As early as in 1928, Manipur witnessed a movement to propagate Hindi that further strengthened its links with mainland India
It is an unfortunate but undeniable fact that in the imagination of most of those who live in the Hindi heartland, India is a near mirror-image of the Hindi region.
While India’s “unity-in-diversity” is routinely emphasised and its multicultural, multi-ethnic and multi-religious character is iterated and reiterated, the sad reality is that dwellers of the Hindi region have very little familiarity with other regions of the country, especially those that lie in the south and the northeast. The reality in those regions is fortunately very different, and Manipur’s case has a distinct resonance in this respect.
Called the ‘jewel of India’ by Jawaharlal Nehru, Manipur is geographically a small valley surrounded by hills where the Nagas live. It was under the control of the Burmese kings until 1826 when under the Yandabo Treaty with the British East…
