Category: Article

Oral Narratives of the Kuki-Chin People: The Saga of Legendary Galngam

Article

By Sheikhohao Kipgen

The ‘Kuki-Chin’ people have common historical memories, languages, belief, cultural practices and values. The commonalities shared by this kindred group are also reflected in their common folktales which give an impression of collectiveness of the culture and tradition. Due to geographical location and their dispersed settlement, slight variations in the version of the folktales have developed among the different groups with the passage of time. However, it shares the same meaning and context for all the groups living in different parts of the region and even across national and international boundaries. The common folktales are living testimony of their common ancestry, identity and culture that they belong to the same racial stock. In the midst of various folktales abound with their history, the story of the legendary Galngam is being focussed herein. Attempt is made in this paper that the true identity and image of a particular ethnic group can be achieved and asserted through their life and lore which is based purely on verbal literature or oral discourse.

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.12747869

Birth Ritual among Meitei/Meetei Sanamahi Community of Manipur: Meaning, Practices and Significance

Article

By Chingshubam Merathaba Meetei

This paper describes and gives the meaning, customary practices, contexts and significance of birth ritual among Meitei/Meetei community of Manipur under Sanamahism. Meitei/Meitei community is the predominant ethnic group of Manipur, one of the seven north eastern states of India bordering Myanmar, and Sanamahism is the traditional religious faith of this community. Like the followers of every world religion the followers of Sanamahism among the Meitei/Meetei community have been observing certain life cycle rituals since time immemorial. The present study describes and interprets the underlying facts and significances of customary beliefs and practices on birth of a child of the community through the perspective of Sanamahism. Doing review of relevant literatures and using the methodology of qualitative field research through interviews and discussion with, as well as through overt participant observation, the paper proposes that birth ritual of Meetei/Meitei community under Sanamahism is one of the important aspects of the socio-cultural life of the community; it has social, cultural and scientific significances, and it also plays a significant role in identifying the ethnographic description of Meitei/ Meetei community of Manipur on religious line. This proposition is explained throughout the paper first by describing all the relevant concepts of birth ritual, followed by analysis of all the aspects of rites and their meanings. The paper contributes to a broader understanding of, and discourse on, the theme and the fundamental basis of birth ritual of this small Meetei/Meitei community of India.

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.12747844

Analysis of Jhumias Rehabilitation Programmes in Tripura

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By Vanlalrema Kuki

Rehabilitation of the jhumias of Tripura became a priority for the state administration to achieve inclusive growth and development. The attempts started during Maharaja Bir Bikram reign by keeping aside a land reservation for jhumias settlement in different parts of the state. The successive state governments also follow the rehabilitation process through various programmes. The significant programmes included agricultural farming, colony scheme, animal husbandry, sericulture, pisciculture and most importantly, horticultural crops, tea and rubber plantations. The first formal attempt began in the 1950s in the southern part of Tripura. The government’s efforts initially appeared a failure because of the massive desertion of the programmes. However, the introduction of permanent-based cultivation of the horticultural and plantation crops as part of the schemes proved successful. Specifically, Block Plantation Scheme became a game changer in the gamut of the jhumias settlement programme, promoting the state as the second largest rubber producer in the country. At the same time, the positive impacts could be seen in the life and livelihood of the beneficiaries. It empowered the beneficiaries socially and economically due to the higher economic returns from plantation cultivation than shifting cultivation. Henceforth, jhumias could forgo their traditional migratory nature of wandering and leading a settled life.   

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.12747825

Mathematics Achievement of Class V Students: A Study of North Eastern States

Article

By Satya Bhushan and Santosh Kumar

More than years of schooling, it is learning or the acquisition of cognitive skills that improve individual’s overall life productivity. It is demonstrated by many researchers that a solid foundation in mathematics and language is necessary for primary school children to navigate the information in technological age. Students with strong grasp in mathematics have an advantage in academics as well as in the job markets. The paper has raised many issues that have serious implication for quality improvement in mathematics education at primary stage in the North eastern States. There is huge number of students in the States whose achievement in mathematics is at lower side of the scale. Those achieving mastery level competencies constituted a small fraction of the total students.

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.12782998

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Human Trafficking in North East India: Patterns and Emerging Trends

Article

By Neimenuo Kengurusie

This brief article attempts to analyse the factors that have facilitated the rise of human trafficking, and the patterns and trends of human trafficking in North East India, with special emphasis on Nagaland. The study is based on primary data which include field-work, analysis of case studies and reports collected from state and non-state anti-trafficking personnel, and secondary data which include newspaper reports, articles, and books. It identifies human trafficking at an alarming level and the need for a strong level framework, as well as the role of religious institutions in tackling this menace.

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.12782910

The Self Perceived Morbidity and its Determinants in North East India

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By Kshetrimayum Rabikan Singh

The concept of health has evolved through ages, from a simple biological concept to a more complex social concept. The health condition of individuals or a group is largely influenced by socio-economic and political environment. Observing social dimension of health is essential to understand the health condition of a population. This study is an attempt to understand how different socio-economic determinants are associated with the level of morbidity in North East India. The health condition across the North East states is found to be varied by different socio-economic characteristics. The illness rate is found to be higher in rural areas than urban areas for North East on an average. The deeply rooted patriarchal Indian society also gets reflected, where women are found to have more illness rate than male in all the North East states, except Sikkim. Social class also found to have significant influence on the health status of the population. Scheduled Caste community has the highest rate of illness among all the social class. Enabling factors like education and income also have significant impact on illness rate.

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.12782812

Converting the Nagas and Kukis: Missionary Representations

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By Ningmuanching

This paper is a study of missionary encounter and the coming of Christianity to Manipur, and its influence on the historical development of Naga and Kuki identities. Through a discussion of missionary representations and conversion of the hill population around Manipur valley which constituted a part of the Assam Mission Field of the American Baptist Mission, the paper argues that the missionary representations of the people were distinct from colonial official representations. Rather than classification of people from hills and plain as well as Nagas and Kukis according to one’s place in the scale of civilization, differences were represented on the basis of one’s propensity towards conversion. It shows that inspite of their instrumental contribution in providing written languages for the Naga and Kuki group of tribes, missionaries were not the only agents here. The allegiance exhibited by converts towards their own spoken dialect equally emphasizes the agency of the hill people in the reshaping of their social world in which the language of a group became the primary basis of identification. Ironically, the mission project to reduce the dominant dialects of the Nagas and Kukis into a written form was to establish linguistic borders between the different tribes.

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.12782730

Minorities in Japan and India: A Comparative Study of Ainu and Borok Tribals

Article

By M. Kamlianlal Zou

Minorities are often subjected to unjust exploitation and desisted from social, political and economic opportunities. The government’s machineries and constitutional provisions for protecting the minorities sometimes become a tool in the hands of the dominant group to exploit the minorities. As a result minorities feel alienated, suffer from inferiority complex and may lead to a rebellious attitude depending on the social setting in which differential treatment operates. This paper analyses the difficulties faced by minorities in Japan and make a comparative study between the Ainu of Japan and the Borok tribals of Tripura in India. These two tribals are indigenous peoples, and they maintained an independent kingdom and administered themselves before their ancestral lands were annexed by the dominant community. As a result, they were reduced to a minority and became a stranger in their own land.

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.12782644

Ranking of districts in North East states of India by the use of Standard of Living Index using 2001 and 2011 census

Article

By Phrangstone Khongji

Due to limited literature available to highlight the economic level and status for states and districts of North east India, the present study attempts to capture the same by extracting the information on living standards of people through the eight variables collected during the 2001 and 2011 census. Standard of living index is constructed through the use of principal component analysis, where states and districts in the region are ranked. This study can have important policy implications, concerning directing the resources to those districts of the region which have slip in the rank between the two censuses.

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.12782553

Wari Leeba: The Declining Storytelling Tradition of the Meiteis of Manipur and Tripura

Article

By Sukla Singha

There is a popular notion that ‘literature’ is primarily written or printed. Another western concept is that it is the written word that is legitimate or valid and modern or progressive, whereas the spoken word is a representative of the primitive or uncivilized world. These notions have been challenged time and again by alternative textualities such as oral traditions, paintings and illustrations. The oral tradition of storytelling has been in vogue since time immemorial across many communities of India as well as the rest of the world. These stories would serve as a grand repository of memories and histories of the respective societies through the power of the spoken word. But with rapid urbanization, these stories are faced first with distortion and then with extinction, as the storytellers of the older generation pass away. This paper attempts to understand the storytelling tradition of Manipur, popularly known as the Wari-Leeba (that forms an integral part and parcel of the Meitei culture) as well to find out probable causes of its declining/deteriorating status in the adjacent state of Tripura that is a home to a good number of Meitei population.

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.12782498

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