Strike off Kuki from ST list : FoH to Murmu
Source: The Sangai Express
Imphal, December 19 2023:
The Federation of Haomee has written to President Drou-padi Murmu with a plea to exclude Chin-Kuki-Zo peo-ple from the list of Scheduled Tribes of Manipur under Article 342 of Section (2), Sub-Section (1) .
In the letter, the Federation claimed that the inclusion of Chin-Kuki-Zo people in the ST list was illegal considering their accounts of migration to Manipur.
Claiming that the Chin-Kuki-Zo people are not liable to get the right of indigenous or tribals of Manipur from the perspective of historical records of Manipur and books, the Federation alleged that Chin-Kuki-Zo people are immigrants in Manipur.
"In the book of Thomas Herbert Lewin entitled Wild Races of the Eastern Frontier of India (Mittal Publications, page 83) the origin of the tribes (Kuki) is a doubtful point," it added.
"Sir James Johnstone, the Political Agent of Manipur 1896, in his book Manipur and the Naga Hills on page 45 stated that the Kukis are a wandering race consisting of several tribes who have been long working up from the south," the Federation said and alleged that the name Kuki was first heard during the British India period and they are readily distinguishable from the Naga community, the other ST group.