CorCom salutes Haipou Jadonang
Source: The Sangai Express
Imphal, August 27 2014:
The Coordination Committee (CorCom) of KCP, KYKL, PREPAK, PREPAK(Pro), RPF and UNLF has paid rich tributes to Haipou Jadonang for his courageous liberation movement against colonial British rulers.
August 29, 1931, the day Haipou Jadonang achieved martyrdom is assuming greater significance in contemporary Manipur, the CorCom remarked in a press statement issued on the occasion of Haipou Jadonang's 83rd death anniversary.
The death anniversary of Haipou Jadonang is assuming greater significance because the movement he led was a pioneer movement for the right to self determination of Kabui community as well as all the people of Manipur.
Jadonang was born to Tiudai and Tabonliu at Kambiron, Tamenglong in 1905.Since childhood, Jadonang had a strong sense of patriotism apart from being bold and witty.
During the colonial period, when British officers or aristocrats of Manipur (Kangleipak) royal court visited villages in hill areas, villagers were as used as forced labourers or porters.
The villagers were also forced to pay all the expenditures incurred in the course of the official visits.
Jadonang could not tolerate such injustices and he started challenging the colonial regime.
More and more people started supporting Jadonang and his movement was ultimately transformed into a mass movement for liberation of the colonised people.
Jadonang was convinced that the secret agendas of the colonial regime could be exposed if the indigenous faiths, culture and traditions could be preserved and promoted.
Jadonang's movement for liberation of the oppressed turned out to be a serious headache to the British rulers and they started plotting to execute Jadonang on some fabricated charges.
Jadonang was arrested on February 19, 1928 from Binakandi, Cachar.
He was charged under IPC Section 302/109 and 320/149 with the then Political Agent Higgins doubling up as both the Prosecutor and the Judge.
Jadonang was just 26 years old when he was hung to death on Nambul river bank behind Imphal Central Jail on August 29, 1931 at 6.30 am.
Had Jadonang lived longer as a public leader either as a free man or as prisoner, the history of Kabui community and Manipuri nation could have taken a very different path.
It is the bounden duty of the present generation to walk on the path of Jadonang towards preserving indigenous religions, cultures and traditions against the alien rule, the CorCom asserted.
Continuing with the colonial legacy inherited from British rulers, the Government of India has been employing soft cultural elements to suppress the indigenous people for the past many decades.
As a result of this subtle policy, the indigenous people have forgotten their origin and identity, and slavery has become their tradition.
The Government of India has been continuously scheming to erase the identity of all indigenous people for eternity.
"The only way to protect ourselves from such sinister policies and strategies is unity among all indigenous people and fight the common enemy collectively", it asserted.
The CorCom further called upon all the indigenous people of Manipur to fight collectively against all the covert and overt repressive measures of India and liberate Manipur.
The most fitting tribute one can pay to Haipou Jadonang is joining the liberation movement, it added.