Know your History and Stand up for your Rights: It’s a free country
– Zotawi Tangpa
It’s rather astonishing as many of us are ignorant about our History, but we cannot blame anyone as it is because of the education system that sees no reason to include in the students’ curricula. Ignorant about our past have become a problem, especially when other community manipulated for their greed and wrongful gain. Our History tells us our past and achievement, and our future will be decided by both and they will be the anchor of our solidarity and the base of our identity and our being. In feature film directed by George Clooney The Monuments Men, Frank Stoke (one of the character) said ‘…. If you destroy their history, you destroy their achievements and it's as if they never existed’. Our history, though passes from one generation to the next orally has information about our acquired accumulated knowledge, experiences and achievement. All these have become the basis of our distinct existence as a cultural collectivity or entity. It was only after our encounter with the state (colonial state) directly or indirectly, our history began to be recorded, which had damages and distorted our past, as it was written only in the perspective of the informants, subsequently encaged us with the institution called the state.
The time has come for us to reclaim our history, which is our achievement, to decide for our future. It’s time to deconstruct all the colonial constructs by claiming rights for the people of the ex-colonies mentioned in the UN charter, UN General Assembly Resolution 1514 (XV) and 2625 (XXV), which specifies the duty of the state to promote self-determination of people to bring a speedy ‘end to colonialism’. These resolutions also mention that all peoples have an inalienable right to complete freedom, the exercise of their sovereignty and the integrity of their national territory. Knowing our rights is the first step to realizing our rights. So, we should always keep in mind that without our history, which is the foundation of our existence, there is no meaning of our rights. Thus, the incorrect interpretation and distortion of our history can marginalize us, and even left with nothing of our achievement.
This is unfortunate that the time when we have to pull our strength together to protect our interest, land and the people, we are vying for each other for nothing. Our forefathers have shown very good example of brotherhood and accommodate each other, encouraging and allowing to establishing villages. Such gestures are worth preserving and treasured, instead of pretending to forget by distorting our history.
Historically, the Hill tribes in the present Manipur were never ruled by the Manipur Raja. It was the British who brought the hill areas within the fold of Manipur and engaged with them indirectly through their Political Agent.
Only after the Kuki rising (1917-1919) the hill areas were directly administered. Roy Burman (2005:10) aptly remarks, “For quite sometimes in the nineteenth century the British policy was to consolidate the control over the tribals in the borders of Burma and Cachar through the king of Manipur”. However, by any means the British maintained separate administration for the hill tribes which was continued even after the colonial regime was over.
This historical development of separate arrangement for hill administration in Manipur required a special consideration, as the people who did not share common culture and history were kept within the modern institution called the state.
Recently, there was allegation that the Zo people, for that matter the Kukis, as foreigners. This is possible only if Manipur is not India, then it will be that all of us living within the Imphal valley, which was the Manipur Before the Meitei invited the British to Manipur, would be foreigners. The project of slicing out the areas inhabited by the tribals from various hill ranges with the help of the British was began immediately after the First Anglo-Burmese war (1824-26). Thence, the project was under the supervision and management of the British Political Agent, who has the 35th Native Infantry stationed at Cachar at his disposal. This project was not completed even by 1870s when James Johnston was the Political Agent, the Manipur map did not yet include the then Manipur South District and some part of the present Chandel. The project was completed only when the Manipur-Chin Boundary Commission was setup by the British in 1894, which only confirmed the Pamberton imaginary line, by that time only that some portions of the Chin and Lushai Hill ranges are sliced out and became part of the colonial constructed Manipur. However, they were never kept under the control of the Manipur Durbar and it was kept under the purview of the President of the Durbar, which is a position reserved for British Officer. Perhaps, the British were taking moral responsibility of bringing the hill areas under the fold of their constructed Manipur that separate administrative arrangement was made for the hill areas, which was continued even today.
Thus, it can be concluded that the Zo people (Kuki-Chin) did not crossed any boundary and never entered Manipur. In fact, Manipur entered their ancestral homeland with the help of its Colonial Master, the British colonizers. It is historical fact that the Zo people organized a resistance movement against the British colonial expansion, which the British called Kuki Rising (locally called Zo gal). It is only who own the land, loves the land, and even laid their precious lives in defending it. In short, in the history of the colonial constructed Manipur it is very clear that the Meitei raja invited the British, but the tribal resisted – the Kuki and the Kabui resistance movements.
In relation to the identity, especially among the tribes classified by the colonial ethnographers as Kuki, there has been confusion. They divided the various groups as Old and New Kukis based on the period of crossing their imaginary line. It was merely that they have seen through their very constructed history, as even the imaginary line was drawn even after Pamberton landed in Manipur. But, in fact they have never cross any political boundary lines, as many of the existing boundary lines were demarcated by the British colonial regime for their administrative conveniences.
The Manipuri raja never won any war with the tribals, of course his armies were known for massacre among the hill tribes without a war, even the war with Kamhao though with full confidence because of the British help in various ways, but turn out to be a total defeat for him. Somehow, the raja’s armies could treacherously arrested Goukhothang Guite, Chief of Mualpi and laso ruling a cluster of villages. This was, in fact, even the Nuthal, British Officer also did not approved what the Meitei had done to the Chief. Till today, the descendants of the people who were under Goukhonthang could not trust the Meitei and to their dismay there are people who would like to remind them the once felt bitterness with their concocted history. How much the people are connected can be seen when Kamhao from Tedim and Khanthuam from Mualbem together sent Mr.Kaikhual, as their emissary to negotiate for Goukhothang. Of late, we tend to think of us as if we are different due to our ignorant of our history and even called with such name which will differentiate from our own brother and provoke each other through facebook and other media. What is so great, merely to be greater than your own brother? Unless and until we stop hurting our own brothers, smaller in numbers, to get certain sadistic pleasure, we will never have strength to withstand challenges knocking at the door.
This is to reiterate that the Hill areas in Manipur are the ancestral home of those tribes inhabiting presently. So, we cannot be separated with our homeland and if we have to move out of Manipur, well and good, we will move along with our land or stand as a political unit.
Our ancestors have defended our homeland against the mighty British Empire and never surrendered!