In January, nineteen eighty five, we had an unusual visitor in India House, our official residence in New Zealand’s capital, the windy Wellington. For us from Manipur State of India, it was a big surprise for the visitor was no other than the last British Political Agent in Manipur, Mr. Gerry Stewart, 79, from Nelson town on the northern tip of New Zealand’s South Island. Once upon a time, but not so long ago in historical measure, Mr. Stewart was the all-powerful guardian of the interest of the British Raj in Manipur. So preponderant was his position that his verbal word, whether uttered from his regal chair or from his toilet, was always received as a writ as sacred as a divine commandment.
That was only a few decades ago, a fleeting moment in a nation’s history. I was then not even in school. The British ruled over us through the Maharaja of Manipur indirectly and our village chief directly. For us living in Pherzawl in Hmar Area in south west of Manipur, a remote, neglected and undeveloped region, the highest official we ever saw was the ‘Rasi’ or a peon who occupied the bottom rung in the bureaucratic ladder. But to us, he was a big man, the sole chain of our contact with the government. We would not dare go near him fearing we might offend him. And the capital Imphal… oh, it sounded like the imaginary Xanadu. To dream, therefore, of an opportunity to see Imphal or meet the Political Agent and steal a quick glimpse of him was almost a criminal indulgence, or to put it mildly, just like asking for the moon. In those days, they used to tell us so unearthly and bizarre a story as this: a white man could tell the number of leaves in a tree just by touching its trunk. “What an intelligence!”, we used to exclaim. We admired them with unadulterated innocence and blissful ignorance.
Today, things have changed. That seemingly unfathomable gap between the ruler and the ruled has been bridged and the brainwashing colonial stories have been consigned to the library of fantasy. But on that day in nineteen eighty five, as I sat talking hours with Mr. Stewart, trying to make him recapture, as many details as possible, of his glorious moments in Manipur and the neighbouring States, my mind travelled back and forth between Pherzawl and Wellington, bringing back vividly the buried and faded memories of my childhood dreams of becoming one day an important and a big man like the ‘Rasi’ or of visiting the capital Imphal at least once before I die. Or that day in 1959 when I appeared for the first time in my life before an interview board for the post of a Village-Level Worker (VLW) and was rejected out of hand!
Believe it or not, I was so innocent at that time as to even think that it had been more or less a customary practice in Manipur that those who had a say in the matter already knew beforehand who were to be in and out. My next interview was before the trustworthy UPSC Board and I got Indian Revenue Service. The next one landed me on the lap of IAS and IFS and I chose the latter. It was a long jump from the VLW fiasco. But one never reaches the goal. As one goes further up, the horizon moves away further still. It’s like chasing a mirage. For life is a voyage and the end of one station is always the beginning of the next journey.
Strayed thoughts. Let me get back to the mainstream of my topic. Mr. Stewart’s perception of Manipur remained where he left the country in 1947 after unfurling the last British flag and then replacing it with the tri-colour flag of independent India. He was the last ICS officer at the helm of Manipur State who closed the memorable and enlightening colonial chapter. But now he had become a good Rip Van Winkle with lots of catching up to do. He was pleasantly surprised to meet a hill man from Manipur representing India in his far-flung Kiwi land. He thought my presence in his country was a fitting reciprocity. I could sense the degree of his amazement when I told him that the hill people had come up so well that for the past decade or so they had been virtually ruling the State. I told him of my background. He hardly knew my tribe; nor did he know any person from my community holding official position during his time. I did not blame him for that. There was indeed no Hmar who held a recognizable position during his tenure there in Imphal. Perhaps there was that shy and inconspicuous Mr. Zokhuo, a clerk who later rose to the position of a Head Clerk. May his soul rest in peace.
Today, I told him, things had considerably changed and the last Chief Secretary of Manipur, Mr. Lalbiakthanga was a Hmar. So also the Chief Secretary of Meghalaya, Mr. J.C. Nampui who was the first IAS from amongst Scheduled Tribes in independent India. He did not know of Meghalaya which came into existence only in 1972. In the north-east, there was only Assam State and two princely States- Manipur and Tripura during his time. I told him that Assam State had been dissected into five States of which Meghalaya was one of them. Three score years ago, such a possibility did not exist even in the realm of wildest imagination. Also of tribal people, especially the Hmar tribe to hold top posts in the State administration. This article is a brief account of that transformation- a transformation brought about largely by the tribe’s embracement of Christian faith with its attendant blessings, and the new privileges, opportunities and avenues provided by independent India.
My approach to the subject rests on the premise that by nature a typical Hmar has shown little or no interest in temporal affairs. He has a strong inclination for a quiet, peaceful and domesticated existence. Shy and reticent to the extent of even appearing oddly taciturn, he keeps his feelings to himself and scarcely expresses either his happiness or displeasure. He has the habit of shying away from saying thanks even if he is extremely happy. He presumes that others know his feeling. Therefore, a typical Hmar is shamefully lacking in verbal politeness. He will seldom look at the face of a person he shakes hand with. Though an introvert, he can however be very loquacious in the company of close friends or in his own circle. His love for and attachment to the comforts of his hearth and home takes precedence over other mundane considerations. Hence a common saying that a Hmar walks fastest when heading for home. As such, any job which can uproot him from his moorings does not appeal him. Consequently, hardly any Hmar would come out of his roost to seek a government job elsewhere. No, not until his perception of the world around him and life itself has changed.
Another characteristic of a Hmar is his enigmatic self-contradiction. Proud at heart, he sets an imaginary standard of himself and considers some job below his status while at the same time respects and even envies that job if someone else has taken and performed it well. He resents at being dictated upon but often chooses to play the role of a subject instead of being the ruler even if he has a chance. Instances are abound in history whereby the Hmars invited persons from other tribes to become their chiefs, starting from Zahmuok, the progenitor of Sailo chiefs. For example, till the early sixties, most of the major Hmar villages in Hmar Area had Thado chiefs. It is therefore difficult to dismiss a suggestion that such historical incidences are a reflection of their unwillingness to govern, or lack of administrative ability or courage to take up responsibility and challenges.
On the other hand, this strange inclination could have been dictated either (a) by his intolerance to see his own kinsman to rule over him because of his misplaced sense of equality or (b) by his uncanny sense of survival from the threats of the more aggressive Sailo and Thado chiefs that prompted him to have a Thado chief to deal with his adversaries. Whatever be the case, his preference of a ruler from other more aggressive tribe to that of his kinsman talks a lot about the psyche of the tribe. If church inter-relationships within the tribe were any indication, there are ample evidences of the manifestation of the above traits in some form or the other.
Traditionally, a Hmar is known for his religious bend of mind and his priestly craft. His involvement with the metaphysical world has produced many outstanding magicians amongst whom Lalruong (Ralngam) The Great Magician and his counterparts remained insuperable. In the world of animism where the uninformed mind constantly struggled against the grips of demonic forces and where a priest had to perform acts of propitiation for every ill that afflicted mind and body, the Hmar priest, being provenly a good medium and inveigler of spirits, had always been a natural choice for the job. Most of the incantational mumbo-jumbo hollers (dawi hla) used by the priests of Zo descent to cast a spell or drive out evil spirits had their origins from the Hmars. Therefore, even running the risk of being accused of indulging in self-righteous claim, I will still stick to my premises that if he were a Hindu, a Hmar would have been born no less than a Brahmin. Only the force of circumstances could turn this priest into a mandarin.
The inherent characteristics of a Hmar described above are still largely relevant today. To prove the point, let us take the case of educated Hmars in Manipur. The first medical degree holder (LMP) from Manipur was Dr. Thanglung and he declined a lucrative government job and joined instead in 1936 the North India General Mission (NEIGM) with almost no salary. After him, three decades later came Dr. Laltuoklien Sinate, M.B.B.S who first joined Siemat Christian Hospital but subsequently had to switch over to a government service because of the conflicts and divisions within the church organisation. Mr. Thanglora, the first B.A degree holder initially took up teaching in 1951, then left for a government job to hold the post of Block Development Officer, and after a brief stint, headed back to a teaching line under Independent Church of India. Mr. Hrilrokhum Thriek, the most outstanding amongst them all and the first B.Sc degree holder (1956) later obtained B.D (Serampore-1959) and M.Th (USA-1963) with distinctions and joined the Presbyterian Church to don a priestly robe. The first Master of Science (Agri) and LL.B Mr. Rothanglien Hmar who entered the IAS soon left the prestigious service to take up a voluntary work for the cause of the Gospel. The first holders of Master of Arts degree, Mr. H.K. Khawlkung and Mr. Ruolneikhum Pakhuongte both joined a mission field. Dr. Rochunga Pudaite, the most well-known Hmar and one of the first graduates followed the heels of evangelist Watkin Roberts to the West and has earned global fame and recognition for his various missionary projects including his epic venture BIBLES FOR THE WORLD. The first army commissioned officer Capt. Singlienkung Hriler left his service in a huff to lead a life of an evangelist. The rest of Hmar graduates in the 50s and early 60s, with the exception of Messrs Z. Thangsei, L. Lungawi and R.K. Hmar who had joined government service, were all absorbed in the church set-up and the educational institutions, mostly in high schools.
As the society entered the sixties with new values and opportunities, the trend of thinking began to change. Time was when any ambitious mother with good looking marriageable daughter would set her eyes on the evangelists, pastors, headmasters and teachers in that order for a prospective ideal son-in-law. The society held them in high esteem. But this status quo would soon be tilted in favour of an elite service in the government. Services in the church organisations and educational institutions, howsoever noble, peaceful and gratifying they may be, have offered less attractive remuneration and almost no chance of bigger promotions. Therefore, graduates with confidence in their ability to compete others had to look beyond the church and schools to build up a career. Since the elite services of the Government of Indian offered maximum prospects for better salary, status, promotion, recognition and security, more and more educated Hmars came forward to jump on the bandwagon.
The first Hmar who led the way and created a historical landmark in India was Mr. Jamchong Nampui in 1955. He got into the Indian Administrative Service through the all India competition. He was the first ever successful candidate from the Scheduled Tribes in independent India. The news of his success was received with joyful disbelief for, till then, there was a long-held belief that the IAS, like its predecessor ICS, was beyond the reach of the intelligence of the hill people. Mr. Nampui broke that psychological barrier. History will remember him as a pioneer and a torch-bearer for he was the first hillman from the north-east India region to have achieved that once-regarded unattainable goal. Today, there are several dozens of officers from the hills who have followed Mr. Nampui’s footstep and they are found all over India and abroad. The list of Hmar officers in all India and Central Services is in the appendix. The list is only indicative and does not include those in the Provincial and other services.
Percentage-wise, the representation of the Hmars in the all India services till the eighties had been one of the highest in the country. It was an irony that while the Hmars did well in the All India competition till 1980s, their performance at the State level had been very poor even though the level of competition at the State level competition is supposed to be less competitive. The explanation to this paradox could lie in the nature and content of the competition, its level of fairness and the fact that in the all India competition one could compete everything in the English medium. Because of their educational background, the Hmars in general have little or no chance of success in any competition which is conducted in a medium other than English or their own.
Appendix
The updated list (as on 2006) of Hmar officers in the all India Civil Services is given below. The list is only indicative and does not cover officers in the provincial services, defence and allied forces, medicine, engineering, technocrats, scientists, etc. Any commission or omission in the list is unintended.
Indian Administrative Service (IAS)
- Mr. Jamchong Nampui
- Mr. Lalbiakthanga
- Mr. Rothanglien Hmar
- Mr. Vumkhosei Changsan
- Mr. J.K. Sanglura
- Mr. Saichhuana
- Mr. Z. Thangsei
- Mr. Lalrosem Songate
- Mr. Lalthlamuana
- Mr. Ruolkhumlien Buhril
- Mr. J.C.Ramthanga
- Mr. Chonglienthang Changsan
Indian Foreign Service (IFS)
- Mr. Lal Thanzau Pudaite
- Mr. Lalthlamuong Keivom
- Mr. John Darlong
- Mr. Amstrong Changsan
- Ms Gloria Gangte
- Mr. John H.R uolngul
- Mr. Malsawmthang Keivom
- Mrs. Kim Keivom
India Police Service (IPS)
- Mr. H.T. Sangliana
Indian Customs & Excise Service (IRS)
- Mr. Lalvula
- Mr. Lalngilneiha
- Mr. Challienkhum Songate
Indian Income-tax Service (IRS)
- Mr. Luoia Nampui
- Mr. Darzakhum Songate
Indian Defence Accounts Service (IDAS)
- Mr. Lalzarliana
Indian Audit & Accounts Service
- Mr. John K. Sellate
Central Information Service
- Mr. H. Thang Khuma
Indian Ordnance Service
- Mr. H.C.Hrangate
Military Lands & Cantonment Service
- Mr. Tawnluaia
Indian Economic Service
- Mr. Hebert Lalsangsur
- Ms. Lalthangzo Songate
Indian Postal Service
- Ms H.T.Sangkhumi
Indian Forest Service
- Mr. Rohminglien
- Mr. Franklin Lalsansuok
Central Secretariat Service (Under Secretary & above as on 2006)
- Mr. L.B. Sinate
- Mr. Suothang
- Mr. Lalkhawthang Thahngen
- Mr. Lalruotthang
- Mr. Darsiemlien Ruolngul
- Mr. H.K. Kawllienthang
- Mr. R.H.Hminglien Hmar
- Mr. L.B. Tuolte
- Mr. Lalhmingthang Ruolngul
- Mr. James Vanlalhlir
- Mr. V.L. Renga
Note: This article was written in 1985 in Wellington (NZ) for inclusion at the Golden Jubilee Souvenir, 1985 commissioned by Dr. Rochunga Pudaite which did not materialise. I have slightly revised to bridge up the long gap without changing its main content. LK
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