THE BAND
STATE MIZORAM many of the stories of the Bible, and were practicing a form of biblical Judaism.” More then 5,000 people in Mizoram and Manipur claim to be ‘Jews’, and hundreds of them have already migrated to the Middle East. They are mostly settled in Gaza and the West Bank. Mizos who claim to be ‘Jews’ have formally converted themselves to Judaism after being ‘baptised’ at ‘Mikvahs’ or spiritual baths organized by rabbis visiting Mizoram and Manipur during the past few years. Around 1,200 A Mizo woman with a vision fixed in Israel. people from Mizoram have reportedly migrated to Israel dur- Menashe - the ethnic community in ing the past years, Mizoram and Manipur - as Israeli dewith over 500 going in scendants. After that historic announce2006, and nearly same ment on March 30, 2006 the Amishav numbers of ‘Jews’ Hebrew Centre - the institute for learnhave moved to Israel ing the Hebrew language and Jewish from Manipur. religion and culture located at Republic According to me- Veng Street in Aizwal - was renamed as dia reports – the Is- the Shavei Israel Hebrew Centre. The raeli Interior and Ab- rapid conversion of Mizos to Judaism sorption ministry had has brought about a change in the reliearlier approved the gious equation of the state. This other‘home coming’ of the wise Christian dominated state is witMizo Jews in Octo- nessing a rise in Judaism. ber, 2006 after which But the state’s powerful church, around 500 Mizo Jews have always dismissed the theory of the left for Israel. A Mik- Mizo Jews. Churches even assert that vah or spiritual bath of by all empirical accounts, this tribe was the Jews was erected animist at the time of the arrival of the at Zuangtui locality missionaries. near Mizoram’s capital Yet hundreds of Mizos have conAizwal, where Mizo verted to the Jewish faith, with many ‘Jews’ were formally learning Hebrew through corresponconverted to Judaism dence courses. At the local synagogue, in 2006 by the rabbis- hundreds of Mizos attend prayers thrice the religious teacher of a day – just to show how deep-rooted the Jews. their faith is in Judaism and the Jews In an earlier de- life style. But the question that remains velopment, Sephardi still unanswered is whether the kind of Rabbi Shlomo Amar, hope and desperation with which these head of the rabbini- lot of people embraced Judaism would cal court in Israel, had be reciprocated during their emancipaannounced the rec- tion with the general Jews. Only time Mizo Jews in a synagogue. ognition of the Bnei will tell.
Biju Boro
Exodus, such as enemies chasing them over a red-coloured sea, quails, and a pillar of cloud is a clear evidence of their Israelite ancestry. Translation of the lyrics: “While we are preparing for the Sikpui Feast, The big red sea becomes divided; As we march along fighting our foes, We are being led by pillar of cloud by day,’’ And pillar of fire by night. Our enemies, O ye folks, are thick with fury, Come out with your shields and arrows. Fighting our enemies all day long, We march forward as cloud-fire goes before us. The enemies we fought all day long, The big sea swallowed them like wild beast. Collect the quails, And draw the water that springs out of the rock.” Freund also reported that according to the Bnei Menashe, “a century ago, when British missionaries first arrived in India’s North-East, they were astonished to find that the local tribesmen worshipped one god, were familiar with
44
August 08
Monsoon Raga
Everytime we enter into the monsoon season, we raise debate on what is causing “less rainfall” in our wettest place. But records say we are comfortably high in rainfall. Madhuparna Bhattacharjee finds more on this.
E
very year, I often hear few people complaining that there is not enough rainfall that particular year. And with the system of electricity shutdown, which has been the trend for the past four years, their voices seem to raise higher and they speak with a lot of conviction, even though the scientific studies indicate otherwise. The Northeast India is one of the most vital zones of the world which often comes up for discussion or reference whenever there is some debate over global warming, climate change or ecological imbalance. And why not, when Cherrapunjee records highest rainfall in a year and becomes the world’s wettest place, it is quite obvious that any global study on the rainfall pattern in various pockets, Cherrapunjee must have a place there. With this question in mind whether the average rainfall in the Northeast has at all decreased, I had a very academic discussion with Dr Surendra Singh of the North Eastern Hill Uni-
versity and what he has to say on this is something interesting. “The total rainfall in this region has not decreased. What has happened instead is that the region is not experiencing incessant rain that it used to do earlier.” Dr Singh along with Taiichi Hayashi, a senior scientist from the Disaster Prevention Research Institute, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan, has been jointly conducting a research on the rainfall pattern in the Northeast India with Cherrapunjee their study area. “After going through the records of Cherrapunjee’s rainfall during the past hundred years, we can say that now the rainfall in this part of the world has changed its pattern. Earlier there used to be constant rain for days. But now we get sudden and short spells of heavy shower,” Dr Singh said. Monsoon in India lasts for few months, normally from June to September. If you go for the history of it, you would find that the term was first used in English in India, BanglaAugust 08
45