ZB Manipur reacts to statement of tribe councils
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, August 03 2018: The Zeliangrong Baudi Manipur has conveyed that it has been compelled to clarify to clear the confusion conceived by some individuals who have floated the so called tribe councils with their vested interest and motive to destabilize the unity and strength of Zeliangrong people in collusion with outside forces.

A press release issued by president ZB (Manipur) stated that the contention of the so called tribe councils that "Zeliangrong" is not a tribe but the name of an organization itself is an attempt to mislead and contradict the finding of the anthropological research which concluded that "Zeliangrong people has the history of common ancestry".

The Zeme council, Liangmai council, Rongmei council is group based organizations which has no authority to represent the Zeliangrong people, it alleged.

ZB Manipur further claimed that genetic, inseparable and indestructible blood bound family history of Zeliangrong people which have been maintaining for ages without any form of disturbances or challenges from within and without is now trying to allegedly distort by some individuals without realizing that their efforts to mislead the public through the so called councils are only fooling themselves and exposing their crooked minds.

The proof of Zeliangrong people speaking one language is evident when referred to folk songs and folk tales, name of persons, clans and descendants, name of village of ancestors etc but dispersal to different direction had started to develop some language variation, it alleged.

The dialectic variation within the Zeliangrong family was magnified through the Christian leaders especially when the Baptist Christian group was split into smaller groups and floated different dialectic based nomenclatures such as Zeme Naga Baptist Association (ZNBA), Liangmai Naga Baptist Association (LNBZ), Rongmei Naga Baptist Association (RNBA) and Inpui Naga Baptist Association (PNBA) instead of working for developing a common language and unite Zeliangrong like other tribes whose wide division and differences in their tribe, due to speaking different dialects, were patched up and upheld their single identity by having common songbooks, bible, hymnals etc through Christianity, ZB Manipur further alleged.

Meanwhile, the recommendation of the State Govt and recognition as separate and distinct tribe by the Govt is in total contradiction to anthropological finding which has now created complete chaos and may result to serious consequences for which the so called councils should bear the responsibility, it asserted.

The tribe recognition issue should not be considered like registering of a political party or NGOs but the identity of a tribe has to be based on the origin of the human race.

Regarding the separate tribe recognition granted by the NSCN-IM/GPRN, it also clarified that there are many Naga underground groups in Naga societies and therefore the recognition granted by one group or even if all the Naga underground groups granted separate tribe recognition, has no logic to uphold and will not impact the Zeliangrong people.

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