Land:
Meitei Leipak (Meeteiland), Kangleipak, Kathe, Ponnas, Hsiao Po-lo-mein, Cassay, Moglai, Mekle etc. of about 22 names were its names in different ages. 74 Monarchs ruled the land from 33 AD till 1949. Location is latitude 23.83° and 25.68° (North) and in longitude 93. 03° and 94.78° (East), with an area of 22,327 sq. km. The capital Imphal lies at 24.82° north latitude and 93.95° east longitude and it must follow + 6.30 hours of GMT, but now follows + 5.30 GMT. What a surprise!
The land has been under the siege of India since 15 October 1949, for about 59 years now. A puppet government of India called Manipur Government is administering it without being truthful. It was under British protection from 1891 until 15th August 1947, for about 56 years. Manipur was independent with mixed feelings for about 2 years from 1947 till 1949 and conducted a General Election of its Parliament under a very old political system. All went to India which apparently created a political turmoil since then. There shall be no peace in Manipur without an Independent Government of its own. The people have a good experience of it. Development process and economic planning are all colonial totally. Not a single major industry, much less an important establishment has been established in Manipur. Whereas several hundreds of crores of rupees have been spent apparently on paper maintained for the record in order to refuel and recycle their colonial apparatus, quite a few families in Manipur are also used as colonial subsidiaries, the economic condition of the average people of Manipur especially those in the hill areas has not improved even upto the level of subsistence. People survive on grassroots in the Manipur hill areas because of colonial economic process. The Manipuri hill-men and plainsmen are divided by the Presidential approval to a divisive law– Manipur Land Revenue and Land Regulation Act, which debar plainsmen to seek access to Manipur hills. The apartheid has been created. All natural resources of Manipur can be exploited by the Indian Government only. Manipur has to develop on subsistence economy.
People:
Population is about 22, 93, 896 comprising of Meetei 60% and tribes and Muslims with others the rest 40%. Socially the Indians are Mayangs, meaning foreigners. Meeteis are Mangang, Luwang, Khuman, Moirang, Leishangthem, Angom and Khaba Nganba along with some foreign origin population of Pangal (Manipuri Muslims) and Bamon (Brahmins). Tribes are Tangkhul, Maring, Mao, Maram, Thadou, Kuki, Mizo, Moyon, Anal, Kom, Koireng, Zemei, Lengmei, Longmei, Purum, Paomai, Hmar, Zou, Paite etc. There are Nepalis who migrated illegally from outside. About 35 ethnic groups construct the society.
National Liberation Movement started since 1949. Manipur Nationalist Party demanded the revocation of Manipur Merger Agreement. A Christian leader and former Chief Minister, Yangmaso Saiza also took part. The masses voiced their protests, partly democratic and partly militant in the later 1960s. The movement turned out pro-active. Meetei State Committee, Revolutionary Government of Manipur (RGM) based in Bangladesh during the Pakistan time, Revolutionary People’s Front (RPF), UNLF, KYKL, PREPAK, KCP and KUKI outfits are prominent. RPF is the political wing of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) of Manipur. PLA started armed struggle in 1978. Full scale armed resistance was very active across the valley of Manipur with the ‘DAWN’ [a monthly publication] distributed to all embassies located in Delhi. A combined militancy called Manipur People’s Liberation Army [MPLA] of RPF, UNLF, KYKL and PREPAK opposed the Indian military occupation in Manipur by occupying a certain territory along the Myanmar border. They claimed the de facto sovereignty of Manipur running a parallel like underground government under separate flags and titles of authority. Several hundred of freedom fighters were martyred for a common cause though India declared them unlawful. While suppressing them, India violated human rights as routine work. Draconian Laws like Armed Forces Special Powers Act [AFSPA], Punjab Security Act, Terrorists and Disruptive Activities Prevention Act, and National Security Act took repressive roles for India’s security. Extra judicial killings, third degree tortures, molestations, rape, genocide, assault and mass killings were carried out in society. Innumerable Indian troops are now operating in Manipur. India is using alcohol, drugs, money, sex and many other inhuman methods as counter insurgency action plan to weaken and demoralize the youths of Manipur. Such counter insurgency operations spread HIV and AIDS instead.
Socio-economic and Political Colonization deprived the inalienable political freedom of the people of Manipur resulting to the looting of the unlimited natural resources, the vast national wealth of Manipuri nation. Those unlimited resources were for the people’s self-determination and self sufficiency. India never appointed any Meetei of Manipur to any important position. India enslaved Manipuri economically so that State Terrorism could run systemically introducing and enforcing colonial laws and rules. Under AFSPA, a non commissioned officer can kill anybody on suspicion or out of hatred without any judicial process or legal sanction. It resulted to the extra-judicial torture and execution of the innocent. It affected the economy to the bottom line. Common people are now below the poverty line. Jobless and unemployed are at the top of daily agenda. Blockade and bund clash with the government. Farmers are not active in the fields. Irrigation and road development failed. Institutions are sinking. Youths fled homes. India again created quotas of ‘Scheduled Castes’ and ‘Scheduled Tribes’ thereby killing the work culture totally. On the other hand there is a captive market of the Mayangs who are all Hindu leaders.
National Liberation Movement started since 1949. Manipur Nationalist Party demanded the revocation of Manipur Merger Agreement. A Christian leader and former Chief Minister, Yangmaso Saiza also took part. The masses voiced their protests, partly democratic and partly militant in the later 1960s. The movement turned out pro-active. Meetei State Committee, Revolutionary Government of Manipur (RGM) based in Bangladesh during the Pakistan time, Revolutionary People’s Front (RPF), UNLF, KYKL, PREPAK, KCP and KUKI outfits are prominent. RPF is the political wing of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) of Manipur. PLA started armed struggle in 1978. Full scale armed resistance was very active across the valley of Manipur with the ‘DAWN’ [a monthly publication] distributed to all embassies located in Delhi. A combined militancy called Manipur People’s Liberation Army [MPLA] of RPF, UNLF, KYKL and PREPAK opposed the Indian military occupation in Manipur by occupying a certain territory along the Myanmar border. They claimed the de facto sovereignty of Manipur running a parallel like underground government under separate flags and titles of authority. Several hundred of freedom fighters were martyred for a common cause though India declared them unlawful. While suppressing them, India violated human rights as routine work. Draconian Laws like Armed Forces Special Powers Act [AFSPA], Punjab Security Act, Terrorists and Disruptive Activities Prevention Act, and National Security Act took repressive roles for India’s security. Extra judicial killings, third degree tortures, molestations, rape, genocide, assault and mass killings were carried out in society. Innumerable Indian troops are now operating in Manipur. India is using alcohol, drugs, money, sex and many other inhuman methods as counter insurgency action plan to weaken and demoralize the youths of Manipur. Such counter insurgency operations spread HIV and AIDS instead.
Socio-economic and Political Colonization deprived the inalienable political freedom of the people of Manipur resulting to the looting of the unlimited natural resources, the vast national wealth of Manipuri nation. Those unlimited resources were for the people’s self-determination and self sufficiency. India never appointed any Meetei of Manipur to any important position. India enslaved Manipuri economically so that State Terrorism could run systemically introducing and enforcing colonial laws and rules. Under AFSPA, a non commissioned officer can kill anybody on suspicion or out of hatred without any judicial process or legal sanction. It resulted to the extra-judicial torture and execution of the innocent. It affected the economy to the bottom line. Common people are now below the poverty line. Jobless and unemployed are at the top of daily agenda. Blockade and bund clash with the government. Farmers are not active in the fields. Irrigation and road development failed. Institutions are sinking. Youths fled homes. India again created quotas of ‘Scheduled Castes’ and ‘Scheduled Tribes’ thereby killing the work culture totally. On the other hand there is a captive market of the Mayangs who are all Hindu leaders.
Language:
Meiteilon or Meeteilon means Meetei language is also called ‘Manipuri’ and sometimes, the 19th century British term, Meithei, which is the name of the people, is the predominant language and lingua franca in the southeastern Himalayan kingdom of Manipur, in northeastern India. It is the official language in government offices. It is also spoken in Assam and Tripura, Bangladesh and Myanmar. It is the official language of Manipur along with English. The language has a long history of Literature and is offered as a subject upto Post-graduate level (Ph.D.) in Universities and colleges of India, apart from being a medium of instruction up to the undergraduate level in Manipur. All the tribes and people inhabiting Manipur use the language for communication to each other. English Language is also slowly gaining ground. India included it in the list of Major Indian Languages by the 71st amendment of Indian Constitution in 1992. Meetei Mayek is now officially recognised as Manipuri script. It was used in ancient times, not in vogue for a certain period, now gained popularity. There are 29 different dialects spoken in Manipur. The Government of Manipur recognised six main dialects only for medium of instruction and examination purposes up to class V. They are, Tangkhul (language of Tangkhul people), Hmar (language of Hmar people), Paite (language of Paite people), Lushai (language of Lushai people), Thadou/Kuki (language of Kuki people), Mao (language of Mao People). Meitei-lon has proven to be a large integrating factor among all ethnic groups in Manipur. India Government imposed Hindi as the Indian national language, which exists officially. However the language has not gained ground in social activities due to threats from the armed insurgents. The language should not be confused with another Indo-Aryan origin language, known as ‘Bishnupriya’, which is neither Manipuri nor Meiteilon at all. A different community called Bishnupriya inhibited in remote areas of Jiribam district of Manipur and outside Manipur used it as a spoken dialect. The Pangals are all Muslims speaking Meeteilon as their mother tongue since they descended from their first ancestor of Meetei women. They called Manipur motherland not fatherland. Meeteis and tribes are identical anthropologically but not the other ones. Mayangs speak Hindi, otherwise Meeteilon in public. Scholars opined that Meiteilon is a tonal language similar to many languages around the world except Europe, Middle East, South Asia and the Pacific. Chinese is perhaps the most well-known of such languages. In Europe, Norwegian, Swedish, Lithuanian, Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian, some dialects of Slovene possess elements of tonality, but this is in most cases better understood as a pitch accent. A Franconian language in Limburgish of France plays tones an important role. Other Indo-European tonal languages, spoken in the Indian subcontinent, are Punjabi, Lahanda and Western Pahari. Chinese, Vietnamese, Thai, Lao, and Burmese are of the same group of tone. Mongolian, Khmer, Malay, standard Japanese and Korean are not. Tibet is tonal, while the dialects of the West are not. In the Japanese of Tokyo, tonal patterns are adapted to multi-syllable words. Mandarin has four tones, similar to Thai's without the middle tone. Cantonese has at least 8 tonal contours: high even, high falling (which is becoming obsolete, and changing to high even), high rising, middle even, middle rising, low even, low falling and low rising.
Meiteilon or Meeteilon means Meetei language is also called ‘Manipuri’ and sometimes, the 19th century British term, Meithei, which is the name of the people, is the predominant language and lingua franca in the southeastern Himalayan kingdom of Manipur, in northeastern India. It is the official language in government offices. It is also spoken in Assam and Tripura, Bangladesh and Myanmar. It is the official language of Manipur along with English. The language has a long history of Literature and is offered as a subject upto Post-graduate level (Ph.D.) in Universities and colleges of India, apart from being a medium of instruction up to the undergraduate level in Manipur. All the tribes and people inhabiting Manipur use the language for communication to each other. English Language is also slowly gaining ground. India included it in the list of Major Indian Languages by the 71st amendment of Indian Constitution in 1992. Meetei Mayek is now officially recognised as Manipuri script. It was used in ancient times, not in vogue for a certain period, now gained popularity. There are 29 different dialects spoken in Manipur. The Government of Manipur recognised six main dialects only for medium of instruction and examination purposes up to class V. They are, Tangkhul (language of Tangkhul people), Hmar (language of Hmar people), Paite (language of Paite people), Lushai (language of Lushai people), Thadou/Kuki (language of Kuki people), Mao (language of Mao People). Meitei-lon has proven to be a large integrating factor among all ethnic groups in Manipur. India Government imposed Hindi as the Indian national language, which exists officially. However the language has not gained ground in social activities due to threats from the armed insurgents. The language should not be confused with another Indo-Aryan origin language, known as ‘Bishnupriya’, which is neither Manipuri nor Meiteilon at all. A different community called Bishnupriya inhibited in remote areas of Jiribam district of Manipur and outside Manipur used it as a spoken dialect. The Pangals are all Muslims speaking Meeteilon as their mother tongue since they descended from their first ancestor of Meetei women. They called Manipur motherland not fatherland. Meeteis and tribes are identical anthropologically but not the other ones. Mayangs speak Hindi, otherwise Meeteilon in public. Scholars opined that Meiteilon is a tonal language similar to many languages around the world except Europe, Middle East, South Asia and the Pacific. Chinese is perhaps the most well-known of such languages. In Europe, Norwegian, Swedish, Lithuanian, Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian, some dialects of Slovene possess elements of tonality, but this is in most cases better understood as a pitch accent. A Franconian language in Limburgish of France plays tones an important role. Other Indo-European tonal languages, spoken in the Indian subcontinent, are Punjabi, Lahanda and Western Pahari. Chinese, Vietnamese, Thai, Lao, and Burmese are of the same group of tone. Mongolian, Khmer, Malay, standard Japanese and Korean are not. Tibet is tonal, while the dialects of the West are not. In the Japanese of Tokyo, tonal patterns are adapted to multi-syllable words. Mandarin has four tones, similar to Thai's without the middle tone. Cantonese has at least 8 tonal contours: high even, high falling (which is becoming obsolete, and changing to high even), high rising, middle even, middle rising, low even, low falling and low rising.
Conclusion:
Peace would be a far cry in Manipur for many years to come. Socio-cultural colonization is the main cause. Proxy elections are conducted by spending crores of Indian rupees in order to perpetuate colonization through quislings, puppet regimes and fifth columnists thereby misleading the illiterate electorate. India in no way will be able to justify its election since the people of Manipur cannot exercise their ‘independent political will.’ Several thousand of mercenaries, subversives and spies are secretly or openly working in Manipur to maintain law and order, in the process human rights are violated grossly with fake encounters everyday.
Prayer:
Prayer:
Lord! Thank you very much for allowing me to pray for the people of Manipur especially for those who have been the victims of armed conflict and human rights violations in Manipur.
Dr. R Renatus Sanabam
Independent Researcher
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