DAMMS decried resolution by CSOs on Pangal identities of Manipur
Source: IT News

Imphal, November 13 2019: Delhi Association of the Manipur Muslim Students (DAMMS) has strongly reacted to the taking of certain resolution in connection with the settlement and identity of Pangals of Manipur by a group of mainstream civil society organisations.

A statement by DAMMS said that as the topic of the seminar was on the identity of the Pangals and its relationships to other communities, proper invitations should have been given to all important stake holders in time.

It added that the DAMMS sees a conspiracy in making since the stakeholders included in the seminar are politically aligned to different groups and ideologies.

In an atmosphere where the civil societies are highly divided into interest groups, an open discussion with inclusive representation could have given an appreciative result.

The DAMMS while appreciating the initiative of the organisers in trying to understand the Pangal society better, which is in fact the need of the hour; however, considered that matters related to the identity of the Pangals have to be discussed and decided with maximum participation from the Pangal community.

The DAMMS statement said that there seems a constant effort to fabricate the history of the Pangals by the very people who spread propaganda about the population of the Pangals in Manipur through Manipuri films, and the torch-bearers of the groups called Ukal, Mesia, and likes.

The DAMMS said that the Pangals (Muslim soldiers from Taraf) were not 'war captives/prisoners of war 'in 1606 of Manipur.

The origin of Pangals is basically ascribed to two points in time: one group of scholars began to claim that they commenced their settlements in Manipur before the seventeenth century and another group of scholars who disputed the first assumption argued that they came from Sylhet, now in Bangladesh in 1606 AD and organised their inhabitants in Manipur during the reign of king Khagemba (1597-1652 AD) .

The Pangals are a population living in Manipur since the 16th century, though the size increased in 1606 with around 1000 Muslim soldiers from Taraf agreeing to stay back in Manipur through a three-point truce.

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