Dr. Ningrinla Marchang and Dr. Margaret Kathing are serving as Professor and Associate Professor, respectively, in the Prestigious Department of Computer Science(C.Sc) at NERIST.
I remember that during the early 2000s, NERIST used to be the third most sought after destination for most Engineering Students of the Region, after IIT-Guwahati and NIT- Silchar.
Dr. Margaret Kathing, who joined NERIST as Faculty Member in 2001 and is currently the Head of the Department (HoD) of Computer Science, was elevated to Associate Professorship in 2015.
Dr. NINGRINLA MARCHANG is the first Naga M.Tech degree holder in Computer Science from IIT-Delhi (1993-1995)
Dr. Ningrinla Marchang has been an outstanding student all throughout her academic career. In 1993, she joined IIT -Delhi (Hauz Khas) for her M. Tech Program in Computer Science, then the most sought after /most coveted progam in the IITs. Those days there were only 5 IITs in the Country -Kharagpur, Kanpur, Bombay, Delhi and Madras. Thirty three (33) years ago (1993), she was enrolled as the only woman of her Batch in the Department of Computer Science at IIT-Delhi. She is also the first Tangkhul woman to earn a Doctorate degree in Computer Science. While in High School (Brighter Academy, Imphal), Dr. Ningrinla was the only girl to opt for the Paper in Higher Mathematics. She taught Computer Science at Chennai for 5 years, before she joined NERIST in 2001.
YK SHIMRAY : The First Dhaka & Us- Trained Engineer Of Manipur
The first Dhaka- trained Engineer from Manipur in the 1950s was YK Shimray Tangkhul, who also received his Training in Civil Engineering from the USA (Ram Muivah IAS, Interview). YK Shimray matriculated First Class in Matriculation (late 1940s) from Jorhat Christian High School, thereby obtaining the Government Scholarship to pursue Engineering at Dakha ( Bangladesh) in the early 1950s. YK Shimray, completed the work of alignment of the Ukhrul -Imphal National Highway in 1957. It may also be mentioned that the Black-topping of the Imphal -Ukhrul Highway was done in 1962/1963 by Shangreihan Muivah, father of Lt. Grinder Muivah. The first two Special Contractors of Manipur were Tangkhuls ; Shangreihan Muivah and Aring Tangkhul (Ram Muivah Interviews, 2024). Lt. Grinder Muivah graduated in Economics from St. Stephen’s College, obtained his MIB (Master in International Business) degree from FMS, Delhi University, and served as the President of the Naga Students’ Union Delhi (NSUD) in the mid -1980s.
SHISHAK BROTHERS (Donrei & Shimreisa, Retired Chief Engineers)
However, the first Tangkhul to join IIT (Kanpur) was Donrei Shishak, inducted 54 years ago in 1972. He and his brother Shimreisa Shishak, retired as Chief Engineers in the Government of Nagaland.
DR. THOTREINGAM KASAR ; Doctorate IISC, Bangalore
The first Tribal in India to earn a doctorate in Electrical Engineering from Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, a premier research institute in India, is a Tangkhul (Dr. Thotreingam Kasar), whose father was also a retired Executive Engineer in the State Government. Dr. Thotreingam Kasar obtained M.Tech. degree in Signal Processing from IIT Guwahati and Ph.D. from IISc Bangalore.
He was with the LITIS Lab, University of Rouen, France and LORIA Lab, University of Nancy, France as a post-doctoral research fellow during 2012-2015. He is the Founder & Director of EDspire Research Centre, Mysuru.
DR. KHATHING : Faculty Member At IISC, Bangalore
However, the first Tribal to teach at IISC Bangalore was Dr. Darlando Khathing, another Tangkhul Naga and the son of Maj Bob Khathing. Dr. Darlando joined St. Stephen’s College, Delhi for physics in the year 1966 and earned his Doctorate in Applied Nuclear Physics from Bose Institute, Calcutta in 1974 and completed his Post-Doc from London University in applied Nuclear Physics. Dr. Khathing was Professor and HOD of Physics & Registrar at NEHU and he became the Vice-Chancellor of the Central University of Jharkhand about a decade ago, the first Tribal from the Region to be the VC of a major Central University outside the North East Region. His elder brother John Khathing retired as the Chief Commissioner (2003-2006) of the Government of India, and John Khathing was the first person from the North East Region to be elevated to that position in the Bureaucracy of the Ministry of Finance.
LUITHUK ZIMIK (MD, AIIMS, 1964) : Former Member, Physician Advisory Council (PAC) To The US President.
Even in the field of medicine, the Trailblazers in Manipur are not Meiteis, but Tangkhuls. The first person from the North East and the first Tribal in India to become a Member of the Physician Advisory Council (PAC) to the US President was Dr. Luithuk Zimik, who also served as the Chairman of the Brighton Medical College (BMC), Colorado for more than 2 decades. Dr. Luithuk earned his MD from the most prestigious Medical Institute in India (AIIMS) in 1964, one year before he migrated to the United States. According to Dr. M. Horam (1988), Ramyo Zimik, LLB first Class graduate from Gauhati University(1956) and the elder brother of Dr. Luithuk Zimik, was also the person who drafted the Constitution (Yehzabo) of the FGN (NNC).
Dr. ARYO SHISHAK (MBBS, MAKA Medical College, Delhi, 1965), the first President of Naga Students’ Union Delhi (NSUD), became one of the leading Medical Practitioners in New Jersey and his daughter was the first Naga Woman to work for the world’s largest Investment Bank (JP Morgan Chase), headed by the Jewish Banker Jamie Dimon. This was made known to us during the Speech delivered by Lt. Aryo Shishak in 2014, on the occasion of Golden Jubilee Celebration of NSUD. W. Shishak, his younger brother, the second President of the Naga Students’ Union Delhi (1965), was also the first Naga and the second Tribal in the North East to be elevated as a Permanent Judge of the Guwahati High Court in 1989 (Website of Guwahati High Court).
It is worthy to mention that Dr. James Haorei Tangkhul is also serving as a Professor of Neuro-Science at the University of Nebraska.
PAMLEIPHY SHAIZA : First Woman Doctor Of Manipur.
The first woman doctor of Manipur was not a Meitei but a Tangkhul in Pamleiphy Shaiza (1958), daughter of MK Shimray (elected as MLA in 1947) and the first Naga woman direct MBBS was another Tangkhul lady Dr. Vangamla Zimik, 1966. (Rianrisung Newslink, First Issue, October, NWU)
The Tangkhul Tribe had a headstart and Mr. Dinringam Kamei (SDO, MCS) was right : “Tangkhuls are the Chosen people, not only among the Nagas, but even for the whole state of Manipur.”
As Political Agent of Manipur, when Colonel Shakespear submitted the Annual Administration Report to the Chief Commissioner in 1904-1905, he mentioned that there was only one Public Library in Manipur and that is among the Tangkhuls.
The Tangkhuls were ahead of every single Community in Manipur even with respect to the higher- end of the Bureaucracy, and the Tangkhul Nagas gave to the state of Manipur its first second generation bureaucrat before India’s Independence in 1946, the very year its former Chief Minister Yangmaso Shaiza was recruited as SDC (as personally Conveyed by Rishang Keishing, former Chief Minister). Here I am not referring to the Clerical Staff.
Truth be told, more than 15 years ago, the Shishak brothers (Wungram Shishak and Machut Shishak), were the first two siblings from the North East Region to work for the US Foreign Service, as part of the elite US diplomatic Corps. Their father Dr. Tuisem Shishak (95 years old), founder of Patkai Christian College (PCC, Nagaland) was the first Tribal from Manipur to study in the USA, apart from being the first from Manipur to earn a regular doctorate degree in Philosophy from the US(State University of Illinois).
MAY THE LEGACY BE CARRIED FORWARD.
MAY 21ST CENTURY NOT BE A CENTURY OF SHAME FOR THE TANGKHULS
Ngahanyui Zimik
(The views and opinions in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official stance of Rural Post)
