Muslims of Manipur

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A battalion of Muslim warriors reached Manipur in 1606 AD while trying to help the rebel Meitei prince, Sanongba. With Sanongba fled, they got captured. When the then king of Mnaipur, Khagemba, ofeered them either to die or settle in Manipur, they chose the letter. Arranged to marry local Meitei women, they quickly merged into the local Meitei culture, language, etc. Before this there are reports of small groups of or individual Muslims reaching Manipur when the then Bengal (including parts of the present Indian states of Bengal, Tripura, Assam and Bangladesh) was conquered by the Ghurid Turks from 1204 to 1303 C.E., started by a Turkish general named Bakhtiyar Khilji. His domain bordered an unprofitable, unattractive, costly-to-conquer region of high mountains, dense forests, inhospitable topography, treacherous terrains, swarms and contagious diseases.

With the establishment of Muslim rule thus in the then Bengal, Muslim traders and soldiers traversed through Manipur valley and Arakan valley since 1210s tom 1330s C.E. at the earliest.

[edit] "Pangal"

These Muslims became known as Pangal at present numbering around 150,000.

Inhabited localities include Hatta-Golapati, Kwakta, Santhel, Kshetrigaon, Lilong, Khergao, Yairipok, Kairang, Mayang Imphal, Jiri, Cachar, Keirao,etc.

The Pangal have slightly Aryan features.

The Pangal suffer from low literacy and poor economic development. A riot involving this community occurred in May 1993. About 150 were killed and an unknown number were injured and displaced.

Allimudin Shah, a Pangal, was one of the chief ministers of Manipur.

[edit] Democratic struggles

‘We must be given whatever constitutional safeguards enjoined by the constitution to a marginalized group,’ Imam Nasir Khan, general secretary of AMMUCOC, felt.