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The Government of Manipur should institute a commision to inquire
into the circumstances leading to the "ethnic conversions" of
Khurmi tribes into the Naga ethno-political identity. There are
clear evidences to show beyond any shadow of doubt that the process
of Nagaisation as it occurs in Manipur involves methods inimical
to the clearly established law of the land.
The Nagaisation of Maring, Anal and Lamkang tribes also contravenes
the essence of a composite Manipuri culture, based on the territorial
unity and ethnic solidarity of Manipur, an antique land known
as the cradle of an indigenous civilization in North East India.
Remarkably, the Aimol, Chiru, Chothe, Purum and Kom tribes are
now in the eye of a second-phase of a Nagaisation storm.Due to
their lesser geo-political significance, they are late in becoming
the "Mission Field" of the Nagatva ideologues and their missionaries. Currently
these tribes are at varying stages and degrees of Nagaisation.The
degree of Nagaisation has reached alarming levels among the Chothes,
though it will be premature to describe it as a complete success.
The Government of Manipur, apparently, should shoulder the responsibility
for having allowed this blatantly unethical ethno-political phenomenon
right under its nose. Even now, the state government remains
oblivious to the magnitude and intensity of this problem which
is overtly linked to the fissiparous parochial tendencies of
Naga territorial unification or a "Unified Nagalim.
The far-reaching political implications of the problem therefore
warrant an official Expert Committee of the state government
to be instituted for purposes of of academically establishing
the true status and identity of of these small Kuki-Chin tribes,
who are falsely claimed as new "Nagas" by supporters of the Greater
Nagaland Theory.
The Manipur Legislative Assembly should adopt a resolution in
the house either deploring or condemning the baseless propaganda
of the proponents and supporters of "Naga integration" on the
issue of wanton Nagaisation. The celebraton of Lui Ngai Ni, a
harvest festival of the Manipuri Nagas at Chandel was a shrewd
political conspiracy to decieve the Central Government and the
national media ahead of a final peace accord on their propaganda
that the Khurmis are indeed Nagas. The impact of this political
deciet was such that Padmanabhaiah took courage to describe the
question of "changing loyalties among members of small tribes
in Nort East india" as a "natural" phenomenon, in an interview
to the Hindustan Times.
Equating ethnic conversion with the religious conversion theory
in Hindutva philosophy, the unethical phenomenon of ethnic conversion
may be described as a de-humanized condition in which the victim
is brainwashed, influenced and externally controlled by replicating
his mentality and cultural beliefs with a set of new ideas congenial
to the perpetrator of the ethnic conversion; through the methods
of "fraud, force, and allurement".
Profound socio-cultural and political changes are effected in
the mind of the ethnic conversion victim to the effect that he
loses all inhibitions to totally change his entire outlook on
tribal life and values, especially kinship, customary laws, traditions
and language.
The Khurmis according to the broad parameters of this sociological
approach constitute the hapless victims of a concerted Manipuri
Naga ethnic conversion drive, carried out with political and
territorial motives, inextricably connected with the question
of "bringing all the Nagas under a single administrative umbrella" through
the attainment of a unified Nagalim.
When will the Government of Manipur set the balls rolling for
a comprehensive ban on ethnic conversions in all its evil manifestations?
* The writer is based in JNU, New Delhi and can be reached at
[email protected]
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