IMPHAL, March 28: Hundreds of Maring youths had a peaceful demonstration at Meipou ground on March 27, urging the Maring Uparup Assembly- the apex body of the Marings, to urgently look into the threat to their culture, tradition which according to the protestors is the identity of the Maring people.
Speaking to media persons at the protest site, a protestor Maylightson Tangtang said that Maring people are peace loving, kind-hearted people. Lately, we have realized that this kind-hearted nature has been taken advantage of by some unscrupulous individuals and landed the Maring into a big mess including threat to the Maring identity, he said.
Maylightson sought that upon the attack on the Maring identity, the youths took out a democratic peace protest on March 27.
The protest rally started from Meipou Maring Village and continued till Tuishimi Village to pressurise the Maring leaders to urgently look into the matter and undertake measures to protect the Maring identity.
Another villager participating the rally Parhai Kothil said “The rally also marks the beginning of fight to defend our identity. We will not tolerate any attempt to steal/imitate/intimidate/claim of Maring cultural/traditional dresses/items by anyone or any community.”
Another protestor Amoson Charanga told the media that the Maring people are also proud of their culture/tradition/customary practices that identify them.
Today the message we want to send across is for all to respect our identity, he said, and added we always and will always respect the identity of others.
“Big or small, beautiful or ugly we stand for what is ours nothing less nothing more,” he added.
The protestors used many placards which read “MUA save our culture attires, our culture our identity, MUA leaders lead us, Khuingallu identifies the Maring people, Maring identities under threat-we must defend it together, MUA leaders take up necessary steps to defend our identity, we cannot tolerate encroachment upon Maring identities in any form” etc.