By- Kh. Ibomcha
In India, the idea of national or anti-national is determined by what you eat: if you eat dal-makhoni, you are national, and if you don’t, then an anti-national. To them, RSS families, Modi Bhaktas, Ramdeva and people like Anupam Kher are categorized as nationalist, while Dalits, muslims, socialist, seculars, radical students, logical professors, beef-eaters and people like ‘Amir Khan’ are anti-national.
If you want to live alive in India you don’t have to eat beef, this is the only matra to survive from being oppressed by Indian patriotism. Eating dal-makhoni is only the symbol of being true Indian and they would be tagged with the label “national “or patriot.
I eat beef, so it is crystal clear that, for them, I am anti-national. And there are Indian law makers who would justify even lynching of people eating beef or raising protest against Vedic ideals.
In a word, the constitution of India is the lengthiest written constitution of any sovereign country in the world, yet its rulers trace the definition of ‘national’ or ‘anti-national’ to Veda and Puranas.
In India, to live as an ideal citizen is possible only when you drink cow-urine instead eating cow meat even though eating meat is your soul food.
Here it seems to be worth recalling how people from NE were prohibited eating their soul food like ngari, hawaichra, akhoni while living in Delhi.
So, it evidently bears testimony to the fact that the idea of India never goes beyond their termite eaten Vedic books where no one would find values connected to the lives of other people constituting modern India, particularly those living in the periphery.
Here it worth recalling the memorandum submitted by Naga club to the Simon commission to exclude the Nagas from the scope of any constitutional reform and keep them under direct British admiration as they did not like to be part of Hindu Bharat as Hindus looked down on them as they ate beef. Neither had they wanted to be a part of Pakistan because Muslims hated them as they (Nagas) loved eating pork.
Now why Naga elders said that then has become all the more clear giving reasons why they needed to live as a nation or a group latched on their own cultural moorings.
As of now, before us, we have two options: be a patriot by stopping to eat beef; or die as an anti-national by eating what you begin to eat since ‘chawumba’ or the moment you knew how to eat. There is nothing in between.
In a news report by Abhisek Bhala, a correspondent at TV Today Network, under the heading ‘Anti-national JNU students demanded beef and worshipped demons: Delhi police’ he wrote that demanding beef in hostel mess and worshiping Mahisasur were among the anti-national activities of the students listed by Delhi police in report on controversial event organized in JNU to commemorate the death anniversary of parliament attack convict Afzal Guru.
We all know that we, the people of NE or WESEA (an acronym used by nationalist), is a group of people who prefer eating beef to Dal-Makhoni, differing from mainlanders. So, from that point of view we are all anti-national.
If Worshiping Mahisasur in place of Durga is anti-national activity, they will soon tag us all Kangleichas with the label ‘terrorist or anti-national’ as we the Kangleicha are worshiping Panthoibi, our own goddess, in place of Durga as a part of a big movement called meitei revivalist movement.
Re-looking at our ontological problems taking ourselves as group of people not belonging to Hindi speaking mainland’s hindutavaic characterization of Indian nation, it seems to be right to say that,‘Naharol-gi-ihou’ we have been experiencing since 1949 in the political landscape of NE or WESEA demanding sovereignty from India is a correct historical vocation of the people of the region, historically and culturally distinct from Mainlanders whose ethical values are tightly moored to Vedic ideals.