The Kuki National Organisation (KNO) on Wednesday reacted to the article “The Churn Within: Realignment of ethnic groups on the cards in Manipur” by Yambem Laba, calling it the author’s view.
The article featured on a Manipur-based web portal on June 30, 2022.
At first glance ‘churn’, in the curious article, appears none less than the twist of localised alignment, which lends itself to age-old applied tactic, “divide the hill people to gain certain valley folks” which now appears to take the side of one, and another time, the other, as and when convenient, said Stephen Kuki, joint secretary of KNO, in a release.
The article is the view of the author, and one is reassured of more rational, civilised and intellectually-honest Meitei, who, with due discretion, are normally silent on such sensitive issues, the KNO stated.
The author of the ‘churn’ cites sporadic historical reference to Kapaulu (corrupt version, Koubru), chief of Khojim, referred to the Meitei as seven brothers, who opted to shift to Kangla, a terrain of swamp that dried up in the valley, it stated.
Bidding farewell, Kapaulu asked the brothers to, at end of each year, light a fire that may be perceptible from yonder, it said, adding hence, the ethnonym “Mei (fire)” and “tih (light)”, that is Meitei.
The release further said that in reference to Thangting hill, named after Pu Thangsing, the owner, as in Kuki customary practice, left it to his younger brother Telngoh of Loikhai. Thangting has undergone a localised corruption into “Thangjing”, a thorny vegetable (water lily) that flourishes with the Lotus, the BJP emblem, Thambal, in the plain folk’s vernacular, it added.
“As reason would have it, a certain gentleman once remarked, can a water lily (Thangjing) grow in the hills?” it added.
