Understanding the Manipur Issue — An Update

It is more than 100 days since Manipur exploded. And unlike most cases where violence ebbs after a few days, here it is simmering with arsonists, anarchists, militants, and people at the throats of each other with impunity. Now even the Indian army is embroiled deeply (and being pushed around by political masters to the detriment of the population) — being attacked, being forced to backtrack and release apprehended criminals, and being called partisan.

But for heydays or Kashmiri militancy, we have never seen anything like this before (Punjab for example. but for Bluestar and Black Thunder operations were primarily led by the Police and the Paramilitary).

What however separates Manipur is the callous attitude of the entire country towards it, though it is right in a region that was restive even before the independence and is right next to belligerent China and lawless Myanmar. Not even to talk of the ethnic complexity with 23 tribes with their distinct identities and cultures (North East has more than 200 tribes), and the religious affiliations (Kukis are Christians or are neighboring Mizoram, but Meiteis have Muslims and another religion which predates Hinduism).

Well, some may say — the county is concerned about Manipur, especially after the deranged videos came out. But are we? Where is it in the headlines of the media, or the usual discourses? There had been a week delay even in the filing of the FIR, and action against the perpetrators started only 75 days after the event — when it spread through social media.

Who has been held accountable for what has happened or happening? Who has bothered to answer? CM Biren Singh has not even been castigated by his bosses, let alone dismissed. And we are not even clear who is in charge, or even whether Article 355 has been imposed in the state.

But India is a complex country everywhere, so why is Manipur burning?

First the people. 53% of the population are the Meitei tribes, and almost all of them stay in the plains. Other major tribes are 24% Nagas and 14% Kukis. They are for the most part in the hills.

So far so good, but the key challenge is that 90% of the area is in the hills, and only 10% is in the plains. But plains have 60% of the population (which includes some Kukis and Nagas). This puts enormous pressure on land in the Imphal Valley, the plains. And this is the core reason driving the crisis.

Why is the concentration in the Imphal valley? Simple — development and opportunities. The infrastructure in the hills is almost non-existent, and neither are any industries or service opportunities. Farming is difficult, and productivity is much lower than in the valley. So, a significant number of the Kukis and Nagas have settled around Imphal. Couple this with the inability of the Meiteis to buy the hill land (as the Kukis and Nagas are classified as Scheduled Tribes, and their land is protected from transfer of ownership by the constitution).

The Meiteis tribe is the most economically, socially, and politically dominant segment of Manipur. Today, 40 of the 60 MLAs of the state are Meiteis. And for an exception, all the CMs had been from the community. However, they are from the plains.

Unfortunately, representative democracy has completely collapsed in Manipur in the last three months. The 10 Kuki assembly representatives are asking for a separate administrative unit for the Kuki areas. The 40 Meiteis MLAs are speaking about junking the Suspension of the Operations (SoC) which the army signed in 2008 with Kuki militants. The narratives are completely aligned with the identity of the members. Even the CM is losing guard during a Twitter spat with Kuki representatives, and asking whether they are from Myanmar. The latest is the tug-of-war of convening the assembly itself, which is on the verge of being dissolved for not meeting at least once during the intervening period of six months from the last meeting.

Governance has always been a weak point for the North Eastern states, and the consolidation of wealth by a small group is acute. Manipur has also been a witness to this — whether the Imphal valley has increasingly been concentrated among a small number of the privileged. There are increasing instances where evictions have happened in the name of the environment, but the same land was handed over for building resorts or other commercial establishments. This has resulted in increasing scarcity and fragmentation of the land assets. And the corresponding sense of impoverishment of the majority community.

As everywhere, the political class has used the diversion to take focus away from the core issue — and it is not a recent ploy, this tool has been used by politicians across party lines over a very long period. The narrative is simple — Manipur can develop only if 90% of the land inhabited by only 40% of the population can be unlocked.

The hills are however inhabited by Tribes like Nagas (24%), Kukis (14%), and other tribes. The hill lands are protected constitutionally as Scheduled Lands, which can’t be bought or sold by anyone including the tribals. And that fuels the angst of the majority of Meiteis.

It is another matter that the hills are significantly underdeveloped, housing some of the most underdeveloped districts across the country. And making hill land amenable to cultivation is not easy (the agricultural productivity of hills and plains is stark, for example).

The hardening of the stance however is helped by religion too. As mentioned before Meiteis are predominantly Hindus (excluding around 8% of Muslims who are called Panda Muslims, and another small minority who follow a religion more ancient than Hinduism). Nagas are Hindus too, but their customs differ significantly from the Meiteis.

That leaves the Kukis, who are not only Christians but also ethnically related to the Mizos and Chins (and hence straddles across India and Myanmar). And that gives an opening to call them intruders/ illegal immigrants by vested interests. That is one of “othering” a small but important minority.

These tensions have been there for a long, but it has now been joined by corporate greed. The Look East Policy of the government has significantly improved the infrastructure of the entire region. And so has improved the possibility of greater business connections with the 3 trillion Dollar South East Asia. And forest land has now become lucrative beyond agriculture.

So increasing focus is being made on redefining forest land into “protected land”, “government land”, or “encroached land”. All these are being done without taking the Hill Councils into confidence, which is a violation of the law. Now make no mistake, this land is not being eyed to create sustainable agricultural livelihood, but rather for developing mines and access jungle wealth, and building infrastructure for transport of goods.

This scheme has been aided by the poppy cultivation in the hills, which is a reality. Given the perennial poverty, the ease of cultivation, and the ready conduits through the Imphal valley poppy has gained increasing popularity. But the government’s so-called “war on drugs” has focused on the growers, by the drug lords who take it out of the state (in fact there have been instances where the people arrested for being involved in the trade have been released after intervention from the highest levels of the administration).

This was layered with the “outsiders” and “involved with drug business” statements. Why only Kukis are targeted? I suppose this is a combination of their ancestry (being from the said stock as the Chins of Myanmar can help them label as outsiders), their being much smaller in number — being even a half of the Nagas, and their religion. Also, apart from being impoverished, Kukis have been pushed around in the hills by the Nagas.

The problem with majoritarian politics is it has to be fed all the time with new enemies. And though Meiteis are far ahead of the Nagas and Kukis in every respect, the decreasing opportunities for all needed another diversion. That was the ST status (Meiteis are Other Backward Castes, and historically they refused to have ST status as they felt that it was demeaning for them. But as the land prices skyrocketed, and the livelihood opportunities shrunk, there was a desire to have the classification — for government jobs and hill lands. This is an almost 180-degree turn in the stance).

While there had been demands for ST status for the Meiteis for a while, the recommendation of the Manipur High Court to the state government to expedite the process raised the heckles of the tribals. This is a loss for them — losing the reservation of jobs, losing the forest rights, and all these to a community for more development.

And all hell broke loose. But what next?

Biren Singh as the CM is ill-equipped to handle the situation. As a Meitei, he had played partisan politics to the hilt. Having protected his son who committed murder followed by a road accident, and covering people arrested on drug business charges, he has lost his credibility.

The regional leader of BJP Himanta Biswa Sharma has made divisive politics his forte. He has seen Assam — Meghalaya and Assam — Arunachal Pradesh border clashes already. He will only add to the wounds, as that is his modus operandi.

The Central Leadership is too distant and too focused on pressing electoral issues. And people are completely divided into ethnic lines. There had been a complete exchange of population based on the community one belongs to.

Add to this the Mizoram in sympathy with the Kukis being from the same ancestry. And the Kuki insurgents along with their arms are in the camps now based on the Suspension of Operation agreement signed in 2008 with the army.

There is however a recent and dangerous development. The security forces are being perceived as partisans, while Meiteis are keeping faith in state police (which has been highly discredited, with repeated videos of them being shown acting in a partisan manner, especially their commando forces — and being almost exclusively Meitei in composition at present after the Kuki flight from the valley does not help), and the Kukis putting all their hopes in the army (or Assam Rifles).

This has come to such a pass that Kukis now want the Assam Rifles to be re-empowered with the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), and they hailed Meira Parbi preventing the army from discharging their duty.

Unfortunately, the state government again played a partisan role here, it filed an FIR against the Assam Rifles accusing it of preventing the movement of the state police at Churachandpur, the epicenter of the ethnic clashes. As army rifles were moved out, there were attacks on Kukis resulting in deaths.

If the situation pesters, the agreements fall apart, other states get involved, and neighboring countries play dirty — things can go much worse.

In all the cacophony about Manipur, where many also claim it is a non-issue, what exactly is the situation on the ground?

We will never fully know, and maybe even the people there will not know — with so many restrictions on communication. But take this — 118 unclaimed bodies are lying unclaimed in a morgue in Imphal. The community as well as the authorities are not able to provide an environment to cremate them.

The Kukis planned a cremation, and Meitis said that the location where they planned it is disputed, and they will not allow it. The administration appealed to defer it. In the meantime, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta says most of the unclaimed bodies are of infiltrators.

Even by the SG’s standard, that needs some X-ray eyes to know. And with official figures of infiltrators being 718, the majority of 118 being part of them does not add up. Unless the infiltrators jumped into mayhem voluntarily.

The discussion on Manipur in the Parliament was a washout. There was no intent to even discuss, rather it was more of stonewalling. The two MPs from Manipur did not even speak. So even the highest body representing the people seems not interested and hopes the issue to blow away.

Or possibly there are reasons for the situation to pester. There is no attempt to pacify the situation, except to wait and watch. Is it being kept as a center of internal security threat? We don’t know.

But one thing is for sure, seven decades of hard work that brought relative peace in the North East is being threatened. And we are the real custodians of our future, not the politicians. It is time we wake up.