Inpui Society in Transition: Challenges and Opportunities|K.Alung Khumba

image credit: Gaisinglung Bariam

Introduction

Transition is the process or a period of changing from one state or condition to another. In this sense, is the Inpui tribe going through a transition? If it is so, in what aspect? This question put me into some deep thought from which I could not come out with some satisfactory answers. However, I have tried to put the matter in the following ways; in fact, I have picked up only five points out of many. This is quite a vast topic and cannot be fully presented in this piece of article. I wish to continue the same topic in some other paper in the near future.

Identity

Population size doesn’t matter; identity is a concern of every tribe and every tribe tries to promote it in all aspects particularly the cultural identity. Inpui tribe had been struggling to escape from the possible assimilation into the Zeliangrong group. No doubt the subgroups of the so-called Zeliangrong group (Inpui tribe included) are closest in culture, tradition and history. The simple reason was the fact that the word Zeliangrong was coined in 1947 by taking the prefixes of Zeme, Liangmai and Rongmei; and it cannot cover the constituent units.

After several years of struggle to rename the nomenclature failed, the Inpui tribe’s social organisations sought direct affiliation to various Naga apex bodies and subsequently Naha Hoho, UNC, MBC, ANSAM, NWUM, etc. accorded affiliation to Inpui Naga Union, Inpui Naga Baptist Churches Association, All Inpui Naga Students Union, Inpui Naga Women’s Union respectively. Further, the Inpui tribe was successful in getting its name recognised as a Scheduled Tribe in Manipur in 2011.

The story does not end here. But migration and assimilation of minor Inpui tribe into other tribes, particularly into the Rongmei tribe continues till today. Once an Inpui tribe family settles either temporarily or permanently in another tribe’s colony or village, that Inpui family is highly vulnerable to losing its Inpui identity in the following years. In this manner, a huge Inpui population had assimilated into another community. One living example of an Inpui village under transition is Tamphagei Inpui (Kabui) village. Although the village is now affiliated to Inpui social and religious organizations, only a few elderly people can speak Inpui dialect. Besides, much of the Inpui people have adopted Rongmei surnames like Gangmei for Khumba, Kamei for Inka, Panmei/Gonmei for Bariam etc.

And as it is true in the case of almost every tribe, dialect and surnames are the main lines of separation for identification between them, so also is for Inpui tribe. However, one can see lots of opportunities to get the things set right by spreading awareness among the vulnerable Inpui people by conducting programs such as seminars, conferences, sports, etc. Inpui dialect can be promoted in various ways. Surnames can be changed in academic and other official records by following due procedures prescribed by the concerned board or department or authority. INU and AISU could be a helping hand to the needy individuals.

Inpui Dialect

As pointed out above, Inpui dialect had been abandoned by many Inpui people, as individuals and as well as group/village. However, the advent of Christianity has brought about significant preservation and promotion of the dialect. Churches started printing hymnals and other songbooks and these are used in all Inpui Churches. And recently the New Testament of the Holy Bible is in use now. Besides, however rudimentary it may be, some developments have taken place by publishing several Inpui vernacular books. Moreover, developments in the direction of preservation and promotion of Inpui language/dialect owe a huge credit to producing audio and video music and film. One can find endless opportunities here. Language research can be taken up as an academic discipline at the post-graduation, doctoral and post-doctoral levels. It can be taken up as research at the individual level for which one can get financial assistance from various institutions like Tribal Research Institute, Government of Manipur , etc. Textbooks can be developed for use in primary schools and it can be gradually upgraded for use in higher classes.

Education

If we have to take educational statistics, persons placed in high positions, etc., it is not easy. The the difficulty is that there are a number of, so to say, inactive Inpui tribe members; these categories of members had migrated from Inpui village to another tribe village and had partially or totally abandoned Inpui dialect, surname, and association with Inpui tribe organizations etc. Some of them had migrated in their parents’ generation and some in their grandparents’; some during their great-grandparents’; some much before that.

They still verbally declare themselves as Inpui tribe but affiliated to other tribes physically, emotionally or otherwise. Therefore, if you take the statistics of the presently active Inpui tribe, it could be much below assumption. You will also find a huge percentage of school/college drop-outs in every Inpui village as compared to its population. Moreover, educated youth too, are finding it difficult to get placements in competitive job markets.

This backwardness in education is due to the absence of good educational institution in the Inpui tribe villages and most of the parents can’t afford their wards’ education in other towns and cities. Another factor is the lack of leadership and guidance since the educated ones continue to migrate to other places. This is a big challenge, difficult indeed. But positive action can bring about changes for the better.

For an educational entrepreneur, establishing good educational institutions in Inpui areas can be an opportunity to uplift the Inpui society and also a feasible/sustainable profession for him. Running vocational institutes will be another good opportunity since it can create employable members among the youth. The Church, the Village Authority, and various NGOs too can play important roles in improving the education lot among the Inpui tribe.

Centre of Development, Transport & Communication

Major development bottlenecks in the Inpui tribe are the absence of centre of development and poor transport & communication infrastructure. History of development of any society will take us to the history of a particular centre from where development sprouted and spread. But among the Inpui villages, there is hardly any place or village which is worth-named as the centre of development. Villages are small in population and they are scattered except for the few villages surrounding Haochong which was an important centre of education and development; one of the villages which got a government high school early in Tamenglong district.

Most people of Haochong, Noney and Lukhambi areas, in particular, got education from this school. But later, due to development of National Highway which passes through Noney, most development had gradually shifted from Haochong, and Haochong remains underdeveloped for years till now. Recent developments of upgrading SDC Haochong of SDO/BDO can be taken as a great opportunity in the furtherance of development for Inpui tribe in all aspects.

Although such development is not based on community or tribe, Haochong village, being the headquarters of the Inpui tribe, can become a centre of development for Inpui tribe. Therefore, it is necessary to make Haochong village a bigger centre for Inpui tribe by making efforts to improve transport & communication facilities, educational facilities and by the concentration of Inpui population in and around Haochong village.

Christianity versus Culture

There is a big misconception about Christian religion and culture. Only two religions are found among the Inpui tribe, that is, Christianity and the traditional religion. Christianity and its leadership are dominated by conservatism, orthodoxy, and superstition. The reasons could be varied and cannot be elaborated in this article. I am only highlighting certain problems and difficulties being faced by Inpui people. For instance, certain sections of the Inpui Christians are opposed to Inpui cultural dances and songs. They think that such practices are un-Christian and satanic; whereas any type of western music and dances seem to be alright to them. In fact, they don’t know that there are many western music and songs whose lyrics are un-Christian and satanic.

Moral values are fast fading due to such misconceptions. Good manners and respect which our elderly people practiced are vanishing; societal peace is disturbed and it is infested with chaos. Good elements of our rich culture are being replaced with bad elements of western culture. However, it is strongly believed that the good elements of our rich culture, moral values can be restored and they can be happily married to Christianity; this happy marriage is extremely important since a huge majority of Inpui population has adopted Christian religion with the fact that the Inpui population in the Manipur Hills and other states are cent percent Christians; only a small proportion of Inpui population in the Imphal valley are still following the traditional religion.

Restoring traditional values and sustaining them with reformation or modified to modernity will be able to refine our society and bring about positive changes. Educated youth should take this challenge as an opportunity and try to engage themselves in this great task. Churches and NGOs should play guardian and reformist roles.

K. Alung Khumba. Currently Principal of Kendriya Vidyalaya, No.2. Imphal GC, CRPF. Langjing. He also served as the President of All Inpui Students’ Union as the Vice Chairman of Zeliangrong Students’ Union, Manipur (1988-1989) among many other commendable works. He can be reached at kakhumba@gmail.com.

 NB: This article was first published in Kala-khwanbaang (2016. Pp 5-7), an annual publication of Inpui Students’ Union, Delhi (ISUD). Reproduced in this blog with due permission from the author.