By Madhu Chandra
Shantidas Gosai, the Hindu missionary, who came to Manipur in the early 18th century, burnt the Puya, the sacred scripture of Meiteis, after converting them to Hinduism. The burning of Meitei Puyas had assaulted the culture, language, religion and social harmony among the society of Manipur. Pure and impure among the sections of the society after the coming of Hinduism in Manipur had affected the lives of people.
The concept of untouchable or the word used in Manipuri is a confusing terminology. People denied the existence of caste within the Meitei society. It is denied because people of Manipur do not like themselves to be labelled with the untouchable people of India.
The word for casteism and untouchability in Manipuri is Amang-Asheng. The literal meaning of Amang-Asheng is pure and impure. The concept of pure and impure blood is rather closer to the description of casteism in Vedic scripture.
After the attempt to insert the Hindutva machinery in Manipur University by the central government and ignorantly accepted by the state government, the talk about the practices of pure and impure has become a talk of the day on social media. It was fuelled by the unconfirmed rumour about construction of Rash Lila Mandop within the sacred place of Kangla.
Did the Amang-Asheng exist before the coming of the Hinduism in Manipur or is it the same connotation of casteism or untouchability?
For the last 20 years, I have been addressing the casteism and its impact on the life of people in Manipur. Every time I identify caste, I am accused of bringing casteism in Manipur. The attempt I did was to help our people understand the practices of caste among the section of societies in Manipur.
Brahmins not eating food cooked by other communities, no intermarriage between Brahmins and Meiteis and other communities, restriction on non-Brahmins to enter temples are the real life in Manipur, yet they are not seen as caste. If these are not caste, then what are they?
Meiteis as well as other communities in Manipur before the coming of Hinduism had the concept of sacred places, sacred days and sacred events. The sacredness or sanctity of the belief system of Meiteis is different from the untouchability or caste system. However, it becomes mixed with the practice of casteism or untouchability after the Meitei adopted Hinduism.
Amang-Asheng (pure and impure) is rather an appropriate word for a confused and mixed concept of casteism and untouchability.
Intermarriage between the people of the valley with those of the hills had been practised in Manipur. The kings of both valley and hill had wives from both places. There was no concept of untouchables. After the coming of Hinduism, untouchable became a part of life in Manipur.
A Meitei marrying a tribal woman had to go through the purification ceremony either of two forms.
One used to be the old practice of purification by giving the tribal woman to drink cow dung mixed with water or cow urine; another practice by asking the tribal woman to drink holy water collected from the washing of the feet of the Brahmins, which is known as pavitra choran, the holy feet of Brahmins.
Till the purification ceremony took place, the Meitei man and the tribal woman were considered unclean. Until then the parents of the man would not allow the tribal woman to enter inside the kitchen. If the parents of the man died, both the man and the tribal woman would not be allowed to perform the ritual for the parents.
These social taboos never existed among the societies of Manipur before the coming of Hinduism. The untouchability extended between the royal families and general Meiteis. It extended further to the general Meiteis and scheduled caste communities and the hill people.
(The author is National Secretary of All India Confederation of SC/ST Organisations based at Hyderabad)
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