Meitei script movement
movement to revive Meitei script from extinction
Meitei script movement, also called Meetei script movement (sometimes also referred to as Manipuri script movement), is a series of cultural wars and campaigns, undertaken by various cultural and sociopolitical associations and organisations as well as notable individual personalities, against the Government of Manipur and other authorities concerned, regarding the revivalism and the development of the Meitei script.
Background
In 1709, Hinduised Meitei King Garib Niwaz (Meitei: Pamheiba), after an inspiration from a Hindu missionary, Shantidas Gosai of Sylhet, Bengal, massively converted the religion of Meitei people from Sanamahism (aka Meiteism) into Hinduism in the then Kangleipak kingdom (renamed as "Manipur" kingdom, drawing mythical connection with Mahabharata's coastal Manipur kingdom). Simultaneously, the king banned the usage of Meitei script and decreed its replacement with Bengali script for the writings of Meitei language, which is extensively followed still today. The books written in Meitei script were burnt inside the Kangla Fort (Kangla Palace) in Imphal. Anyone who opposed him (the king) were either executed or exiled. This unfortunate incident of libricide is known as the Puya Meithaba (transl. burning of the puyas) in present times.
Early stages of the movement
20th century
Starting from the early 1930s, a socio-religious organisation named "Meitei Marup" (Meitei: ꯃꯩꯇꯩ ꯃꯔꯨꯞ) started the revivalism movement of the traditional Meitei culture, religion and script. Soon afterwards, many educated elite groups and youths joined the movement of revivalism and development of Meitei script.
In the year 1934, during the reign of Meitei King Churachand Singh (Meitei: ꯅꯤꯡꯊꯧ ꯆꯨꯔꯆꯥꯟ꯭ꯗ ꯁꯤꯡꯍ), the then Maharajah of Manipur kingdom, a group named "Beebodh Janani Shabha" published a book titled "Meetei Yelhou Lairik" (Meitei: ꯃꯤꯇꯩ ꯌꯦꯜꯍꯧ ꯂꯥꯏꯔꯤꯛ) and urged the then Royal Court to implement the Meitei script. Subsequently, in the year 1946, another group named "Meetei Mayek Thougal Marup" (Meitei: ꯃꯤꯇꯩ ꯃꯌꯦꯛ ꯊꯧꯒꯜ ꯃꯔꯨꯞ) published a book titled "Meetei Mayek Ahanba" (Meitei: ꯃꯤꯇꯩ ꯃꯌꯦꯛ ꯑꯍꯥꯟꯕ) and urged the then Manipur State Council to accept it.
The public source identifies “Meitei script movement” as movement to revive Meitei script from extinction. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Meitei, script and movement.
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This entry incorporates text from “Meitei script movement” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.