It’s a new year already. Even though there cannot possibly be any particular beginning or an end point in a circle, there is nothing unreal about the euphoric mood of anticipating changes for the better associated with this supposed transition of an old year to a new on January 1, an arbitrary date along the path of earth’s cyclic revolution around the sun.
The consensus could have been on any other point along this path. Indeed, most traditional societies, including many in India, do celebrate the start of Spring as new year, perhaps more sensibly too for it is more in rhythm with the life cycle of the plant world, but then even seasons are dependent on latitudinal and hemispheric positions of different geographies, and there cannot be single new year date even by this principle. There is therefore nothing wrong or right about deciding January 1 as the beginning of a new year. What is beyond doubt is the overwhelming and universal sense of renewal that this date brings.
This is another example of the power of fiction that humans became capable of creating and believing, and to bond themselves along them large scale. Yuval Noah Harari explains this in Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind. This capability is thanks to what is described as a cognitive revolution sapiens went through on account of a minor mutation in their brain wiring some 60,000 years ago. Other than fictions, this also gave them the ability to create and understand symbols, leading to complex languages far superior to sign languages that was once theirs, and the rest of the animal world’s primary means of communication.
They also learnt to conceptualise space and time, as well as abstract notions such as heaven, hell and divinity too. No other in the animal kingdom can comprehend these, and perhaps good for them too. Quite understandably, the world that humans imagine and understand today, and all issues related to this understanding, is extremely human centric. Ultimately, what’s good for humans is good and what’s bad for humans is bad. Hence, to cause distress to even one human is bad, but to exterminate millions of germs harmful to humans is good. This value calibration extends even in the assessment of climate change.
So here we are at the start of a new year, anticipating changes for the better and for resolutions to burdensome problems from the year that has just ended. This is a time most would justifiably be lost in the tidal wave of new year optimism. For a troubled state like Manipur which is caught in a bloody feud between two of its major communities, Meiteis and Kuki-Zos, with a little effort, this sense of goodwill that new year brings can be the initiation point for healing.
This horrifying and tragic blood-letting between the two communities is now close to completing two years and there are no signs the hostilities are set to draw to a close anytime soon. If cases of violence are fewer, it is only on account of combat fatigue and not because an amicable understanding has been reached between the warring groups. This absence of violence however must not be treated as return of peace as politicians are wont to. For then, as in any ‘frozen conflicts’ the enmity will remain simmering quietly within to give way to periodic hostile flashpoints in the future.
In the two years that have gone by, over 250 people have been killed and 60,000 displaced, a majority of whom are still living deplorable lives in relief camps. Nothing much can be done for the dead except for institutional compensations and for everybody else to wish their families strength to faced and overcome their immense griefs. Beyond this however, a good way for reconciliation to begin would be for the displaced to get to return to their abandoned homes to reclaim their properties, rebuild their lives and bring up their children as they would have if this tragedy had not struck.
Such a change can begin with a serious introspection on the importance, yet ultimate insignificance, of all that life is when viewed from the cosmological perspective in which the earth is just ‘a pale blue dot’ as Carl Sagan poetically and poignantly put it. This reminder is however not a call for despair, but for an awakening of the inner strength that comes with humility. In Bill Bryson’s analogy of this thought in his bestselling A Short History of Nearly Everything, if the span of the outstretched arms of a person of average height is to represent the years since life came to be on earth, then a single stroke of a mid-grain nail file on a finger nail would be enough to wipe off the portion human history came to be.
This humility is also the source of what John Paul Lederach calls ‘the moral imagination,’ in his book by the same title. Just as hatred generates hatred, goodwill and generosity are also known for reciprocating in kind. This is not just in the nature of barter trading but more about causing the regeneration of a moral ecosystem where all can together relish the joy of peace, harmony and normalcy. This is also why very often a simple but loving hug or a sincere apology can bond people, even former adversaries, more securely than the best conceived treaties.
If in Manipur tomorrow, one side or the other in this bitter communal divide, finds the courage and generosity to invite and assure the safe return of people displaced from their side, it is imaginable that a conclusion to the conflict will become a reality sooner than later. This conflict would have also already made it clear to all stakeholders that other than the desired sense of fraternity, there were always other shared destinies binding them together, and that challenging these can only lead to common distress. Geographies which are integral in nature is the foremost of these destinies.
Let the wish for this new year then, especially for those in traumatised Manipur, be for the insight to discover the strength in humility, and for the courage to exercise the moral imagination to see the commonness of the predicament of all who have suffered, and in this realisation find common redemption.
This article was first published in The New Indian Express. The original can be read HERE
Editor, Imphal Review of Arts and Politics and author
