Ghost of the past, the Self and a Bigger other

Kh Ibomcha *

To think of a solution to the ever increasing hatred for Meiteis in the mind of hill people as seen in recent protests against the passing of three Bills that were meant for the protection of indigenous people of Kangleipak against the unchecked entry of migrants from mainland India, with an assumption of Meitei as exploiting class in the minds of highlanders, will not be a telling hit-back at hill dweller's ideological base of hate, unless both the Meitei and hill people give love a chance to return to our land by rethinking and revisiting our history to correct historical mistakes on which this hatred had been conceived.

While tracing the genesis of inter-ethnic antagonisms which often places Kangleipak between Scylla and Charybdis and in the endeavor to search for a solution attempting to bring an end to the animosities, there is need to relook and reanalyze the gamut of historical events: Meitei's adoption of Hindu Laining in the early part of 18th century, hill settler's adoption of Christianity in the late 1890s, British paramouncy and its impacts on Kanglei political administration, the controversial Merger Agreement of 1949, and the post-merger political history of Kangleipak.

The necessity of resorting to looking back in history is to enable ourselves to have a holistic view of all the episodes unfolded in the post annexation political landscape of Manipur and to enable us to understand the dialectical relationship between the present and the past so as enable all in charting out a collective future as desired by all ethnic groups.

If there is a perennial flow of criticism about the water of a river, it is more than indicative that there is something wrong in the mountain river source. So while making efforts to cleanse the Augean stables of hill people's angst where they dub Meitei as group of people riding roughshod over their feelings through history, there is a need of revisiting the history of Kangleipak.

Let us begin with the introduction of Hindu religion in Manipur which almost all the nativist historians in Kangleipak have taken as the principal cause of chingmee tammi dichotomy. It was between the years 1720 to 1734 that Hinduism was introduced in Manipur killing traditional Kanglei ways of life based on its own political economy.

The introduction of Hindu religion to Kangleipak had pushed a certain institutions replacing old institutions on which Meitei social norms thrived and converted Meiteis into a group of people literally receiving values anchored in Vedic value system on which Indian society latched.

Consequent to the imposition of a value system not only different from the one on which Meitei civilization hinged on but also alien and unfitting to Meitei way of life, myriads of institutions based on Hindu ways of life were made to play roles expected to produce values and norms defined by Aryan epics like Mahabaratta and Ramyana.

The Meitei king of the time in conspiracy with Hindu Brahmins coming from the west (India) exercised his power spewing out injustice on his own people to such an extent that those who denied the new religion were awarded death penalty by either throwing them into the river putting into a Ngabong Khao or cutting their tongues.

With the power based on what can be best described as Brahmin-Mornach alliance and conspiracy, the new form of knowledge or rather the Mayang lichat though alien to Kanglei way of life have migrated into the consciousness of Kangleicha metamorphosing them into a new species looking down on hill people, their own ethnic brothers, who were not reached by the new belief as a group of people inferior to them.

No doubt, Hindu Laining is a Laining based on casteism where low caste people like 'Sudra' and those remaining outside the caste structure such as Adivasis and Dalits are exploited by high caste people of Brahmins and Kshatriyaa, purely based on family line— rather in whose family or in what clan one was born.

In the course of time, valley people became used to the newly imported values and norms attached to Indian way of life and began to locate themselves on the top of an imagined caste structure similar to that of Hindu caste structure based on exploitation and inequality, while they located hill people at the lower layer of the same structure upturning the traditional horizontal composition within which once both the Hill people and the valley people were living symbiotically depending on each other.

At a certain point of time, the split between hill people and valley people crafted by the traded-in religion reaches its zenith where hill people had been categorized as a group of people untouchable with Meiteis portraying them as "unclean and impure." They have often been tagged with derogatory label "Hao" hitting them where it hurts most.

Thus sowing the seeds of hatred for Meiteis on the minds of hill people, the particular phase of Kanglei history marked the beginning of hill-valley dichotomy as witnessed today wiping out the romantic myth of hill-valley Machin-Manoa from their minds.

It is during this period that the idea of 'self' took root and started growing in the mind of hill people not only culturally but also psychologically ghettoizing themselves from valley people rejecting the idea of "Chingmee Tamme Anigi Kangleipak".

In the meantime, the practice of Hinduism reached great heights in valley areas promulgating it as state religion excluding hill people from the idea of denizen of Kangleipak or rather the body politic of Kangleipak, Christianity climbed hills of Manipur and took roots there among its peoples in the later part of nineteenth century introducing them a new way of life latched on Christian oriented culture.

Deepening the split, the British administration which took place in Manipur when it became a British protectorate in 1891 not only widened the already ruptured hill-valley relationship along religious line but also politically wired by dividing the state into two mutually exclusive political spaces—one for 'Chingmees' and the other for 'Tammees'.

Under them, the day today administration of the entire hill areas of Manipur was entrusted to people whose sole aim lies in mass conversion of hill people into Christianity, while the administration of Meitei king was limited within valley areas making valley people unable to reach hills thereby furthering the hill-valley dichotomy.

What has been said above is one of the many reasons why Kannglei Leingak could not reach the hills, not necessarily by choice. And this very tradition of not governing hills keep on continuing till today passing through different phases of Kanglei history deteriorating hill valley relation day by day.

But when Manipur attained her political freedom on 15 august, 1947 with the lapse of British, the new independent Leingak of Manipur tried its hand at climbing at hills aiming at fulfilling that historical chance of establishing a nation based on the idea of equality and justice with a popular democratic government where both the hill people and valley settlers would equally participate in the governance of the would-be self-ruling nation. But the dream was shattered as Manipur was merged with Indian union signing the controversial agreement called 'Manipur Merger Agreement' on the 21st September of 1949.

Having a closer looks at the contents of Manipur state constitution act 1948 under which the elections to the Manipur Legislative assembly were held from 11 June 1948 to 27 July 1948 , one can evidently see how the nation tried to compensate for the wrongs it committed against the hill people in the past and to resuscitate the long died idea of coexistence and equal share of power providing local authorities in the hills to exercise the power of local self-government as enshrined in chapter VII, (38) of Manipur State Constitution Act, 1947.

But the dream of Kanglei people for establishing a new sovereign Kangleipak based on the idea of equality was nipped when it merged with the dominion of India.

With that failed attempt to exorcise the ghost of the past, the hill-valley divide suffered from yet another hate theory crafted by highlanders that became a political discourses at hills immediately after the merger spewing out hates asserting that valley settlers never sought the advice and consent of tribal people before concluding the agreement. But a closer observation on public debates on the merger of Manipur with India, organized in the last few decades, can throw some light on the question -"whether valley people sought tribal people's consent or not" -revealing the fact that the then king of Manipur was not taking the consent of hill people nor did he ask what valley people desired when he signed the agreement. Nor did the council of ministers for that matter.

If you observe further, you would come across thoughts shared by some radicals claiming that the agreement was void and null as it was never ratified.

Thus as have been observed, the hate game between hills and valley has been flowing through history as a never ending process becoming big and bigger each day leading us all to a point where we have been thrown on the verge of an imminent inter-ethnic blood sheds watering down all the ideas of reloading Kangleipak as a beautiful place where hills and valley could co-exist giving the kiss of life to the ruptured mythical bonds of hill-valley brotherhood.

This idea of living together has been dimming out more and more as Manipur landed in the political turmoil borne out of Indo-Naga armed conflicts, Indo-Manipur armed conflicts and other ethnic group of people's political demands dreaming of their own separate home-lands. Telling the truth, the post-merger Kanglei political landscape is essentially characterized by ethnic nationalism where almost all ethnic groups of Kangleipak are engaging in the flight of demanding separate political space defining 'the self'.

But such projects of defining "the self" often seem to be trapped in the whirlpool of futility and ineptness when they came across 'a bigger other' (India) who is also continuing its project of nation making or rather the project of Indianization. Believing in sugarcoated and skillfully crafted words of political class, more often than not, ethnic groups in north eastern states of India seem to have landed in the vortex of confusion that often leads to ethnic-clash like situations. Serving the interest of the "bigger other", the statement seems to be aiming at destroying not only the relations between ethnic groups co-existing in the region but also their social fabrics to make it easier for the larger group to completely enculturate the latter into their social fabric.

Also, blinded by the hatred which the hill people have for the valley people, most often it seems that not only the hill people but also valley people cannot see the fact that there is a larger power above all of them being on the go in its job of transforming peoples at fringe area of mainland India into a group of people not different from typical Indian mainlanders—rather "the bigger other".

Once and for all, I would like to recall a fact to my valley dwellers that, efforts made to remove the hatred for Meitei people deeply planted into the minds of Hill people would never be fruitful, if those efforts confine only in rereading the past and parroting them like a good nursery rhymes teacher rhyming "Meitei Ningthou pamheiba was a son of Chingmee ningol Nungthil chaibi or "Pamheiba was brought up in a chingmee family, so chingmee tamee can never be separated" without realizing how the historical mistakes committed in the past blunder them into the danger of the end of all communities' existence in the state.

Glorification of the past or living in the glory of the past becomes meaningless at times when glorification itself becomes a sore point with our brothers or rather our neighbors. when we resort to "Meitei is the best" kind of attitude riding roughshod over the feelings of other ethnic groups while dealing with difficult situations like ethnic tensions, then what we have taken as means often proves to be an another slipup ripping up old sore.

What we really need at the moment is not digging the ghosts of the past out of the grave but exorcising them out of our hearts so as to make ourselves ready for a new expedition which could lead us all where we all want to go—be it Kuki Land, Nagalim or Zougam. However locking horns with each other or living hammer and tongs would bring us nothing rather than speeding up the process of plunging our uniqueness into the fold of a 'bigger other' shedding aside all our behavioral traits defining who we are as a group.

I also want to remember to all the ethnic groups of Northeast in general and Kuki Naga and Meitei of Manipur in particular that the hate game which we are playing now is not a kind of zero sum game between hills and valley as imagined by us; it is rather a no-win game where all will go down in defeat at the end of the day.

A closer observation of the game will reveal you the presence a third player who is not only aiming at defeating both the hills and valley but also playing the role of adjudging who would be the winner of the match— but, who is the third player? Of course, the answer is the "bigger other". Here, it would be worth mentioning what Oken Jeet Sandam wrote in his article "Is India's democratic system suitable to The Northeast people?" published on 21-Sep-2015.

In the article he said, "The greatest fear of Delhi is the "UNITY" of the Northeast India as they presume that such "UNITY" will become a major threat to the "UNITY OF INDIA. But is it logical to keep Northeast people divided for the sake of country's Unity?" Immediately after the quote, Sandam says: "The people of the Northeast steadily and gradually start realizing that Indian democratic system is not working for the growth and benefit of them except creating more haves and have-nots, besides systematically destroying the social fabric of them."

If one ponders on the above powerful lines of Sandam against the backdrop of ever worsening socio political chaos Manipur witnessed in the last few decades, one cannot help but suspect if India is intentionally trying to destroy the social fabric of Manipur dividing her on ethnic and tribal lines and aiming to assimilate them into a larger canvas of Indian socio cultural fold based on Vedic values.

With respects the above paraphrase, I think this is worth mentioning the recent Union home ministry notification for the regularization of the entry and stay of migrants for neighboring countries into the country, particularly in the north east. If this notification that drew critical flaks from different circles expressing fears of immigrants is anything to go by, Sandam's warning seems to have been proved prophetic.

With the evident existence of threat from a bigger other's nation making process there is an urgent need to resolve the differences between ethnic groups of the region and come up with a larger plan serving the interests of all ethnic groups. Now is the time to exorcise the ghost of the past so as to equip ourselves with capability of continuing our existence as distinct groups of people.

Realization of the fact that after we have been assimilated into the larger social fold of the BIGGER OTHER what Kuki or Naga will turn is not into Meitei but into Mayang—a group who is completely different from us not only in terms of culture but also in terms of racial attributes, may give us all the chance of realizing our long cherished dreams of greater Nagaland or Kukiland or Meitei sovereign state. Once and for all, my appeal to all the conflicting ethnic groups of Manipur or the north east is "please know the reality and be out of the maze." Let's know who our real enemies are despite being at each other's throat; or else, our extinction is inevitable.