Behind this recent outbreak of ethnic conflict… there hovers a dark commercial deal signed by the Biren Singh BJP led government with several mining companies soon after he came to power in 2017. What is little known and seldom highlighted by the mainstream media is the fact that the hill districts of Manipur contain rich deposits of chromite, limestones, nickel, copper, and various platinum group of elements of immense value for multinational industries…. to attract them, Biren Singh organized a two-day meeting in Imphal in November 21-22, 2017, known as the North East Business Summit, where his government signed several MOU’s with several mining companies, which transferred to them land and giving them mining rights in the hill areas of Uphurl, Chandel, and Chandpur among other places. These areas are inhabited by the Tangkhul Naga and Kuki tribal people. (Re: Jiten Yumna: Nuances of Mining plan in Manipur in The Sanga Express, August 25, 2020). They felt threatened by the possible encroachment on their lands by these mining companies which had been entitled to such occupation for mining purposes. They soon started organizing themselves to protest against Biren Singh’s deal.…
A woman, spreading a sack before her like a fish stall/ Sells body of little children /Dead from gunshot wounds / Sprinkling water and rubbing the corpses/ She says laughing carelessly: “Not anyone’s/ Not anyone’s children, mind you/ These children are my own. (Thangam Bipasha, Manipuri poet who composed this poem some twenty years ago.
Quoted in `Where the Sun Rises When Shadows Fall: The North-east’ in India International Centre Quarterly, Monsoon-Winter, 2005)
When reading the daily reports of the ongoing ethnic strife and killings in Manipur, I keep remembering the old history of the state, and my personal experiences there during my occasional visits to Imphal and Uphurl. At the same time, looking back at those impressions, I now realize how incomplete they were. They were confined to the valley of Imphal, mainly among my Meitei friends, and to Uphurl where I had /a few Naga friends. The Kakis of the hills were totally out of our perception. We ignored signs of a divisive disaster that was waiting to happen.
To start with, in the past, Manipur (known as Kamleika) was ruled by small chieftains and their various clans, who later merged to form the Meitei community which lived in the plains, while those living in the hills followed their tribal tradition of animist beliefs and came to be known as `Hao.’ It was in the 15th century that the land-locked country was exposed to external influences when Hindu Brahmin priests from the mainland India migrated to Manipur to expand their religious empire by converting the Manipuri’s. Many Meites converted to Hinduism. But the country remained a melting pot of different cultural and religious streams, as evident from the Manipur rulers allowing Muslims to settle down there in the early 17th century. They were known as Meitei Pangas (whose descendants are still there). (Re: Yumna Oken Singh and Ganapati Khadija – `The Advent of Vaishnavism: A Turning Point in Manipuri Culture,’ published in European Academic Research, Vol. 1, Issue 9, December 2013).
The Bengali connection
It was many years later, in the 18th century that Hinduism, in the shape of Vaishnavism got a firm foothold in Manipur – and that also thanks to a Bengali priest. By then the Manipur royalty had been veering towards Vaishnavism, with its king Chara Rongoa converting to it, under the influence of the proselytizer Niambra who visited Manipur in 1704. Some years later, Garcinias (known as Pahia in Manipuri) became the king, who turned out to be a fanatical devotee of Vaishnavism, under the influence of the royal priest. This priest happened to be a Bengali Vaishnavi called Shanti Das Goswamy who migrated from his homeland in neighbouring Sylhet, and managed to gain the king’s confidence. Such was his power of proselytizing that he could persuade Garcinias to destroy the traditional Meitei temples and idols of local deities. The old Manipuri script was gradually eradicated to be replaced by the Bengali script. But during these destructive trends brought about by the Bengali Vaishnavi influence, there was one positive effect in the cultural sphere. The Vaishnavi legend of the Radha- Krishna romance was introduced in the form of the Raas Leela dance, which was soon adopted by the Manipuri performers. But they gave it a distinct form by shaping it according to their traditional dancing style. This development led to the emergence of a unique genre of dancing, known as Manipuri dance in the world arena of choreography…..
After the truth-shower 