Contestation from within
- The People's Chronicle Editorial :: October 17, 2023 -

AMIDST the ongoing conflict between the Meitei/ Meetei and Kuki-Chin communities, "Zale'n-gam: The Kuki Nation," a book written by PS Haokip, the president of Kuki National Organisation (KNO), which is one of the armed organisations under the Suspension of Operation (SoO) with the Government of India, seems to have attracted more attention than it actually deserves.

Published way back in 2008, the 'misleading' contents of the book have been time and again questioned by many people other than the Kuki-Chin community for fabricating historical facts with the ulterior motive of giving credence to the demand of a separate homeland for the once nomadic Kuki-Chin people by carving out territories from India, Myanmar and Bangladesh.

But of late, the book has come under close scrutiny and contestation over its contents seem to have been intensified and spread beyond the boundary of Manipur, where Federation of Haomee (FoH), an apex civil society of indigenous communities of the state, has been at the forefront of debunking the myth of Zale'n-Ngam, which literally means land of freedom in Thadou-Kuki dialect.

Taking strong exception to various misleading claims like Zale'n-gam or Kukiland existed even before Pakhangba, who ascended the throne of Kangleipak in 33 AD, and he was made the king of Kangleipak with the support of Kuki Achouba and Kuki Ahongba; that Taothingmang (264-364), son of Khuyol Tompok, who ruled after Pakhangba, was a Kuki king; that King Naothingkhong who ruled Kangleipak in 760 AD married daughters of four Kuki kings, and as many as 1200 Kuki armies from Zele'n-gam invaded Kamhau to free King Chandrakirti (1852-1886), when he was made a prisoner of war by Sukte Chin king and consequently King Chandrakirti recognised the Kuki nation of Zale'n-gam, etc., the Federation had even burnt down copies of the controversial book and imposed a ban on it.

In the neighbouring state of Nagaland, Zeliangrong Youth Organisation, Nagaland (ZYON) had filed a complaint to Jalukie Police station against the writer of the book and called for a ban on the distributions and sale of the book.

Questioning the claim made by the writer that the "sovereign Kuki state had already existed even before the establishment of the League of Nations and the United Nations and it stretched from the present Manipur to parts of Nagaland, Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Tripura and neighbouring countries of Myanmar and Bangladesh, ZYON had contended that the writer had written in Chapter VIII, Page no 1117 of the book that "Angamis of Khonoma village assaulted Zeliangs in Peren district and raped their women in front of menfolk" with an intent to incite communal flare-up between the two communities.

Rejecting the claim of Zeliangs in Peren district of Nagaland allowed to settle in lands of the Kuki as tenant and people of Nsong region made to pay tax to the Kuki chief of Jolpi, Mbaulwa region to the Kuki chief of Sailhem and of Nkio range to the Kuki chief of Sinjol while Nagas in Tenning and Beisumpul range doing the same to Kuki chiefs of Bombal and Tolbung respectively, ZYON had set the record straight with documentary evidences that it was the Nagas who allowed the Kukis to settle in their land on humanitarian ground and in recognition and loyalty towards the generosity of the Nagas, the Kukis have been paying taxes to their landowner to this day.

Interestingly, Kuki Inpi Nagaland (KIN) has now come out in support of the Zeliangs in Nagaland and rejected the claims made by PS Haokip in his book regarding history of Peren district as devoid of facts and borne out of the writer's personal figment of imagination which has no bearing on the relationship between the Zeliang people and the Kuki people of Nagaland.

This contestation from within the Kuki community itself against the writjng of PS Haokip, who is said to have originally hailed from Mongloi village in Myanmar but currently residing in Churachandpur district, from where the first spark of the now over five months long communal flare-up was lit, says a lot more than one could articulate on the danger of tinkering with history.