'ST status is about identity'
Source: The Sangai Express
Bishnupur, March 27 2018:
Proprietor of Kangla Food Products, Akhom Birendra Singh has claimed that the inclusion of Meitei/Meetei in the ST list is not for the quota but for preserving the community's identity.
Speaking to media persons as a part of the continuous campaign of the Coordinating Body on Scheduled Tribe Demand Committee to seek the opinions of imminent personalities regarding the inclusion of Meitei/Meetei in the ST list, at his residence at Nambol today, Akhom Birendra claimed that Meitei/Meetei community has always been a Scheduled Tribe from the ancient days and the recent demand is not for conversion to ST but rather for returning or reverting to its original ST status.
He claimed that Gazette of Manipur written by Captain EW Dun in 1886, FRCSE Statistical Account of the Native State of Manipur and The Hill Territory Under Its Rule by R Brown in 1873, Descriptive Ethnology of Bengal by Edward Tuite Dalton in 1872, Imperial Gazetteer of India-Provincial Series-Eastern Bengal and Assam in 1909 and Gazetteer of Bengal and NE India, all mention that Meiteis/Meeteis are the descendant of Khuman, Luwang, Moirang, that the community are descendants of the hill tribes etc.
He also pointed out that Meitei/Meetei community is mentioned as being a forest tribe in the 1891 census and even the 1901 census mentions the community as a tribe.
In the 1931 census, Anthropologist TC Hudson also mentions that the Meitei/Meetei community is a tribe which has adopted Hindu religion but still practices its indigenous cultures and traditions.
The proprietor also mentioned that History of the Tangkhul Nagas written by ASW Shimray in 2001, states that Meitei and the Tangkhuls are related.
Akhom Birendra said that Meitei/Meetei community may be the only one which is yet to be included in the ST list in the whole North East region and stressed on the importance of inclusion of the community in the ST list.
He claimed that even though the community was in the ST list in the 1931 census, the community was unfortunately left out during the creation of the ST list in 1950.He reasoned that even if Meitei community follows Hindu religion, it can still be included in the ST list.
On the other hand, most of the Meitei/Meetei community are in the OBC category.
Inclusion of the community in the ST list does not mean that the Meitei community is backward or it will affect the religious sentiments in any way, he added.