Dimapur, Oct. 14 (EMN): With reference to the representation served to Union Minister of State for Tribal Affair, Government of India, Jaswanthsinh Bhabor, regarding inclusion of Meetei in the list of Scheduled Tribe, the Pan Meetei Convention (PMC) on Sunday listed their position and sought support from the hill people.
In a letter addressed to the United Naga Council, Zomi Council, and Hmar Inpui, the PMC said the Meetei community consist of seven clans or “Salai Taret” – Khuman, Luwang, Mangang, Angom, Moirang, Kha-nganba and Salang-Leishangthem.
“According to Meetei mythology the seven Salai are the seven sons of Pakhangba, the son of God, Atiya Maru Sidaba. Accordingly the seven sons became the progenitors of the seven clans or the Salai Taret, who formed the Meetei some thousands of years before the birth of Jesus Christ,” it stated.
A statement issued by PMC President Heigrujam Nabashyam and General Secretary Hijam Rajen stated that after the independence, the list of different tribal groups was prepared by the concerned authority of the Indian government to enlist them in the Scheduled Tribe list of the Indian Constitution.
“All the indigenous groups of the Northeast were included except maybe the indigenous Meetei people. The reason was, the Meetei were Hindu converts and the then Meitei leaders claimed that the Meetei were the descendants of Brabubahon son of Arjuna of the Pandava of the Hindu epic the Mahabharatta. That was a travesty of the fact of Meetei being Hindu converts,” it stated.
“Since 2012, STDCM (Scheduled Tribe Demand Committee Manipur), on behalf of the Meitei people has asked the Government of India to rectify the wrong that it had committed against the Meetei people by leaving them out of the ST list six decades ago. Now the STDCM demands to put the indigenous Meitei people in its rightful place in the list of scheduled tribe of the Constitution, without further delay. The demand is genuine by all measures,” the letter read.
The PMC also quoted the representation to the Union Minister, “until and unless proper Constitutional protection with special administrative provisions specifically and exclusively for the currently recognized 34 hill tribes of Manipur are put in place and their implementation without any outside interference a mandatory requirement, the Meitei ST demand should not be further entertained so as to avoid a disoriented, highly volatile and destructive state of relationship and existence between the hill tribes and the Meitei/Meetei”.
While extending their appreciation to the councils, the PMC assured full cooperation in the fight to protect the interests of the three bodies’ share in the state government job, education and land, because we do not mean any ill will against any of our neighbours.
“We believe that the state can also make relevant laws in matters of job and education by the state assembly as it is done in the neighbouring state of Nagaland. Perhaps, together we may ask the state to make specific land laws to protect both the hill and the valley people,” the PMC stated. Further, the organisation said “we want to protect the little area of the valley of 700 square miles which is the only natural habitat of the Meitei people on this planet.”
