs and capacity. What is currently being designed seem like a way to loot and run and using the NE as just a ‘road’ to drive through.

17 Other routes include Kaladan Water Way linking Sitwe port in Burma through Mizoram, Barak and Brahmaputra Water way linking Chittagong port with NE.

18 The 1644 Kilometers long Trans Arunachal Highway will connect 11 out of the 16 districts joining Tawang on western side to Bogibeel Bridge on eastern side passing through Bomdilla, Nechipu, Seppa, Ziro, Daporizo, Along, Pangin, Pasighat, Roing, Mahadevpur, Changlang, Khonsa, Kanubari and Bimlapur.

19 By Dilemma of Proximity I mean the difficulty in deciding on projects such as road which can have social benefits but at the same time knowing that the project can have disastrous consequences for the people

20 Here it implies, raw materials, semi-finished goods and finished products. 21 Food Miles or Food Kilometers is the distance our food travels from the

farm to our plate. The farther the food travels the more unsustainable it becomes.

On 17th May 2010 Burning Voices initiated a fund drive to help the victims of artificial famine caused by the Economic Blockade imposed on the National Highways connecting Manipur to the rest of India. We managed to raise Rs. 1,10,000 which was spent on procuring medicines from New Delhi and sending them to Manipur through air cargo. Our members based in Manipur distributed these medicines to the remote areas of Tengnoupal, Chandel and Tamenglong with the help of various civil organisations in the region. Furthermore, medicines were handed over to Kanglatombi Children Home and Conflict Widows’ Forum . We would like to thank all the generous contributors who supported us in this endeavour.

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