Bishnupriya Manipuri Online

Reader’s responses to the support of Kartik Sena Sinha have started pouring in. Here is one from Karunamay Sinha . You can also express your support here .  I don't know much about Kartik Sena. But the pain of losing Bimal Sinha, and the reality the Bishnupriya Manipuris are facing in Tripura prompts me to stand in support of Kartik Sena. He may not be genius of Bimal Sinha's stature. But his love for his people hasn't come under question. If Kartik had ditched BJP for the Development Council, we should welcome him. The Development Council is a reality now. What do you think is the role of Mahasabha? I mean how much are they responsible for Kartik Sena’s predicament? Somehow I believe the Mahasabha cannot disown the role it played in defaming Kartik Sena. What a sincere Bishnupriya Manipuri should consider seriously now is the role of Mahasabha vis-a-vis the society's interests. Kartik, I hear, is fighting election with AIUDF ticket. We should all stand in his support...

By Dils Lakshmindra Sinha Translation:  Karunamay Sinha Courtesy: Indian Review ‘Pranaam, Babu!’ A voice called from behind just as he was walking out of the refugee camp. Brajamohan Muktiar turned round to see who it was and found himself eying up Kanai – Kanailal Das. Hands folded, eyes tear-misted, Kanai was making a plea, ‘Babu Pranaam, I …I had a petition!’ Braja had seen much of this man during his visits to the refugee camp. A man of understanding. A very affable, compassionable man. Braja was instantly moved to deep fellow-feeling. ‘Yes, yes, speak up… yes?’ Braja could not wait to hear him out, his right hand round the shoulders of Kanai, he said reassuringly, ‘We are always by your side! It’s our duty to see your well being here. That is what we’re here for! c’mon speak your mind, have no qualms!’ ‘Babu! I… I… want to stay back! I do not want to be back to that land of fatality…!’ for a moment, Braja stood transfixed trying to comprehend what Kanai was trying to...

Courtesy: Sentinel Literary Quarterly A short story by Karunamay Sinha The car had come to a silent stop, without so much as a hint of a jerk. But the snooze broke all the same. Raghab’s eyes opened without a hint of sleepiness as though he weren’t waking up from a slumber. The driver’s seat was empty. He blinked his eyes, yawned and caught a glimpse of his driver’s receding form heading towards a knot of people a little distance away. Must be a landslide. It is a common occurrence in these hilly terrains. But that is during the rains. Well, sometimes shiny October mornings are not spared too. Rains stopped only a few days ago. He looked out the other window of the car. Serpentine strings of vehicles could be seen stranded on hairpin bends. Must be the road had been blocked for quite some time. He found his driver walking back towards the car, absorbed in some thought. As he came close to the car, his eyes fell on his officer. ‘A big landslide, Sir! Looks like we’re stuck for some ...

Escape By Karunamay Sinha Published in The Statesman (August 10, 2003) SEVERAL times, she counted the amount. A 100-rupee note, four 10-rupee notes, a sparkling new five-rupee coin and a hoard of small coins of varying denominations that made it difficult for her to work out the exact figure. A vague assessment told her that the amount was somewhere around Rs 150. She was well aware that one-third of the amount would be enough to take her to her village. She put the money into one of the two polythene bags where she had already stashed her clothes, some toys for herself and her brother and an abandoned slicer she thought would do fine in her mother’s kitchen. Once again, she held her breath, anxious to ensure that nobody was awake. Continue ... Email Alerts Jobs and Career Get Posts, Videos, Photos in Email

An Unfair Deal By Karunamay Sinha Published in The Statesman (September 13, 2004) The ghat of the tank was desolate. Yamuna had almost finished with her ablutions and was straightening the clinging wet clothes when she saw Mukunda coming towards the ghat in a brisk walk, an absorbed look about him — perhaps meant to add to his cultivated air of self-importance. “Tiger-eaten one!” she muttered under her breath as she scurried about to be off before the unpropitious being arrived there. But a freakful idea suddenly flashed into her mind. What if she played a different trick on the devil? A titillating one? Continue ... Email Alerts Jobs and Career Get Posts, Videos, Photos in Email

Lost Cause Short Story Published in The Statesman (October 25, 2005) By Karunamay Sinha IT turned out to be a dingy slum on the outskirts of the township, marked by snotty children scampering about and ragged, shabbily-clad women yelling at the top of their voices. The shack they were led to was locked from outside. “Subi Auntie no longer lives here,” the neighbours informed them. “She lives with her daughter at Silaghat, only her son lives here in this house.” “Where could he be found?” “Oh, Bittu? He should be at the auto stand now, he drives an autorickshaw and leaves home early.” They turned round and hotfooted it to the auto stand of the little township. Fortunately for them he was there, just back from the station, collecting fare from passengers alighting from his vehicle and giving them change. They swooped in on him. “Subi Auntie?” he exclaimed with a note of disdain, “Why, I’ve got no business with that slut!” Continue reading ... Email Alerts Jobs and Career Get Posts,...

By Karunamay Sinha Yes, you’ve rightly guessed it. It is Manipur. If it was Christian missionaries that transformed Mizoram into modernity, it was the last lag of the great Vaishnavite movement of medieval India that reshaped Manipur. Buddhism and Vaishnavism are two religious entities in India that had engaged in works resembling missionary activity. Unlike Christian missionaries, however, Vaishnav missionaries did not entirely banish old practices and traditions. One can thus get to see delightful coexistence of refined Hindu practices and pre-Hindu traditions existing side by side in Manipur. As to the spring festivities in Manipur, one is at a loss where to start. The feel of this space is that of pre-Hindu, pre-Buddhist, pre-Islam, pre-Christian, animistic, pagan or other beliefs and traditions. But you cannot exclude the fervour of Holi while extolling the mood of spring in Manipur. The celebration of this ubiquitous, essentially Hindu Indian festival attains a very remark...

By Karunamay Sinha Unpredictable Northeasterners Bhanubil is a place in the Sylhet Division of present-day Bangladesh. Wave upon wave of Manipuri migrants began to settle down here two-and-a-half centuries ago making it one of the most remarkable Manipuri strongholds outside Manipur. The Division was then part of Asom. Barring one or two Meitei villages, almost all the villages of the area belong to the Bishnupriya Manipuris. There are some Manipuri Muslim villages on the outskirts of the compact settlement. By the second decade of the preceding century, there occurred an unseemly problem. The British-backed Zaminder there began to impose heavier burdens of taxes. Resentment began to build up among the otherwise happy-go-lucky Manipuris. Then, one day the dissidence came to a head and the Manipuris rose to the occasion, of course, in their own mettlesome way. The insurrectionary move was later given a revolutionary face by the Indian National Congress leaders and also leaders of other ...

Colonial Interests and north-eastern Insurrectionism Karunamay Sinha The leading hotbed of insurrectionism in the region is the Naga-Kuki-Manipuri triangle of Manipur and Nagaland. The Manipuri diasporas (on more than one occasion Manipuris left Manipur during periods of socio-political turmoil) who settled in different parts of Asom’s Barak Valley region, Shylhet Division (of the then Asom), Tripura and some parts of undivided Bengal, triggered several flare-ups of insurrectionary activity. This they did mostly to do without paying the zamindars taxes. Unused to paying taxes to intermediaries, they considered it a form of spinelessness to yield to the browbeating of a mortal who was not their King. And it is well-known to all that most political turmoils during the British period had their origin in the colonial craving for more tax revenue. Taxes in the British Raj had two sharks to feed: the colonial coffers and the native zaminders reserves. Both were known to have insatiable lust ...

By Karunamay Sinha, Tripura Conspicuously, one of the few songs with which the Father of the Nation used to bathe his soul regularly is ‘ Vaishnava jana to tene kahiye je pir parayi jaane re… ’ meaning Vaishnava is he who feels the pain others suffer. Vaishnavism can be said to be the phenomenon that played the most important part in forming the soul of India. Some call it the essence of the Hindu way of life. Indian cultural traditions, all that we are proud of as Indians today are immeasurably indebted to this phenomenon. Most of the puranas and other priceless gems of Sanskrit literature were restored, recreated and reinstated during the period of the Guptas. Most importantly, a new literary and cultural resurgence gave a firm shape to what we know today as India’s cultural heritage. It was during this period that the traditionally worshipped deities of the people like Vishnu, Shiva and the mother goddess were given prominence in an area where the Vedic divinities like Brahma, I...