www.e-pao.net- a portal for global Manipuris- thus read the result of
my search on Manipuri, in a leisurely afternoon. That led me to gluing
in the contents of the portal. And to my surprise it had a lot in it.
So my temptation got increased gradually with passing days.
But deep in the mind, it also resurrected my question about who is
actually a "Manipuri"? In process of my exploration to get in touch with
as many people as possible in the portal (mainly through the chat room),
this doubt deepened further. Are the people who are from Manipur but
does not speak Manipuri as their mother tongue, a Manipuri? Are not
people whose mother tongue is Manipuri but not from Manipur not a Manipuri?
I don't belong to Manipur. In fact I have never been there though I
always carry the desire to see that place, where my ancestors belonged
to. I was born to a Manipuri parent. According to the Census of India
1991, there are 1,270,216 people living in India whose mother tongue is
Manipuri. Out of these over 87 percent live in Manipur, 10 percent in
Assam and about 1.5 percent in Tripura. These constitute almost 99 percent
of the Manipuri speaking people. Other 1 percent are scattered
throughout other various states including Nagaland and Meghalaya, two
neighboring states of Manipur.
I am also told that Manipur is a unique state in the country in
various ways. Particularly, when it comes in political issue, the people of
Manipur has been so liberal that the state has given the first Chief
Minister in India from minority Muslim religious community (if one
excludes the state of Jammu and Kashmir). It is also a state where for many
years politicians from minority community remained Chief Minister without
much hiccups.
During my university days, I had an opportunity to see and meet
Manipuris from Manipur. Some of them were friends too (at least I thought
they were). During my third year of engineering course, my mother happened
to visit me. Excited about having Manipuri friends from Manipur, I
invited quite a few of them to visit my mother. In the end of the day, they
all were very happy. I was too happy until they started telling "your
mother speaks Manipuri so well. Now we understand at least your mother
must be real Manipuri". Oh boy, my ideas about my own identity and
belongingness to an affinity disappeared in one go!
As a young man, I happened to take active interest in things related
to the community of Manipuris. After all, in our state, Tripura, we are
not even 1 percent of the total population (a hundred years earlier
from now we were 11 percent). For many reasons under such a situation,
keeping one's identity becomes a matter of difficulty and stress, a
phenomenon not uncommon anywhere in the glob. So we happened to be in the
streets on some emotional issues like inclusion of Manipuri in the Eighth
Schedule of Indian Constitution (in early nineties) and introduction of
the language in schools in Tripura etc. My friends who are not
Manipuris in the state used to ask me "if there is a football match between
Tripura and Manipur whom would you support"? I had no slightest of doubt
for answer: it is going to be Tripura, the land I was born and brought
up. I stand to that even today.
Does this disqualify one by any measure to be a Manipuri: a people for
whom I take immense pride to be born as? To me it does not. I still
aspire to meet my old friends and say I too am a real Manipuri at least.
* The writer is based in Dehradun in India. He may be communicated at [email protected].
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