Manipur Recent History
A review on the talk made by GK Pillai, a distinguish IAS officer and former Home Secretary of India who gives out a presentation on the topic Manipur- The Way Out on Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, IDSA. The talk was excellent. Some important event and controversies were well defined in the talk. The talk is defined below:
Manipur is one of the most difficult state to crack, understand and a least success state. It is a Kingdom with great ancient history with Meitei Kings Chronicle down for centuries which many people forget.
When it came in 1947 as a country, it was a princely state and has its own constitution even before India had its own constitution. It had its first election in July 1948. And seat which was there were under the proportional representation of general category, hills, Muslim and two distinct seats for educational and commercial interest, an assembly of total 61 seats. Assembly was in place.
First controversy came when there was Maharaja accession in October 1949. Many Manipuris or Meiteis believe that the Maharaja accession was not proper that he was forced to signed the accord (when someone told that maharaja was not signing, Sadar Vallabhai Patel asked if there is not a brigadier in Shillong is remembered today part of folklore). Like in 1962 Indo China war, when the Jawaharlal Nehru had given a statement that his heart goes out to Assam, the Assam people had never forgiven him, given an impression that they were abandoning Assam to the Chinese.
At that time, people of Delhi were so busy in partition that they pay no attention to the North East considering it as a peripheral state. If we can rewrite the history of the past 10 to15 years than almost 75 percent of the problem of the NE would not be there.
Manipur was declared as a part C state at the time of merger and was administered by Chief Commissioner with an advisory council comprise of Manipur congress and others.
The first shock was that a country with a unique history, culture, very proud people etc become a part C state overnight administered by a commissioner nominated by government of India. The first commissioner lasted only three days. It insulted then the Maharaja. The statement of the first two chief commissioner's impression to the people was negative. Government had not selected proper commissioner. They had selected those who have less sensitivity and understanding of Manipur. As the state evolved, it became a Union territory status in 1956.
The second shock was the formation of Nagaland (Its act came up in 1962 and Nagaland state formed in 1963), bifurcating from a small district in Assam which was considered inferior to Manipur and look down upon by. Nagaland was given a State status while Manipur was not. In that period of time Manipur was one of the most peaceful states. In 1963 territorial legislative assembly was formed and in 1964 UNLF was formed with many groups later on. The importance of 1964 is that the Meitei insurgent groups were formed to protect the territorial integrity of Manipur because they have no confident on the government of India to defend the territorial integrity of Manipur. The significance of the Meitei insurgent group was that the hold of the group upon the administration was very closed or strong.
Manipur got Statehood in 1972 after violence and bandh etc. And it took another twenty years of agitation before Manipuri language was included in the Eight Scheduled in 1982. The psychic of the Meitei was that they never recover from the shock of the Kingdom becoming a part C state and subsequently. The collective psychic of the Meitei is depression.
The Kangla Fort was occupied by the the Assam Rifle as part of the British which is also an insult to the people. The significance of the Kangla Ford in the psychic of the Meitei people is immense. There was a rumor that this and that minister had sold out three acre, four acre of Kangla Fort etc. etc. People say that only because they had no idea of Manipuri history. Finally when the Kangla Fort was handed over to the people, you can see that we don't think any government in Manipur would dare to sell even half an inch of that land would not last a day. That was the significant of Kangla Fort. In the history it is always felt that who control Kangla Fort controls Manipur.
Meitei are of Tibeto Burman or Mongoloid groups. Meiteis is considered in this topic because they are one of the other hill tribes. There is no difference. The difference came when the Meitei adopt Vaishnavism Hinduism. This is the time when the first bond between the hills tribes and the Meiteis breaks because Hinduism brought a little bit of Hindu distinction, caste distinction, exclusivity, untouchable came along as part of the new religion. While the time when the ruling class brought Hinduism, Meitei have no caste system. The tribal millennia from which Meitei evolves, there was equality among all. Thereafter all Hindus were equal with no extreme caste system among the Meiteis till date.
Even today in the event of Hiyang Tannaba festival( a kind of rowing competition) the Nagas of Mikal village are given priority in the royal procession because the king is brought up in that naga village. In the coronation ceremony, the costume of the king and queen come up with the costume of the Naga community. The principle residence of the Maharaja, the house architecture is totally tribal architecture.
Maharaja Bheigya Chandra or Chingtam Khomba. Its name Ching means Hills, Tam means Plains and Khomba means Unifier. A Unifier of the hills and valley was basically his name.
The linkage between the hills and the valley got spoils over the years.
What is the current scenario we have 34 plus or minus insurance groups depending on which day you speaks. You have suspension of operation with some Kuki groups, NSCN IM, some Meitei groups etc. ...
To know more watch the video below:
Video Source: Youtube.
Analyzing the prevailing situation, you know that Manipur is a critical and very vulnerable state with lots of disturbance and division in the recent history. New steps taken should be for the collective development and understanding among different communities. Work out the differences and to stay united to live together peacefully.
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