Joel Naga, Vitho Zao
Rising People’s Party
Jagdamba Mall’s desperate attempt to link Nagas with ancient India (of the near mythical Mahabharata) is at par with another delusional scientist, Nageshwar Rao, the Vice Chancellor of Andhra University who in 2019 claimed that the Kauravasof the Mahabharata were born through test-tube and stem cell technology and that Ravana of Ramayana had 24 aircrafts and several airports in Sri Lanka! Another of his illustrious contemporary seems to be the former Chief Minister of Tripura Biplab Kumar Deb who during his tenure claimed that ancient India had internet and satellite communications.
Jagdamba Mall seems to be a rabble-rouser, extraordinarily obsessed with the highly gilded world of gods and mythical heroes. His article titled “Ram MandirAyodhyaaur Naga Samaj” published in some of the state’s newspapers is a propaganda hit-job. He conjures up fantastical stories of Arjun, the great archer of the 5 Pandava brothers, marrying a Naga damsel, Ulupi. His fertile imagination doesn’t end here. Another grandson of lord Krishna marries a “Naga beauty” Usha, from which the name Wokha is derived, he concludes!
It must be said to Jagdamba Mall that Nagas are indeed flattered to be linked with the heroes and gods of the Mahabharata war which supposedly took place 5000 years ago! But the only problem lies in the lies of generations of Brahmanical forces conjuring legends and fantastical stories of kings and communities in the Northeast who almost invariably had linkages with either Arjun or Bhima of the Mahabharata!
Jagdamba Mall is no different from his proselyting predecessors. Whereas he rants against Christian missionaries in the Northeast, he’s reminded that Hindu proselytizing wreaked havoc with indigenous religions and culture in this part of the world.
The ThunbuiZeliangs are the endless additions to the long list in the last 500 years. In the early 18th Century, the Meitei king Gharib Nawaz – or Pamheiba, purportedly a Naga - was converted to Hinduism. The Hindu Brahmins invented a legend that the king and his people were Kshatriyas and the descendants of the Pandavahero Arjun and a Naga woman (Ulupi perhaps) during the time of Arjun’s sojourn to ancient Manipur! Whatever the genealogy, Pamheiba’sconversion changed forever the indigeneity of Manipur. Their indigenous religion and their Meitelon script were lost to a foreign religion, Hindu, and a foreign script, Bengali. Eventually the Brahmins became the dominant force in the Meitei courts and perhaps Manipur history.
Under the influence of Brahmanical forces, grandiose Sanskrit names were bestowed upon Ahomkings. Suhungmung was the first Ahom king who assumed the Hindu title of Svargya Narayan in 1497. By the 18th century the Ahoms were fully converted, disconnected from their ancient religion and culture, and from their Shan kins in Burma and Yunnan, China.
The Kachari kings and their peoples were also led to believe that they were the Kshatriyas of ancient India. According to Edward Gait, author of “A History of Assam”, the Kachari king, Krishna Chandra of Maibong and his brother,Govind Chandra, were proclaimed as Kshatriyas “and a genealogy of a hundred generations, reaching Bhima, the hero of the Mahabharata, were composed by them by the Brahmans.” By the 18th century, theKachari peoples were wholly converted as well.
Therefore for Jagdamba Mall to be raving and ranting at Christians is rich. Numerous times he has labelled Naga nationalists as “Christian terrorists.” The only fact which has come out of his venomous mouth is his utterance of 4 Naga politicians contributing the total sum of Rs. 36, 25,000/- towards the building of Ram Mandir at Ayodhya.
Perhaps Jagdamba Mall feels mission unaccomplished that his proselytizing predecessors could not crack fortress Naga Hills and Mizo-Chin Hills. By linking Nagas with classical India, Jagdamba Mall is peddling the same mischievous liesof his predecessors that Nagas are part of the great dynast Bharatavarsh! In Jagdamba Mall’s world, all tribals within India and Burma with their indigenous religious pasts are off-shoots of his Aryan gods. Such demagoguesare dangerous for humanity.
