Why reviving Manipur’s indigenous faiths matters
Peace still eludes Manipur, despite the best efforts of the government, both Central and State. The conflict between the tribes has exacerbated over the past several years, especially between the Kuki-Zo tribes and the Meiteis. The Meitei people represent around 53% of the population of Manipur state, followed by various Naga tribes at 20% and Kuki-Zo tribes at 16%. The broader Meitei community does not possess Scheduled Tribe (ST) status, which has been a major point of ongoing friction and tension in the state. While Meitei organizations have been pleading for ST status to protect their indigenous identity and land, existing ST protections are primarily monopolized by tribal groups like the Nagas and Kukis. Apart from this, there is a religio-narco war between these communities. The vast majority of Kukis and Naga tribes have been converted by religious mercenaries (missionaries), who have successfully advertised and marketed a Europeanised/ Americanized version of a West Asian religion, notorious for destroying innumerable civilizations, cultures and religions. Over the past few decades, successive governments at the Centre and State rolled out a red carpet for many foreign religious mercenaries to exploit innocent tribals, who denounced the ancestral tribal religions as ‘animism’ and ‘paganism’. No protection of any kind was extended to the hapless tribals against the wiles of the foreign religious mercenaries.
As part of a greater plan hatched by foreign intelligence agencies to carve out a separate Christian nation in the North-east, Kuki tribals have been inveigled into the narcotics trade, flourishing in adjacent Myanmar. The governments at the Centre and State are basically confronting two types of internecine cancers, an internal religious cancer and an external narcotics cancer. Both are intractable. Treating religious cancer is handicapped by the Constitutional cloak of ‘secularism,’ and the narcotics cancer is an international trade of behemoth proportions.
Recently, many foreigners, especially Americans and Ukrainians, have been detained, without valid travel documents, travelling inside Manipur. Many have been identified as military veterans, specialized in drone warfare. Their unexplained presence in violence-torn Manipur is deeply suspicious. Manipur is in the north-eastern corner of Bharat. Nagaland surrounds it on the north, upper Myanmar on the east, Chin hills of Myanmar and Lusai hills of Mizoram on the south, and Cachar district of Assam on the west.
Unfortunately, the Constitutional feature of ‘Secularism ’ has come to mean total freedom for foreign religion operators to meddle in the country’s socio-religious fabric, without any kind of safeguards. Many of these operators and their dubious organizations are controlled and operated by intelligence agencies or their proxies. The government is helpless to come to the rescue of people following indigenous faiths like Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism, and innumerable Tribal faiths and belief systems.
In ancient Manipuri culture, people were Nature worshippers like in different parts of the world. In the Hindu epic Mahabharata, Ulupi, a Naga princess from the North-eastern region, enters into a Gandharva style of marriage with Arjuna. Because of her background, modern interpretations frequently link her with present-day Nagaland or Manipur. Similarly, Chitrangada was the princess of a region named Manipura and the only heir of King Chitravahana. During his exile, the Pandava prince Arjuna fell in love with her, and she became his third wife. She had a son named Babhruvahana with him.
Since very ancient times, Manipuris have been Nature worshippers apart from Sanatana Dharma or Hinduism. Of special importance is the Meiteis’ practice of worshipping and protecting forests in the name of “Umanglai”, which is practiced even today.
In North-eastern India, various ethnic groups have preserved and protected several forest patches and even individual trees and animals because of deep belief in Nature worship. Umanglai belief is based on the concept that a thick forest that cannot be seen through human eyes is as mysterious and inscrutable as God. 365 sacred groves are recorded in Manipur, which are distributed over a wide range of landscapes, viz., hills, foothills, hillocks, near rivers and streams, islands and plains. Umanglai plays a very important role in protecting and conserving the wild flora and fauna.
Meiteis worship Umanglai with celebrations called “Lai Harouba,” meaning the pleasing of God. ‘The Lai Harouba mirrors the entire culture of the Manipuri people. The celebration starts at the onset of the wet season in the months of Kalen (in the Manipuri calendar), i.e., April – May, and may continue through to June. Each celebration normally lasts a little more than a week. The main rituals of the Lai Harouba are performed or led by the Maiba (Priest) and Maibi (Priestess) and Penakhongba (the player of the Pena). Pena is a traditional one-stringed fiddle. During the festival, gods are propitiated by offering flowers, fruits, dance, and plays. The offering of ‘Sharen Katpa’, literally ‘live offering ’, is a ritual in which two cooking pots are brought out, one for the rice, and the other for the vegetables. The flowers and fruits offered to the deities are distributed to the people. The songs and dances and other ritual practices are all related to love and affection for wildlife (flora and fauna). It is believed that, according to the caring and pleasing of deities by the local people, deities protect them from sickness, harm, and natural disasters that occur.
In this belief system, many restrictions are observed, notably:
- Cutting down any trees and destroying groves are prohibited.
- Shoes and leather accessories are not allowed at the entrance of the gate leading to the deities’ temples, as these are made from animal skin and hence believed to be impure.
- People pray to the sacred deities with offerings like pan (it consists of Betel nut and Betel leaf), flowers, and fruits.
- It is strictly prohibited to take any leaves, branches, or wood from these forests.
Hinduism strongly believes in sacred groves, and these are known by several names.
In Kerala, it is Kavu, Devarvana or Devarakadu in Karnataka, Sarana or Jaherthan in Jharkhand, Dev-van in Himachal Pradesh, Devrai or Devgudi in Maharashtra, Ki law lyngdoh or Ki law Kyntang in Meghalaya, Vanis or Kenkris in Rajasthan, and Kovilkadu in Tamil Nadu. Sacred groves also exist in West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Sikkim, Orissa, Gujarat, and Bihar.
The degradation of the sacred groves or Umanglai started with the advent of foreign missionaries, imposing a West Asian religion on the unsuspecting people. Christianity was officially introduced to Manipur on February 6, 1894, when Scottish missionary William Pettigrew of the American Baptist Mission arrived in Imphal. After being granted permission to establish schools (a standard modus operandi to cloak conversions), he shifted his focus to the hill regions. The first recorded Christian conversions occurred on September 29, 1901, when Pettigrew baptized 12 Tangkhul Naga men in the Ukhrul district. This marked the establishment of the region’s first church, the Phungyo Baptist Church.
The Kuki community of Manipur were converted to Christianity in the early 20th century, between 1910 and the 1930s. Prior to this, the community largely practiced traditional worship of Hinduism combined with Nature worship. The mass conversion was triggered by the arrival of British missionaries. Welsh missionary Watkin Roberts officially started a religious-conversion war in southern Manipur in 1910, leading to the conversion of Kuki chiefs like Pu Kamkholun Singson. A significant imposition of conversions occurred following the suppression of the Kuki Rebellion of 1917–1919. By the mid-20th century, nearly the entire Kuki population had been converted into accepting the West Asian tribal faith of Judah, of which Christ was deemed to be the god.
The West Asian faith was adopted by the Europeans, who thereafter were made to decry their ancestral religion as mythology. All the European civilizations and South American civilizations were compelled to renounce and denounce their ancestral faiths and coerced into accepting this West Asian faith. What were destroyed were the Greco-Roman Civilization & Religion, Celtic and Germanic faiths, and Slavic faiths. The Spanish and Portuguese conquests, driven by a mandate to spread Christianity, fundamentally shattered the indigenous societies of South America. Missionaries and conquistadors violently displaced the continent’s major empires and systematically eradicated their native spiritual traditions to enforce the West Asian faith branded as Catholicism. Destroyed were countless faiths, including the Inca faith and the Muisca religion. Pre Christian native American religion and culture was totally destroyed by rampaging missionaries. They slaughtered 90% of Native Americans. Native religions were denounced as primitive, animism, paganism, and mythology.
The same modus operandi was initiated in Bharat also. Hinduism was and even now is denounced as mythology and paganism, while the West Asian product is advertised as pure history by European and American religious mercenaries (proselytizers). In Manipur, while the Meiteis staunchly remained Hindus, the Kukis succumbed to the wiles of European religious mercenaries and got lured into the foreign faith. The vast majority of the Kuki people are Christian, with estimates indicating that over 90% to 95% of the population practice the Europeanized/ Americanized West Asian religion. They primarily belong to Protestant denominations such as Baptist, Presbyterian, and other assorted independent churches.
Tackling the twin challenges of religious fundamentalism of foreign faiths and clandestine narcotic trafficking is a daunting task. The government needs to be serious about handling religious conversions. A boost should be given to revive the indigenous faiths of the North-east. Revival and conservation of the Umanglai should be a priority. This revival can be integrated with tourism, and also by creation of an Umanglai Restoration Authority. Even at an all-India level, the government can form an apex body to revive and preserve the tradition of sacred groves. When integrated with tourism, it will be an opportunity for tourists from across the world to get a deep glimpse of the many facets of Hinduism. The present generation will get to appreciate how their ancestors worshipped and venerated the forces of Nature. The Umanglai and other sacred groves of Bharat remind us that the Earth is not merely a resource to be exploited and used, but a sacred, living system to be revered. These reflections emphasize the spiritual connection, deep gratitude, and healing that come from honouring the natural world, in all its immense diversity. As Ralph Waldo Emerson opines, “In the woods, we return to reason and faith. There I feel that nothing can befall me in life, — no disgrace, no calamity, which nature cannot repair.”
Charlie Cook states, “Your deepest roots are in nature. No matter who you are, where you live, or what kind of life you lead, you remain irrevocably linked with the rest of creation”.
“Om Ishaa Vaasyam Idam Sarvam” -This is the first shloka of the Ishaa Vaasya Upanishad. It lays emphasis on the idea that God created the Universe and also pervades in all of it. He is Omnipresent, and is within the manifested Universe and also beyond.
As regards drug trafficking, to finance, carving out a separate Christian country, the revival and restoration of the indigenous faiths of the North-east, can be a game changer.
In 1990, U.S. President George H.W. Bush designated November as “National American Indian Heritage Month” to honour the culture, traditions, music, crafts, dance, and ways and concepts of life of Native people of the United States. Similarly, the Government of India should declare Heritage Month for every North-eastern State to honour, revive and restore the indigenous faiths that existed there, as also showcase it for tourists from across the globe.
Concluding in the words of the Native American Elder, “Honour the sacred. Honour the Earth, our Mother. Honour the Elders. Honour all with whom we share the Earth: -Four-legged, two-legged, winged ones, swimmers, crawlers, plant and rock. Walk in balance and beauty.”
Note:
1. Text in Blue points to additional data on the topic.
2. The views expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of PGurus.
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