Original name of Churachandpur : Disinformation and a false history

Churachandpur, 17 Feb 2014:

THADOU STUDENTS’ ASSOCIATION
CHURACHANDPUR BRANCH
Registered under Karnataka Societies Registration Act, 1960 of Society Reg. Number JNR-S279-2013-14
Branch Office: DM Veng, Churachandpur, Manipur-795128
Ref. No.: TSA/CCP/GEN14/1
Date: 2014-02-17

MEMORANDUM

To:
The Deputy Commissioner
Churachandpur District
Manipur-795128

From:
Thadou Students’ Association (TSA)
Churachandpur Branch

Subject: Original name of Churachandpur – regarding

Respected Madam,

We the Thadou Students’ Association (TSA), Churachandpur highly appreciate your laudable effort of creating Churachandpur District official website and making it available to the public. However, we would like to bring to your notice a slight distortion of information in the website. It is mentioned that ‘the original and local name of Churachandpur is Lamka and Lamka town is the district’s Headquarter’. This is a complete disinformation and it is unfortunate that such a false history is given in the official website, which should be corrected and authenticated immediately.

The TSA, Churachandpur deeply felt distressed for the distortion of history and we would like to take this opportunity to bring out the genuine history of Churachandpur, in a very brief and precise manner as to how, when and from where the name Churachandpur originated. To be very precise, the whole present Churachandpur town areas was under the reserved areas of Mr. L. Haokip, Chief of Suongpi.

During those days, Suongpi was the biggest village. During that period, the British, out of their nightmarish experience of Kuki rebellion of 1917-1919, felt the necessity of setting up Administrative Units in the Hill Areas of Manipur. In the year 1919, Manipur Hill areas was reorganized and on 16th October 1919, Suongpi was made one of the three Sub-Divisional Headquarters, the others being Ukhrul and Tamenglong. The following year, Mr B.C Gesper (ICS) was posted as the first SDO, Suongpi.

To felicitate the homecoming of war veterans of Labour Corps, who were deployed in France during the World War-I, B.C Gesper (SDO, Suongpi), organized a grand feast, in 1921, in which, the then Manipur Raja Churachand Singh attended the celebration as a guest of Honour. In honour of the Raja Churachand Singh, Suongpi Sub-Division was later renamed as Churachandpur Sub-Division. So, it is no doubt that the original and local name of Churachandpur is Suongpi. In addition to this, in 1930, the Christian Missionary (NEIG Mission) set up their Headquarters at Suongpi Village and later came to be known as Mission Compound or Old Churachand, which remains relevant even today. It was during the early period of 1930s that Shri Pumkhothang Guite and Zenhang Valte established Hiangtam Lamka and Bijang Loubuk village respectively, which later merged and came to be known as Lamka. Thus, it is clear that only after 10 years of the re-naming of Suongpi Sub-Division as Churachandpur, the term Lamka came into existence.

Further, Suongpi and Lamka cannot be treated on an equal footing as Lamka was founded in the land which belonged to Suongpi village. For a long time even after the formation of Lamka, Suongpi village was regarded as more important than Lamka village. In the meantime, the district headquarter was shifted from Suongpi to Hill Town and subsequently to Tuibuong village. Till today, Tuibuong remains as the District Headquarter of Churachandpur. It may be noted that, never in the history of Churachandpur, Lamka was made as district headquarter and occupied any significant position. And neither Suongpi nor Hill Town was part of Lamka village. So, if the original name of Churachandpur is to be mentioned, it has to be Suongpi. And, if the names of the district headquarter in the past were to be mentioned it is either Suongpi village or Hill Town.

However, the truth behind the popularity of Lamka is due to the fact that it occupied the central part of the town area and soon after its establishment, it developed as the biggest commercial centre of the district. To conclude, we urge you to kindly rectify the original name of Churachandpur as Suongpi not Lamka and the name of the present district headquarter as Tuibuong in your esteemed Churachandpur district official website’s homepage as earliest as possible in the interest of justice, historical records and fair play. Should any issue arose on this account, TSA is ready to resolve it with any concerned. For which act thereof as prayed above, we shall remain grateful.

Thanking you,

Yours sincerely on behalf of Thadou Students’ Association, Churachandpur,
Sd/-
(DEMKHOLIEN )
Information and Publicity Secretary
TSA-CCP