Role of oral history in building communal harmony in Manipur
- Part 1 -

Dr Chirom Rajketan Singh *

Unity in Diversity - Different communities of Manipur at Republic Day 2013 parade at Imphal :: Pix - Deepak Oinam

Oral history helps in building the history of a community or group of people. Oral history may comprise myths, legends and actual historical events. James H. Morrison, in the essay called 'Global Perspective of Oral History in Southeast Asia', wrote "all societies have a history and all history begins as oral."

There are still today many groups of people who do not yet have a written history. However, these societies have their own oral histories. Oral history encompasses the accounts of the origin and historical materials related to their culture, community, lifestyle, etc., although it is difficult to ascertain the dates of the events. Even when there are written histories or chronicles, many accounts of history are found in the oral histories even though they are not mentioned in the chronicles.

In many of the royal chronicles, like the ones in Manipur, only those of events are written down which have the assents of the kings and rulers, and thus lots of events are omitted. The wishes, sufferings, aspirations of the general population and other events that take place at the social levels are mostly not included. Thus, some folklorists have coined the term "Palace Paradigm" for those kinds of histories that are written with the sanction of the rulers which are 'palace-centric.' Therefore, in order to get a fuller picture of the history of a land, one should study both the written chronicles along with the oral history available.

Sometimes similarities are found between oral history and written history of a society; however, there could be conflict between the two also. The written history in the form of chronicles written with state sanction, tend to exclude or modify those accounts that could be damaging to the prestige of the king or the ruler. On the other hand, oral history is the first hand account of the events as they take place and they survive through the generations by word of mouth.

Accounts of such events persist in the oral form in secret or in the open and later there could be conflict between the two versions of history. For example, there is one event connected to King Pamheiba which we know from oral history, but is not mentioned in the Cheitharol Kumbaba or Ningthourol Lambuba. These two chronicles are written by sanction of the palace.

It is said that King Pamheiba forcefully took a woman as his wife by killing her husband. This account represents Pamheiba as a dictatorial king who would do anything to get what he wants. However, Cheitharol Kumbaba and Ningthourol Lambuba do not make any mention of this event anywhere. This does not necessarily mean that oral accounts are not true.

In fact there are lots of instances of the presence of accepted evidence and events that goes along with oral history that certainly makes it profoundly important to study it in order to get a bigger picture of the history of a society. With this fact in mind, the oral history of the different communities of Manipur is being studied to find out the similarities and trace commonness in the origin of these communities.

If the population of Manipur is divided on the basis of the topography of the land, we can see that there are two types of populations – those living in the hills (Chingmee) and those living in the plain (Tammee) in the middle of the state, also called the Imphal valley. There are evidences that the plain area was filled with water in the ancient times and the people lived only in the hills surrounding the valley as they were higher and dry.

As the central area filled with water began to dry, some people from the surrounding hill region came down to stay in the dry valley. Although it is not known which group of people settled first in the valley, it is evident from the oral literature and the written chronicles and manuscripts that the general Meetei community, which is an amalgamation of seven clans, has stayed the longest in the valley. That the present Meetei community once lived in the hills around the Imphal valley can be known from the fact that many of the important places of sacred worships are located in the hills surrounding the valley and the story of legends related to these places of worship.

The written history of Manipur starts with accounts from 33 AD when Pakhangba became the king of the Ningthouja clan and started his reign from Kangla. The unification of the clans started during his time. During the reign of King Pamheiba (1709-1748 AD) the name 'Manipur' was given to this land. Cultural and religious differences between the chingmees and the tammees, and also among the tammees began to take root when King Pamheiba introduced Hinduism as the state religion.

These differences were quite pronounced when Manipur was captured by the British in 1891. More divisions were made due to the constitution as Scheduled Tribes, Scheduled Castes and General, etc. within the population of Manipur after Manipur was formally merged with the Indian union in 1949. In the present situation of Manipur, we can see noticeable differences, distrust and disunity among the various communities in Manipur.

In order to bring out the unity and the similarity in origin of the communities of Manipur from the oral histories of the different communities, an attempt is made here to study the oral history of Tangkhul, Mao, Maram, Thangal, Paomai and Kabui communities that are mostly settled in Ukhrul, Senapati and Tamenglong districts.

All the above mentioned communities of Manipur are said to have originated from a place called Makhen in the Senapati district. The people from this place were said to have moved out and settled in the South-eastern regions of the state.

The Kabui people inhabit many parts of the valley and most parts of Tamenglong district. The Kabuis, also known as the Rongmeis, have a very close relationship with the Meeteis. They form a part of the bigger group called the Zelianrong which is made up of Rongmei, Zeme, Liangmei and Puimei.

According to oral history these four groups lived together at Makhen, after which they migrated to different places and based on the direction of their migration, they were named into their respective names. Those who went south came to be known as Rongmei; those who went west were called Zeme; and those who migrated to the north were called Liangmei.

The Kabuis call their supreme god as Haipou Ragong (also Tingkao Rangong or Tingkao Ragwang). He created Dampa Pui and gave him the task to create the world. Dampa Pui created the world and all the creatures that will live in it, but he was not able to create the human beings. At last he created human beings after seeing the image of Haipou. In the beginning human beings lived together with the gods.

When the time came for the gods to leave, they kept them in a cave and closed it with a big stone because they thought that the humans were weak and had inferior intelligence. When the humans became more intelligent, they wanted to come out of the cave. They could open the entrance of the cave only with the help of a bull. The cave was called 'Ramting Kabin' or 'Mahou Taobei'.

The cave is still present near Salong in Senapati district. After coming out of the cave they lived in a place called Makuilongdi. There were supposed to be 7,777 families living in this place. From here they migrated to different directions.

The beginning phase of the history of origin of the Kabuis bears lots of resemblance with the story of the exodus of Poireiton of the Meeteis; the difference being that Poireiton's exodus is available as written history in the form of manuscript and is called "Poireiton Khunthokpa".

The Kabuis, like the Meeteis, worship Lainingthou and Lairembi. Both the communities have accounts of their stay at the Koubru hill a long time back. Another oral history of the Kabuis say that in the ancient times there was a man named Iboudhou Khunthoulemba who had two sons. The elder brother stayed back in the hills and remained as the Kabuis, while the younger brother moved down to the valley and became Meetei.

To be continued.....