25/02/2024
ɪ ғɪɴᴅ ᴛʜɪs ғʟᴀsʜʙᴀᴄᴋ ᴡᴏʀᴛʜ ʀᴇᴀᴅɪɴɢ & ʙᴇ ɴᴏᴛᴇᴅ!!
MANIPUR HISTORY YESTERDAY AND TODAY:
FLASHBACK
By Palki Sharma.
Vatsu Meru asks, "How far is this FlashBack on Manipur is correct?"
I (ᴢᴀᴘʀᴀ ᴄʜᴀᴋʜᴇsᴀɴɢ) have been expecting someone to reply the query, but none has come forward till now. With much hesitation, I give a reply here as below based on recorded history.
1. Palki Sharma is correct, except when she said, "10% land in Manipur belongs to Meiteis and 90% to Kukis" missing to mention the name of the Nagas. Anyway, we all know that 90% land belongs to Nagas, Kukis and other tribal people. The rest, what she has said: about names, dates, the historical facts etc. are excellent and correct.
2. "Meitei Chronicles claim that their kingdom started from 33 A.D." but she said, "it is not 100% reliable". She also said, "it is a mixture of myth and history." She is right. It's all myths and illusions.
3. Both oral history handed down to us and so also the historical events found on written records clearly tell us; during the Shan kingdom of Pong(Burma), believed to be originally from Thailand, rose to power and rule all over Burma from 12th-16th centuries A.D. In the early 13th century A.D., they came and invaded Nagas and Chins in the Chindwin River valley from upper west Burma i.e. Hukung/Hawkung valley down to Kabaw/Kubow valley. They displaced and scattered Chins and Nagas to different directions. Many Nagas mixed with Chins spread all over Naga Hills. So also many Chins mixed with Nagas scattered down to Chin Hills, Hakha Chin Hills, Rakhine Hills, Chittagong Hills even down to Malays.
4. During this very period, one Mekri-Naga from Chindwin River Valley with two sons namely: (1) Meyitei (Meitei), seems to be a descendant of Mekri Naga and (2) Lahüpa (Lahoopa) seems to be a descendant of Runio (Mhaphrü/Tangkhul) Naga came up along in the big group to Khesora and sojourned here. Khesomi tradition claims, both Meyitei and Lahüpa were born and brought up at Khesora.
5. Both Meiteis and Tangkhuls are Naga tribes in Chindwin River valley in Burma. But as there is no road, development, communication, water supply, electricity, or school; our people miserably suffer and remain inaccessible and unknown to the outside world or even to us the closest neighbouring Nagas even today.
6. We do not know how many of them came from Chindwin River valley to Khesora. Tradition says, several thousands came and raised 700-1000 houses at Khesora. Khesomi village is a small village which stands on the hill-side difficult to contain such big population. So, as per the oral story, from Khesora, native Cheveo Kheso (younger brother of Vadeo) led the first group to Chukitong, Lotha area most probably sometime in 1256-1258 A.D. And the second bigger group went to Makhel under the leadership of the great warrior Vadeo Kheso (elder brother of Cheveo). Mekri and the two sons followed Vadeo's group to Makhel/Mekhrora. And so, Makhel is also called Mekriba/Mekrira means Mekri's settled place. Sir Edward Gait in his book "A History of Assam" writes, "The Ahoms called Meitei-Manipuris "Makheli", the Kacharis call them "Maqli", while the old Assamese name for it is "Maqlau" which are all corrupted pronunciation of Makhel."
7. From Makhel, Mekri and the two sons: Meitei and Lahüpa all three of them went down to Maram. As the younger brother, Lahüpa chose to stay at Maram; Mekri and his son Meitei with their group further went down to Mekriba/Mekrira (Mekri's settled place) i.e. today's Imphal valley. They had occupied all these lands virgin, they are the true aborigines and they are the real Meiteis. Tradition says, their brother-Naga warriors dropped them down to Chin-Mei-Rong range. The word "Chin-Mei-Rong" indicates Chins, Meiteis and Rongmeis were mixed together, they went down to Imphal valley. Both Makhel and Imphal valley are called Mekriba/Mekrira.
8. When carefully calculated, they reached Imphal valley sometime in and around 1260's A.D. It is not ancient history. It is only a history of early medieval period. How can they claim that their kingdom started from 33 A.D.? It's an attempt to build a kingdom and a nation on falsehood.
After four centuries and a half of their arrival in Imphal valley, and after a number of kings; it was Meidingu Pamheiba (s/o Pitambar Charairongba), a Naga Chief, who was the greatest king to build Meitei kingdom calling it Kangleipak in 1714 A.D. The name "Manipur" (Sanskrit for abode of jewels) emerged for the first time in its history in 1717 during Maharaja Pamheiba. However, in common language "Mani" means "small" and "pur" means "town". Manipur means small town. Manipuri(s) means dwellers of small town in those days.
9. Maharaja Meidingu Pamheiba embraced Vaishnavanism or called Sanamahism, a reformed religion against Saktism brought by two Bengali Hindu preachers: (1) Sarker Deb and (2) Madhab Deb from Cachar in 18th century. And Maharaja Pamheiba enforced it in his kingdom as the official/state religion to bind the subjects to strengthen his newly established kingdom as those days Christianity was not yet known to NorthEast Frontier people. He adopted a Hindu name for himself called "Gharib Nawaz" which means "patron/saviour of the poor". He was a people's Raja. Sir Edward Gait in his book titled "A history of Assam" writes, "Gharib Nawaz was the most able king and he could conquer the whole Burma; but for an unknown reason, he was assassinated in 1747 at the instigation of his own son, Ughat Sha alias Kakilal Thaba." The kingdom built up by Maharaja Pamheiba (1725-1747), speedily collapsed.
10. Then, a ring-leader named Santis Goswami and his gang came from Sylhet(present day Bangladesh), subdued the valley and they played lot of spoilage and dirty games on the Meitei girls giving births to countless offsprings and converting them to Hinduism. In addition to that, many Meitei girls pushed their own freedom beyond the limit in loose marriages with non-Meiteis like Bengali Hindus, Mughal soldiers(Pangals), Marawaris etc. against the wishes of their own culture which would later on bring troubles in their ancestral land. Naren Kumar, a researcher writes, "They enjoyed the Meitei girls letting them giving births of mixed Bengali blood changing their surnames as Kumar, Sharma, Singh.... Devi, Kumari etc." It had made some parts of their history infamous.
They began to learn Bengali letters and scripts. Chronicles of Kangleipak began to be written by the Bengali Hindu priests from 19th century A.D., but they wrote it with a lot of manipulations. They insisted to build a Chronicles on Hinduism, and to bury and hide that Meiteis were a people came down from Naga origin which has created confusion. Perhaps, they did this with a thinking that the later generations after them would never come to know their true history again.
Meiteis, with their temptation to embrace the position of Brahmin or upper class in Hindu caste-system, they were brainwashed to look their brother-Nagas on the hills as lower caste and they look different. Since then and for quite a number of years, they feel shy to utter that "they are Nagas" and they don't mind to deny that "they are Nagas". They tried to avoid their true root of history by building a new kingdom on falsehood. What a dishonesty? I am not against any religion. I strongly believe in the freedom of religion. But if they wanted to build a kingdom on Hinduism, why should they attempted to make true Nagas as non-Nagas or to completely wipe away Nagas' existence? Since then, within 300 years, Meiteis have lost themselves/their roots as a tribe, and they have become non-tribal. Is that the way to write a Chronicle or history?
11. After Meidingu Pamheiba, a 100 years had passed, his successors were all weak kings. And within a hundred years many unwanted things had been developed. A hundred years after Maharaja Meidingu Pamheiba, Gambhir Singh(Chinglen Nongdren Khomba), s/o Chingthang Khomba (a Naga by origin as revealed by himself to Nagas in 1833 at Kohima) rose to power as a great liberator as Raja of Manipur from 1825-1834 A.D.(i.e. 9 years only) even against the Burmese invasions and devastations. But after the First Anglo-Burmese War, and the Treaty of Yandabo signed on 24th February 1826, Manipur became a protectorate of British Empire. It means Manipur had lost its independence to the British. Gambhir Singh died in 1834. Since then, British ruled India till 1947 and Burma till 1948.
After Indian independence, Manipur had agreed to join the Union of India, and the Merger Agreement was signed on 21st September 1949 at Shillong by Kangleipak King (Ningthou), Mr Bodhachandra Singh, Maharaja of Manipur with Shri V P Menon, Advisor to the GOI, Ministry of State, on behalf of the dominion of India for Rs.3 lakhs per year mentioning a land area of 700 sq.km not touching a single inch of the hill area. Thus, the sovereignty and independence of Manipur as a country came to an end.
In 1950 and 1951, despite a wise advice and request given to the Meiteis not to reject the Scheduled Tribe(ST) status by the then MP Mr Suisa, but to keep up the Scheduled Tribe(ST) status, they rejected it in 1951 threatening Mr Suisa never to repeat it to them to accept such low caste status again. Manipur became a state of India in 1972. After seven decades, the question of Scheduled Tribe(ST) status has surfaced again and the fight is on. It reminds us all, MP Mr Suisa truly loved Meiteis, and he was not wrong.
12. Runio(elder) and Mekri(younger) were Naga brothers in Chindwin River valley. And as stated above, Mekri's descendants called Meitei Nagas(who became a Hindu sept) and so also Runio's descendants called Mhaphrű/Tangkhul Nagas, are two Naga brother-tribes in Chindwin River valley in Sagaing Division(the biggest state in the whole Burma/Myanmar), Lahe Region and Hakha Chin Hills. Nagas and Chins dominantly occupy the lands between Chindwin River and Irrawaddy River, Hakha Chin Hills and Chin Hills. From here there are 3 Naga MPs come to Burmese Parliament today. It is believed more than 3,500 Naga villages are here in these three states.
But as stated above, till today they all continue to miserably suffer without roads, developments, electricity, water supply, school etc., and they remain unexplored, inaccessible and unknown to the outside world. They are in extremely pathetic conditions and in complete darkness. Our people whether Meiteis, Tangkhuls, Chins or other Naga tribes here, they have been suffering endless untold stories under the unscrupulous Burmese misrule. Even today, the Burmese military junta goes on bombing our people in these areas almost everyday. It deeply pains us.
13. As stated above, both present Tangkhuls and Meiteis in Manipur are not the first who originated from here in Manipur itself like the Bilble story of Adam and Eve created by God in Eden Garden. Their ancestors in Chindwin River valley were and are the first. Their true original roots are from Chindwin River valley like many other Naga/Chin tribes. They came to Manipur only late in and around 1260's A.D. History speaks loud and clear on this.
It is never my intention to write this piece of note to hurt or malign anyone or any group. For even without me, these plain historical truths will come out sooner or later. There are duplicates who mislead our people into troubles in the land.
14. Instead of fighting here in hatred, jealousy or greed; why not we come together, talk, build up understanding, jointly plan and help our suffering people in Burma/Myanmar? The need is great! We need a strong support from India. A great challenge is lying before us.
15. As seen above, Chins, Meiteis and Nagas are from the same root/stock. Our ancestors committed to be one. We are real brothers and sisters. When you r**e a woman among them, you r**e your own sister/daughter. When you hate one, you hate your own brother. When you kill them, you kill your own brothers and sisters. You fail your ancestors' covenant. No victory, no glory in it. You disgrace your people and yourself. The more one does it, we are defeated.
On the cross Jesus said, "Father! Forgive them for they know not what they do." It reveals ignorance was responsible for Jesus's death. Let each one thinks twice. May there be restraint. "Peace be still."
As stated above, it is never intended to hurt anyone. But we need our people to know the truth - truth of our history. But it is said "truth hurts". So fearfully I write this.
Share this to all.
Zapra Chakhesang,
A student of NorthEast Indian History,
Kohima, (2023 July 31).
