For those in the dark, try the following link: http://www.telegraphindia.com/1080528/jsp/nation/story_9331104.jsp                  A concise report is given at the above site.

              In some blogs, there have been derogatory comments about her marriage with a Pole. This is very insensitive of them, to say the least. To make such remarks about a young woman who is no more! The focus should be on the talent she had, rather than on the choices she made. Moreover, as far as I know, she had maintained her ethnicity despite her marriage to a foreigner. What happened after that can only be blamed on fate. In this blog I have made available 3(three) of her songs for download, purely with the intention of letting interested members of our community to have a glimpse of her talent. Two of these are cover versions while ‘Utongleii’ is a manipuri original number composed and performed by her. I would request all readers not to commercialise any of these. Click on any of the links below to download the mp3……..

What’s Up  [4 Non-Blondes]:             http://www.hotlinkfiles.com/files/2149278_nmw27/05What_sup.mp3

Flower Utongleii [Manipuri]           http://www.hotlinkfiles.com/files/2149277_r4kg6/06Flower-Utongleii.mp3

My Heart’ll  go on  [Celine Dion]   http://www.hotlinkfiles.com/files/2149276_mqnix/07Myheartwillgoon.mp3

I have provided the lyrics of  What’s Up  by [4 Non-Blondes] so that you can hum along.

Whats Up     [4 Non-Blondes]

25 years of my life and still
I’m trying to get up that great big hill of hope
For a destination
I realized quickly when I knew I should
That the world was made up of this
Brotherhood of man
For whatever that means
So I cry sometimes when I’m lying in bed
To get it all out what’s in my head
Then I start feeling a little peculiar
So I wake in the morning and I step
Outside I take deep breath
I get real high
Then I scream from the top of my lungs
What’s goin’ on
And I say hey…
And I say hey what’s goin’ on
And I say hey…
I said hey what’s goin’ on
And I try, oh my God do I try
I try all the time
In this institution
And I pray, oh my God do I pray
I pray every single day
For a revolution
So I cry sometimes when I’m lying in my bed
To get it all out what’s in my head
Then I start feeling a little peculiar
So I wake in the morning and I step outside
I take a deep breath then I get real high
Then I scream from the top of my lungs
What’s goin’ on
And I say hey…
And I say hey what’s goin’ on (x 3)
25 years of my life and still
I’m trying to get up that great big hill of hope
For a destination

The Bishnupriya Manipuri community is an endogamous community. Endogamy is the term applied to the custom prevailing in certain societies whereby a member of a community, clan, or other social unit marries within the group. In some groups (like ours), members are forbidden from marrying a member of a different social unit. We practice endogamy very strictly as an inherent part of our moral values, traditions or religious beliefs. It can be said that we practice this for the purpose of preserving racial purity. Endogamy encourages group affiliation and bonding. Endogamy is a common practice among displaced cultures such as ours attempting to make roots in new locations as it encourages group solidarity and ensures greater control over group resources (which may be important to preserve where a group is attempting to establish itself within an alien culture). It helps minorities survive over a long time in societies with other practices and beliefs. Such practices help to highlight community identity, uniqueness, and status in opposition to neighbouring groups with whom marriages are discouraged. Endogamy is often applied on a society-wide level and assists in defining group boundaries.

The Bishnupriya Manipuri community is however exogamous in the sense that marriage within clans, gotras and blood relations is prohibited. Exogamy serves the principal function of preventing the ill effects of inbreeding. Exogamy more generally refers to the mating of individuals who are relatively less related genetically. This benefits the offspring by avoiding the chance of the offspring inheriting two copies of a defective gene, and also by increasing the genetic diversity of the offspring, improving the chances that more of the offspring will have the required adaptations to survive.

Authorities differ as to the advantages and disadvantages of endogamy as a device for the preservation of racial purity. Some assert that inbreeding is likely to cause a degeneration of the genetic stock; others contend that hereditary defects introduced through marriage outside the group are more likely to cause deterioration. But the more prevalent opinion is that the isolationist practices of endogamy may lead to a group’s extinction rather than its survival. For instance, while long serving to preserve their religion, the Samaritans’ practice of endogamy now threatens its very existence.

The Samaritans are an ethno religious group of the Levant (Western Asia). Ancestrally, they claim descent from a group of Israelite inhabitants who have connections to ancient Samaria. Religiously, they are the adherents to Samaritanism, a branch of Judaism separate from the historically mainstream form of Judaism. As of November 1, 2007, there were 712 Samaritans according to their tally, living almost exclusively on Mount Gerizim near the city of Nablus in Samaria (now a part of the West Bank) and in the city of Holon in Israel. Refusal to intermarry, in conjunction with their non-acceptance of converts (pl. note the similarity with the BM practice), has led the population of this ethnic group to decrease to fewer than one thousand. Such a small gene pool has contributed to genetic disease within the community.

Another argument advanced by many scientists against endogamy, especially where it is practiced for the purpose of preserving racial purity, states that intermarriage among races has often produced types that combine the best elements of the two parent races and are intrinsically superior to both. Claude Levi-Strauss, a prominent sociologist, introduced the “Alliance Theory” of exogamy, that is, that small groups must force their members to marry outside so as to build alliances with other groups. According to this theory, groups that engaged in exogamy would flourish, while those that didn’t would die out, either literally or because they lacked ties for cultural and economic exchange, leaving them at a disadvantage. There have been such rapid changes in business and technology that new fields open up where people of achievement can create new hierarchies through marital alliances across diverse groups. These links also serve as a uniting force between groups and affect their social mobility in a positive way. Assets of one group become accessible to the other.

I have made a modest attempt to present an impartial and unbiased view of the marital system in our community. On one hand we stand to gain in genetic, cultural and economic diversity by opening up while on the other hand we risk diluting our cherished and unique ethnicity by gradually allowing ourselves to be assimilated into the mainstream. Readers are free to form their own opinions or draw conclusions. Names and places have been intentionally omitted to preserve anonymity. Comments are welcome.