Protests, prayers, wishful thinking, even a rally with five thousand students and around one thousand teachers last March — nothing seemed to stop militant groups from demanding increasingly bigger amounts of money from schools and higher educational institutions in Manipur. But this time students, teachers and citizens’ organizations put up a magnificent show of unity in a march through Imphal. The call to this procession, with about one lakh people, had been given by the Democratic Students Alliance of Manipur (Desam) in order to express the desire to make education a “free zone”. It is peace the students are asking for, a peaceful atmosphere of study. Since January, various schools have had to be shut down at different times because of the militants’ demands for money. The demands come attached to threats —pay up or else — and that is beginning to have a doubly destructive effect on all students and teachers, from schools up to the institutions of higher study. It is impossible for parents to keep sending their children to school or to keep them in the hostels after a bomb threat or similar warning from different militant groups has been conveyed. As a result, the academic term goes haywire, examinations, or preparations for them, are disrupted, and both students and teachers lose focus for they are distracted by fears and uncertainties. Besides, schools keep bleeding money as well, and are often unable to meet their own targets of development.

Given the high level of insecurity in most northeastern states, any sustained effort is difficult. There are enough disturbances in everyday life to disrupt normalcy anyway. The students’ frustration has driven them to express their opposition to the militants’ demands openly. The huge numbers in the rally this time may help make the point. If the rebel groups are fighting on behalf of the people, or of segments of them, this is a message they cannot mistake. Especially since they claim credit for running schools in the remoter regions, where the state government allegedly cannot reach. But it is not just remoteness that stops the government. Even in Imphal, it is the students, even those as young as thirteen or fourteen, and the teachers, who are fighting their own battle.