Hidden Dangers in india

August 13th, 2007 · No Comments· 16 views

India is another country made up of a variety of peoples welded together by a European colonial power. Despite the major PR blitz of the last decade, it, too, threatens to fall apart. Here’s a story about one of the many cracks.

BBC

More than 15 years ago, Tombi studied advertising in Delhi. These days, he is putting his communication skills to a different use in the remote Indian state of Manipur.

At a hidden destination deep within waterlogged paddy fields and lush palm trees, Tombi (not his real name) meets me as I disembark from a small canoe. He is flanked by around 20 militants in camouflage uniforms bearing AK47s and other heavy arms, including a rocket propelled gun.

Tombi is now the publicity officer for a rebel group called the United National Liberation Front, aka the UNLF.

It’s one of more than 20 separatist outfits engaged in bloody conflict with the Indian army.

Manipur lies in India’s north-east, in an isolated area that borders Burma. The region is connected to mainland India by a narrow 22km (13.6 mile) strip of land known colloquially as the “chicken’s neck”, which passes along the border with China, Bangladesh and Bhutan.

The entire region is a melting pot of hundreds of tribes and ethnicities.

It is also racked by insurgency.