Kuki Chiefs' Association Tengnoupal condemns
Source: The Sangai Express
Tengnoupal, October 26 2019:
Kuki Chiefs' Association Tengnoupal has condemned the leaders of CNPO for allegedly misinterpreting the genealogy and history of Kukis in Chandel and Tengnoupal districts.
A press release issued by information publicity, Kuki Chiefs' Association, Tengnoupal district stated that CNPO opposed the centenary celebration of "Anglo-Kuki War 1917-1919" because of their ignorance of history and facts of the hill regions that is now under the administration of the State within the union of India.
It urged CNPO to point out if there were any tribes who fought the colonial power, particularly in Tengnoupal while adding that the Kukis fought the British and the chieftainship institution was recognised by the British and had demarcated the land of the Kukis as 'Kuki Independent Country' .
The association further stated that the British Achievers in London entitled 'The Kuki Rising', which symbolised that the Kuki were not under the British Rule.
Tribes including Anal, Kamkang, Moyon, Monsang, Maring etc are all genealogically related to Kukis (meaning close blood relationship), it said and added that all the people living in this geographical area are culturally related and had been living together since time immemorial.
In fact, it was the Tangkhuls that forced the Kukis to affiliate themselves politically into an unrecognised Naga fold, it alleged.
Nagas never lived in Chandel and Tengnoupal districts, the people in these districts are known as Kukis before Tangkhuls came into the land, claimed the association and added that the fact is known by the invitation of Naga tribes by interlocutor of the peace talk, RN Ravi.
He invited only 14 Naga tribes excluding the 'Nagas' of Chandel and Tengnoupal districts including Tangkhuls.
It further stated that villages of Senam, Saivom, Boungyang, Tengnoupal, Chahmol, Phalbung, Chehlep, Leitan, Sita, Simang, Samukom, Maolhang etc were established before the arrival of British into the land.
It claimed that it was only the Kuki people who fought the British forces between 1917-1919 to defend the ancestral land and freedom.
The association maintained that it was only to the Kuki people which the then British regime had conducted Linguistic Survey known as Linguistic Survey of India 1898-1928 .
The Kuki Chiefs' Association further claimed that the territory inhabited by the Kuki extend from the Naga Hills in the North down into the Sandoway district of Burma in the South; from Myithha river in the East, almost to the Bay of Bengal in the West and added that it is entirely filled up by hills.
It added that the mountains ridges are separated by deep valleys and that this vast mountainous hill region is a home to Kuki people.
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