James Bond is the name. But if he were born in Manipur, we might have instead seen a different pitch line in the 007 series media promotions. "B. James Singh is the name" would have been the line used. How odd it is! The creators of this mega franchisee spy flicks would be stirred and also shaken if they are shown this probability. No prizes for guessing then who Th. Margaret Devi is. Margaret Thatcher would know for sure.

So, Ranjan Yumnam is the name, not Ranjan Singh. In all the documents that bear my name, I make sure that it is written only this way- name first and then the family name (surname). Writing a name in this form-doing away with the common practice of adding "Singh"to our first name- has two clear advantages: 1) it announces to the world that I am a Manipuri and 2) nobody confuses me for a Sikh chap.

Both of these attributes in a name is all the more important to the thousands of Manipuris living outside Manipur since they live as minorities in unfamiliar environs. They have to live in a world in which Pandeys, Chaturvedis, Ramachandrans, Guptas, Smiths and their likes overwhelm with their sheer numbers, and often call the shots. No wonder then, they crave for a distinct identity and almost always turn to the Manipuri culture and history to search for pride and reaffirmation in their roots. These are the people who follow the events in Manipur with great zeal and become hyperactive every time Mr. Muivah yells Nagalim. They are patriotic and extremely politically conscious.

Imagine how these people would feel when they are mistaken as Sikhs because of the suffix "Singh" in their names. Obviously, they would be demoralized and probably very angry. Calling them Nepalese after seeing their face and then presuming them to be Punjabis from their names is the height of cruel assault on their self esteem and feelings of kinship pride. Remember these people are fiercely patriotic cultural flag-wavers of Manipur in their places of domicile.

While our brethrens living in exile in far off places are smarting under the deceptive name syndrome, the Manipuris living within the borders of Manipur also feel the sting of the same syndrome. That is because whenever we achieve extraordinary feats in the field of sports (which is the last bastion of our hope and prestige), the credit seems to go to the people who invented the Bhangra dance barely connected to us in any way. Unless Manipur is clearly mentioned in the news report, we ourselves could be misled into thinking that the particular sports man or team is from North India. Consider the following actual news report carried by the Hindu and the rediff.com and laugh at the irony.

"Dingko Singh silenced the crowd, with his smart bout against Ashok Subban of Sikkim in the featherweight class of the 48th National boxing championship at the YMCA Complex here on Tuesday.

After a long lay-off when he was away from the ring, nursing an injury, Dingko dispelled the clouds of doubt surrounding his ability to get back into the competitive mode, with a class act.

……Suresh Singh of the CISF got a good start in the flyweight category, as he forced the referee to stop the contest against P. Prakash of Rajasthan in the first round itself."
- Hindu on 5^th Feb 2002

"Manipur created history by annexing the coveted Santosh Trophy for the first time, as they scripted a thrilling 2-1 victory over holders Kerala in the final of the 58th edition of the National football championship, at the Khuman Lampak stadium in Imphal, on Tuesday.

Promising youngster W Tomba Singh produced the golden goal early in extra-time after both the teams were locked 1-1 at the end of the regular time, in a match which saw fortunes fluctuate from one side to the other till the very end.

Spurred on by a vociforous home crowd, the hosts shot into the lead as early as the sixth minute, with the diminutive L Tikken Singh finding the target.

.............Tomba Singh's golden goal in the fourth minute of extra-time sent the 25,000 home fans into raptures as Manipur fulfilled a long-cherished dream of winning the trophy for the first time since 1941.

............Strengthened by the services of outstation players like Moni Tombi Singh, Bijen Singh and James Singh, the diminutive and fast moving Manipur forward line combined well to launch furious onslaughts on the tight Kerala defence right from the word go." - www.rediff.com on October 5, 2002

It is not the men only who have to bear the brunt of distortion in their names, women also suffer the same fate more or less. Their crime: the "Devi" in their names. Devi is a substitute for the Manipuri word "Chanu" but the latter is out of vogue and hardly used nowadays, except by a few die-hard Meiteism revivalists. Like their male counterparts, their names tell nothing about their cultural and ancestral antecedents. What can borrowed names do after all?

But how do we all end up having strange foreign names that have nothing to do with us-linguistically and culturally? It so happened in a certain phase in our history, during the times of Maharaj Garibaniwaz, a clever Bengali chap landed in the kingdom of Kangleipak with a mission in his mind. Santidas Gosai was his name and he had a degree in chemistry (probably he specialized in chemical reactions that yield explosives and fireworks). As legend had it, Mr Goshai was hell bent on converting the populace of Manipur into Hindus. The first target of his proselytizing venture was our unsuspecting king and it was achieved quickly and easily. The king was too willing to believe in what he saw of Goshai's miracle-like chemical reactions so much so that he even dismissed the warnings of his trusted aides who saw the Machiavellian designs of the outsider. Once the king's confidence was won and he was converted to Hindu, he let off one of the biggest conversion movements in the history of Manipur and with great effectiveness. Within his lifetime, he managed to convert a major section of the Manipuris into rigid Vaishnavites by dint of his ingenious machinations in cahoots with our naïve Maharaj. His wish was ultimately fulfilled: Hinduism became the state religion.

I won't debate on whether or not Hinduism is good for us as religion is a matter of personal choice. But what is irrefutable is the fact that the Vaishnavisation of the Manipuris has had an inevitable impact on the way the Manipuris name themselves. The Hindu mythology and the twin epics of Mahabharat and Ramayan have been relished, read and reread, enacted in dramas and leelas, and reflected in our dance forms for generations. How much have we been influenced by the Hinduism folklore can be guessed from the dubious belief that Arjuna (a character in Mahabharat) visited Manipur and married a local girl (fortunately these falsehoods have been debunked and the books that spread this fallacy have been banned and burnt).

Even after the end of Garibaniwaj's reign and long after Mr. Goshai died of a strange illness- the nature of which is as controversial as his exploits in his lifetime-we copied and adopted the names of the heroes and heroines of the Hindu mythology and later in the course of pilgrimages to "holy" places in the mainland India, our forefathers came into contact with the Indian Hindus and were exposed to a rich lexicon of Hindu names from which they could pick and choose one for their newborn child. Somehow they caught a fancy to names ending in Singh, Sharma, Kumar, Rajkumar and Devi and many of us ended up having our names screwed with these meaningless suffixes till now.

All is not lost for us though. Many of us seeing the anomaly in our weird and outdated name system have turned our backs on it and have adopted the correct First Name-followed-by-Surname format. Some of the surnames may be hard to pronounce and remember for the non-Manipuris, but that is what identity is all about. Can you change your mother after all? No.

To begin with, students while filling out the matriculation forms should ensure that they write their names in the correct format. This is important because the matriculation form is an important document which is the basis for all future verification of your name. Once you have given a name in this form in any format, it will be hard to change it unless you are prepared to undergo a lengthy and cumbersome legal drag.

More important than this is to ask yourself: what's my name? If what you hear pleases you and gives you a sense of your true identity, then go for it. If not, then its time to wake up and search for your identity and remove the symbol of bondage from your name. I assure you the change will be profoundly worthwhile.