-Dr Budha Kamei
Contd from previous issue
The Hill areas and British reserve area was under the control of the Political Agent, which was beyond the jurisdiction of the Durbar (Reid 1997:77-78).
The Political Agent continued to rule the hill areas of Manipur after 1907. In 1913, there was a reorganization of the State Durbar and the president of the reconstituted Durbar, an ICS officer was entrusted the administration of the whole hill areas of Manipur who was overburdened with his usual duties in the Durbar. The hill area of Manipur was made separation from the general administration of the state on the plea that the hill tribes were not Manipuris and had entirely different customs and languages. It was the ulterior motive of British administration to create a ‘barrier of a wall’ no only between the hill men and plains men but even among the hill people themselves. The true of the matter was that the people irrespective of case, creed and religion, belonged to the same Mongoloid racial stock and their languages were dialects of the Tibeto-Burman. By carefully emphasizing inter-tribal disharmonies and superficial differences in term of religion, the British employed the well known policy of ‘divide and rule,’ a policy that played a crucial part in ensuring the stability indeed, the viability of nearly every colonial system. The British officers, however tried to justify their action on the grounds of so called humanitarianism that the dealings of the state with the hill tribes had been in previous years so cruel as to cause several remonstrance from the Supreme Government and much fiction was caused between political Agent and the State authorities by the efforts of the former to protect the hill tribes. In short, such a system the Britishers argued was to save the hill tribes from the long reign of tyranny and oppression perpetrated by the King of Meitei (Dena 2008:72-73; Singh 1998:39). Thus, in regard to the hill administration, the British assumed the role of saviour minus a redeeming power.
Manipur had a self sufficient agrarian economy during the pre-colonial period. The advent of British rule after 1891 brought about major structural changes in the economy, which became subservient to the interests of the colonial power. The introduction of private real estate and the monetization of the economy through commercialization of agriculture and taxation strengthened the colonial grip on Manipur. With the opening of links to Cachar, Assam and Dimapur, present Nagaland, large quantity of agricultural and forest produce were exported, effecting prices and local consumption. Alongside, there was an influx of cheap consumer goods manufactured in industrialized Europe and other parts of British India along with the arrival of a trading class, Marwaris. These colonial economic trends and their perpetuation played a crucial role in native deindustrialization (Kamei 2012:73-74). In addition to the obvious economic cause, there were social, political and religious causes. The system of Mangba and Sengba (purity and pollution) did become quite rampant after 1920’s when Maharaja Churachand, in collusion with the Brahma Sabha sternly enforced it in Manipur. According to the system any man without any ground or on the flimsiest ground could be declared as Mangba (polluted) by any of the religious authority in the State. The victim along with his family members then would become outcasts. The family would not only be socially boycotted but would not also be allowed to perform any of the customary religious rites and rituals during the period of Mangba. If the excommunicated person was to be taken into normal life, he would have to spend a huge amount in purification (Sengba). Because of the system of Mangba and Sengba, the gaps between the hill men and the plain men were also widened during the first half of the 20th century. The system was so rigid, even the white men were treated as Mangba. According to B.C Allen, “the profane foot of a white man must not enter even the compound of a Brahmin, and if he steps on the verandah of an ordinary villager will be instantly abandoned and another erected in its place” (1980:61). It was the most painful and oppressive system, Mc Donald the then President of Manipur State Durbar (PMSD) called it ‘Plague’ (Manimohon 1989:86). The growth of political consciousness was another cause. In the early 1930s the Manipuri educated middle class emerged as a recognizable social force, began to launch systematic campaigns against various social problems. The greatest achievement of the middle class elites was the establishment of the Nikhil Hindu Manipuri Mahasabha in 1934. Through this organization they tried to get rid of the contemporary socio-economic and religious problems, later on demanded for a broad political change in Manipur in tune of the developments which were taking place in other British provinces particularly in Assam. Land records were in deplorable state. Various taxes were imposed upon the poor people like Kumjashen, Panch Napet, Wakheishen, Chandan Shenkhai etc. Discontentment of the people was very deep, though not laud. People began to lose confidence in the administration of justice in the lower courts. Even in the Revisional Court of the Maharaja, cases were kept pending for years (Singh 1998: 46-47, 115-116, 150-151; Jhalajit 1965:306; see also Manimohon 1989:70-72).
(To be contd)