Have you ever come across any Manipuri who had a local school background and at the same time forgotten his own language in the changing pace of the world?

I fortunately met one such gentleman in Zakhama Loyola English School, Nagaland where he was serving as an assistant teacher. This happened way back in 1986 when I was being introduced to him by one of my friends who was also serving as a teacher in a private school nearby Zakhama.

The gentleman in question introduced himself as Rajesh hailing from Thoubal district of Manipur never spoke any language other than English but amusingly in the kind of tone which itself revealed who he was. I was amused and further enquired how he had forgotten his own mother tongue? He said ‘I came here at an early age and hardly got the chance to speak Manipuri. Now I can’t speak it’.

This reminded me of the joke of two Manipuris who pretended to each other of being foreign nationals - one as Thai and the other as a Korean at their first meeting in Mumbai. Later they came to know each other’s identity only when they were dining together in a restaurant where they started murmuring vulgarities in Manipuri dialect blaming oneself for not being familiar with the ‘fork and spoon’ tradition.

Dolak Phom was also a popular person who had been elected as one of the town committee members in the ‘Tuensang Town Committee’ in 1995. A wonderful personality so eloquent in Phom dialect that one would mistake him as an influential Phom politician. However, he is a Manipuri who never returned home over the years.

Yet he still speaks excellent Manipuri. He is quite a capable chap in the Tuensang district of Nagaland who in the process of life married a local woman, thereafter he had been known as Dolak Phom otherwise he was Sanasam Dhiren.

One elderly friend of mine who had been breathing the air of Mizoram for forty years now is also a well-known Manipuri in Aizawl but unluckily without a surname of his own. All his offspring opted for the surname and title of their mother and the father seemed to have followed suit.

It is not an offensive or objectionable act but what is the harm when one remains true to the self instead of shying away from his origin? Is it a sin to be a Manipuri? Can't one settle there upholding one’s own identity and roots?

In the same case, I came across many Muslim gentlemen who had settled in different parts of the country having inter- marriage life with the locals of the place but they hardly embraced other religion or converted to some other community for mere gain in life.

Once I met one of my respected teachers in Shillong who had almost settled in Itanagar, Arunachal Pradesh. He had given me a visiting card when we parted. I wrote a letter enquiring about his well being and recollecting the short encounter in Shillong when I reached Delhi.

The reply was so embarrassing and cold and I was warned not to write his full surname on the envelope next time. Later I learnt that ‘L’ which he uses in short form, doesn’t stand for Leisangthem but the adopted surname of his wife which also co-incidentally began with the alphabet ‘L’. Many such persons are often seen around while few could be available upholding his or her identity.

A Manipuri Meitei woman who is married to one of my Mao friends serving in the Bank of Baroda seemed to have enjoyed life with her husband and no doubt the child born by them will definitely be ‘Maos’. So also is Bimola who married an Angami friend of mine in Kohima village. This is the true spirit.

My Mao friend and Angami friend will never change their identity because they married a Manipuri woman. Likewise any child born of Manipuri women married to Sardarji, Bengali and other communities by no means become a Manipuri by blood.

We don’t adopt the system of the distinguished tribes in Meghalaya where women have to decide the fate of the husband. This is nothing related to the communal ethos or Manipuri chauvinism. This is simply the question of identity.

However one of my friends who was serving in Nagaland, Ibohal, who had married an Angami lady is of different character. His wife will always dress in Manipuri attire and speak polished Manipuri and learning the way of the Manipuris. His effort to make his wife speak the Manipuri language in a Nagamese and English spoken land was never a mater of joke.

On the part of the wife she never hesitates to become the most understanding ‘better half’ of her husband. Moreover following the footprints of the husband and converting herself to the community to which her husband belongs never contradicts the law of the land. But such people come very few and far between.

In Manipur we have the example of Banuo Koijam, otherwise the better half of our Ex-Chief Minister Radhabinod Koijam, she can compete well with the most orthodox Meitei ladies when it comes to maintaining and sharing her husband's public life.

Sometimes I am bemused when the Keralites lit up the light of ‘Onam festival’. People from every walk of life in Kerala celebrate it in full spirit. The same is being practiced elsewhere in the world wherever Keralites inhabit. They all gather in a joyous festive mood keeping aside the religious differences.

When the ‘Gan-ngai festival’ season comes around, the Kabui community celebrate the festival welcoming one and all whether one is a Christian or a non-Christian. Sekreni the festival of the Angamis and Chakhesang and Motsu the festival of Aos are age-old traditional festivals.

All the Nagas had been observing such festivals since time immemorial much before Nagas embraced Christianity and it still continues. They never despised this colorful festival after they became Christians.

Unfortunately any Meitei when he becomes a Christian, (s)he despises Uamang Lai Haraoba of Manipur and will disassociate himself from all the Meitei cultural and traditional rituals as a rule. Very few may come out to contradict it.

The conversion of religion is something, which happens for one, love the doctrine and scripture of the religion and it is my humble opinion that it has nothing to do with one’s origin and community.

When the Japanese embrace Christianity, they proudly stand in their positions and exclaim, ‘We will be Japanese Christians not American Christians’. Unfortunately this spirit and sense of oneness doesn’t flow in the mind and body of those who had opted different religions and settled elsewhere far from the memories of truth.

When the cult of Hinduism arrived at this religiously fertile land and when the Manipuri scriptures (Puyas) were burnt, Manipuris seemed to have fully converted into Hinduism. We surrendered everything to the new religion and everybody assumed Hindu names and titles.

Such practice has not only sapped the vitality of the people of Manipur but it has also seriously blurred their future politically and identity aspects. Such unfortunate systems had not occurred to other States in India when the people of certain States converted to the religion they loved, but never changed their traditional names.

Nevertheless when any of the Manipuri Meiteis convert himself or herself into Christianity, it has become a rule to change his/her name too. When Nonglenba was baptized recently, he has since then became to known as Brother Mark. I wonder why he can’t still remain as Nonglenba despite his conversion to the religion he likes.

However Nancy MacCradle Maybe, widow of Jupiter Yambem who perished in the most horrifying attack at the World Trade Center in New York, heralded a new message to the world communities in large and Manipuris in particular.

In her short and impromptu speech in a simple inaugural function of ‘Jupiter Yambem Center’ at Paona Bazaar on September 11, 2002, she asserted ‘I wanted to bring my son Santi (Chinglai Lakpa) to Imphal frequently so that he can keep in touch with his father's roots’.

I wonder why Nancy doesn’t wish to erase the memory of Manipur from her son and let her son grow up as a proud American? What made her think to bring her son from a far distant place like America to Manipur every year only to impart to her son the ‘Manipuris way of life’ and its tradition and culture?

This remains a trillion-dollar question to us and especially for the Manipuris who bade adieu to the society of Manipur and want to lead a different life of their own.

(Some names have been changed to protect identities)