Situation in Manipur. Over the past month, reports of violence, arson, and mayhem have emerged from various districts in Manipur, including Churachandpur, Imphal East, Imphal West, Bishnupur, Tengnoupal, and Kangpokpi. The violence began on May 3, after the All Tribal Students Union Manipur (ATSUM) held a solidarity march in all districts opposing the recent Manipur High Court order, which had asked the Manipur State government to send a recommendation to the Centre regarding the demand to include the Meitei community in the Scheduled Tribes (STs) list.
On May 4, as the violence escalated, the Centre invoked Article 355 of the Constitution, which is a part of emergency provisions. It empowers the Centre to take necessary steps to protect a State against external aggression or internal disturbances. Large numbers of additional armed forces were then moved into the State to try to bring the situation under control. Almost 100 people have been reported killed, hundreds have been wounded, and over thousands belonging to the Kuki and Meitei communities, besides others, have been displaced so far. Buildings, homes, and other property, including vehicles, havebeen destroyed.
Some thousands of people have been shifted to safe homes or shelters. Chief Minister N. Biren Singh’s plea for calm has proved futile. Suggesting that the violence was the result of a misunderstanding, Singh said that the government was taking all measures to maintain law and order, including requisitioning additional paramilitary forces. Central and State forces have been directed to take strong action against individuals and groups found engaging in violence.
Indefinite curfew has been imposed in the Meitei-dominated Imphal West, Kakching, Thoubal, Jiribam, and Bishnupur districts, as well as in Kuki-dominated Kangpokpi and Tengnoupal districts.
The possible causes of conflict. The immediate provocation for the ethnic unrest appears to have been the demand for the Meitei community, which accounts for 53 per cent of Manipur’s population and primarily inhabits the Manipur Valley, to be included in the ST list. The underlying anger, simmering for a long time, has other reasons. These are linked not just to the government’s clampdown on reserved and protected forests in the State’s hill areas but also to the Kukis’ feeling of being persecuted. Several Chin, people of the same ethnic group from across the border in Myanmar, have entered India, fleeing violence and persecution, and the government’s tough stance against these so-called illegal immigrants has angered the Kukis/Zos, whose kin they are.
The BJP Chief Minister’s tough stance against what he calls encroachment of reserved and protected forest areas in the hills of Manipur by tribal communities stems from various causes, including the fact that many acres of land in the hills are being used for poppy cultivation. The government sees its crackdown on forest areas as part of a bigger war against drugs, but it is also guilty of using “drug lords” as a blanket term against all Kuki people. The Centre has backed Singh’s stand.
Secondly, there is serious pressure on land in Manipur. As populations increase in the tribal villages, they tend to spread out into surrounding forest areas, which they consider their historical and ancestral right. This is contested by the government. Simultaneously, the Meitei, who live in the valleys, are angry because they are not allowed to settle or buy land in the hill areas, while tribal people can buyland in the valleys.
The anger within the Kuki community against what it sees as its “selective targeting” by the BJP run State government appears to have spilled over during the current protest march as well, leading to the violence.
Previous protest rallies. On March 10 itself, mass rallies had been held across hill districts, including Churachandpur, Ukhrul, Kangpokpi, Tengnoupal, Jiribam, and Tamenglong. Thousands of members of the Kuki tribe had then protested the BJP-run government’s so-called selective targeting of Kukis. They had raised slogans against the eviction of residents from K. Songjang village.The Indigenous Tribal Leaders Forum (ITLF), a recently formed conglomerate of tribal groups, which includes the Kukis, had called for the rallies.
On March 11, the State government retaliated by withdrawing from the ongoing tripartite talks. It withdrew the Suspension of Operation (SoO) agreement with two armed political groups, the Kuki National Army and the Zomi Revolutionary Army, accusing them of inciting protesters during the rallies.
The SoO agreement is a ceasefire agreement that the Central and State government signed with the two conglomerates of tribal armed outfits in the hills, the United People’s Front and the Kuki National Organisation, in 2008. The Kuki National Army and the Zomi Revolutionary Army are both part of the KukiNational Organisation. These are all armed organisations.
KIM had asserted that the rallies were a result of public discontent over the “extreme disregard” by the government of the Scheduled Hill areas and of Articles 370 and 371 C of the Constitution, whichapplied to Manipur. The organisation said that it took exception to the Chief Minister’s terming of the rally participants as “encroachers, poppy cultivators, drug smugglers, and illegal immigrants”.
Given the existing tensions in the State, the High Court order asking for a government recommendation to grant ST status to Meiteis is being seen as provocative. Even among the Meiteis, there is opposition to it. Their history asserts to the Meiteis being a settled agricultural community for over 2,000 years.
The objective of this webinar is for those with experience of this issue to share their views, focusing less on history and more on exploring possible ways to achieve a lasting solution. In addition to officials at the highest level and media experts who have deep knowledge of the past 25 years, speakers from each of the affected communities/states have been invited to share their views.