ABSTRACT
A relevant analogy would perhaps be the progressive changes that have come over in the self-perception, including especially the chosen appellation of the black American in the United States. Another related development has been the desire of several of the tribal communities and, on occasion, even some non-tribal communities, to effect a change in the nomenclature by which they had been known historically and seek a new handle, as it were, to the community as a whole. Beyond the simple rectification of a wrong pronunciation or spelling of a name, what is being sought is a purging of the unpleasant or uncomplimentary connotations of long-established nomenclatures and their replacement by self-consciously nativistic terms. Even more complicated is the case of the nomenclature not so much of the Bishnupriya in Manipur, but of their language.
