Women, Manipuri Women

Women, Manipuri Women
M.K. Binodini
[Published in “Sanarik”, Souvenir of the 20th East Zone Inter-University Youth Festival 2004-2005]
If one ever asked me about something so precious that I value very highly, of which I am so proud and would like to hold with tenacity, then, my answer would be simply Manipur. The sight of such beautiful gifts of nature as the green mountain ranges, the yellow fields, small meandering rivers, beautiful lakes and the small villages enchants me with a pensive sadness that engulfs me eternally though. I adore my native land, Manipur, so fervently that I would call it my motherland, my precious motherland.

I remember the haunting music of old - the ancient bards whose lyrics sang in praise of my motherland, Kangleipak. Hark; the song is still ringing in my ears:

Motherland, you are called a land of gems
The maiden of surrounding hills
Whose guardian tribals remain ever vigilant
Adorned by plains people and hill tribes
The tribes in the hills
The Meiteis in the plain
Like the lotus cone of Waithou lake
Full to the brim
You possess the Loktak as a mirror
From north to south you stretch
Koubru in the north reigns supreme
This ancient land of gods
The home of beaded flowers
And clasp firm roots of Nongthrei
The two gods and goddess Koubru and Kounu
Defenders of the northern range
To the south
Tubi the lord…

Beloved country, you become the praise of our bards. My answers is that your worth is invaluable, every bit of you. I am afraid if ever I pass away without knowing you fully! If someone asked me to pinpoint a particular aspect of my land as the most precious then I would prefer to answer, “Women, our Manipuri women” for women are the pride and prestige of the land. So to write something that would treasure our women’s quality is one great wish I have as a Manipuri. What lies below the praise and honour accorded to our Manipuri women as the courageous and industrious race will certainly reveal the history of the origin of our women. This is I intend to unearth and discover. Manipuri women have remained to occupy a distinctive place in our society from time immemorial. Acknowledging the high place of women by virtue of their contribution to the our culture and society man has treated women with honour by calling them poetically and majestically “tannaroi”, an equivalent of wife which reminds us of the Hindu image of women in “Adhyanyreshswar”. She is not a subordinate vessel of man but one of the two halves, male and female, complementary to each other. The Indian Nobel Laureate, Rabindranath Tagore would have his Chitrangada say in the dance - drama of the same name -

I’m Chitrangada the princess
Don’t embellish me
unto the level of a goddess
nor treat me as equal
to a second self,
let me stay with you eternally
in both joy and sorrow.

A woman is full when she has a man. The poet’s vision of a full woman defines a woman and that itself becomes the answer to the question of a Manipuri women. Every Manipuri women is an equal picture of womanhood, hence the imported Western feminism would fall short of identifying the true Manipuri women both in the hills and in the plain. By this, what I emphasise is that our women are not the ilk of those women who are fiercely in stiff opposition to men in some societies. Every Manipuri woman has the potential and inner strength of her own with a conscious position of her being half of man. She enjoys her privileged position of being a woman as a man does. A woman’s beauty and grace generate the honoured position.

An example of our women’s proud territory before the world is the “women’s market” – the sana market – that dazzles like bright and beautiful flowers that unfurl and dance to an invisible rhythm and echo in a varied-coloured garden much to the pleasure of all as distinct from other similar markets elsewhere in the world.

Spying upon this market, my heart dances with joy. This vision of embellishment is seldom divorced from the virtuous life the matriarchs produce by sticking to their housewife’s cares. Consider the first in virtue as in face – their beauteous dress, a bunch of flowers in the ear won’t leave them to part with duty to their men! Who says the tribal women whose back bent with the burden on the way to market are slaves? In responsibility men and women are equal, set aside the biological differences. Equally by no means conceives nor opts out the idea of freedom from motherhood. I fervently embrace women’s quality in defining Manipuri women, and so do I detach myself and my Manipuri womenfolk from the imported notion of feminism. For the latter concept of women or feminism is often a slur upon the balance between man and woman.

I am particularly in grief when the plans of destroying the “Nupi Market” (women’s market) have become the agenda of political discussions recently in Manipur. The promise assured by modern facilities in the proposed market project would certainly obliterate the history of Manipuri women vis-à-vis our women’s culture. By research, it is shown that the “Nupi Market” is an institution in its own right with specific do’s and don’ts. The women vendors are controlled by strict rules; for instance, in the Leima Sija vendor specific sellers are assigned to sell particular dresses and cloth items like mosquito nets, phanek and other materials. Nothing could be sold by wilfully breaking the codes.

A great deal of information about the “sana keithel” thus awaits a woman researcher of depth and perception. Any plot or vendor allotted to a woman could not be inherited by her son but by her daughter or daughter-in-law. Under no circumstance could this place be alienated or disposed. Nor is it governed by the land revenue department under specific patta numbers. Revenue was paid in the name of the king of Manipur. This is the singular character of the market. As an institution of Manipuri women, it is just not a mere place for buying and selling as ordinarily assumed. Besides, at crucial moments it is the centre of important decision making. All women’s movements in the recent past have had their origins in this market place. From time to time women decide major actions to take up against atrocities, injustice, oppressive laws, violence, and so on. All decisions are thus taken collectively. However, it may be mentioned that women’s market is not one and one alone as seen in the Imphal city. In places like Kongba, Lamlong, Nambol, Thoubal, Kakching and Moirang, there are similar markets.
To dwell upon the sana keithel with a little more information – because of proximity I am inclined to give a brief picture of all the galleries in this market. The one occupied by the women dealing in cloths is so to say, the most affluent compared with other galleries occupied by women trading in items like fish, vegetables and rice. However, there are also other galleries of less affluent women traders.

A peculiarity of this women owned market I discovered once is that it is not merely a place of subsistence economy on which women depend entirely for their existence. I knew one old woman trader dealing in cloth whom I called with respect, “Imasi”. Also I had the liberty to play pranks with her, and on one day I teased her, “Why Imasi do you sit here to sell cloth when you have so many worthy sons at home?” “Their success in life…hmmm…,” she replied, “does it mean that that I should sacrifice my vendor, and reduce myself to a baby-sitter? Am I jobless?” The eldest son of this woman is reputed advocate, another son a doctor who has settled down in England with an English wife, and the last is an engineer. Such is the type of women we find in the women market. Similarly, another woman whom I know has a stall selling chempak (flattened rice). One of her sons is a judge in the Munsif Court, and another is a successful businessman. This tricked me once into asking her why she came to sell champak instead of living with her sons at home. To this she replied, “Why on earth should I depend on them when I have my own stall?”

All this is one side of our women’s history, women who hanker after independent living and independent thinking of her own undeterred by interference from any corner. Although most of these women traders are illiterate they are very intelligent, and are well versed in selling and buying tactics, and their accounting is all the more superb. The women traders are the pride of our state, with their distinct character and self identity. They are carriers of a long undying tradition and cultural heritage who cherish our dreams and aspirations of being a Manipuri. Yet, recently, a fear psychosis has overrun the state with such a mind-set, blind to the tradition and heritage of matriarchs, that looms over our ancient civilisation with an apocalyptic vision on over two thousand years Manipuri civilisation.

Should such an eventuality happen then there is much to remember. Retrieving our past brings me back to the 1904 Nupi Lan. Manipur lost its independence in 1891 following her defeat in the hands of the British. The British Empire flourished at its height during those days. No able-bodied man could face an approaching Englishman on his horse and had to hide in a safe corner. But with undaunted courage, Manipuri women declared a war against the British in 1904. Remember, in those days there were no political parties to mobilise the women or any force to drag them out of their homes. It was a spontaneous yet traditional response of the women of Manipur following the injustice meted out to the people of Manipur after the burning of the “suto sahib’s” residence. The uprising is known today as the first ever women’s war against the British Empire.

Manipur possesses a proud race of women. They should not be wrongly construed or misunderstood as acting for petty gain or political pursuit. The tireless race of the present “meira paibi” is the direct descendent of the earlier women martyrs who challenged the British. They can never be silenced for long as they stand for justice, equal human treatment, an honourable existence and dignity of life. Life is full of ups and downs; that’s all.

Today, I have seen the vision and image of the beautiful women of Manipur. They are weavers - skilled weavers, traders, lovers of aesthetic beauty, they are pure and generous, benevolent mothers, kind and affectionate in both the hard times and moments of calm. To show my gratitude to the Manipur women, I remain one with them and greet them with bowed head.

(The article was written during the over a decade long struggle waged by the women of the Nupi Keithel against the plans of the government of Manipur at the advent of the 21st century to evict them from their age-old, customary and rightful place in order to build a multi-storey supermarket complex – Dr Debabrata Roy Laifungbam.)