Meetei Culture: The Dialectics Within

Longjam Nobinchandra Singh *

Lai Lam Thokpa

In the secluded north-eastern corner of India, where the majestic Himalayans loop southwards towards the sea, lies the picturesque valley of Manipur – the home of the Meeteis, the people of slight build with slanting eyes. The Meeteis are deeply sensitive and artistic. Their secluded existence and isolation from the rest of the Indian sub-continent have helped to evolve a unique patter of life and culture.

Meetei society can be viewed as a field of conflict and compromise operated upon the two diametrically opposing forces, the process of Hinduisation and resistance to it by the pre-Hindu culture of the Meeteis.

Hinduism was introduced in the Manipur valley with royal patronage in early 18th century. The king, royal officers and immigrant Brahmins developed a complex strategy with an aim to mould the lifestyle of the people in the State.

Hinduism was presented to the common people in a grand and aesthetically attractive manner and in effect worked as a political force in disguise. But somehow, the process of Hinduisation and sanskitisation failed to completely obliterate the simple folk religion.

Instead, it had to accommodate itself within a strangely established and highly sophisticated religious culture. The ancient texts of Meetei religion dated back to 33 AD and the philosophy were based on well-developed intellectual dogmas. The religious system was organized under complex hierarchical institutions with different councils of learned scholars, office bearers, musicians, dancers, priestesses, etc.

The process of Hinduisation, even though supported by royal patronage, was confronted by this extremely powerful force in the then existing religious system. In this respect, the Meetei case differs from other South Asian societies. The issue was the extent to which the process of Sanskritisation has integrated the Meetei society with the Brahmanical socio-religious system and in what areas the society has resisted.

Naturally, it has found expression in revivalism and even in the anti-Hindu outlook has been affected by this new wave.

How much Hindu we are? Are we not more allied to the culture of the East? Why should not be revive our own script in place of the present Assamese-Bengali script? These are but, some of the searching questions put up by the scholars and writers in the existing social contest. These are, indeed, disturbing questions. But, one has to ask them. It looks more like an anti-thesis to the cultural cycle, the thesis of the pre-independence era. One can only hope for a synthesis.

In these times of travail and uncertainty, one must have the courage, if not real insight, to remain an optimist. One finds it difficult to conceive a total collapse of human values. We are, of course, overwhelmed by the gust and disgust of the existing state of affairs in our National life. One only hopes that this is only a passing phase, indeed, even a necessary phase, in the dialectical spiral of understanding one's own culture.

The Meeteis have adopted several caste values from Hinduism, for example, the rules of commensality pollution taboos on food and water and vegetarianism. They have also integrated numerous Hindu rituals and ceremonies into their socio-religious framework. Hudson remarked at the beginning of the last century.

"It is very difficult to estimate the precise effect of Hinduism on the civilization of the people; to the outside observers, they seem to have adopted only the festival, the outward ritual, the caste marks and the exclusiveness of Hinduism, while all unmindful of its spirit and inward essentials."

Manipur, more particularly the valley, had contributed immensely to the cultural heritage of India and it is perhaps true to say that even Vaishanavism, which originated from Bengal, was perfected and enriched with artistic expression by the Manipuris.

But the search for self-identity and the roots of the people from a comparatively objective and scientific point of view, has altered considerably the quality of awareness on the part of the scholars and writers.

The forces of disillusion and frustration might gradually give way to or at least co-exist with the forces of love, peace and integral humanism. Manipur, with a rich heritage of culture and scholarship and traditional sensitiveness to beauty and human feeling should certainly be able to integrate the sensibilities and restore love which is inherent in life. There is, thus, every reason, for hope.