Retd top officer backs ST demand
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, January 27 2018: Acknowledging the ST Demand Committee (STDC)'s ongoing campaign of seeking opinions from experts and public regarding inclusion of Meitei/Meetei under ST category, retired Director of the Directorate of Economics and Statistics Oinam Biren Singh claimed today that Meitei/Meetei should be tribes.

Speaking to media persons at his residence at Langol today, Biren asserted that Meitei/ Meetei are Adivasis if one looks back and mull over the history of Manipur since the time of evolution period.

He defined Adivasis as the first inhabitants/native people/ original people/primordial people/indigenous people/aborigines or tribal people of a land and claimed that Meiteis have been existing as dominant tribes among the many tribes in Manipur since the time of social evolution.

If Meiteis/Meeteis are not recognised as tribes, then one will consider the community as not the indigenous people of Manipur.

Retd top officer backs ST demand

Hence, Meitei/Meetei should be categorised as tribe if they are to be the indigenous people, he said.

Noting that the first census survey in India was initiated in the year 1872 by British India and concluded in 1891, Biren maintained that India at the time was made of many independent kingdoms and the survey was done part by part in those kingdoms.

1891 was an important year for Manipur as the independent kingdom was colonized by British after defeating Manipur.

However, British political agents started arriving in Manipur since 1835 when Chandrakirti Maharaj ruled the kingdom.

Census survey was conducted in Manipur as part of Assam province from 1901 till 1961.But it would be right to say that the census survey was not conducted in an independent, full-fledged, dependable and reliable manner.

From 1901 to 1911, the census survey report was based on different castes of Hinduism and Jainism, Muslims and Christians.

From 1921 to 1941, caste, race and tribe were covered in the census survey and in 1931 there came out a division among the tribes, known as primitive tribes and the whole issue of tribe began with the emergence of primitive tribes among the tribes, he pointed out.

The Scheduled Tribes and Scheduled Castes which include the Tangkhuls, Anals and other communities in hills were only considered as Adivasis.

But if Meiteis/Meeteis are not taken as Adivasis, aborigines or primordial people, then Meiteis/ Meeteis become foreigners and not indigenous people in spite of the fact that they (Meiteis/Meeteis) existed as a dominant tribe ruling Manipur both in hills and valley areas since the time of evolution of Manipur, he observed.

He declared that he has strong conviction that Meiteis/Meeteis are Adivasis although the word "Adivasi" is a Hindi word while elaborating that Adivasi derived from "Adi" meaning beginning and "niwasi" meaning settlers which means settlers at the beginning.

Contending that the word tribe is a sociological concept and neither educational nor economical concept, he explained that sociological concept refers to the norms that a society follows from the birth till death.

Manipur was a fertile land at the primitive time and Meitei/Meetei only worked for three months in a year.

The abundant products reaped at the end of the working season lasted for the whole year and the people at the time spent greater parts of the year in merry-making by organizing dance, songs and other entertainment activities.

Hence, Meitei/Meetei community has rich cultural heritage, Biren maintained.

Acculturation and transition took place later on and majority of the Meiteis/Meeteis converted to Hinduism and their age old cultures have been deeply influenced by Hindu cultures.

Stating that the Meitei/Meetei were worshippers of ancestors, Biren claimed that such characteristics prove that Meiteis/Meeteis are aborigines and the original dwellers in Manipur.

Reminding that the first Backward Classes Commission of India was established in 1953 by a Presidential order under the chairmanship of Kaka Saheb Kalelkar, Biren noted that the report submitted by Kalelkar in 1955 recommended that the Adivasis can be treated as backward classes and their economic and social life can also be considered as backward.

The last part of the recommendation also mentioned that there may be some other backward classes that have not been covered as the time frame given to the committee was very limited, he pointed out and added that the President of India did not accept the report.

There was also Lokur Committee in 1931 that conducted census survey in Manipur as part of Assam province.

Later on, Mandal Commission was established in 1979 and the reported submitted in 1980 recommended inclusion of Meitei/Meetei Rajkumar and Brahmins under backward classes.

However, Indra Sawhney challenged the recommendations of Mandal Commission in Supreme Court on the ground that the enlisted groups in the backward class were unconstitutional and the fundamental rights were curtailed.

Nonetheless, a nine-member bench of the Supreme Court upheld the Mandal Commission report and ordered to set up a State Commission for Backward Classes in every State and any State which did not comply with the order by 1994 would face contempt of Court.

In Manipur, an expert committee led by Y Ibotombi assessed and made an order to form the commission and Justice Haobam Kaminikumar later made recommendation to reserve 17 per cent for backward classes in Government services and admissions in Government institutions.

This shows that Manipur already accepted Meetei/Meiteis as backward.

Hence, Government and people need to introspect and make the necessary corrections in the criteria and concept of tribe.

Mention may be made that noted politician Okram Joy and retired IPS officer Dhanakumar have also given their opinions in the recent past as part of the opinion seeking campaign that started from January this year.

The STDC has already warned that intense agitation would be launched if the Manipur Government does not do the needful and recommend the committee's demand to the Centre at the earliest.