Culture2 min
Tezpur Declaration: Assam MP backs home-grown 'Manipur Happiness Mission'
After a two-day peace dialogue in Assam, an MP argues that Bodoland's path to calm offers lessons for Manipur, but not a ready-made template.
A two-day North East Peace Dialogue in Tezpur, Assam, has produced a joint statement called the Tezpur Declaration. It calls for rebuilding public trust and teaching peace in schools, with the crisis in Manipur at the centre of the talks. The Assam MP who convened the event described it in an opinion piece.
The gathering began in the first week of October, timed to Mahatma Gandhi's birth anniversary. Tezpur University and the North East Peace Foundation for Sustainable Futures co-hosted it. The writer says he felt compelled to act after becoming an MP in April, having lived in a conflict zone since childhood and found that newspaper columns changed little.
The guest list was broad: public representatives, retired civil servants, security experts, academics, religious leaders and members of civil society groups and NGOs. They discussed how conflict is changing in the region, what communities have learned the hard way, and how government and civil society can work together on reconciliation. They also talked about inclusive governance and a shared peace framework for the North East.
The declaration, issued on 3 October, lists four priorities. These are confidence-building steps to win back public trust in government agencies, stronger institutions for handling conflict, a comprehensive peace plan, and peace education to raise what it calls generations of peace volunteers. It also urges communities to keep the peace while protecting their own social systems and cultures.
Manipur dominated the room, says the writer, because of the ongoing humanitarian crisis. People from all three major communities in the state backed long-term, citizen-led efforts that work alongside civil society groups.
The writer also shared his own experience in the five Bodo-inhabited districts of Assam. By his account, more than 26 communities there now live peacefully after over four decades of clashes. He credits patient work on relationships, institutions and social change, which he calls the Bodoland Happiness Mission.
He stops short of calling it a blueprint. Every conflict has its own history, he writes, so any Manipur effort must grow from local aspirations, institutions and existing peace work. Hence his line: the Bodoland model may not work in Manipur, but a Manipur Happiness Mission could. He says the crisis goes beyond politics and security, and calls for rebuilding trust, protecting dignity, restoring everyday ties and preparing young people to live side by side.
Read the original opinion piece on ThePrint.
