The recent unrest in Manipur, firing, arson and more important than counting the deaths is to understand the multi-ethnic groups of Manipur. How many positive results will come of sending Assam Chief Minister Himanta Bishwa Sharma there, nothing can be said. Just on Thursday night the house of the Union Minister was burnt there. To understand the violence in Manipur , one has to understand the mood of the Chingmi people who live on the nine hills above the valley of Loktak Lake . Apart from this, there are also Naga and Kuki communities.
The number of people of the Meitei community settled in the valley is maximum here. But his demand to include himself in ST society cannot be called very justified. Because it was he who took the hill people out of the mainstream. The Meitei people, who have been ruling for the last 6-7 hundred years, never allowed the Chigmi people of the mountain to join them. To understand the Meitei, Chigmi, Naga and Kuki communities, one has to go into their history. And for this one has to walk, Churachandpur. Which is in the state of Manipur but there is dominance of Naga people.
Hema Malini of Churachandpur
At the time when Hema Malini was known as Swapna Sundari, Chin Nou Jellie in the Ching hills of Manipur was considered no less than Hema Malini. Chin used to come from that tribe, which people sitting in Delhi call Kuki or Naga. While these tribals of Manipur get angry when they are called Kuki or Naga. According to him, the Vaishnav Meitei people who settled in the valleys on the banks of Loktak Lake never took any heed to spoil his name.
Actually these are the Chingmi people, who are the firemen described in the Puranas. Means fiery like fire and iron colored (reddish with redness) skin. Very fair and beautiful. In their language Ching means hill and Mee means man. That's why they are called Chingmi. People living on the hills. On the contrary, the people of the valley are called Meitei. The Meitei people joined the Vaishnava sect in the medieval period.
every breed has to understand
During 1979-80, senior journalist Arvind Chaturved, who lived among the Chingmi people, has worked with Chin Nou Jelli. Arvind met Chin in Churachandpur. Churchandpur Manipur is considered to be a very infamous place. This is the same place from where the Japanese entered India during World War II. Today this Churachandpur is the hub of drug trade.
Arvind Chaturveda went to Manipur to study the various tribal communities and their interdependent relations. He says that Delhi made a mistake in understanding both Ching and Meitei. People of many tribal groups live in all the small hill states of the Northeast. We roughly write them as the community living in the Khasi Hills. Some of these are Nagas, some are of Mongol race and some are plains Aryans. So there is no single identity.
Migrants of all castes met here
The geographical location of Manipur is very important. It is located between Southeast Asia and Central Asia. Migrant groups coming from both sides settled here. That's why tribal castes of different races are found. This process of migration continued even in the 19th century with the arrival of some ethnic tribal groups. Gradually, several cultural groups with distinct identities developed and began to occupy different regions, both in the valley and in the hills of present-day Manipur. But according to history, an independent state was formed in the Loktak Valley in the 15th century. It was the kingdom of the Meitei clan and the tribal groups living on the hills were left in it.
As a result, the communities settled on the hills were isolated. The people of the mountain remained there and remained confined to their hot groups.
Vaishnavism gave Meitei the status of Kshatriya
There was no coordination between the Naga, Kuki and Chingmi tribes who settled in the hilly areas of Manipur and the Meitei kings of the valley. Meanwhile, the Vaishnava movement started in Manipur in the 18th century. Shantidas Goswami, a Vaishnava monk from Bengal, was patronized by Meitei Raja of Manipur. But after being initiated into Vaishnava religion, it was necessary that a caste of Vaishnava kings should be decided. Till then it was a casteless society. But after conversion to Vaishnavism, the Meitei kings of Manipur declared themselves Kshatriyas. But in this caste division, the hill people were deprived of coming in any caste. Since the people of the mountain were omnivores, they were not allowed to enter the Vaishnava society, nor could their caste be determined. The glorification of their cultural identity began with the Vaishnavism of the valley.
Tale of Ulupi
Ulupi, the wife of Arjuna of Mahabharata, was described as the princess of Manipur. While the princely state of Manipur was named in 1724 AD. After the arrival of the British, a new thing happened that the British allowed the princely state of Manipur to remain like other princely states of India, but after 1891, the British Empire appointed an agent to take care of the hilly region of Manipur.
In the year 1907, Raja Churanand Singh was given the power of this hill state. Along with this, he was made the President of Manipur Raj Darbar. After this, in 1913, the British limited the rights of Churanand Singh and he was confined to the Loktak Valley. Now the tribals of the hilly region have completely come under the protection of the British. Here again the political agent became the chief. Under the rule of the British, Christian missionaries became powerful in this mountainous region and they spread Christianity in all these hills.
Naga unrest
Senior journalist Sudhir Mishra did an extensive tour of Nagaland and Manipur in 2017. They tell that the tone of rebellion in Manipur had started only after independence. After independence, the princely state merged with the Union of India, but the hill Chingmi (Naga and Kuki) people refused to merge with the Manipur state.
Athikho Dayho Mao was the leader of this protest. He was arrested and kept in Calcutta but his slogan of no house tax was very effective among the hill people. Although it was suppressed by the Assam Rifles, till the partition of Assam, Nagaland ran at the behest of leaders like Laldenga and Phizo. In 1955, Phizo intensified the rebellion by forming the National Naga Council (NNC). He got the punishment of exile in 1965 and died in 1990 while in exile.
In 1975, the Naga National Council agreed to accept the Constitution of India under the Shillong Accord. But in 1990 Isak, Muivah and Khaplang formed the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN). After this NSCN got entangled in factionalism. The problem of Nagaland was different from Manipur as well as similar. The dialect of Churachandpur is not Manipuri but Naga, while this area is in Manipur. Therefore, to understand the violence in Manipur, one has to be familiar with the problem of Nagaland as well. The seeds of rebellion were sown there.
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