Inner Line Permit System in Manipur : Lessons to learn from other countries and states
and what we need to do
- Part 1 -

Dr Khomdon Singh Lisam *

Sit-In-Protest for Inner Line Permit System in Manipur :: 21 August 2011

When I was in Los Angeles in 1997, I was offered a scholarship in connection with drug abuse and HIV/AIDS by the National Institute of Health, (NIH) Bethesda, Maryland to visit some of the research institutes and NGOs in Washington D.C. New York, San Francisco, Tennessee. I was asked to report to NIH. The NIH through the courtesy of my friend Dr. Patricia Needle, Director, NIH send me the air –tickets and travel itinerary. On the last day of my four days stay in Washington D.C. Dr. Patricia Needle offered me a free tour of Washington D.C in her car. Washington D.C is full of attractions and it is the city where the world is changed on a daily basis.

We visited some of the places like White House, Capitol Building, Lenin's Memorial, Washington Monument. After a brief working lunch, we came to the National Museum of Red Indians. The museum showcased the lives, history, culture of the native Americans. I was intrigued by an exhibit showing how Christopher Columbus presented one native American in his own distinctive style of dress and headgear to queen Isabella of Spain in March, 1493 as evidence of his discovery of America. The native Americans exactly looked like one of us.

The next exhibit was one beautiful native girl standing in a pensive mood reminding the stories of native Americans. I scanned through some of the interesting manuscripts, books, ocuments, videos about native Americans. The museum vividly showed how the native Americans have been tragically mistreated, disrespected and persecuted over the years.

I started liking for them and their way of life. I asked Patricia Needle "what is the percentage of population of native Americans in USA". She replied – "America is a country of immigrants and the percentage may be very small probably below 2%. You are going to visit Tennessee state where there are more native Americans. Actually hundreds of thousands of native Americans died of epidemic diseases, genocide, internal conflicts. Many of the original tribes and their dialects become extinct." This visit ignited my curiosity to know more about aboriginal /indigenous populations of America and also other countries.

1. Fate of indigenous people in America

The native Americans have been living in America for the last 60,000 years. The estimated number of Native Americans in North America before arrival of Christopher Columbus on 12 Oct, 1492 ranged from a low of 2.1 million (Ubelaker 1976) to 7 million people (Russell Thornton) to a high of 18 million (Dobyns -1983 Microchronology and Demographic Evidence Relating to the Size of Pre-Columbian North American Indian Populations". Science 16 June 1995: Vol. 268. no. 5217, pp. 1601–1604 DOI: 10.1126/science.268.5217.1601).

In the beginning, the European settlers were amazed to see the lives of native Americans who enjoyed freedom with abundant nourishment without laws, without police and without religion. (Jean Jacques Rousseau, Jesuit and Savage in New France (Tiya Miles-2008, Ties that Bind: The Story of an Afro-Cherokee Family in Slavery and Freedom. University of California Press - Link here

The arrival of Columbus and subsequently by other settlers from Europe during the nineteenth century wrecked the identity, culture, customs, traditions, language of the native people. From the 16th through the 19th centuries, the population of native Americans declined due to epidemic diseases brought from Europe; genocide and warfare at the hands of European explorers and colonists displacement from their lands; internal warfare, enslavement; and a high rate of intermarriage. (Handbook of American Indians, "Indian Mixed-Blood", Frederick W. Hodge 1906.) ("A Brief History of Albuquerque". Link here and here Retrieved 2011-08-29. ).

By 1800, the native population of the present-day United States had declined to approximately 600,000, and only 250,000 Native Americans remained in the 1890s. (Thorton, Russel (1990). American Indian holocaust and survival: a population history since 1492. University of Oklahoma Press. p. 43. ISBN 080612220X.). The great strike of gold in the foothills of the central Sierra Nevada, California in 1848 brought misery and death to large number of native Americans. The inter-marriage between Native American women and European men because of preponderance of men among the colonists in the early years is also one of the important factor for declining the native American population.

Earlier, the Native Americans comprised of several hundred ethno-linguistic groups speaking more than 300 dialects. Now many dialects became extinct (The black-and-white world of Walter Ashby Plecker". Pilotonline.com. Link here )

In most of the states, the percentage of Native American population is between 0.1 % to 0.2%. In 2006, the U.S. Census Bureau estimated that about 0.8% of the U.S. population was of American Indian or Alaska Native descent. (Indian Achievement Award". Ipl.org. Link here ). Because of population invasion from Europe, the native Americans have lost their lands, gold, minerals, identity, culture, traditions, language and their existence is felt only in museums.

2. Fate of indigenous people in Australia

The ancestors of Indigenous Australians are believed to have arrived in Australia some 40,000 to 60,000 years ago, but possibly as early as 70,000 years ago.( Peter Hiscock -2008, Archaeology of Ancient Australia. Routledge: London. ISBN 0-415-33811-5, John Mulvaney and Johan Kamminga -1999. Prehistory of Australia. Allen and Unwin, Sydney. ISBN 1-86448-950-2) .

The Dutch navigator Willem Janszoon landed in Australia in 1606 (J.P.Sigmond and L.H.Zuiderbaan (1979-Dutch Discoveries of Australia.Rigby Ltd, Australia. p.19-30 ISBN 0-7270-0800-5). Other European explorers followed intermittently until, in 1770. James Cook charted the East Coast of Australia for Britain and returned with accounts favouring colonisation at Botany Bay (now in Sydney), New South Wales. (Wendy Lewis, Simon Balderstone and John Bowan (2006). Events That Shaped Australia. New Holland. p.19. ISBN 978-1-74110-492-9).

The First Fleet of British ships arrived at Botany Bay in January 1788 to establish a penal colony (Lewis, Balderstone and Bowan -2006 p. 25). Between 1788 and 1868, approximately 161,700 convicts (of whom 25,000 were women) were transported to the Australian colonies of New South Wales, Van Diemen's land and Western Australia. (Jan Bassett -1986, p. 258).

Early colonial administrations were anxious to address the gender imbalance in the population brought about by the importation of large numbers of convict men. Between 1788 and 1792, around 3546 male and 766 female convicts were landed at Sydney (B. H. Fletcher. "Biography - Arthur Phillip - Australian Dictionary of Biography" Adbonline.anu.edu.au. ,Link here ) .

The population of Indigenous Australians at the time of permanent European settlement has been estimated at between 318,000 and 750,000, (Year Book Australia, 2002 Australian Bureau of Statistics 25 January 2002)

Other colonies were established by Britain around the continent and European explorers went deep into the interior throughout the 19th century.

Introduction of diseases and conflict with the British colonists greatly weakened Indigenous Australians throughout the period. A smallpox epidemic was recorded in Sydney in 1789, which wiped out about half the Indigenous Australians around Sydney. It then spread well beyond the then limits of European settlement, including much of southeastern Australia, reappearing in 1829–30, killing 40–60 percent of the Indigenous Australian population. (Richard Broome (1984) Arriving. p.27-28., (Glynn, Ian; Glynn, Jenifer (2004).

The life and death of smallpox, Cambridge University Press pp. 145–146. ISBN 0-521-84542-4. Link here ). Later gold rushes occurred at the Palmer River, Queensland, in the 1870s and it has brought many immigrants to Australia from Great Britain, Ireland, continental Europe, North America and China. The Colony of Victoria's population grew rapidly, from 76,000 in 1850 to 530,000 by 1859. (C.M.H. Clark -1971, Select Documents in Australian History 1851-1900 (Vol 2) p.664-5. Angus and Robertson, Sydney. ISBN 0-207-13426-X.)

Migration brought large numbers of southern and central Europeans to Australia for the first time. Some 4.2 million immigrants arrived between 1945 and 1985, about 40% of whom came from Britain and Ireland. (Jan Bassett -1986), p.138-9

The population tripled in six decades to around 21 million in 2010, with people originating from 200 countries sustaining the 14th biggest economy in the world. (DFAT.gov.au DFAT.gov.au. 19 April 1984. Link here ).

As of June 2001, the Australian Bureau of Statistics estimated the total resident Indigenous population to be 458,520 (2.4% of Australia's total). (Hughes, Helen November 2008). "Who Are Indigenous Australians?". Quadrant ). In the 2006 Census, the indigenous population as of end June 2006 was estimated to be 517,200, representing about 2.5% of the population ("Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Population". 1301.0 – Year Book Australia, 2008. Australian Bureau of Statistics. 7 February 2008. Link here )

There were more than 250-300 languages with 600 dialects spoken by Indigenous Australians prior to the arrival of Europeans. Most of these are now either extinct or moribund, with only about fifteen languages still being spoken by all age groups. (Zuckermann, Ghilad, "Aboriginal languages deserve revival", The Australian Higher Education, 26 August 2009). ("Australian Social Trends" Australian Bureau of Statistics, 1999) and another 20 languages are considered to be endangered. (Nathan, D: "Aboriginal Languages of Australia", Aboriginal Languages of Australia Virtual Library, Dnathan.com 2007

Early commentaries often tended to describe Aborigines as doomed to extinction following the arrival of Europeans. William Westgarth's 1864 book on the colony of Victoria observed: "the case of the Aborigines of Victoria confirms …it would seem almost an immutable law of nature that such inferior dark races should disappear." (Westgarth cited in Richard Broome and Alan Frost (1999) The Colonial Experience: The Port Phillip District 1834-1850. p. 122. HTAV, Melbourne. ISBN 1-86446-412-7.) Now nobody cares about the existence of the indigenous population of Australia.

To be continued....