May the New Year 2019 bring integrity of Manipur
Pr Kungsong Wanbe *
I entreat you my brothers and sisters of Manipur/Kangleipak to make the new year, 2019 a blessing to yourselves and others.
The New Year itself may not bring the integrity of Manipur but it depends on how our minds, thoughts, and performance tomake a good new year and bring integrity. Actually, the people of Manipur need to join hands together to save the integrity of Manipur.
Let us see the following briefly:
Although many ethnic communities, we are all Manipuris/Kangleicha. Even though our Manipur is a small land with small population, there are more than 35(thirty-five) tribes/communities; therefore, Manipur is like a small country. All the indigenous people of Manipur immigrated from other parts of the world. Some people/groups came from Laos Cambodia, some from Thailand, some from China, some from Burma, now Myanmar.
Since time immemorial, both the people of the hills and valley inhabited Manipur. Even though some groups of hill people came later, all of them have been living together since a long time. There is a saying/story: "Manipur Sana Leibak, Chingna koina panshaba, haona koina pan ngakpa," the meaning of which is "Manipur, a golden land surrounded by hills and guarded by hill people."
Out of the 35(thirty-five) tribes/communities, the original settlers were Meiteis, Tangkhul, Kabui/Zeliangrong, Maram, Paomei, Koireng and Meitei Pangal. For more information, please read Sangai Express, English edition of 9th December, 2012 and the Geography of Manipur, page 45.
The Koireng people took serious and active part in the protection of the territory of Manipur. The village known as Mayangkhang was first settled by the Koirengs. In the book of Ningthourol Lampuba, page 305, it is pointed out that the king of Manipur asked the Koirengs to settle at Mayangkhang to prevent the intrusion of outsiders. Mayangkhang means to stop the entry of Hindi speaking non-Manipuris from the plains, outside of Manipur.
In the article of Usham Dhananjoy Singh in Poknapham newspaper of April 21, 1998, it is said that Maharaja Meidingu Garibaniwaj employed the Koireng soldiers in driving out the Burmese from the soil of Kangleipak, now Manipur. This is an instance of how the hill people surrounded and guarded Manipur.
At the present time too, all the indigenous ethnic/tribes and communities need to join hands together to prevent the intrusion of outsiders whether from other countries or other states of India. Inner Line Permit System (ILPS) must be implemented as soon as possible; otherwise, outsiders will dominate us.
As we, all know that Tripura state originally belonged to the indigenous people of scheduled tribes and scheduled castes, but today, Tripura state is dominated by Bengalis who immigrated from both Bangladesh and West Bengal. To say this, I am not an enemy of Bengali community but I'm just saying the truth as the same may happen to our state, Manipur.
Lastly, but not the least, whether early settlers or later settlers, now we are all Manipuris/Kangleicha, so, let us join hands together to save the integrity of Manipur.
I would also like to appeal to all the tribes and communities of Manipur that we should forget, forgive and not repeat the wrong things we have committed to another; let us shun the wrong and let us do the right thing.
May God bless all the people of the hills and plains of Manipur/Kangleipak.
* Pr Kungsong Wanbe wrote this article for The Sangai Express
The writer is former Secretary, Koren (Koireng), Historical Research Committee, Manipur
This article was webcasted on January 03, 2019.
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