New Delhi: At a time when Manipur’s Meitei community is at loggerheads with the Kuki-Zos, incorrect attribution of an indigenous game of the north-eastern state’s majority community to the Zo-majority Mizoram by the NCERT in a textbook has kicked up a storm – leading Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders from the Meitei community to shoot letters to the central education body to rectify the error “immediately”.
The sport, Mukna-Kangjei, is a variant of hockey and includes wrestling. The game, traditionally played by the Meiteis of Manipur, was mentioned on page 88 of the NCERT textbook “Learning Through Traditional Games”. However, instead of stating it to be endemic to Manipur, it mentioned that the sport is from Mizoram.
An official of the NCERT (National Council of Educational Research and Training) told PTI, “It seems like a genuine typing error as the contents of the chapter attribute the chapter to Manipur and its history.”
However, the year-long ethnic tension in the state which has intensified community and sub-nationalist feelings among the Meitei community has made the timing of the error a highly sensitive issue.
With a considerable section of the community – electorally significant in most of the 60 assembly constituencies of the state – miffed at the ruling BJP for not able to douse the ongoing conflict, some of the state’s leaders from the party were seen shooting off letters to the NCERT to “rectify the mistake immediately”.
Taking to X on April 29, Rajkumar Imo Singh, an MLA and son-in-law of chief minister N. Biren Singh, termed it “a gross error” by the NCERT.
“NCERT needs to rectify the mistake immediately. Our state education minister, Th. Basanta Kumar Singh, should take this matter up with the government of India to solve this issue and ensure that such errors are not repeated by the NCERT.”
The education minister is also the BJP’s candidate for the Inner Manipur parliamentary seat for which voting took place on April 19. He was given the party ticket by dropping R.K. Ranjan Singh, a minister of state in the Narendra Modi government, most likely because of public discontent with him for not speak up on behalf of the community and Manipur in New Delhi in spite of being in the Union government. In the course of the ethnic violence, his house was also attacked by a mob.
This time though, Ranjan Singh was quick to react. The Union minister of state for external affairs sent a “written complaint” to the State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT), Delhi on April 29. “This being a serious issue, the matter may be enquired into to ascertain and furnish the factual position at the earliest. If the mistakes pointed out in the media reports are found to be correct, the concerned authorities may be directed to carry out the required corrections in the textbooks at the earliest,” he wrote.
As per an Imphal Free Press report, Ranjan Singh also “called SCERT officials” on the matter. “Recalling an earlier incident, he further pointed out that in some textbooks, the photograph of ‘Siroy Lily’ was found replaced by some common lily found on the streets of Delhi. He warned the SCERT authority to rectify the error and consult the respective authorities of a state before printing the textbooks.”
Siroy or Shirui lily, considered an endangered species, is the state flower of Manipur.
NCERT officials told PTI that they have taken note of the issue “and are looking into it”.
