Threat to Koireng Identity

You are here: Home » manipur » Ethnic Races Manipur

E-Pao! EI - Threat to Koireng identity

Threat to Koireng identity
— Towards the fate of the Tripuris or Kacharis —

By: R Yangsorang *

Much has been said and written on the fate of the Tripuris who were once powerful ruling over a vast area in Brahmaputra Valley, and finally Tripura. Their glorious rule in Cachar continued for a very long time till their kingdom was interrupted by the Koches of Kamtapura in the early 16th century. When at Agartala, their rule underwent a sea change from the shock of defeat and frustration.

Equally, documents on the downfall of the Kacharis are widespread. Of all the Bodo tribes, the Kacharis as also the Koches were the most powerful, and their triumph and defeat, their civilization and culture, are really glorious. And of all the Bodo-Naga peoples, they are the only ones who established a vast kingdom and ruled it successfully at a very early date.

Before the arrival of Ahoms in Assam, the Kacharis built their kingdom which covered north-east and central Assam. The Kachari establishment in Western Assam is as old as the 12th century A.D., if not earlier. They had their capital at Dimapur in 1200 A.D. The Ahoms in fact changed the course of Kachari life, and events forced the latter to depart from the Brahmaputra and the Dhansiri Valleys, their two great possessions.

They left Dhansiri valley in 1536 A.D. to build a new capital at Maibong in N.C. HiIls about 70 miles south of Dimapur. At Maibong, their might and glory considerably diminished. In the year 1706, they left Maibong and fled further south to Khaspur on the Barak River in the plains of Cachar, and Khaspur continued to be their capital until 1824.

Their final years were clouded by the debacle caused by repeated Ahom incursion into their territory. Now, their population has dwindled to a little over 70,000 in the N.C. HiIls. Hence, the Koches and the Ahoms were responsible for the downfall of the Tripuris and the Kacharis respectively.

The fear that the Manipuris also will meet the same fate of the Tripuris or the Kacharis unless they are united in their fight against the colonizing power is a matter of concern. There has been an apprehension in the present Brahmaputra Valley that Bangladesh’s population of 127.1 million (estimate of 1999) can swallow the population of the entire north east region in seconds.

Enough is known about the Tasmanians who have completely disappeared from the surface of the earth. ‘And the food gathering tribe of Negrito origin called the Andamanese had only 19 souls remaining of which 8 were males and 11 were females according to census operations of India in 1961. These Andamanese are getting better care of the Government of India.

As a regular feature, the scaring story of exploitation has come up once again. The identity of the Koireng tribe has been threatened time and again. Unfortunately, the man who is holding the top post of the state of Manipur had described the Koireng tribe and its dialect as being a part of certain social organization more than once.

One Secretary of a valley based organization also had said the same thing in a function held sometime ago at Imphal. There is no rule of law in the state. Undermining the very existence of several ethnic tribal minority groups in the state, they are backing more advanced and stronger community.

Without studying the custom, culture, tradition and dialect of a community, one of high rank or outstanding entity is not supposed to speak out at random that one particular tribe, however backward it may be, belongs to the other more advanced group. The tribe has been so senselessly slandered so repeatedly and it is always dragged into the fold of social organization of a particular tribe.

As a matter of fact, a social organization can never be recognized as the scheduled tribe. The Constitution of India defines the scheduled tribes as such tribes or tribal communities as are deemed under Article 342 to be STs, and the President of India in exercise of the powers conferred by Clause (I) of Article 342 can declare any tribal community to be the ST on the recommendation of the State Government concerned.

The said secretary owes an explanation to the Koireng people whose sentiments have been greatly hurt by his statement. To heal the wounds, he must come out with a clarification. He is to understand that Mizo or Nagamese cannot be imposed on the Manipuris.

It will be absurd to claim that Hmar language belongs to Tangkhul Long (not Tangkhul). How much sentimental a language issue is, may be noted. Noted writer Dom Moraes who was born in a Goan Christian family lived in England for many years since he was a boy and adopted British citizenship in 1961. He had studiedly disowned his Indian heritage.

He spoke no Indian language, and he found he could not fit in India. So English was his outlook. When eventually he went to England, he fitted in at once. Recently, French President Jacques Chirac walked out of a European Union Summit at Brussels, Belgium when a Frenchman switched from French to English at the summit session.

President Chirac said he had been so shocked to hear a fellow Frenchman speak in English at the council table. In the same manner, there is no reason to believe that I should learn and speak the dialect or language of another tribe which has nothing to do with my affairs, and the same is the equal of mine. I mean I hate it, and no tribal dialect is inferior to the other.

There are now 33 recognized STs of Manipur including four more STs recognized in 2003. The newly recognized tribes are Poumai Naga, Kharam, Tarao and any Kuki tribes as per India Gazette Extraordinary Part-II Section-I (Part X-Manipur of the Second Schedule,) dt.7-1-2003.

Every right thinking people of the state is expected to express his or her happiness over the victory of the four brave communities with the idea that no indigenous people of the soil of Manipur should remain unspecified for an unknown period of time, although small in population. There are some more groups which are still to be specified in the years to come.

But the acceleration of the process for granting recognition to the remaining groups will depend upon the enthusiasm of the community concerned. Say, for instance, the determination, courage, conviction and spirit of Kharam people are noteworthy when they had been struggling ceaselessly for their tribe recognition for long 40 years.

To express solidarity, the recognition granted to Kharam tribe is remarkable. Poumai tribe is already more advanced in many respects and it is big in population too in the context of Manipur. Kharam and Tarao are marginal in population and backward like the Koireng tribe. Something more about the Kharam people can be cited. The chronicles of Moirang, and also of Manipur sufficiently mentioned the heroic deeds of the Kharams and the Koirengs in their fight against the Moirang king.

How the present Khwairamband had been named is all important or historic—Kharampal (pal=fort) to Khwairamband. In course of time, they abandoned the fort and moved westward to Ngairangbam where they lived for years. From there, they proceeded towards the Ngaprum hill range to settle at Kharam Pallen on Imphal-Jiri road.

For all these reasons, the above tribes of Manipur are ancient enough and precious souls of the land. Under any circumstances, they can’t be clubbed with any community which is bigger or stronger.

They have their own customs, cultures, traditions and distinct dialects which demand improvement under the patronage of the state Government of Manipur. They have their own history too, though in unwritten forms for the moment as the history of Manipur was written only yesterday.

The unity in diversity is the speciality of Indian culture and progress. This is also the case with the tribals of Manipur. These tribals live in widely separated areas and villages, but still they show some striking similarities in their socio-cultural contents. But by this, it doesn’t mean to suggest that they are of a common stock.

They are members of different stocks and they might have entered Manipur in different waves of migration as the plain people might have done so. They represent different levels of cultural attainments and profess different faiths. Thus, the tribals of Manipur differ from one another in all their socio-cultural make-up.

The tribals in Manipur speak different languages and dialects which not only differ from those of non-tribals but also from one another greatly. As for example, though the Kharams, the Koirengs and the Aimols can converge speaking their respective dialects, each one of them has its own dialect. They are quite conversant in speaking Manipuri too.

In fact, these communities have not lost their own dialects but are found of practicing multi-lingualism. However, there are some communities who have completely lost their original dialects, customs and cultures, and picked up the dialects of their immediate neighbours, to express their ideas and actions both among themselves and among their neighbours.

Custom less and cultureless people have no place in the society. Such communities are now trying to absorb the identities and dialects of the weaker section of the society so that their intention of crushing smaller communities will be fulfilled. If someone’s dialect or language is buried forever, the identity of a tribe will be lost is saddening.

To build a strong and united Manipur, the identity and dialect of every community should be honoured by promoting them to a comparative level, and at the same time, the designs and activities of various social organizations forcing smaller tribes to merge with them should be kept under strict surveillance.

Manipur is burning is certain, and no room should be provided for the expansionists and chauvinists. There are dozens of senseless people with vested interests who are claiming to be the intelligentsia of the society, and they are at work to create chaos among the ethnic tribal minorities in the state.

Both the Chief Minister of Manipur and the Secretary are surely guilty of terming the Koireng tribe and its dialect as a part of another community without their being aware of the fact that the Koireng community is an old enough recognized ST of Manipur. Here, I have a message for them to reaffirm it.

In a democratic way of life, things are based upon equality. But it doesn’t insist upon everyone being equal in ability, merits and integrity. And that is precisely the point. What democracy upholds is that no one be treated the worse because he is less endowed with capacity than others or for that matter, with wealth and fortune or any advantage whatever.

On the contrary, the less fortunate person should be given fuller consideration. At the very least, he must be treated as the equal of all others in his civil or human rights.

In addition to this, his individuality must be respected and he must be given the chance to overcome his handicaps and develop his innate capacity. That kind of correct democracy will give the man greater self-confidence to sharpen his faculty for self scrutiny and widen his vision. Before that, he must not be pushed aside as worthless in the society.

In short, democracy means rule of reason and reign of patience, belief in equality and sticking to right means: not destruction and suppression. Only a society of matured minded men and women can have a bright future. Well then, let reason prevails.

R Yangsorang wrote this article for The Sangai Express
This article was webcasted on April 07th, 2006

* Comments posted by users in this discussion thread and other parts of this site are opinions of the individuals posting them (whose user ID is displayed alongside) and not the views of e-pao.net. We strongly recommend that users exercise responsibility, sensitivity and caution over language while writing your opinions which will be seen and read by other users. Please read a complete Guideline on using comments on this website.