Source: The Sangai Express
Imphal, November 09 2009:
Taking serious note of a news report about the approval of the Central Government to include six more tribes in the Scheduled Tribe list of Manipur as published in a vernacular daily, the Kabui Samiti Manipur has raised strong objection against enlisting Rongmei as a separate tribe.
In a written representation submitted to the Home Minister, the Kabui Samiti clarified that Rongmei is not a name of any tribe.
The hill ranges and areas inhabited by Kabuis are known as Rongmei.
Those people who prefer to call themselves Rongmeis belong to Kabui and speak the same dialect while also sharing common culture, tradition and customs even as majority of them have embraced Christianity, it claimed.
Recalling that the State Government took a decision on January 2 this year to introduce Rongmei as a language subject in secondary education, it pointed out that the decision has been kept under suspension and abeyance after the Kabui Samiti filed a representation to the Secretary of the Board of Secondary Education Manipur against the same decision.
Recognition of Rongmei as a separate tribe would entail serious consequences, it cautioned while urging upon the Home Minister to drop Rongmei tribe from the list of tribes approved for inclusion in the Scheduled Tribe list of Manipur.