Subhechcha Ganguly 
Mother – or mother land !!! Does it sound and feel the same – we have our mother land – Lei Ingkhol – in Meitei Manipuri language. Often mother is taken as the sole or a soul nourisher. Let us today talk about a small area of land in the Capital of Manipur – Imphal, which is named Lei Ingkhol, means we have our land too. Now the government call them encroachers and is evicting them from their homes. Is it morally and ethically right : just because Government need land for construction of the High Court. Do we hear the cry of the mothers who are already feeling homeless ? Do we see the future of the children who will be fragmented from their education system and their home and thus a society?
What happens when one removes a tree from the root- this Lei Ingkhol is their root, their home.
There have been given already 20 acres of land by this community to the authorities to build the High Court; is it not enough, that they need all.
Lei Ingkhol was named such, after being disregarded and displaced from the society for those who had Leprosy or Tuberculosis. They were sent to this area as a taboo from the society due to the ailment they had got in the 1940’s. Now they are settled here for past more than 80 years and have connected roots here, they build up this society and regained their origins. Why evict them from their roots now? Why a prospering society being disordered and dismantled?
The mothers are weeping aloud for the end to be death rather than leaving their homes. Young boys are ready to give their lives to fight with the authorities. There have been so much unrest and disruption in this Lei Ingkhol community that people have lost control of their daily chores and lives. Is it what we Indians have to see in today’s era to one of our society ; where somewhere Robots and AI’s are taking over?
How does a mother raise a child from the time the egg becomes embryo and then fetus to a child and thus a human? Are we humans too, to see such a dreadful act upon one of our community. Authority has to take care of the society and not dismantle them for their benefits from the roots. It is morally and ethically not right to evict an entire society calling them with the false allegations as «encroachers». Putting up false documentations and revisions will not prove truth to be false. We in India say always from time immoral «Satyamev Jayate», that the truth will prevail. Such an act is not acceptable by any of us being a part of a democracy like India.
This summarizes to voice for the Lei Ingkhol: that we stand with the people of Lei Ingkhol and vocalise our voice to the government that reconsider this act of destitute to the honorable people of Lei Ingkhol !!!
Together we stand- together we raise –
Let us all prosper together !!!
-Promila Devi Sutharsan Huidrom ;
Promila is a Meitei Manipuri Pravasi Hindi Poet/ Author from Norway : writing for life, humankind and Nation
