Manipur is well known for uprisings against the British. The Kuki Rebellion of 1917-1919), the Zeliangrong Naga uprising 1930-32 and the anti-British women’s movement – the Nupilan (1930-40), were all uprisings against the British. In 1907 the British decided to hand over charge of the state to Raja Churachand by constituting a Darbar headed by the Raja as President, called the Manipur State Darbar formed under the Rules for the General Administration of the State (RFGAS).
The British, known for their chicanery, separated the administration of the hills occupied by the Naga, Kuki and other tribes from the valley. The hills were under the charge of the Vice President of the Manipur State Darbar, a British officer with little scope for the Raja to interfere in the administration. The British argued that the hill tribes differed from the valley-based Meiteis and had very different customs, languages and ethnicities. This sowed the seeds for the present dissension between the people of the hills and the valley (Source: Understanding Conflict in Manipur: A Socio-Historical Perspective by Veronica Khangchian).
At the time of India’s independence, there were 565 princely states in India, of which Manipur was one. In September 1949, Maharaja Bodhchandra Singh signed the Instrument of Accession to India. Manipur became a Union Territory in 1962 and a full-fledged state in 1972. However, the seeds of inherent distrust sowed by the British and the largely incongruent ethnicities – the Kuki-Zo-Paite – Naga- Meitei- ensured they could never learn to live together in harmony.
The situation is made worse by the fact that about 67 per cent of the population lives in 10 per cent of the geographical area of Manipur, while the rest 33 per cent live in the hills, which constitute 90 per cent of the total land mass of Manipur.
The Nagas and Meiteis feel that the Kukis are interlopers from the Chin hills of Burma, which is a fact. Still, having lived in those hills from the early 18th century, they can no longer be considered migrants and certainly not ‘illegal migrants’ as they are being made out to be. It is true that after Myanmar regressed into military rule, many Kuki-Chin people from Myanmar took shelter in Kuki-inhabited areas. What makes things convoluted here is that India has no national law on refugees. India refused to sign the 1951 Refugee Convention. This leaves a staggering 250,000 recognised refugees in a legally grey area. India urgently needs a Refugee Policy.
While people of the same ethnic and kinship ties from Myanmar keep arriving in small numbers both in Manipur and Mizoram, there is no definite plan for their return. Their absorption into the two states would pose a problem of already scarce resources. India’s North Eastern states were not created on the basis of their economic viability. They were all created out of political exigencies. Hence unregulated population growth is problematic. However, there are ways of resolving these issues. Mizoram seems to be more transparent in handling the Myanmar refugees. Manipur does not seem to have a handle on this.
What is also problematic is the resistance by the Manipur government to devolve power to the Hill Areas Councils (HAC) and give them 6th Schedule status so that they have governance autonomy. From the very beginning, the Government of Manipur has been playing fast and loose by not empowering the tribal councils and allowing them to plan out their development framework. Here the role of the 20 MLAs from the hill areas must also be questioned. For 21 years, the hills had boycotted the elections to the Councils because they were not given adequate powers. This should have been a critical election agenda, but it did not become a point of convergence for the hill tribes. Is this because the Naga, Kuki and other tribal MLAs cannot sit together to show solidarity that will challenge the Government in Imphal?
The recent government intrusion into the forest lands of the Kuki tribes in a bid to turn them into reserved forests and wildlife sanctuaries is a sore point since the tribes believe they own the hills and forests. The Manipur government also evicted villagers of K Songjang village, saying they had newly created villages much after the Indian Forest Act of 1927 and its subsequent amendments. There are allegations that Chief Minister N Biren Singh wants to expand the area under marijuana cultivation to legalise it for medicinal and industrial use and drastically reduce the area under poppy cultivation. The area under poppy cultivation in the hills decreased from 6742 acres in 2021 to 1,118 acres in 2022.
The hill tribes of Manipur have had an ongoing grouse against what they call the Meitei-led government, which invests a large part of its resources in the valley, while the hills are left in the lurch with very little infrastructure and not even good roads. All major institutions of learning are based in Imphal. This governance deficit is sure to create animosity and a sense of deep frustration. Why do we wonder then when violence becomes the strategy of choice? Where do the tribals take their disaffection to? Who listens to them? Where are the conflict management platforms where they can at least voice their grievances and let out pressure?
In this context, schools, colleges and universities need to train their young ones to channel their anger and frustration so that they can get those grievances addressed without bloodshed, violence, killing and arson. It’s a high price to pay for the sole reason that the state has failed to create institutions of conflict management. Should we not work at this objective collectively instead of raving and ranting at each other? We are, after all, humans of the same origin; our allegiance to our ethnicities only serves our ego. It’s time we learnt to have cross-community conversations. It’s the only way to a more liveable future.
PATRICIA MUKHIM
EDITOR, THE SHILLONG TIMES
