I don't know Mayek. And I suspect I never will. To be perfectly honest, it appears to be a baffling array of complex ideograms and hieroglyphics which makes about as much sense to me as the Harappan script. I cannot picture myself writing or reading in Mayek. Or Sanskrit or Aramaic or Norse or Greek or any of the 6000 odd languages that I have neither the patience nor the aptitude to understand fully.

If you have ever heard or seen any of the above, you would have probably found them very difficult to understand. But this is Manipur, and in this part of the world, even simple things are difficult to understand. Of course, if you don't understand Manipuri or Meiteilon or whatever script it is written in, everything becomes hard to understand, but even if you do know the language, Mayek is particularly difficult.

Especially when the present is misrepresented and the solution is presented by re presenting the past. And since there is no time like the present, we are compelled by the present to go back to the past to seek a new present.

The Manipuri alphabet, or Meitei Mayek, is essentially a syllabic alphabet in which each letter is named after a part of the human body. Some believe the alphabet has been used for almost 4,000 years. Many historical documents were destroyed by king Pamheiba at the beginning of the 18th century, which makes it extremely difficult to ascertain a definite date and time line to the script.

Pamheiba embraced Vaishnavism, gave the order to destroy all pre-Hindu literature, named himself Garibnawaz and made Vaishnavism the state religion. From approximately 1709 onwards, the Manipuri language was written with the Bengali alphabet for the simple reason that the official effort of the Royal Palace to impose a concoction of Bengali, Devnagri and Gurumukhi script on the people was unacceptable. There were a few voices of dissent, but everything about Mayek soon became a distant memory.

Almost a full century later, during the 1940s, Manipuri scholars woke up from their amnesia and began actively campaigning to bring back the old Manipuri alphabet. Credit for the revival of Mayek must go to Lainingan Naoria Phullo.

Although based in a village called Jaribon, Laishramkhul in Cachar in Assam, and although developing a self-styled script which contained elements of Bengali and Devnagri, he challenged the Bengali script imposed and propagated by the Palace in Manipur. Soon, other scholars and purists followed suit and the voice of revivalism spread far and wide.

In 1976 at a writers conference, eminent scholars finally agreed on a new version of the alphabet containing a number of additional letters to represent sounds not present in the language when the script was first developed. In 1978, the Manipur assembly passed a resolution to adopt Meitei Mayek as the official state language. A committee consisting of the best experts in the field was set up to study it further.

The Mayek script was to be introduced "without further delay". But that was 27 years ago. And Mayek has not made much headway. That would score a minus point in anyone's book. The Mayek activists are understandably restless and impatient. But it still does not justify the burning and destruction of other books.

The prevailing dichotomy between the Mayek and Bengali scripts has created a hiatus of sorts between society and polity. The former is conceived by definition as traditional and 'original', while the latter has been demonized as alien and 'borrowed'. In theory, both scripts should have developed and found utility alongside each other. In practice, Mayek was too easily forgotten and replaced.

In reality, the entire alphabet had to be re-discovered and re-learnt to bring back its legitimacy. The script, and its past and present misfortune, reflects the very instability and double-minded approach that have loosened the foundations of our culture and heritage, and has only laid bare our complete lack of a minimum common denominator.

The gulfs between the Bengali and the Mayek script are well-entrenched and will not go away soon. Newspapers like Poknapham and Huyen Lampao have expanded enormously in recent years, and capitalized on an expanding reading public in the Bengali script. We cannot expect them to endanger their investment and employees by an overnight switch to Mayek, which only about 10% of all people in Manipur may be able to understand fully.

The institutional and technical base for the mass awareness and spread of Mayek just isn't there yet. It will be at least 10 years before the gulf is bridged. The work must indeed go on, but in a planned, phased, and systematic manner taking into account the ground realities and the sentiments of the common man.

Working for the language shouldn't lead to fanaticism, but provide an impetus to learn and respect other languages. Language can be a major barrier to literacy. When a person is expected to learn to read and write in a language he does not understand, becoming literate can be a confusing and frustrating process.

Those who impose a language on others are guilty of cultural imposition. They are also guilty of unwittingly repeating the same ambiguity which led to the disappearance of Mayek in the first place.