Meitei people

"Meitei" redirects here. For the predominant language of Manipur, see Meitei language.

Meitei people
Regions with significant populations	Manipur
Language	Meiteilon (Manipuri)
Religion	Hinduism, Christianity & Sanamahism

The Meeteis or Meiteis are the majority ethnic group of Manipur, India, and because of this are sometimes referred to as Manipuris. Generally speaking, Meitei is an endonym and Manipuri is an exonym. The Meitei people are made up of seven clans, who trace their written history back to 33 AD.

Religion

The majority of the Meiteis follow Vaishnavite Hinduism, mixing it with their ancient Meitei religion, known as "Sanamahi Laining" (or simply Sanamahi). Most of the Meiteis view Sanamahi as a part of their livelihood. Vaishnavaism was made the state religion in 18th century by King "Pamheiba" and it remained as that till the defeat of Manipur by the British in 1891. Close to one-fifth of the Meiteis follow Sanamahism, estimated from the 2001 Census where nearly 11% of the population of Manipur were categorised under 'other ' religion.

On 14 May 1945, the Meetei Marup (Organisation of Meetei Body) was formed in Manipur, which led to the revival of Meetei traditional, cultures, scripts(Meetei Mayek), customary practices, and traditional religious ceremonies related to the Meetei society. Old beliefs and religious bindings were untied and the beliefs of emerging movement began to take their place. Many books on how to conduct religious ceremonies with rites and rituals are being published. Holy Books for Sanamahi religion were selected. On the other hand the influence of other religion like Hinduism, Christianity, Islam are increasing day by day in the Hills and Valleys which is simply indicated by the growing number of Hindu Temple, Church, Mosques etc. According to the Sanamahi mythology, the Meiteis are the descendants of the Lord Pakhangba, one of the Son of the Meiteis Almighty God Sidabamapu, the creator of the Universe.

The Meitei Hindus arguably belonged to the Kshatriya division (which is a sub-division of Meitei ) as they are thought to be the descendants of Lord Arjuna. But there are also a considerable number of Brahmins (known as Bamon) and Sudras (known as Loi and Yaithibi), who being originally Bengalis, were assimilated in to the Meitei community. Hindu Meitei under the leadership of Maharaja Churachand Singh formed the Nikhil Hindu Manipuri Mahasabha to regulate their religious activities during 1934.

Around 8% of the Meiteis are Muslims (Pangal), and are thought to be the descendants of Bengali Muslims who immigrated to Manipur.

Hindus are mostly concentrated in the districts of Imphal West (74.48% of the population), Imphal East (60.87%), Bishnupur (71.46%), Thoubal (60.72%) and parts of Senapati (19.45%).

Manipur is a communally volatile state, having witnessed a number of communal riots. Most tension follow ethnic lines between the Hill tribes ; Naga and Kuki, Kuki and Zomi. In 1993 however there was large scale riots that consumed the Valley between the Meitei Hindus and minority Muslim Pangal community.

Caste System

The Ancient people of Manipur had no caste system. However, the Manipuri Hindu community is subdivided into five castes, although the largest subdivision (Kshatriya) forms the vast majority of the population.

• The Meitei Kshatriya (Ningthouja) forms the top most division in caste hierarchy. They are divided in to seven exogamous clans (yek-salai): Mangang(Ningthouja), Luwang, Khuman, Angom, Khaba-Nganba, Moirang & Sharang Leishangthem. These clans are further divided in to several subclans or yumnaks. Each subclan is further divided in to lineages or sagei. The Meitei call themselves Khatriya and usually wear the sacred thread across the chest. Traditionally meat dishes were avoided, although fish was permitted. However nowadays consumption of meat is very common. Orthodox Meiteis eat food outside only when it is cooked by Brahmins. They usually refuse to have food cooked by other castes.

• The Meitei Brahmin (Bamon / Lairikyengbum) is one of the higher ranking castes, distributed throughout Inner Manipur. Most of the Bamon are ethnic Manipuri, but a small fraction are the descendants of immigrants from Bengal and Orissa. Most common surnames are Sarma, Singh, Basu and Das.

• The Bishnupriya (Mayang / Katacheiya) is the second Kshatriya community after the Meitei. Like the Meitei, they call themselves Khatriya and wear sacred thread across the chest. There is a bone of contention as whether they are Meiteis or not.

• The Loi (Chakpa) is one of the five Manipuri Hindu castes. The Loi are considered to be Sudra and are having status lower than that of the Meitei.

• The Yathibi is a very small endogamous group found in Thoubal and Bishnupur. Yaithibi is the major Dalit community in Manipur and lives in peripheral areas.

Classification

Unlike the neighboring Nagas and Kukis who are ST, most Meitei come under the General Category, with some as Schedule Caste (SC) and Other Backward Class (OBC) under the Constitution of India.

During the censuses taken during the British rule, the Manipuri Kshatriyas were the only recognized Kshatriya community within the Assam Presidency, as the census takers refused to recognize other Kshatriyas like Ahoms. The 1901 Census of British India counted 185,597 Kshatriyas in Assam, almost all of them Manipuri.

Language

The language used is called Meitei-lon. It belongs to the Tibeto-burman family of languages. Literally it means the "language of the Meiteis". But for some time now, it has been known as Manipuri. Since 1992, the language is in the 8th schedule of the Indian Constitution. Commonly the text is written in the Bengali Script. The original script, called Meitei-mayek, has been out of use for a long time but revived recently. The script and language is taught in the schools and colleges at this time in Manipur and has been implemented compulsory with an aim to replace the Bengali script completely within few years.

This much improvement was strongly gain after the Meetei leader Mr. Chingshubam Akaba, who was murdered in connection with the development and popularity of his name in the state on the 31st midnight of December 2006 at his resident gate in Imphal.

People are trying to bring this script up to the international standard as it is the only lone script of NE India.

Notable Meitei People

• Angom Gopi
• Hijam Irabot
• Khwairakpam Chaoba
• Konsam Himalaya Singh
• Rajkumar Singhajit Singh
• Ratan Thiyam
• Sanamacha Chanu
• Shri Rajkumar Shitaljit Singh

External links

• kanglaonline.com
• North American Manipur Association
• European Manipuri Association
• manipuri.org
• United Manipur Researcher's Organisation, Delhi
• What is Manipuri Literature? Talk at New York Public Library, 2006.