Author: editor

Kuki Churches Unification Movements

Article

By Thongkholal Haokip

The coming of Christianity among the Kukis is now more than a century. Centenary of the gospel among the Baptists was celebrated in March 1996 with a theme “Christ the Hope of the Ages” and the Evangelical Presbyterians in 2010 with “Power of the Gospel” as a theme respectively. Within the twentieth century almost the entire population had been swept by Christianity and now Christians constitute more than 90 percent of the total population. This essay discusses the advent of Christianity among the Kukis and analyse the attempts made by church leaders to unify Kuki churches. It also made an enquiry into the reasons for the failure of such attempts to church unification and its implication on Kuki society.

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.12754626

State Cooperative Banking in Northeast India: Financial and Operational Viability Analysis

Article

By Sanjay Kanti Das

State Cooperative Banks provide the necessary financial resources to District Cooperative Banks and Primary Agricultural Cooperative Societies, and are responsible for their recovery. They have played significant role in the development of rural economy of India. The paper explores and evaluates the growth and progress of State Cooperative Banks in the Northeastern region of India. Further, efforts are also given to make a comparative analysis of State Cooperative Banks in the Northeastern region and India through some selected financial indicators. It is found that all the financial variables (capital, reserves, deposits, advances, demand, collection and over dues) increased with higher growth rate during 2002-2009 on the basic of Compound Annual Growth Rate. The paper highlights the reasons for slow progress of State Cooperative Banking in the Northeastern region of India which is considered as the most backward region of the country. Further, this paper focuses on several pitfalls and shortcomings faced by State Cooperative Banks in region. Finally, it is observed that the State Cooperative Banks in the Northeastern region are not at par with the all India level which is evidenced from the study of some selected financial indicators.

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.12754611

The Lived Reality of Koms (Komrem) in Manipur: An Emerging Political Perspective

Article

By Alex Akhup

This paper attempts to situate the socio political context of Manipur state as viewed from the experience of Koms (Komrem) in Manipur. Northeast region in general and Manipur state in particular is described by cultural diversity. It is duly classified in the emerging literature as multi-ethnic, multi-linguistic and multi-tribe. The ethnic social structure and polity is intrinsically shaped by the ecological context of the region falling within a larger part of the South East Asia. The state building processes in such context has had a unique impact on the embedded social reality often not seen in other parts of the country. Among other things, ethnic identity politics usually defined within the theoretical constructs of self determination has emerged as a prominent state generated socio political process producing shared and contested boundaries of social interaction. In such a context, historiography, theorization and political ideology, in particular, find convergence largely within the domain of colonial constructs and western concept of state politics fanned by dominant ethnic groups: Meitei, Nagas and Kukis. This paper positions a political perspective of co-existence and mutual respect based on the experience of Koms (Komrem); a case for a lived perspective.

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.12754597

Re-Imagining India’s Northeast: Beyond Territory and State

Commentary

By Prasenjit Biswas

Northeast India is doubly displaced within the Constitutional nation-space: as a political-territorial space of the nation, it is still a “periphery”, while as a culturally specific locale its difference is misrecognised. Although the discourse of development normalises the space of difference, in the case of Northeast, it produces a disjunction between the “developmental ensemble” and the lived and the experiential world of multitudes. This disjunction can be thematised in the opening and the closure of the region in the logic of exclusivity in the very operation of the Constitutional mechanism. Suffice it to say that the logic of power privileges a discourse of “top-down” instrumentalist development over and against the primacy of the constitutional forms of justice and equity. The inherently communitarian character of resource distribution and ownership is significantly distorted and altered by the process of “mainstreaming” that the constitutional mechanism simultaneously upholds and debars. The contest between ethnic-communitarian sphere and the civic domain produces a dialectics of containment for both the State and the community.

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.12754519

Fabled Orissa: A Critique

Discussion

By Brundabana Mishra

Under the edifices of the three principal subjects, “Firstly, how Orissa had achieved legendary status in the ancient time; secondly how those achievements and glories vanished and how the province cleared ways for its invaders; and finally how the present generation has forgotten the fabled past and succumbed to the foreign imposed subjugation from where it never managed an escape till the present time”, Saroj Kumar Rath developed his article “Fabled Orissa: From Glory and Grandeur to Colonisation”. Nevertheless, the author has fall short of certain points and as he encompassed millennia for his study, he fail to address all his hypotheses in historical context. The author had set a new chord to the rhythm of the costal Orissan history not to the “fabled Orissa”, which he claimed. Nonetheless, somehow he fails to provide fine-tuning to his musical accord of “from glory and grandeur to colonisation”. When the author talks about Orissa from the past to present the first and foremost point which need to be analysed are: What was and what is Orissa at least in the sense of geo-political boundary? How it became present Orissa? In the historical context who represented Orissa? Secondly, when the author raised the most vital point how Orissa lost her glory, the chronological sequences and factor that played vital roles to the colonisation of Orissa are conspicuous by its absence. Thirdly, the author accused the present generation for forgetting the rich history of their ancestors but he never provided adequate reasons to prove his hypothesis. By looking in to the content and context of the article, I would like to divide my critical observation into two parts. The first part will be supposition to the author’s imagination and contextualization of Orissan history and the second part will be a critical approach with valid reasons on the observation, hypotheses and question raises by the author.

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.12754501

Stigma and Identity Construction of People Living with HIV/AIDS in Manipur

Note

By Hoineilhing Sitlhou

Ever since the first patient of HIV/AIDS was detected in Manipur in 1989-1990 among the injecting drug users, the disease has been associated with groups that are marked out as social deviants. Given this association and the fact that the disease has no effective treatment, sufferers faced social rejection and discrimination. The disease was seen as a consequence of life style choices and PLWHAs were denied access to the ‘sick role’. HIV/AIDS acts as a metaphor for moral and physical contamination. The infection confers on the individual a spoilt image and identity. This is reflected in the level of stigmatisation and discrimination directly faced by those affected and vulnerable to it; as also the way PLHAs construct their identities in the light of their infection with the virus. It is also relevant to an understanding of the ways in which treatment of people dying of HIV/AIDS are being organised.

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.12754475

Indigenous Agriculture System of Kukis in Ukhrul District

Note

By Lh. Seitinthang

Agriculture has a vital place in the economy of Manipur with 52.19 percent of the workers in the State engaged as cultivators and agricultural labourers. For centuries the knowledge of agriculture among the Kukis is stored in people’s memories and activities, expressed in the form of stories, songs, folklore, proverbs, dances, myths, cultural values, beliefs, rituals, chief laws, local languages, taxonomy, agricultural practices, equipments and tools. The study was conducted among the Kukis in Ukhrul district of Manipur to investigate indigenous knowledge of agriculture systems. The main objectives of the study include the activities and responsibility of “Lompi” and the way of the Kuki beliefs in gods and the reasons and process of the agriculture festivals like “Chang-ai”, and the advantage of the use of indigenous knowledge of agriculture integrating with modern technologies.

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.12754456

Perception of Health Care Option and Therapy Seeking Behaviour of Tangkhul Nagas

Article

By R.K. Jeermison

Despite increasing attempts to centralised Folk Medicine and integrating with the mainstream medical system, this un-professionalised medical system is miles away to be accepted as a significant healing method in urban based modern society and among biomedical practitioners. Traditional Medicine (TM) in India under the acronym “AYUSH” have tried to make its presence felt in the global market. But as TM is restricted to AYUSH, this has overlooked a major underlying substratum of Folk Medicine that largely invokes natural and supernatural agents as the cause of illness. This calls for further investigation on the scholarship of alternative medicine in India.

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.12754435

Som: A Decaying Traditional Institution of the Thadou

Article

By Lalgin Chongloi

Creating distinct identity from others, the Thadou one of the Kuki tribes of Manipur is endowed with a beautiful, varied and colourful culture and customs which makes them unique. Like many tribal groups of Northeast India, the Thadou also once had Som (dormitory) for boys where a group of young boys would sleep together at night and were being imparted the significant fundamental practices of healthy social living. Thus, Som acts as an institutional centre for learning in the traditional society of the Thadou. However, the isolation of the simple Thadou society was broken with the advent of British rule in Manipur and the western culture and world views were gradually diffused in the minds of the Thadou. Eventually the Thadou are drifting away from their traditional ways of life. As such, Som was badly affected. This paper attempts to highlight the significant role played by Som in the traditional society of the Thadou and also aims to explore the factors which might have been responsible for discontinuation of Som.

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.12754419

Fabled Orissa: From Glory and Grandeur to Colonisation

Article

By Saroj Kumar Rath

Orissa also known as Kalinga had a fabled past. Recorded history of the province authenticates those fairytale-fabled histories. From travelers to raconteurs and from potentates to commoners of yore years have described Kalinga’s history in such word character that the reading of the same makes one believe that the fabled past of Orissa is a living reality even today. Their narration about the glory and grandeur of Kalinga led the readers believe as if the fabled land still exists. However, suddenly the great civilisational existence gave way to slavery of mind and body as in surprising turn of events the whole populace subjugated to foreign invasion. The colonisers became colonised without an iota of a resistance. The province, which conducted itself admirably during peace and peril for millennia had succumbed to simple trickery and to a few mitigating forces of foreign and domestic origin. In this article, I have discussed three principal subjects. Firstly, how Orissa had achieved legendary status in the ancient time; secondly how those achievements and glories vanished and how the province cleared ways for its invaders; and finally how the present generation has forgotten the fabled past and succumbed to the foreign imposed subjugation from where it never managed an escape till the present time.

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.12754407

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