Rongmei Naga - History

History

Ruangmei is a combination of two words RUANG and MEI meaning SOUTH and PEOPLE respectively. Thus Ruangmei stands for the southerners, the ancestral home of the rongmei lies in the mountain ranges in the Tamenglong district of Manipur and adjacent mountainous areas of Nagaland and Assam. The Rongmei settlement area within the territory of Manipur happens to be the southern portion of the vast tract of Naga country and hence those who settling in the southern part of their habitat within Manipur call themselves the Rongmei (Ruangmei) the southerners. (Life style, Indian tribes: locational practice, Volume 2: By Shiva Tosh Das). In present day literature, the word kabui has been widely used within and within and outside Manipur and the name Ruangmei is less known to the other communities. The original home of the rongmei of the Manipur lies in the Tamenglong area which is a vast tract of hilly region situated along the western borders of Manipur. It is reported that many early settlers into the valley of Manipur came from Tamenglong area. It is reported that the earliest settlement of the Rongmei in Imphal is more than a century old. In terms of race and language, the rongmei fall under the Tibeto-Burman family of the Mongolian race. It is believed that a number of Mongoloid groups, including the Kabuis, used to inhabit the upper course of the Chinese rivers of the Yangtze and Hwang Ho. According to the writings of ancient ethnographers of as early as British era, they are one of the twenty two tribal communities who belonged to the Manipur state. Today also, these rongmei tribes have been enlisted as one of the twenty nine tribes of the Constitution of India.

The Rongmei territory was conquered by the British in the nineteenth century. Under the leadership of Haipou Jadonang and his successor Rani Gaidinliu, they rebelled against the British rule in the 1930s.