Boundaries Blurred? Folklore, Mythology, History and the Quest for an Alternative Genealogy in North-east India

Abstract

AbstractThis paper analyses the use of religious folklore among the Meitei people of Manipur in northeastern India in the creation of a racial identity. After the Meiteis, who are ethnically Southeast Asian, were forced to convert to Hinduism in the early eighteenth century by the Manipuri king Garibniwaz, they were provided with a number of folklores regarding their origin that combined Hindu and indigenous Meitei deities and myths. Recently, the rise of anti-Hindu sentiment in Manipur—spurred by a movement to revive the indigenous Meitei religion and a strained political relationship with India—has led to the questioning of the validity of these stories by Meitei academics. As a result a new cannon of literature is being developed by scholars that link the origin of the community to its Southeast Asian roots. Discovering the racial identity of the Meitei people has motived this movement. This paper analyzes the multiple meanings that mythologies concerning origin hold in contemporary Meitei society and challenges the modern notion that historical consciousness is absolute truth.