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Inclusion of Manipuri Language in the 8TH SCHEDULE:the revival of her indigenous religion and script-By: Isaac L. Hmar * "The first duty of a wise advocate is to convince his opponents that he understands their arguments, and sympathizes with their just feelings" - Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Out of the blue there were great clamors and decibels of joys and dance; it is out of ecstasy that roses bloomed in every heart of Imphalites and also every Manipuri living elsewhere. As a matter of fact, Manipur has been a land of interdict, strikes, killing spots because of its scores of unsolved crisis and its past colonial corollary. However, August 20, 1992 became a red letter day in Manipur because the 78th Constitutional Amendment Bill (Bill No. 142) enacted the inclusion of Manipuri in the 8th schedule of the Constitution along with Nepali and Konkani. As the inclusion of Manipuri language in the eight schedules is the epitome of the state, the government announced a state holiday and a partial holiday was also observed in other states like Assam where a good number of Manipuris live. In 1992, during the height of 8th Schedule demands, I was a student of John stone Higher Secondary School which is situated in the heart of Imphal and had witnessed mayhems, riots, burning of Hindi cassettes and books which were written in Bengali script and even banning of Hindi movies. It was the heydays of the Manipuri Language Demand Co-Coordinating Committee (MLDCC) demand for immediate inclusion of Manipuri Language in the eight schedule, under the chairmanship of Prof. M.S. Ningomba from the department of Linguistic, Manipur University. In course of time in April 30, 1992, the MLDCC changed its place of struggle to New Delhi with a strong open letter to then prime minister of India Shri P.V. Narasimha Rao which reads as follows: "I would like to draw your kind personal attention and sympathetic consideration towards Manipuri language since you came in the helm of administration as prime minister of India. As you are fully aware of the urge of the people in respect to their demand for the inclusion of Manipuri in the Eight Schedule of Indian constitution, I need not remind you the gravity of the situation at the moment. As far as I can understand and the situation demands me, I have to resort to an indefinite hunger strike for the just cause of Manipuri language.

I start fasting from today at 6 p.m. A big cheers and long live to Prof. M.S. Ningomba for his selfless patronage to our motherland and hope he'll keep up the good fight for any other good cause in the near future too..! From historical view-point, the Manipuri language was claimed to be a medium of communication with foreign powers likes Burma and the East India Company during the 18th and 19th century. It is also said that Manipuri is the most developed language of Tibeto-Burman speech family of India, and Dr. Suniti Kumar Chatterjee also said "Manipur Literature is the most emphatically and advance Modern Indian Literature" (Kirata-Jana-Kirti, 1974, P. 166). In fact, every language acts as a vehicle of thought and culture for the language group of people and in absence of due protection of the language, the time honor cultural and social heritage of the Manipuri in Assam which bears a close affinity with Assamese may be extinct; and in due course, they may be a community without the growth of its culture, customs and tradition. Now Manipuri is a schedule language with effect from 20th August, 1992. The use as well as promotion of the Manipuri language in the states where the said language is spoken is desirable in the interest of safeguarding the right to use one's 'mother tongue'. Like the Manipuris in Assam, the Hmars living in Mizoram are facing similar problem on their linguistic-ethnic distinctiveness. There are two factions of Hmars: those who are completely Mizoised; and those who are only partially assimilated by Mizo culture. The Hmars in the first group have now totally forgotten even the Hmar language as well as their cultural ethos and values. On the other hand, the partially assimilated Hmars are well aware of their distinct identity, traditions, customs and language. Majority of those Hmars live outside Mizoram. Even at University degree course level they can now offer Hmar as MIL. It is among this group of partially assimilated Hmars that the search for a separate identity has grown deeper. The inclusion of Manipur to the British India Empire after the Anglo-Manipur War, 1891 and the subsequent grant of native statehood to it by Queen Victoria did not affect the state language status of Manipuri. However, the immediate post-annexation era had gradually witnessed the emergence of Meitei nationalism. There was a young Meitei by the name Naoria Phullo from Cachar who was born in 1838 of peasant parents. He entered police service right after he passed matriculation examination. During his student days he was insulted by his fellow students that Manipur did not have any scripts but borrowed Bengali scripts. As such, Phullo began to think about his self-identity, racial consciousness of the Meitei nation and eventually founded the Apokpa Marup in Cachar in 1930. This movement was essentially anti-Brahman, anti-Bengali and also anti-Hinduism. However, Phullo after a decade of hearty religious and scholarly life died on 30 June, 1941. It appears that he had invented or revived a script, wrote religious hymns and treatises to be used by his followers.

In the mean time, the Sanamahi movement also gained momentum in Manipur when the Meitei Phurup was established on 14. May, 1945 and the meeting passed 28 resolutions which among other things resolved to revive the cultural heritage, literature including the Meitei scripts, Sanamahi cult and the indigenous religion of the Meitei. Although they were persecuted by the strong Brahma Samaj, they had been making attempts to desanskritize Manipur and opposed the concept of Manipur connected with Mahabhratta or the Aryans. And their labors had tremendous effects as the myth of the Aryan origin of the Meitei has now been discarded. Noted historian, G.P Singh, in his article "The identification of Manipur depicted in the Mahabharata and Purunas in Geographical and Historical perspectives" argues that, "The traditional genealogy of the early kings of Manipur showing the ancestry and offspring of Babhruvahana and tracing the descent of about thirteen kings (Kshatriya princes) down to so-called Yavishtha or Pakhangba directly from him in the line of succession is not worthy of our acceptance from purely historical point of view. Suniti Kumar Chatterji has correctly described it as a part of "early Manipur myths and legendary history". The royal genealogy recorded in the Vijay Panchali (a chronicle of Manipur written originally by Kritichandra in Bengal under the patronage of King Garibniwaj AD 1709-1748 and compiled by Dvija Sita Ran Sharna) does not bear the stamp of history. Thus it can be proved beyond doubt that the two different Manipur existed in two different parts of India in ancient times, one in Orissa and the other in the Northeast. The former was the capital city of a kingdom and the latter was itself a kingdom. Both had their own geographical and political entity. The view held by some local scholars that the name Manipur (in the context of the Northeast) came into use for the first time in the eighteen century is not worthy of acceptance. In a map bearing the title "India as revealed in the Mahabharata" contained in a very valuable historical atlas, Manipur has been placed both in Orissa and in the North-eastern part of India. The latter placement is evidently a mistaken. Thus the people in the valley of Manipur belonging to the Tibeto-Burman family of the Mongoloid race have been progressively accepted and authenticated. As results, the Sanamahi movement gives strong emphasis on the national identity of the Meitei and there has been a strong support from the students yet their religious consciousness and affection is not yawning. Thus its movement's popularity and esteem depends on the anti-Brahmin misinformation and racial self-consciousness of Meiteis. The Sanamahi culture (Meitei indigenous religion), revival of her script (Meitei Mayek), her rich culture and settled civilization and her linguistic-ethnic distinctiveness had contributed to the reassertion of Meitei national identity. However, the most unfortunate thing was that when the Meiteis and their kings accepted Hinduism, they burnt most of the said Chronicles. And now a strong movement is at this time going-on for the revival of Meitei indigenous culture. As a matter of fact, the Meitei original script (Meitei Mayek) is now being introduced in the primary educational institutions.

Of course, the concept of Manipuri nationalism encompassing all the indigenous peoples of the state is yet to emerge. What are internationally known are her dances and polo (Sagol kangjei) and these are in fact Manipur`s gift to the world. The hill people too have contributed to the enrichment of Manipur culture-the Kabui Naga dance and the bamboo-dance as widely practiced by the Kuki-Hmar-Mizo-Zomi may be referred to in this context. Thus, looking at the present atmosphere and situation arising out here, it is the need of the hour to build social and emotional integration between the valley and the hill people over the mayek issue. It is a high time that our intellectuals, social workers, NGOs, political and spiritual leaders to come together and put their heads together to sort out our differences to achieve the desired goal. Anything that is imposed tends to have both negative and positive impact. However, we seem to be still continuing to exploit our small state with different kinds of movement and ethnic chauvinism. The Phoenicians in eastern Mediterranean invented the first alphabet about 3,500 years ago. Later the Greeks and Romans developed their own alphabets which were improvements of the Phoenician script. In fact the word 'alphabet' is derived from two words alpha and beta which were the first two letters in the Greek alphabet. Now most of the languages in the civilized world have their own alphabets but the number of letters in the alphabets and their pronunciation differ from language to language. Surprisingly, the Meitei mayek itself has two factions of different number of letters. The Bishnupur declaring 36 letters script as the original one while other believes the 27 letters script are more authenticated. The controversy over the 36-27 letters is also still hanging in the balance and the court ruling must clear the doubt of confusion and resolve to adopt the correct script. No doubt, there are three options over the issue of the mayek; 1.Meitei mayek (Meitei script). 2. Manipuri (Roman script). 3. Manipuri Bengali script. With due respect and apology to MEELAL and no offence is intended as I wish to express my personal point of view in favor of the Roman scripts, as it is globally more useful for the new generations. Anyone who goes outside Manipur state to study will also find it easier to cope up with the problem of writing and reading Meiteilon in roman alphabets. As we are now living in the age of computer-world, use of Roman letters instead of mayek will be more advantageous for all practical purposes. So with the help of electronic e-mail system both typed and handwritten matters can be transmitted. Electronic mail is very fast and saves time and paper works. So, by introducing Meiteilon in roman alphabets will bring more mutual understanding and respect to the extend of upholding Meiteilon at large in the midst of the different minority

factions. Lastly, I strongly believe that this may become surely the strong foundation for the Integration of Manipur. Yes, we are all responsible for our integration.

Isaac L. Hmar, a research scholar at Dept. of History M.U, writes regularly to e-pao.netThe writer can be reached at isaac_intoate@yahoo.comThis article was webcasted on May 25th , 2005.