The last efforts to survive in a vibrant nation with centuries of history and culture continue to amaze the people of India today. Manipuri’s are religiously, economically, geographically, culturally, and constitutionally distinct people.
Known as the City of Gems, the valley enriched by the Manipur River, and the Kingdom of Paganpa, Manipur is one of the most beautiful regions of India. It is a continuous region of the Himalayan mountain range, bordering Myanmar to the east, Tripura to the west, Nagaland to the north, and Mizoram to the south. For centuries, trade and commercial relations from India to Myanmar and other Southeast Asian countries continued through Manipur (Moore, 2015). Manipur was also a gateway for the journey of Indian culture there. Ancient believers known as the Sanamahis (Meiteis) and the Naga tribes found in the Naga Hills inhabited it.
Historically, Meithei/Sanamahi kings ruled Manipur. History tells us that the first king of the Meitei Kingdom, which was ruled by about 100 kings, was “Paganpa”, who ruled in AD 33. It was also known by the native Manipuri names of Sanaleipong, Tylikoktron, Poirelam, Meithilipak, and Meitrabak. These kings fought many wars with Burma and others to protect their own kingdom. In AD 1704, a king named “Charairongba” became fascinated with Vaishnava culture and declared Vaishnavism the official religion of Manipur as early as Sanamahisam. Archaeologists say that there were many Hindu temples centuries before this king, who was known by the new name Pithambar (mapsofindia.com).
The kings continued to rule there until it merged with the Indian Union in 1949. Manipur came under British rule in 1891. This was due to the war between Britain and Burma and Burma’s failure. The region later witnessed many wars. In connection with World War II, the Japanese army clashed with the British to invade India. Although the Indian National Army led by Subhash Chandra Bose, the Miso (Kuki) tribal groups of Burma’s Chin-Miso mountains, and the Japanese army resisted, the British were victorious. The battle of 1944 is called “the Battle of Imphal” (Brown, 2017).
After defeating Manipur in the Anglo-Manipur War, Britain enacted some land reform laws. It made a distinction between Meitei, Naga, and Kukis, who later migrated to Manipur (Singh, 2019). These laws, amended and re-enacted after India became an independent republic, further widened the scope of segregation. When we look back at the underlying issues behind today’s problems, some important facts emerge.
1) The Manipur Land Reforms Act of 1960 and subsequent constitutional amendments.
2) Socio-demographic change and degradation of ethnic and linguistic cultures caused by religious conversion.
3) Educational, Official, and Economic Inequality Resulting from Land Reform and Conversion.
4) The recent verdict in the case for the Scheduled Tribe status of Meiteis, which has been pending in the court for years.
5) Resentment over the Kuki sect’s ban on the Meitei devotees’ annual pilgrimage to holy places in the hills and the change of the local name of the area from Sanamahi.
6) Illegal immigration from Burma, Bangladesh, and Mizoram and illegal construction activities encroaching on protected forests in connection with that, the evictions carried out by the new government.
7) Illegal poppy cultivation in forest areas, drug smuggling, and arms smuggling from China through Myanmar.
8) Meitei’s fear of losing their own essence is insecurity.
9) Above all, genetic tribalism, which tends to attack each other.
To understand the above facts in detail, it is necessary to understand who the Sanamahis, Nagas, and Kukis are. Sanamahism, or Meitheism, and Lingthoism are the unique traditional beliefs of the Meithei sect of Manipur. It is a minority religious faith recognized by the Indian constitution, very similar to Hinduism, with many ancient belief systems and polytheism. Only about two lakh people are officially practicing Sanamahism today. This religion is named after the God “Lingthosanamahi”. He is the eldest son of the supreme god Yibirel Siddhaba and the Goddess Lymarel Siddhaba(Ningthoujam,2023).
For every Sanamahi, Sanamahism is a part of their heart. Even today, they keep the Sanamahi form in every home, regardless of their faith. There is another interpretation of Sanamahi, which means water God. Sanamahi does not have a religious leader, but it lives in the minds of every believer. Their ancient language, “Meitei”, later evolved into Manipuri. Their main temple is the Pakamba temple at Kangla in Imphal. The symbol of Sanamahism is a snake (dragon) with its tail bitten and curled up. Dragon boat races are an important celebration of them. They believe that life is a combination of fire, water, air, earth, the sky, and God’s spirit. Their religious symbol has five dots representing it. It can be seen that the Meithei kings contributed to the sport of modern polo. For that, they have a God called “Marging”. Sanamahi owns the only big bazaar (Ima Keithal) in the world run only by mothers (indianculture.gov.in).
Many people followed Sanamahism and Vaishnavism during the reign of the Raja. Place names like Bishnupur, ancient temples, and stone tablets with Vaishnava scripts dating back centuries are proof of this (wickipedia.org). Rasleela, the main dance of the Manipuris, gained prominence during the reign of King Bhagyachandra, who ruled from 1762 to 1798 (Thokchom, 2018). In this dance, we can see a combination of Balinese, Cambodian, and Indian classical dances. Gopis in the Rasaleela dance wear transparent cloth veils. Unlike other classical dances, facial expressions are not important here. Because importance is given there to the merging of the hearts of the Radhakrishnas. What happened later to the sages who had so much satwa and tradition?
The British conquered Manipur but did not try to rule it completely. It remained a geographical and strategic location for the expansion of the British Empire into China. At the behest of the British Parliament, the East India Company allowed the monarchs to continue to rule under their control. Britain did not provide them with the human or financial resources they needed. In 1835, they opened a British Friendship Office in Imphal (Mutuwa, 2018). It continued to rule until the last king, Bodhchandra Singh, joined India in 1949.
The Nagas were tribes that lived in the hills of the Meitei country. During the First World War, the tribes living in the mountains of the present-day Mizo-Chin state of Myanmar engaged in Gorilla warfare with the British. In 1917, the British defeated them, and many of them were used in subsequent wars and deployed in the border areas of Manipur (Chakravarty, 2017). The Gorilla War was the costliest war for the British in the Indian subcontinent. Later, when there was a war with the Nagas, the Kukis, who knew the same tribal techniques, were used to defend it. As early as the 17th and 18th centuries, many tribes are said to have migrated from the Chin region of Burma to the hills of Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura, and Bangladesh. Thus the Kukis began to live in the forest regions between the Nagas and the Meiteis (Singh, 2023).
Each Kuki tribe is said to have had its own language. “Kuki” is the name given by the Bengalis to this generally aggressive tribe. The correct name is “Chin-miso” and the modern name is “Somi”. The Kuki bodyguards protected the king of Manipur from the attacks of the Nagas. Most of them settled in the areas adjacent to Myanmar, south of the Imphal Valley (Hasnat, 2023).
In the 1890s, the British East India Company sanctioned missionary work in Manipur to transform and modernize such tribes, which had a radical nature that raised the heads of their enemies (Hmr, 2021). Long before that, conversions had started in the tribal areas of Nagaland and Mizoram. William Pettigrew, a British missionary, first started missionary work among the Meithei in 1894(mtcedu.in). However, due to opposition from the local people, he moved to the hilly area of Ukhrul and established the first primary school for boys. Until then, the American Baptist Foreign Missionary had done a small amount of missionary work. In 1951, with the establishment of the Dibrugarh Archdiocese in Arunachal, the conversion activities gained momentum (Salam, 2020). However, mostly the tribal Nagas and Kukis were their targets. Later, it started targeting Meitei villages. Meanwhile, a few Meiteis (7%) converted to Islam and came to be known as “Meitei Pangals” (Ahmed, 2009).
According to Pettigrew, the Nagas were in many ways compatible with Meithei beliefs. Faith in the soul is an example. As the people knew only the local language, the bible was translated and presented in that language. Today, this printing is done in Kerala. After him, many missionaries like Watkin Robert, U. M. Fox, G. G. Crozier, and others engaged in missionary work(Salam, 2020). Today, more than 30 different denominations of Christian churches from Kerala and elsewhere are functioning there. He taught the natives that their religion was primitive and brought them closer to Christianity. Encouraged to believe in the One God and pray. This was tantamount to erasing or uprooting their existence. Many converted Manipuri children are now studying in various Christian colleges in Kerala. However, at first, they were not able to exert much influence among the Meiteis. The reason was their firm belief in Sanamahi.
During the British colonial period, Manipur was administratively divided into two parts: the Hill Area and the Plains. Nevertheless, this law did not fetter land ownership. There was no obstacle for any citizen of Manipur to buy land and live in any part of the state. However, on the recommendation of the Second Planning Commission, the Government of India implemented a land reform policy in Manipur in 1960. In 1974, amendments were made to the constitution. Thus came Article 371C. According to this, the people in the valley have no right to buy land and live in the hilly areas. However, there was no such hindrance in the valley for the tribes(necouncil.gov.in).
The central government of that time said that such a law was introduced to protect and avoid the external exploitation of tribal. Thus, the Meiteis, who were the majority group, had no constitutional right to the hilly areas. It did not cause any difficulty for the valley dwellers then. However, by 2023, the valley’s population will have increased tenfold, and the area will become uninhabitable. The tribes, who constituted only 15 to 20 percent of the population, got 90 percent of the state’s land, and the Meiteis, who constituted 70 to 80 percent, got just 10 percent of the plains.
There is a complaint among the Kukis that the Hill Area Committee and the Hill Development Committee, which were formed in various administrative reforms, were not effective. To think that these laws were a total failure in terms of development and land tenure.Kukis are also advocating for its reform and more powers. The Kuki population, which was only 13%, was greatly increased by illegal immigration (Singh, 2023). Assessments by the Indian Army show that many such migrant villages are springing up. There are also complaints that some of them are clearing protected forest areas to build churches, cultivating illegal poppy, and selling it across the Myanmar border to buy weapons (Sangpui and Kapngaihlian, 2023) 10% of the plains inhabited by Meiteis today are also the capital of the state, so the central government is carrying out massive development activities. It cannot be overlooked that the large Meithei population is again being displaced to 6–7% of the area due to projects such as the construction of government offices, new railways, an airport, and the Indo-Myanmar Trans Highway.
The new state government has initiated measures to prevent illegal encroachment on forests, but not providing them with other necessary accommodations has turned the illegal immigrants against the government. Since the tribal are included in the Scheduled Tribes list, converts to Christianity continue to enjoy all government-reserved benefits, and many enter high-ranking government posts. The majority of Meiteis belong to the general category, except for a small OBC (Muslim and Other Castes) minority. So only, a small section enjoys a high standard of living, and the rest are left behind. To address these issues, the Meiteis approached the court for ST status in 2012, pointing out the injustice of not including them in the ST (they were the tribes among tribes during pre-independence), category as they have Naga-Kuki tribal characteristicsbefore (scconline.com, 2023). The Kuki student union has been protesting since the verdict of the Manipur High Court last April. They feared that reservations would take away their rights.
Today, the Meiteis are converting to Christianity in large numbers because of their backwardness (Bimol, 2018). They are drawn to it by the belief that their children will receive a good education and by the Abrahamic religions, which teach equality without the superstitions of Hinduism. According to the 2001 census, Churachandpur, which was a predominantly Hindu district, today has only 9925 Hindus, 1248 Muslims, 164453 Christians, 192 Sikhs, 4 Buddhists, 14 Jains, and a few Sanamahis (cenusindia.gov.in). The Christian Church itself says on its website that the largest number of Christian priests and preachers have been produced in this district. Today, while 90% of the northeastern states are Christian, Manipur, Tripura, Arunachal Pradesh, and Assam are the only states that have at least a significant Hindu population (Hmr, 2021).
Christians were 2 percent in 1931 and 12 percent in 1951, and by 2011, Christians were 41.29 percent, while Hindus, who were the majority, stood at 41.39 percent (censusindia.gov.in, statisticstimes.com). There is no doubt that the Christian population is much higher than the Meitei-Hindu population, as the new census for the last ten years has not yet been conducted.
Religiously, economically, demographically, and educationally backward, the Meitei-Sanamahis have lost their very existence. They fear that if they move forward like this, their culture and language will soon disappear, making them more insecure. They are also worried about factors such as poppy cultivation, arms trafficking, and population growth that encourage illegal immigration.
When former Governor Janata Party leader Loknath Mishra demanded in Parliament that Article 25 of the Constitution, which allows unrestricted religious propaganda, be rewritten, many opposition parties rejected it (Mondal, 2018). When he said that the death of Hinduism in India was not far off, other party leaders said that Hinduism was not facing such a threat. For them, Christian Muslims are their vote bank. Their growth is essential for the survival of such parties.
The time has come for the country with a great tradition called India to understand the change that happened to other Asian countries like Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei, and other countries that used to have Indian culture. Many ancient beliefs, languages, and unique traditional knowledge like Sanamahism were wiped out of India and the world. If the rulers don’t recognise it, India will forget its name tomorrow.
Reference:
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24. https://indianconstitution.guru/constitution-of-india/part-21/article-371c/
The writer is Assistant Professor of Botany, NSS College, Pandalam, Kerala University, Ph:9074426174, Email:[email protected]
