Thepfulhouvi Solo
Ist INSTALMENT.
I always wanted ‘AESOP FABLES’ taught to small children in Schools starting from the Nursery level up to the Board Examination for two Reasons:
i. The Stories are very Simple, Short, Vivid and Attention catching.
ii. The Stories are not ordinary Fables; they taught very deep Human REASONS and REALITIES.
WE must start teaching Universal Human Values to our children from their very small Childhood. WE must teach them:
i. REALITY,
ii. REASON,
iii. RATIONALE,
iv. ETHICS,
v. MORALS, and
vi. HONESTY from the Primary Level of Education.
Our National Agenda should be to catch up with the highest Quality of Education as in the Advanced progressive Peoples of the world.
One of Aesop Fables runs similar to this:
‘A Wood Cutter was much afraid of the Tiger. So, one day when he met a Tiger in the Forest; the man showed the PICTURE of a Man killing a Tiger and said to the tiger:“Man is Stronger than Tiger.”
The Tiger looked at the Picture and said:
“This is only a Picture; I can also show you Picture in which Tiger is stronger than Man”.
After that the Tiger left quietly because he saw the tip of concealed Firearms under the Man’s clothing!
The story contains Items of Imagery, Agenda, Wisdom, Reality, Reason, Rationality, and behavior grownups as Individuals, Groups, Society, Powers, State and Nations employ for their own Interests. The pattern of behavior the Wood Cutter and the Tiger took all indicate interested human Nature children may be introduced from very early State of life.
The other day the Writer, on invitation, was in a partly distinguished gathering of Vice Chancellor, Scholars, Professors, Doctorates in this and that Fields, PhDs from far and near, well prepared and excellently articulate in their fields and also some others not so much Educated and still others with just uncommon zeal for Blah….Blah……Blahs.
I sat glued to my Plastic Chair with colleagues from my Village, ten minutes before the start of the Meeting to the end after Sunset, shifting my aging middle category weight right and left except for an unaccounted number of visits to Calls of Nature now and then.
The Seminar was on the life of ‘Rani Gaidinliu’, painted unrealistically beautiful PICTURE of a young 17 year old Girl blasting on the front Wall. Everything about the recently discovered phrase of a supposedly “Great Visionary Leader”; including a slightly went outside-of-the-Line modern Woman’s favorite Topic of ‘Gender Issue’ supposedly exemplified in the life of the ‘Rani’.
The Resource Persons were superbly academic, articulate and their carefully prepared propositions generally acceptable, but here and there, sprinkled were materials without Litmus Tests and of unripe nature picked up from sources mostly from fallible people, past and present like you and I. That being the culture, some of the expert Propositions on Issues, did not ring REAL or TRUE, and difficult to be accepted in Toto wholly without a pinch of good salt.
Some of the learned speakers forthrightly claimed:
i. JADUANANG WAS FALSELY CHARGED AND HANGED BY THE BRITISH.
ii. GAIDINLIU DID NOT KILL PEOPLE.
On the Ist Issue: Jaduanang was falsely charged and hanged by the British.
Many civilized European Nations in the 18th and 19th Centuries, did not take their Empire building Activities as Immoral or Unethical. The Nations of Europe: France, Germany, Holland, Italy, Portugal and Spain, all colonized not only small Islands in the middle of the Pacific Ocean but also the non-European Continents of Africa, Australia, North America, South America, and Britain colonized Asia, Burma, India, including the North East and the Naga Hills.
The Small Naga Hills resisted the British for nearly half a Century from 1832 to 1879, 47 years with Spears and precious few Firearms. Then just 7 years after Mahatma Gandhi in 1921 for the first time in his Quit India Movement against the colonial British, began to demand a Constitution of India “without outside Interference”; the Naga Hills submitted a petition in 1929 to His Majesty’s Government to leave the Naga Hills alone.
However, throughout their stay for 115 years, from 1832 – 1947, there was not a single Riot or Terrorist Activities nor violent Movement against the British Administration in Naga Hills by Naga Hills.
The hall mark of the British Administration in Naga Hills was Law and Order, Justice and Social Peace. The Administration was neither violent nor dictatorial; it emphasized Honesty, Truthfulness, Equity, Freedom of Religion and Opinion. Because of these admirable qualities, the Naga Hills highly respected the Government and supported the colonial British Allies in World War II against Japan.
In Manipur, there was a Kuki Rebellion in 1917 against the Government selection of Labor Corps for EUROPE; there was also an Abor War in the then North Eastern Frontier now Arunachal Pradesh.
The Government put down these Rebellions with a firm hand but there was never Vengeance or Revenge on the population. Not one of the more than half a dozen Kuki Chiefs involved in the Rebellion were Hanged or persecuted with Capital Punishment, they were only banished to distant Sadya of North East Frontier.
Law and Order was strictly and efficiently maintained even in the head hunting Naga Hills. Petty Offences were punished with public Pillorying and Canning in the public Courts. Mutilations of the Hand, slicing of the Nose, cutting off of Fingers and Ears, practiced formerly by the Native Rajas on its Subjects, were strictly Prohibited; heinous Crimes like murder and Killings were dealt with exemplary Justice of public Hanging.
In late Nineteen Twenties one Jaduanang of Poilon (Kambiron), a Rongmei Naga of Tamenglong Manipur, a fugitive from the Law, was arrested from Cachar on March 8 and charged with responsibility for the Murder of 4 Meiteis in his Village. The case was investigated for nearly 2 years, and was Jaduanang was found directly responsible for the death of the 4 Meiteis as charged (Case No. 108) and hanged.
The allegation that:
‘Jaduanang was falsely charged and hanged by the British:
sounds like a sweeping academic condemnation of a great People of History who set Democratic Governance and the Rule of Law to many a chaotic Nations and Peoples with whimsical hereditary Dictators or Rajahs, unparalleled in any other People; not even in the continuous Civilization of China.
The traditional animosities between different Races of the Northeast in the past; for instance in the Kukis, the Nagas and other almost countless Communities of Manipur, has a Genesis. The unconscionable but unstoppable murders the Rajah by his conniving sons or the naked elimination of eldest by the scheming brothers for the petty Throne of Manipur or of Assam unfortunately fills the pages of the History of the Meitei and Ahom Kingdoms. It was the Power of the more advanced and hugely profiting East India Company and latterly of the British colonial Power that brought a semblance of democratic Law and Order to India including the Northeast in the 18th and 19th Centuries.
Every People and Nationalities in the dim Past migrated from place to place in search of better and vaster Land Resources until they settled in the Places at different Ages of History they are found today.
Historical record mentions related Groups of Kukis migrated to Manipur and Naga Hills in the late 18th and early 19th Centuries from Burma. The Kukis are a Race with mussel-loading Gun, martially smarter than the Rongmeis and other Naga Groups in the then violent Age, but they (Kukis) were no match to the much more developed and stronger Meiteis in the Manipur Plain; Kukis began to migrate to the Hills of Manipur and parts of Naga Hills from Myanmar in the South.
There was no UNITED NATIONS or accepted Tenets of Human Rights then; neither Democracy nor Christianity inspired Justice the World practiced today troubled the wild Peoples of the Northeast Hills in those days.
Some Kukis migrating had settled in the Rongmei Country to their great consternation, but the Rongmei had no power to drive the Kukis away. The Colonial Super Power Chroniclers described the situation simply by saying the Rongmei Spear is one of the “smallest” among the Nagas.
The King of Ava (Myanmar) then conquered Manipur and Assam and began to cast even covetous eyes further beyond Alipur Duar toward the lands of the HQ of the Colonial Power in the Bengal Presidency with Fort William, at Kolkata the HQ of the British East India Company, making immensely huge profits.
A Burmese spat at a British Trader on the Banks of River Irradadi in Burma. The British demanded punishment to the culprit and Apology, only to be met with significant Silence. The East India Company issued and Ultimatum and sailed up the Irrawady and defeated the Burmese forces at Yandaboo forcing a Treaty of Yandaboo 1826 on Burma.
The Burmese were made to vacate Manipur and Assam. The Manipur and Ahom Rajahs fugitives were each re-installed to their Thrones on Promise of Good Behavior and a Resident British Political Agent imposed on the Raja’s Court at Imphal and Gawhati, on who’s Advice the Rajahs have to administer the Kingdoms particularly on Matters of serious Criminal Activities.
For the first time in History, the two native Kingdoms had to observe Democratic Principles of Governance. Human Right Principles were to be observed and the Rajah’s arbitrary Power of punishments of his subjects by cutting off of the Nose, Ears, Fingers or the Hand was abolished; Capital Punishment was completely taken out of the hand of the native Rajahs.
Jaduanang, a Rongmei Naga of Manipur was said to have been one of the 2000 Manipur Labor Force that went to Europe during the WWI and is said to have picked some Magic Tricks. On his return from Europe, he became a leader of his people and now that he found measure of civil rights in the land available, he harped on a movement of Social expulsion of all the hated Kukis and outsiders from the Rongmei country. He began to behave himself the Messiah of his people.
Many Kukis ran away from the Rongmei Areas in fear. Jaduanang became very popular with the superstitious, unlettered, naive and credulous Villagers, he even began to prophesize a rumor widely prevalent in those days just about India’s first Sepoy Mutiny or War of Independence in 1857; that a day will come soon when all those who eat from the wooden Plates will unite and drive out those who eat from the porcelain plates. Jaduanang advised his people even not to pay the hated house Tax to the Government.
4 Meitei Traders of Manipur went missing in Kambiron (Poilon), Jaduanang’s native Village; and he was implicated in the mob lynching of the 4 Meiteis at his Village. He was charged with the implication of incitement of the Mob for the lynching of the Meiteis Traders and other Acts of Social Unrest under 108 CRPC. Jaduanang fled his native place and was arrested in Cachar on 8 March 1931. After 2 years of investigation, he was found guilty of the Charges and given capital punishment.
It is interesting to note that none of the half a dozen Kuki Chiefs that raised the costly Kuki Rebellion of Manipur in 1917 in unison of against the Labor Corps to Europe in the World War I, were given Capital punishments for the Rebellion. It was just before Jaduanang’s Social Unrest and his punishment. In Naga Hills, not a single of the Khonoma Villagers or others were hanged for their continuous fight against the British for 47 years from 1832 to 1879. No Naga was ever hanged for the terrible killings in their Head huntings except in the case of heinous murders.
Jaduanang’s people now support him as the initiator Freedom fighter of the Naga against the British Colonial Power. It is true he went against the Manipur Princely State, but to all appearances, it was against the Kukis and the Meiteis rather than for a long range political Vision for his race. There is no doubt he was a charismatic leader to his credulous people but to make the modern educated Naga believe Jaduanang had political vision for the Naga Nation we understand today may be a bit far fetched.
The accusation that ‘JUANANG WAS FALSELY CHARGED AND HANGED BY THE BRITISH’ appears to be an overdose of Academic Research.
