Formation of Muslim Community in Manipur during the 17th and 18th Centuries
- Part 1 -

Md. Chingiz Khan *

Id-ul Adha celebration at Changamdhabi under Andro Kendra Majid, Manipur on 7 November 2011 :: Pix - Bullu Raj

Abstract:- The state, Manipur, extending between latitudes 23° 50' and 25° 4' north and longitudes 93° 2' and 94° 47' east and acquiring an area of 22,356sq.km, is sited as the easternmost border of India which has a lucid geographical unit comprising of hills and valleys. It is a land populated and lodged by the hill and valley inhabitants together since eternity. Veritably, one cannot subsist without the other, the hill is nothing without the valley and so is the valley without the hills. It has neighbouring states, namely, Nagaland on the north, Myanmar on the east, Cachar (Assam) on the west and Chin hills of Myanmar and Mizoram on the south.

The valley areas of Manipur retain a portion of the state with an area of 1,800 sq. kms particularly dwelt by the communities known as Meitei and Muslim. Some other religious communities like Tribes and Mayangs (a term used for non-Manipuris residing inside the state) are also staying in the valley areas of Manipur. In this context, an attempt is being made to explore as to how the Muslims started the settlement and formation of their community in Manipur since their arrival in the state in 1606 A.D., i.e. during the reign of King Khagemba (1597-1652). Significantly, another attempt is to trace out the historical analysis of how far the doubtful phrase "Prisoners of War" used in the history of Manipuri Muslims is correct. Their socio-cultural practices like Marriage system, Clan system (unknown in the Islamic World), Dresses, Belief system, Language etc. and its impacts on the expansion, settlement and formation of the community are scrutinized briefly during the 17th and 18th centuries. Moreover, why the population of Muslim community in Manipur is still low is also examined historically.

Keywords: Manipuri Muslim, Prisoners of War, Socio-Cultural formation, Settlement

INTRODUCTION

The state, Manipur, extending between latitudes 23° 50' and 25° 4' north and longitudes 93° 2' and 94° 47' east and having an area of 22,356sq.km, is located at the easternmost border of India which has a lucid geographical unit comprising of hills and valleys. It is a land populated and lodged by the hill and valley inhabitants together since eternity. Indeed, one cannot exist without the other, the hill is nothing without the valley and so is the valley without the hills. It has neighbouring states, namely, Nagaland on the north, Myanmar on the east, Cachar (Assam) on the west and Chin hills of Myanmar and Mizoram on the south. The valley areas of Manipur possess a portion of the state with an area of 1800 sq. kms markedly tarried by the communities known as Meitei and Muslim. Some other religious communities like Tribes and Mayangs are also settling in the valley areas of Manipur.

Now, regarding the formation of the Muslim community in Manipur, we find that they started their formation of the community and their settlement since the time of their arrival in Manipur in 1606 A.D. during the reign of King Khagemba (1597-1652). They were permeating in the four districts of Manipur namely Imphal East, Imphal West, Thoubal and Bishenpur (Mc. Culloch 1980: 4). They were familiarized as 'pangals' which was evident from the primary sources like Nongsamei Puya (Indigenous archaic literature), Cheitharol Kumpapa (The Royal Chronicle of Manipur) (Parrat 2005: 68), Ningthoural Lambuba, Yaad Dasht Kursee-e-Nama (Persian account) etc. for Muslims. Actually, the word 'pangal' was derived from the word 'Bangal' meaning men of the East Bengal. The earliest Muslim settlers came from East Bengal and were consequently called the 'Bangals' meaning Bangalees of East Bengal. The word 'Bangals' soon corrupted into 'Pangal' because most Manipuris in the 17th C enunciated 'b' as 'p'. In medieval period, any man from East Bengal, regardless of his religion, was called 'Pangal'.

There were Pathans, Sheikhs, Syeds and Mughals among the Manipuri Muslims (Singh 1965: 13). Another account was also given in the Persian text Yaad Dasht Kursee-e-Nama by Rafayattullah with regard to the word 'Pangal', where the word was assigned by the King Khagemba to the Muslims particularly their commander-in-chief, Muhammad Sani, on account of his fortitude and intrepidity in the battle fought between Manipuri Meiteis and Muslims at Toubul (near Bishnupur District) in 1606 A.D. by calling him as 'Panganba' and his Muslim groups as 'Pangal' (Rafayattullah 1929: 24; Khullakpam 1997: 35). Since then, the term 'Pangal' has been used and started calling for Muslims by other religious communities continuously till now. As a matter of fact, the word 'Pangal' means 'strength' in Manipuri language.

Then, it is pointed out that after the settlement of the Muslims in Manipur, they started adopting the language of the indigenous dominant community of what we called popularly the 'Meiteilon' as their own since 1606 A.D., despite using the Urdu, Persian, Arabic languages etc. in that time. Further, many socio-cultural and religious practices drawing from the local majority community called Meitei like Marriage system, Clan system (unknown in the Islamic World), Dresses (Phanek, Khudei, Khwangnum), Belief system, Language (Meiteilon), Food Habits (Uti, Eronba, Chamthong/Kangsoi, Ngari, Singju) etc. and their implications for the expansion, settlement and formation of the community had been explored during the 17th and 18th centuries.

It does not mean that they were through and through integrated into the Meitei society but they maintained a unique distinct identity of their own, though they fished out many concepts, thoughts and ideologies for shaping and reshaping of their own community from the nearby communities. Lastly, some scholars said that the Muslim population in Manipur is still low. It might be due to the searching of livelihood in other states, around four-fifth of the total population or repeated successive Burmese invasions namely Seven Years Devastation (1819-1826) known in the history of Manipur as Chahi Taret Khuntakpa (Brown 1975: 15; Khullakpam 1997: 13-16). Moreover, the areas where they took their settlements are also investigated shortly here. Keeping out all these issues in our mind, let us project precisely the thematic issues given here in an analytical way.

Review of the Historical Sources of Muslims in Manipur:

So far the historical sources of the Muslims in Manipur is concerned, there are lacuna and crunch of literature. Moreover, their population was not large at all and they were not interested in education till very recently. Whatever the sources given here were revisited in order to get the sense of history of the Muslims in Manipur in an analytical way. First of all, let us analyze the primary sources namely Nongsamei Puya, Cheitharol Kumpapa, Ningthoural Lambuba, Yaad Dasht Kursee-e- Nama, Pangal Thorakpa etc. The path-breaking work, Nongsamei Puya, edited by Oinam Bhogeshwor Singh and M.A. Janab Khan, published in 1973, Imphal and the magnum opus of R.K. Sanahal, Pangal Thorakpa, published in 1985, were pondered as essential Puyas investigating with the accounts of Muslims in Manipur. Nongsamei Puya gave the account of the reigns of different kings starting from King Khagemba (1597-1652A.D.) to King Bhagyachandra (1759-62A.D., 1763-1798A.D.).

In the similar vein, such kind of periodisation of different Kings and its accounts were also there in the Pangal Thorakpa. From these two accounts, we can see the evidences of how the war had started and its course of action between the joint Cachari and Muslim forces in 1606A.D. and King of Manipur, the settlement of the Muslims in Manipur, assignment of Meitei women to the noteworthy Muslims and endowment of grants of land by the King Khagemba, further immigration of Muslims in addition to the early Muslim settlers. Moreover, Cheitharol Kumpapa also did not state about the origin and course of war but concisely, despite having some records historically near about 2000 years (78 kings) starting from Nongda Lairen Pakhangba (33- 154A.D.) to Maharaj Buddhachandra Singh (1941-55A.D.) but unluckily, this Royal Chronicle also didn't give much information regarding the history of Manipuri Muslims though there was casually mentioning about it.

Now, in the context of the British Colonial Accounts, it is suggested that the new pattern of writing history had been initiated strikingly by the British Officers such as E.W. Dun's work Gazetteer of Manipur, B.C. Allen's path-breaking work, Gazetteer of Manipur and Naga Hills, B.C. Allen, E.A. Gait, C.G.H. Allen, H.F. Howard's magnum opus, Gazetteer of Bengal and North East India, R.B. Pemberton's book, A Report on the North-Eastern Frontier of British India, Mc Culloch's work, An Account of the Valley of Munnipore, R. Brown's book, A Statistical Account of Manipur, Ethel St. Clair Grimwood's book, My Three Years in Manipur, My Experience in Manipur and the Naga Hills by James Johnstone etc.

All these works emphasized the political, socio-cultural, economic, religious facets of the local dominant communities like Meitei and Hilly tribal people in great length but casually citing about the Muslims which, according to some scholars, might be either due to their low population or indistinct between the physical features of Muslim and Meitei communities or enveloping the strands of Muslims within the account of Meiteis.

Moreover, some works were also written in Manipuri language namely, Manipuri Muslims by M.A. Janab Khan, Meitei Pangal Hourakpham by B. Kullachandra Sharma and Badaruddin, Yaad Dasht Kursee-e-Nama translated by Maulana Muhammad Jalaluddin, Kheiruddin Khullakpam and Maulana Tayeb Ali from the original work by Rafayattullah published in 1929 in Lahore etc. In point of fact, these works pointed out their origins, settlements, clan for the formation of community in a small scale but acted as momentous work in the history of Muslims in Manipur.

Consequently, some other secondary sources like History of Manipur, Vol.1, by Gangmumei Kamei, A History of Manipur by Jyotirmoy Roy, A History of Bengal, Muslim Period,1200-1757, Vol. 2, The Muslims of Manipur by Salam Irene, The Manipur Governance to the Meitei-Pangal, Manipuri Muslim, 1606-1949 A.D. by Hakim Shah Khullakpam, Essays in Sociology: Muslims in Manipur by Mohd. Shakil Ahmed etc. talked about the origins, wars, laws and governances, sociocultural features, economies, religion elaborately in a more or less the same manner of what the primary sources talked about the Muslims in Manipur.

Read a List of Bibliography for this paper here

To be continued...