Imphal Times Supplementary issue 2 Editorial : The Boiling Bowl of Ethnicity Monday August 20, 2018 By- Dr. Aaron Lungleng Mongoloid race. Historians and states except . conquest/conquered status) is scholars such as Roy, Thumra, “This dispersal across international impermanent, but, distort historical (... Contd. from yesterday) Horam, Hodson, N. Tombi Singh, borders is a culmination of punitive rights over inheritance and The impact of But, along with the loss of Meitribak, and Parratt support this tradition. actions made by the British during uniqueness of one’s nation. Nagas do not lose their sovereign N. Tombi Singh, a Meitei scholar, their occupation of ” (T. However, it is apparent to refine Globalisation village state. Therefore, mentioned states, “Many... think that there is Haokip, 2013). At some point of time, and reshape as- ‘there is a time for may not be found in any historical a basic difference between the ‘Chin’ or ‘Kuki’ or ‘Lushai/Zos’ everything under heaven’. Globalisation, governed primarily by a market- treaty of Meitreibak or the Awa or valley people of Manipur (Meiteis) were compounded taking as Another, unfortunate claim over oriented philosophy, has a number of implications for the Ahom and the Takhen () and those who are in hill areas. In synonymous. It was due to social the land right considering Kukis modes of governance. In the realm of education, the that, Nagas pieces/fragments are fact, it is not so. The entire people and political isolation even non- are the indigenous dominant ethnic institutions of higher education face new pressures subjected to. Unlike dynastic of Manipur belong to the same Kukis are also at random group of Manipur and that the and demands for accountability, access, quality, princely kingdom, the Nagas village ethnic group and trace their origin amalgamate into the fold of Kuki Kukis were in supreme command introduction of new technologies and curriculum. A state differs. To conquer/invade the more or less to the Sino-Tibetan speciously by the outsiders. On the over all the hills and valley of number of countries have introduced reforms to meet Nagas one has to wage war to each group of human species.” (Singh, basis of linguistic affinity G. A. Manipur. Sominthang Doungel the challenges arising out of such a situation, though and every village state in the hills. 1972). Despite the various claim, Grierson placed the so-called Chin- (Secy Political Affairs Kuki Inpi the context and nature of reforms vary from one In Nagas traditional village republic “It is difficult for the Meiteis to Lushai-Kuki people in the Kuki- Manipur) claimed that Kukis are country to another. First is the concrete reference state, other village does not hold any claim any racial purity due to their Chin group of Tibeto-Burman the overlord to the hills East of domination. Each sovereign village long stories of migration and a family. He, however, correctly states Imphal valley extended up to the available for post secondary education gave rise to republic state enjoys separate series of invasion by the Aryans, that the people do not themselves Burma border contiguous to the privatisation of higher education. The protagonists autonomy and administration within Shans, and ” (Singh 1988, recognize these names (G A Thongdut State and part of Somra of privatisation see it as an alternative when the supply their jurisdiction. In this society, the 149). Beyond doubt, Meitei would Grierson, Linguistic Survey of Tract. The western and and demand do not match or when demands are concept of submission does not show an admixture of race as seen India. Vol. III Part III, Calcutta 1904,) northwestern part of Imphal Valley, diversified or when public education is seen as not subsist. The fall of the father shall through the many invasions by thereby a generic group such as the Lushei Hills of , the promoting quality. Second, the Governments are under be vengeance by their responsible awe or expulsion to Ahom and ‘Khulmi’ who claimed to have North-West and the Imphal Valley pressure to attract foreign capital; and this means kins or community as a whole. In Cachar. Such blended communities originated from a ‘Khul’ meaning a in the North-East, the areas were providing a ready supply of skilled labour. This such a circumstance, one may cannot be easily ascertained to ‘cave’ are said to be a total distinct occupied by the Manluns (Zou), translates into pressure to increase the average level overpower anyone for some certain one racial stock anthropologically. ethnic group from the Kukis. the South-East of Imphal valley of education in the labour force. The higher levels of events, but the vengeance search Yet, the majority of the population Similarly, the Hmars (scattered in extending upto the areas of Kabo education are important in a society wherein the party would lurk around until the would manifest a mongoloid racial different parts of North-East India Valley, The Doungel-Kuki chief, the heads of the games are brought physiology due to intermingled to and Burma, most of them live in North-East of Imphal Valley, economy is becoming more knowledge-based than home. Therefore, to venture endless the same racial carrier than the Churachandpur district and extending Chingai sub-division of product-based. Third, there is the closer relationship warfare is undesired to the smaller immigrant Bengali stock. concentrate in and around to the un- between the private sector including multinational neighboring kingdom be it Ahom, Yet, Mongoloid-Aryans blended Tipaimukh, Vangai ranges and administered area of Somra Tract corporations and the state agencies concerned with Awa or the Kangleichas and even to race existence is an admitted fact. Jiribam areas) strongly protested to (SOMINTHANG DOUNGEL). product development and innovation. the British. Therefore, “However, it is beyond doubt that be called a sub tribe of Kuki on the Secy. Political Affairs Kuki Inpi Further, globalisation should have a profound impact noninterference in the Nagas affairs they originally belonged to the grounds that– the Hmars never Manipur). According to him, we on the production and transmission of knowledge, has been the policy ever since their Mongoloid race. Another group of called themselves even from their could conclude that , some have argued that this has not occurred; they first contact. So, instead of , who are the forefathers and would never do so Manipur and part of Burma is the are casting doubts on the capacity of globalisation to provocation, they are left isolated. Brahmins believed to have come in future. They believed that they homeland of the Kukis. Such permeate knowledge production and transmission as Thus, semi or non-administrative from Bengal with the coming of were also originated from ‘Suilung’ rhetorical claim is a direct insult per local needs. In the context of Asia, this seems zone comes about during the rule of Hindu Vaishnavism during the somewhere in china similar to the either to the Meitei or the Nagas the British East India Company. seventeenth century. They are Paite who believed that they were and the Zomis who are the more relevant. Sometimes, we even find people Since the ancient time, Nagas have altogether a different people originated from “Chinnuai” aboriginal since time immemorial. advocating the replacement of textbooks with the been known to be generous and kind group, probably belonging to the (Chinwe) somewhere from Southern However, the turning down the motion pictures or instructional television. At another to the neighbors. Several times, Aryan race” (Rimai, 2017). part of China or . Different owner as non-existence on top of level, even when there were attempts to use modern neighboring kingdom men and The Kuki Zomi tribes hold the common belief that, the Nagas ancestral land is technology in higher education, it has remained limited royals pay a visit to the friendly Naga Sir James Johnstone (1896) said that they originally emerged out of termed as rather absurd, ridiculous to the use of computers. It appears that the villages; they were treated as an that the original home of the Kukis a cave or hole. This mythological and unfounded. The concocted educational practices at the classroom level have honored guest due to generations’ cannot be correctly ascertained, cave is known by various names story cannot become history. The changed only a little in most developing countries of contacts through trade even in the but there seem to be traces of them like Khuul, Khur, Khurpui, Khurtu- Kuki appearance in Manipur was Asia. time of . Their as far as south of the Malay bijur, , Chinlung, etc. by said to be during the 1850s who In terms of labour market reforms, the Governments sympathetic treatment cannot Peninsula. Once during Hudon was various tribes like Thadou (Shaw came into Naga ancestral lands in are under pressure to attract foreign capital and this therefore be taken as conquest in on expedition in the south they 1929:24-26), Lushai (Shakespear: Manipur after they were defeated any sense. Today the dynastic happen to come across a travelling 1912), Lakher (Parry 1976:4), Tedim/ by the Burmese. Nowhere in the requires a ready supply of skilled labour. Further the princely subjects called the band and when asked where was Paite-Chin (Kamkhenthang 1967:1- history Kukis are recorded neither shift from manufacturing to the services sector is an Kangleichas the central valley their home, this was what T.C 2) and Moyon-Monsang, etc. There aboriginal nor dominant ethnic important development in the nineties. Thus, the (Imphal valley), which is made up of Hudon (1911) quoted the words of is another Chin-Kuki-Mizo group group in Manipur either by the concerns about attaining quality and curricular only 700 square miles (Singh, 1980). Kuki chief, “ we are like birds of who claimed to be a ‘lost tribe’ of Britisher or the Chronicle of the relevance in higher education with reference to The origin of the Meiteis cannot be the air, we make our nests here Israel, a descendent of Bnei Kings except to mention as a international standards and demands have become precisely determined from the this year, and who knows where Menashe. Several hundreds have nomadic immigrant or refugee from prominent. This has placed increased emphasis on literature available. Horam observed we shall build next year”. It makes immigrated back to Israel during the Burma and Chittagong Hill track. mathematics and science in the curriculum, and that the origin of the Meiteis is one understand beyond doubt late 1990’s. Due to such different Further, the President of Manipur techno-scientific areas of knowledge. Thus the obscure (Horam 1990, 4). Scholars that the Kukis are migrant nomadic notion of ethnicity resulted to State Darbar issued by Captain discourse today is about the skills ‘relevant for differ sharply in their opinion on tribe migrating from places to Hmar-Kuki conflict in I960 and in Harvey Order No. 11 of 18.8.1931 whether the Meiteis are Aryans or places up till the beginning of the 1997-1998 there was an instance of declared that the Kukis were not employment, and enterprise’. In the context of Mongoloids. There are those who 20 th century. Whereas, the Nagas violent ethnic clash between the permitted the use of Fire Arms due globalisation, two major developments have taken claim that the Meiteis are and Meiteis at that time had Thadous and the Paites owing to to their savagery acts being place. One is the inclusion of members of the business descendants of Arjuna of already set up a proper village the policy of Kukiazation . Dr. H. committed against the Nagas and houses on the boards of the public universities in order Mahabharata and are therefore state on the other hand the Meitie Kamkhenthang therefore, contends for jeopardizing the peaceful to enhance the industry-institution linkages. This is Aryan in origin. But the journey of had established their own that Kuki or Chin terms are used atmospheres in the hilly Naga expected to ensure the relevance of the contents of Arjuna to Manipur by the sea cannot kingdom. only in reference to the outside territory. In the part 2 of the same the curriculum and new academic programmes vis-à- be Manipur/Kangleipak found in the The probability of the Kukis world, but not in use among and Order, the Kukis were granted Fire vis the needs of the industry. Mahabharata. migrating upward from the Burma within the group. The ethnos of Arms on loan merely for The advocates of globalisation today argue for Referring the folk tales, the mitei is cannot be amenable. But the belonging to the Chin-Kuki group protections against wild animals internationalisation of curriculum. For them, a truly the younger brother of the Nagas. genesis of the word ‘Kuki’ is did not have a common name only. The standing Order of the global university today is characterized by its Therefore, without the woven into confusion and anymore after it was disowned by President Manipur State Dabur, TA engagement with the process of globalisation, its representation of the Nagas, complexity. It is best guess that the the ethnoses who were once known Sharp in his Order No. 9 of 09.09 Leiharaoba/Haojongba cannot be term ‘Kuki’ must be given by the as Kuki. Excepting Thadou , most of 1933 declared that the Kukis shall international networks, and its internationalised observed. This tradition is still outsiders. the tribes now want to identify pay annual House tax to the Chief curriculum. The internationalisation of curriculum practiced till today. “There can be The precise description of Kuki by themselves by their individual tribal of the Naga Village a sum of Rs.6/ entails a complex interplay of history, politics, little doubt that some time or other G. A. Grierson reveals in his names and not as Kukis. [Dr. H. per annum. Again, the standing knowledge production, and its use as well as teaching the Naga tribes to the north made Linguistic Survey of India, Voll-III, Kamkhenthang, “Groping for Order of the President of Manipur and learning. All these, however, are influenced by one of their chiefs Rajah of Manipur, Part-III, Culcutta, 1904, P. 23 that, Identity”, pp. 1-16.]. State Dabar T.A Sharp in his Order international market conditions and professional and that his family, while, like the the Kukis, are migrants, shifting Discourse on Peaceful Co- No. 2 of 23.7.1941 declared that, the orientation. If this is so, the internationalised Manchus in China and other their village sites every 4 or 5 years existence Kukis shall obtain prior curriculum involves the development of new skills, conquerors, adopting the civilization and never take to permanent 1. Claim over land and dominance: permissions from Naga Village attitudes and knowledge among students and teachers of the country, retained some of their irrigation and terraced rice From the documented historical Chief for settlement within the alike. It requires creation of new learning practices, old customs. This is shown in the cultivation by means o f irrigation. views, land and dominance among Naga territory. spaces, ethos and cultures. curious practice of Ranee appearing Their cattle are invariably the Nagas and Meitei does not The refugee status is reaffirmed by in Naga costume; also in the palace ‘Methun’. On the other hand, overlap in Manipur but ethnically the relief fund that was sanctioned However, there is a danger in such a house built like a Naga’s, and Nagas had permanent village sites and distinctly marked since time to a bona fide refugee in 1970s, internationalisation of curriculum. For instance, it also wherever he goes, he is attended by and permanent irrigated and immemorial. Both Hill and valley during R. S uisa (first Naga Member means the homogenization of curriculum across all two or three Manipuris with Naga terraced rice fields and they keep coexist in friendliness without any of Parliament in the Lok Sabha of the nations and cultures. This obviously undermines arms and accoutrements” (Sir James ordinary Indian cattle. While Miri, imposition or subjugation to one Indian) who sympathize the pathetic the values of uniqueness and diversity in cultures. Johnstone, 1896). From time Mrinal (2003) states that there is another. Ever since the inception of condition of the Burmese Chin ethnic This may create conflicts at the local level, which can immemorial Nagas and Meitie does no historical information about Princely state or settlement of the Kukis refugees in Manipur. The threaten the social harmony as is evident in some of not, neither raid or conquering. It is the Kuki before the 19th century. Republic village states, it is Refugee Relief Fund was sanctioned the South Asian countries. In developing countries such suspected that a policy of inflicting Likewise, Johnstone, states that, observed that they were not by the Finance Ministry of Home as India, globalisation seems to be increasing the gap one another and subjugation was Kuki settlement in Manipur was invasive nor interfering but affairs GOI, Vide Memo P. 3/9/66 and between the rich and the poor, thereby aggravating not adopted between them which started from 1830 (Manipur and protective yet sympathetic to one payment was made to the Kuki the problems of social inequality, which is also inherent must be due to their bond of common Naga Hills, 1896, p. 25) which another. Therefore, Ibobi’s “the refugees through the State Govt. of descendant/brotherhood. Naturally, affirms that Kukis are the last land belongs to the state” is a Manipur Vide. Memo No. 01/R/RFL in the education system as well. by origin if the elder brother is a immigrants into the present rhetoric statement and a sacrilege and the amounts of which were Mongoloid than, younger brother northeast states of India. to universal human rights. Such distributed to the Kukis refugees as must belong to the same unless Earlier, this Tibeto-Burman notion is trepidation to peaceful follows – 1. First payment: 22 April, Letters, Feedback and Suggestions to ‘Imphal Times’ matrimonial intervene to become language speaker Kuki spread coexistence within complex and 1957, 2. Second payment: 07 July, 1959, can be sent to our e-mail : [email protected]. blended or otherwise. So, traditional throughout northwestern Burma, assorted ethnic identities. One has 3. Third payment: 28 February, 1966 For advertisement kindy contact: - 0385-2452159 (O). theory, which is widely accepted by and the Chittagong Hill Tracts of to understand the reality of and 4. Fourth payment: 18 July, 1968 For time being readers can reach the office at Cell scholars and writers, is that the . Now in Northeast imaginary demarcation for one time respectively. Meiteis originated from the India, they are present in all the convenience (as seen in the (To be continued ) Phone No. 9862860745 for any purpose.

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