Ban on changing names of places : The politics of names
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: March 06, 2024 -

A rose by any other name will still remain as beautiful as it is but it may not be as all encompassing as it sounds, especially when the politics of identity and ‘ancestral claims’ rears its ugly head.

A Lily by its name may refer to any of the beautiful flower that blooms under the scientific name of the Lillium family and it is to give it its distinct identity that the Lily found growing at Shirui Kashong is known as Shirui Lily.

Any attempt to change its name to say Mao Lily or Manipur Lily would be blasphemous to the Tangkhul people, especially the people of Shirui village and it is this point which should be read into the passing of ‘The Manipur Names of Places Bill, 2024‘ in the Assembly on March 4, 2024.

The pressing need to pass such a Bill should be acknowledged and appreciated and the Government will need to do more than just passing a Bill and enacting it, but be ready to take up swift and stern action if and when attempts to distort the name of a place is detected.

This is all that more important when the name is closely associated with the identity and ancestral attachment of the indigenes to a place or a natural object.

Going back into history, acknowledging the close ties of the indigenes to the land and jolting awake the people and the Government to the ‘politics of name’ may perhaps be said to be one of the positives that has emerged from the ongoing ethnic clash that has already claimed over 200 lives, razed, bulldozed and levelled to the ground numerous houses, rendered over 60,000 people homeless and forced them to survive in relief centres for over 9 months.

It is obviously to blunt or neutralise the politics to lay claim of one’s identity or indigeneity over a place or locality that the State Assembly passed The Manipur Names of Places Bill, 2024 and one just has to go back to the month of August last year to understand the machination behind the politics of stamping a name to claim one’s identity over a locality or a place.

It was with a reason why the change of names of numerous localities in Moreh was brought to the notice of the world for here is a brazen act of cocking a snook at the understanding of the presence of a Government and so non-chalantly change the names of localities with a political motive.

And so it was that displaced people of Moreh highlighted how Moreh Turel Wangma Leikai was found distorted as Chikim village, Moreh Khunou Leikai as T Yangnom, Moreh bazar Leikai as D Monaphai and Heinoumakhong Leikai as Chikim.

Here is an example of the politics of names being orchestrated just so to wipe out the history of the Meiteis and other communities who had their homes at Moreh.

And nothing can get more farcical and unacceptable than this.

The politics of Thangjing to Thangting to Haokip Reserved Forest should take the cake, but there obviously is more.

Kangpokpi to Kanggui, Churachandpur to Lamka, address of the ticketing office of Air India situated inside Bir Tikendrajit International Airport as Lamka are all examples that come to mind and which were spelt out in the Assembly on March 4.

A look across the different localities of Imphal should also leave no one in doubt of how names have been changed to give them a distinct ethnic stamp, a move which goes against the very cosmopolitan identity of the capital of Manipur and this is what would rankle many. Go back to before Manipur went up in flames in the evening of May 3, 2023, and one can still recall the attempts made to christen a place as Vaiphei Colony lying on the eastern side of Mantripukhri, a space acquired after some Meitei families sold off their paddy fields to meet some financial exigencies.

Names may not mean much, but when one takes into account the politics behind the names being given to a place or the agenda of changing the name of a place to give it an ethnic identity which goes against the history of the land, then it exceeds the understanding of just names.

Manipur has woken up to the ugly reality rather late but it is significant that the conspiracy behind naming or renaming a place has been called out and perhaps the State Government may study the possibility of passing another Bill that seeks to revert the names of localities, especially in Imphal that have been changed sans the permission of the competent authority.

Allowing localities to be named at the fancy and whim of any community should not be understood as being accommodative but crawling when asked to kneel, thanks to the Acts that have segregated Manipur as hills and valley.