Although the identity of Subedar Niranjan Chhetri has already been established as Gorkha by the Manipur State Archives, editor of Ningthourol and scholarly writing of other patriotic writer (Kh. Shamungou), yet it becomes necessary to throw some more light on the existing identity of Subedar Niranjan in order to clear the doubts in view of the article entitled, “Niranjan Subedar not a Gorkha” published in this esteem daily, The Sangai Express dated 7th and 8th June and subsequent clarification by a learned writer on 16th and 17th November of 2011 in the same daily in response to the observance of Sahid Diwas by Gorkha Welfare Union, Manipur at Kanglatombi on 8th June 2010 with much enthusiasm and publicity. This article being the first of its kind published in the newspaper for public domain, the learned writer deserves appreciation for negating the established record of the Manipur State Archives. In fact, this is how history is kept alive and rewritten. Some comments from inside and outside the country and a view on the article received so far were by and large in favour of the established identity of Niranjan as Gorkha. However, no comments and views from Gorkha Welfare Union,Manipur,w hich they should have. The simple logic of the union may be that they observed the 8th June (the day on which Niranjan was hanged by the British) as Sahid Diwas as per the authentic record of the State Archives whose independent research findings was free from bias, prejudice and influence from any quarter and as such they did not pay heed to the article and decided to go ahead with the observance of Sahid Diwas as usual.The Nepali Research Society, Manipur – a social research unit devoted to community based research headed by the writer of this article ventured to analyse the matter in question as it falls under its purview, clarified some of the points raised by the learned writer and try to justify the correct Gorkha identity of Subedar Niranjan Chhetri. Subedar Niranjan Chhetri was accused of being a ring leader of Jubraj Bir Tikendrajit in the fight against British in the Anglo- Manipur war of 1891. The statements of the accused (as stated in the article) recorded during the trial were: Name: Niranjan Son of: Daria Singh Caste: Chhetri Age: 35 years Village: Tikuamoh Zilla: Hardoi Status: Hindustani Subedar is just the designation under Manipuri Army given by Jubraj Bir Tikendrajit.Name of a person is just a naming word which may or may not carry any meaning. However, names in Gorkha society are often based on the life style and habit of a person. As such, name Daria is a lifestyle based name meaning a person who keeps beard in Nepali. Moreover, there are certain surnames of ‘Chhetri’ caste which end in ‘ria’. For instance, ka-dara. Further, ‘Singh’ title is common to many Hindu society including Gorkha. In fact, in UP and Uttarakhand it is difficult to distinguish Gorkha from Rajputs as many of them (Gorkha) write ‘Singh’ as their title instead of caste ‘Chhetri’. Therefore, common and not a common name of a person belonging to a particular community does not arise and this may not provide any clue to the identity of a person. Gorkhas are basically a Hindu society having caste heirarchical system prevalent among themselves and broadly divided into Janailaune (holy cord wearer) and nalagaune (holy cord not wearer). Vedic model of Varna introduced by migrant Indian Rajpoots in Nepal could not accommodate diverse profession based ethnic communities and therefore,vedic model is not strictly followed by the Gorkhas. Bahun, Chhetri Vaishya and Sudra is the Gorkha version of Sanskrit Vedic system of classification- Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaishya and Sudra. Gorkha from the very beginning of vedic age maintained their unique identity of writing ‘Chhetri’ as their caste at the end of a name but not Kshatriya. There is no dispute on the usage of ‘Chhetri’ and ‘Kshatriya’ by a particular community although the caste ‘Chhetri’ may have been derived from the sanskrit word ‘Kshatriya’. Both of them more or less carry the same meaning but usage of the word is different for different communities. Therefore, ‘Chhetri’ is the genuine caste of Gorkhas only whose mother tongue is Nepali . ‘Chhetri’ means ‘Chhetri’ only and NOT ‘Chhetri means ‘Kshetri’ (Rajpoots) or ‘Kshatriya’ in the name of a person. However, some Gorkhas write Kshetri/Chetri/ Chettri/ Chhettri, etc which are nothing but the distorted form of the word ‘Chhetri’ and they write so due to their ignorance. ‘Chhetri’ is pronounced as ‘chhetri’ only and it is the correct spelling of the word but the use of ‘i’ and ‘y’ in the spelling of ‘Chhetri’ or ‘Chhetry’ is optional. Even in those days, British recognised as many as 12 warrior caste of Gorkhas of which ‘Chhetri’ is one of them. They don’t make mistake in recording the correct spelling of ‘Chhetri’. Therefore, name Niranjan Chhetri recorded by H Maxwell, the Chief Political Officer during the trial of the accused is chhetri of Gorkha origin only. Had it been recorded as Niranjan Kshetri/ Kshatriya, he may or may not be a Gorkha. Further, all Hindustani Rajpoots in Northern India beyond Bengal pronounced ‘Kshetri’ as ‘Chhetri’ is something new and not heard. No Rajpoots in the country write ‘Chhetri’ as their caste and pronounce kshetri as chhetri. Therefore, caste ‘Chhetri’ is only and only used by people belonging to the Gorkha community. One may find the people using caste ‘Chhetri’ in Nepal, India, Myanmar, China, Bhutan, and recent past evicted ethnic Bhutanese refugees settled in USA, Canada, Denmark, Australia, New Zealand and Switzerland under the aegis of United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
Posted on: Mon, 02 Jun 2014 16:12:03 +0000
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