Having studied Indian History for two years, I was hard-pressed
to find any mention of the histories of north-east India. The term north-east
India is itself a misnomer considering how diverse the traditions and culture
of different groups of the respective region is but for the sake of
convenience, the term may be retained while referring to the whole of the
region. But if we decide to get into regional histories, we would have to pick
up individual strands such as Manipuri history, Ahom history and so on and so
forth. The reason (which is a perfectly good excuse to leave out huge chunks of
the history of a significant population of India) given by Indian universities
for not including the histories of the north-east is that they have not been
adequately researched or written about which, unfortunately, is true to some
extent.
Taking
the case of Manipuri history (because this is the one I am familiar with), we
will find that the Cheitharol Kumbaba(Royal Chronicle),which is of one of the
major source of history, is a list of genealogy of kings of the Ningthouja clan
that ruled Manipur and most of the accounts are fantastical records of myths
and legends which are used to legitimize the divine rights of kings by raising
their ancestral kings especially Nongda Lairen Pakhangba to the status of
God. This kind of legitimization and
justification is not confined to Manipur but it can be found in many other
parts of India where the king is projected as incarnation of Rama, Krishna and
other gods. At the same time, Cheitharol Kumbaba being a court chronicle must
have been written to please the ruling family and therefore there will be an
exaggeration of the generous qualities of the kings. It is pertinent to find
out when this chronicle was first written down to get a better understanding of
the social, political and economic conditions of that period. History writing
is no longer confined to narrative history of kings and the royal skirmishes
and battles, we need to examine the social and political conditions under which
the Ningthouja clan is supposed to have unified(or subordinated) the other
clans and to have emerged as the ruling clan. In most probability(as some of
the esteemed scholars of Manipuri history have surmised), the Ningthouja clan
gained ascendency after winning important battles against the other independent
principalities so it was military superiority that enabled its rise to power.
There are many questions that need to be asked at this point- Was it a war
state? Was the kingdom of Manipur well-defined? Was it organized on a military
footing? How was the control over the defeated principalities exercised? What
kind of an administration was set up? All these questions need to be re-asked
at crucial periods of Manipuri history to mark important changes that might
have come about.
British writing of Indian history in general condemned India
as uncivilized and negates the idea of the process of evolution of institutions
of not just the state but other aspects of society. They also dismissed the
indigenous sources of history as un-historical because they dealt mainly with
accounts of only myths and legends and not facts and figures. This view has
been discarded by the scholarship that has emerged-post Independence and this
critical analysis may be applied to the study and research of Manipuri history.
Instead of confining ourselves to the stories that we find in our sources, we
can read between the lines and try to interpret the kind of society and
political order that existed. What was the role of women in society? There is a
common consensus that women in Manipuri society were given far more freedom
than those in other communities of India. But this needs to be backed up by
evidence. It is important to ask if the freedom of the women included economic
freedom such as right to own property, individual freedom such as right to
choice of husband otherwise the so-called freedom would be limited.
It is also important to understand the process of Sanskritization
of Manipuri culture in the 18th and 19th centuries with
the advent of Vaishnavism and the adoption of Vaishnavism as state religion. So
at this point could the state be called a theocratic state? Did mass conversion
and proselytisation take place? Was this mass conversion sanctioned by the
state or other non-state institutions? The fact that the name of kings like
Garib Niwaz meaning “King of the Poor people” is a distinctly Hindu name
suggests a syncretisation and interaction with other Hindu communities? Does it
suggest that Manipur was under the ambit of a pan-Indian Sanskrit culture to
some extent? The outcome of the amalgamation of the indigenous culture of
Manipur and the pan-Indian Hindu culture is what we still practice in our times
and it would be interesting to trace the process of evolution.
The new generation needs to take the torch from the previous
generation of historians and make further inroads into the study of regional
history by not just delineating the chronology of kings but by trying to paint
a larger picture of the civilization that existed and has passed on its traditions
to us in the 21st centuries.
