The Meiteis wish to call their tiny valley homeland “Golden Manipur”. As every nation has the right to describe itself in the fashion it chooses, we have no complain about it. Then in recent years they invented a script, and we praise them for the smartness.
However, real archaeology and history totally disagree with the assertion of the Meiteis that the history of their independent super kings and glorious civilization is over 2000 years old. As written by Horace Hayman Wilson in The History of British India (From 1805 to 1835), Volume IX, Manipur was just a tiny valley (p. 8, 1823) and its ruler was termed as “the petty chiefship of Manipur ” (p. 20). Secondly, “the history of Manipur is not traceable beyond 1714 when its rule was assumed by a local chieftain named Gharib Nawaz. Chief Commissioner of Assam and, later, Political Agent carried on the administration of Manipur which continued to be one of the subordinate princely states of India until its merger in 1948-49” (S. Bhattacharya. A Dictionary of Indian History. Calcutta University. 1967.). Thirdly, “Manipur was included in the protectorate in 1826. Owing to its geographical isolation, and partly in consequence of its backwardness in civilization, British intercourse with the principality was confined to the formal admission of subordination by the rulers of Manipur, and to periodical intervention for the suppression of usurpers” (p. 179, Sir William Lee-Warner. The Native States of India. 1910. Macmillan and Co.). Thus, Manipur was just one of the protected states of India (ibid, p. 181) and was never truly independent.
We, Nagalim Christians, cannot study the lies of the Meiteis as part of our education. Also, the Nagas will never accept the imposition of the Meitei Mayek on us. We condemn the Khaplang group for shamelessly threatening the Naga NGOs.
Long live truth! Long live Nagalim! Kuknalim!
In God’s grace,
Professor Timothy Kaping, President, Naga Support Group (UK)
