Tag: Major General

Where is Imphal?

Chitra Ahanthem. What would you do if two people with cameras slung around their necks walk up to you and try and coax you to hold a placard that says,… Read more »

Chitra Ahanthem.

What would you do if two people with cameras slung around their necks walk up to you and try and coax you to hold a placard that says, “Where is Imphal?” and pose for the camera? One migrant balloon seller retorted back with “Imphal is certainly not in Kashmir!” Confused?

Well! The two people with camera and placard in hand happen to be IFP editor Pradip Phanjoubam, a tall man (by Manipuri standards) and myself (short, by any standards!). We were looking for places (and will continue to do so) and moods to convey about Imphal city. First stop was the War Cemetery and for lack of any subjects, I had to “model” with the placard that said: “WHERE IS IMPHAL ? ” It was late afternoon and there were only young couples who would look furtively around to see if their pictures were being taken. But two small girls who had come with their grand father saved the day. They became our first models. The next stop was on Bir Tikendrajit Road where a vegetable vendor sat about doing her business with the placard placed near her. Later, we would take pictures of polo ponies and small boys holding the placard inside Pologround; balloon sellers at Samu Makhong and an old gentleman who saw us struggling with putting the placard at the base of the statue. He got a pedestrian walking past to pose with him, both of them holding up the placard. Still confused?

So well! The story starts with a public art project, “WHERE IS HEIDENHEIM?” based in the Heidenheim Zietung, a local newspaper of Hedienheim in Germany. The project format was developed by artists Tina O’Connell from Ireland and Neal White from the United Kingdom who says of their project, “We see public sculpture more as a malleable process informed by broader social contexts, and not bound in form by physical materiality, but through the flux and dynamics of
events, which in turn become the substance and context of our own practice.”

Connecting globally many ‘local newspapers’, the project occupies public space as an exploration of the connection between a community and its own printed voice. The project is made in response to the perceived threat to local newspapers from the internet. The first link paper to take part in the exchange with Heidenheim Zietung in August 2010 was ‘The Wendover Times’ from Utah in the USA. The story of the work was printed on the front page and then reprinted as a whole page inside the Heidenheim Zeitung. Further copies of the Wendover Times were distributed in a vending machine next to a large 6 metre
sign that has been erected in Heidenheim. Newspaper stories continue to be run in both papers thus creating a bridge between two small towns separated by distance but coming together in content and flavor.

The “Where is Imphal?” photo feature will first be published in Imphal Free Press, the newspaper copies of which would be sent to Heidenheim Zietung, the newspaper in Heidenheim in Germany. They will then print the entire page from the Imphal Free press – inlcuding other articles and news on that page, as a full page inside their own paper and order copies of the paper for distribution in Heidenheim.

Sounds crazy? But then, it is a load of fun trying to coax people to hold the placard while we aim our cameras at them. Our plan for the photo feature would be to look not only at landmarks of the city but also at the essence of Imphal city: its pulse, its noise and chaos. Our only stumbling block is the part about talking to people and convincing them to pose for pictures. Candid camera shots are easier and rather than risk the afternoon light from fading too much, we ended up being models ourselves. Me “shooting” my editor and vice versa! In the process, we had our share of “who are those two weird people?” kind of look directed towards us. Sometimes, people would disperse real quick, the moment we walked up to them and stood near to them with the placard.

End-point:

For this week, if you see the tall man (Editor!) and the human version of the caricature that comes along with this column in IFP (me) approaching you anywhere around Imphal, please smile for the camera and be a sport!

Read more / Original news source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Kanglaonline/~3/WpfcMZKaD78/

The Origin of Manipur

By: Dr Irengbam Mohendra Singh The empirical demands of history, much worse, prehistory, when it is allowed to assert them by its practitioners, drawing us to empirical evidence from archaeological… Read more »

By: Dr Irengbam Mohendra Singh

The empirical demands of history, much worse, prehistory, when it is allowed to assert them by its practitioners, drawing us to empirical evidence from archaeological evidence (if there is any) or texts, at least writings from non-archaeological contexts, is flawed with mistrust especially when it has taken a few decades emphasising the evidence. However, the usefulness of empirical work is that a hypothesis can be made from data collected that is essential to the research.

The present Manipur is home to the majority Meiteis who live in the Imphal valley. Manipur is also home to a variety of ethnic groups such as Tangkhuls, Kabuis, Kukis (Thadous), Paites, Gangtes and Hmars, koms and so on, altogether 36 tribes, who inhabit the surrounding mountain ranges.

I use the word ‘tribe’ as a biological noun to mean – a group of people related by blood or marriage, united by language and culture with shared lineages, and not as used in anthropological literature, which some people regard it as derogatory. This was exactly the concept of Nikhil Manipuri Mahasabha/Congress Party, during the merger of Manipur with India.

As we know the total area of Manipur is 23.327 sq km. The valley accounts for only 2.238 sq km. Manipur shares 350 km of international border with Myanmar in the east.

The Meiteis constitute 60 per cent of the population but occupy less than one tenth of Manipur’s area in the valley only, because of ‘protective racism’. Immigrants from the eastern part of undivided Bengal during the British period, known as Pangals forming about 8 per cent, settle in the Imphal valley. The rest known as Mayangs (non-Manipuri Indians) came from different parts of India and also settle in the plain.

How the Meteis and other tribal peoples of Manipur came to live in Manipur is speculative. In the absence of a more cogent explanation, this article attempts to reconstruct the origin of Manipur from a geo/archaeological perspective.

To emphasise the prehistoric nature of Manipur – a Mayang word coined in the early part of the 18th century, I prefer to use the original name Kangleipak instead, until I come to the 18th century Kangleipak

To quote W Ibohal in his great book, The History of Manipur (An Early Period) – “The mountain chain where Manipur is situated belongs to the great Himalayas.” To prove his geological point he writes that ‘in 1952-53 AD one fossil of a sea living creature, cuttle fish, now extinct, was found at Kangpokpi in the northern part of Manipur.’

Further, he cites that recent findings in the tunnelling for Loktak Hydro-electric project, clays (representing the bottom of the sea) were discovered instead of hard rocks (expected from mountain ranges). The examination of different layers in the soil profile of the diggings strongly indicates that some 5,000 BCE the entire valley was submerged in water. He concludes: “so the land masses of Manipur is now 60 million years old since its birth from the bottom of the sea.”

I agree with Yumjao in the new light of the Theory of Plate Tectonics. What I try to do in this paper is to individuate a few aspects of geological and zoological analysis to draw a modicum picture of how Kangleipak was formed. Recent scholarship suggests that Manipur was part of the Himalayan belt.

Read more / Original news source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Kanglaonline/~3/GjQsSSm4oX4/