Sir,
In page 2 of Imphal Free Press dated Saturday, 26 June 2010, under heading '"Constitutional Crisis of Manipur", reply'   T. Lunkim, Chairman, KUMHUR has suggested Nandita Haksar to say 'all others like Muslims, Nepalis are illegal immigrants, who later on secured citizenship' . Now I have a few questions to KUMHUR:

1. How many of the present inhabitants of Kukis are descendants of the original Kukis in the present state of Manipur? One has to consider the fact that Kukis has been living in the Chin state of Myanmar (Burma) as well as Lushai hills of Mizoram besides other places; and they are migratory in nature. According to the Census of 1881 the Kuki population in Manipur was 17,204 (exculding old Kukis many of whom has declared themselves as Nagas now like Kom, Anal, Namfau, Chim, Koireng, Chohte, Purum, Mantak, Hiroi or Mangang which numbered 8,180) as against the Naga population  of 68,084 (= 59,904 + 8,180) which means Naga population was almost four times that of Kuki population at that time. Now according to your above mentioned letter,  Kuki population in 2001 is almost 1.5 times that of Nagas. If there was a similar growth then Kuki population in 2001 would have been around 75,000, about 430% increase. How the discrepancy can be explained except by accepting that here have been a huge recent migration of Kukis from outside Manipur, most probably the Chin and Lushai areas?

2. In 1606 AD, a large number of Muslim men settled in Manipur; their wives were all Meitei women officially married arranged by the then government/king of Manipur. If the mothers' line is considered. Manipur Muslims' origin is the same as that of Meiteis. Before that prominent incident of 1606 also, there are reports of small groups of Muslims settled in Manipur. If such Muslims who came more than four centuries ago are illegal immigrants who are the legal immigrants? One should also keep in mind that there are many immigrants from India, China or Burma among the Meiteis who came much later than the Muslims. Then there are many individual Meitei, Naga etc  families who decided to embrace Islam and join the Muslim society.
3. All nation-building processes including that of Meitei, Naga, Kuki etc necessarily involve absorption of different ethnic communities. Please study how different warring kingdoms were absorbed to the Ningthouja suzerainty during a period lasting several centuries; and how warring Tangkhul, Sema etc village kingdoms joined the Nagaisation process.

4. The search of a pure race or pure faith normally leads to ethnic cleansing called Holocaust under Nazism or Nakba/catastrophe of Palestinians during the experiment of Israel. Genetically all races have traces of mixture of a great many races. Also please remember that for the believers of Islam or Christianity, all humanity originated from one parent.

5. The world and Manipur in particular now needs search for a common future / vision for prosperity for everyone. The search for the great past has led us nowhere. And believe it or not, all of us are great, if only we have the right opportunity !!!

Yours Sincerely
Abdulhalim Phoondreimayum, Imphal.