Manipur violence: State is burning, but what is the decades-old fuel behind the fire

Armed mobs attacked villages, set house after house on fire, ransacked shops.

Parents were so scared that they gave sleeping medicines to children so that they wouldn’t cry and reveal their hiding places to the armed attackers. Manipur burnt on Wednesday. And residents fear there could be more attacks and bloodshed in the coming days.

It was a clash between the Imphal Valley-based Meiteis and the hill-based Kukis. Unconfirmed reports of killings and lynchings are trickling in. Meitei is the predominant ethnic group in Manipur and Kuki is one of the biggest tribes.

The animosity that bred the violence in the northeast state has been festering for decades now.

After Wednesday’s violence, Army and Assam Riffle personnel have been deployed in several affected districts in Manipur and the Manipur government suspended mobile internet services across the state for the next five days. Curfew has also been imposed in several districts of the state.

The perception of what happened on Wednesday, or what led to the violence, depends on who one is listening to — the Meiteis or the Kukis. But it boils down to two issues — land and demography.

To understand the festering issue, we will first have to understand the composition of Manipur.

IMPHAL VALLEY AND MANIPUR HILLS
Manipur consists of 16 districts. The state land has a distinct Imphal valley and hill districts divide.

There is the Imphal Valley, dominated by Meiteis, who are Hindus. There are five districts in the valley.

The hill districts are dominated by Naga and Kuki tribes. Churachandpur, which saw the most violence, is among the hill districts. The Kukis and Nagas are Christians.

Kukis dominate four of the hill districts.

Meiteis are about 53% of the entire population of the state but occupy about 10% of the land area of Manipur.

Manipur is home to 35 tribes, mostly Naga or Kuki.

The valley is the most populated part of the state as it not only has people from most of the tribes but migrants from other parts of the country.

The rest of the population is scattered over the 90 per cent of the land area in the hill districts. But these districts have reserve forest areas.

THE ISSUE OF ST STATUS FOR MEITEIS
The Manipur High Court had on April 20 directed the state government to consider within four weeks the request of the Meitei community to be included in the Scheduled Tribes list. The court asked that the recommendation be sent to the Centre for its consideration.

Kuki organisations held a ‘Tribal Solidarity March’ on Wednesday to protest against the move to include Meiteis in ST category. Violence spiralled after the march.

“The main reason behind the protest was that Meiteis wanted ST status. How can they have ST status as they are advanced? They will take all our land if they get ST status,” Kelvin Neihsial, general secretary of All Manipur Tribal Union, tells IndiaToday.In.

Speaking from Churachandpur, Kelvin said that Kukis needed protection because they were very poor, had no schools and survived on jhum cultivation.

But Meiteis say that the protest against ST status is just a facade. The Kukis are unnerved by the state government’s drive to remove illegal immigrants from settlements in reserve forest areas.

“They seized opportunity in the garb of the protest against the ST status, but their main problem is the eviction drive. But the drive is being conducted across Manipur, not just in the Kuki area,” Chand Meetei Pocshangbam, member of All Meitei Council, tells IndiaToday.In.

ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION AND DEMAND FOR NRC
In March this year, several Manipuri organisations held a demonstration at the Jantar Mantar in New Delhi to press for implementation of a National Register of Citizens (NRC) with 1951 as the base year.

The outfits claimed that Manipur was witnessing a sudden population surge with a growth rate of 24.5 per cent, against the national average of 17.64 per cent.

They said the abnormal surge and mushrooming of villages were being noticed in the hill areas of Manipur.

The increase in the growth rate cannot be explained by natural birth and can only be attributed to migration from neighbouring countries. The NRC exercise, the organisations said, was in the general interest of Manipur and was needed to protect the state’s socio-cultural identity.

“Kukis are migrating illegally from across the Myanmar border and occupying forest land in Manipur. Recently, the Manipur government started an eviction drive to clear illegal settlements in reserve forest areas. The drive was in all areas, including those inhabited by Meiteis and Muslims, but only the Kukis are protesting,” says Chand Meetei Pocshangbamof of the All Meitei Council.

“Meiteis are demanding an NRC because of the sudden population spike in the last two decades in areas bordering Myanmar. Illegal immigrants from Myanmar have been settling in Manipur since 1970s but the movement has intensified now,” he says.

Kukis say the eviction drive and the demand for ST status are to drive the Kukis away from their land. They say illegal immigration is just a ruse.

“This is a cooked-up story. We have all the requisite documents to prove our citizenship and have been living peacefully with the Meitis. The Meiteis now want to grab our land. This problem started after N Biren Singh took over as the chief minister of Manipur in 2017,” says Kelvin Neihsial of All Manipur Tribal Union.

It doesn’t matter if an NRC exercise is conducted or not, he says.

Kelvin claims the Geological Survey of India found rich petroleum reserves and deposits of other minerals in Kuki districts. He alleges the state machinery, run by Meiteis, wants to rob them of everything.

The Meiteis and Kukis have had an uncomfortable relationship for decades. Land and illegal immigration are at the core of the tussle.

VERSIONS OF MANIPUR VIOLENCE
The ‘Tribal Solidarity March’ on Wednesday was the tipping point in the friction over land, demography and tribal status that has been festering between the Meiteis and Kukis for decades.

Who attacked first and who were the victims vary when one talks to the Meiteis and the Kukis.

“The solidarity march ended at 1pm on Wednesday. By 2.30pm, a group of Meiteis brandishing guns descended on Kuki villages and set houses on fire,” says Kelvin.

“They only moved back only after Kukis from neighbouring villages and towns came to confront them. The initial violence was in Kangvai village. Police and commandos remained mute spectators and sided with them as they went about ransacking and destroying houses. Over 30 people have been injured,” says Kelvin.

According to the Kuki outfit member, the Meitei mobs returned again at 8pm and burnt houses in Kangvai, a village bordering the valley.

Meiteis have a different version and chronology. They say, if Meiteis had to attack Kukis, they would have attacked settlements in the valley and not gone to Kuiki-dominated areas.

“In Naga-dominated areas, the solidarity march was peaceful but in Kuki-majority Churachandpur it became very violent. Kuki insurgents holding guns took part in the solidarity march. They went ahead in evening to Meitei villages, torched houses, vandalised properties and chased away Meitei people,” says Chand Meetei.

He says some villages in Churachandpur now have no Meiteis, they haven’t returned, fearing violence. The same happened in the popular Moreh town too, where 40-50 houses and shops were burnt.

“Children were given sleeping medicines by their parents so that they don’t cry and alert the armed Kukis baying for blood of where they were taking refuge,” says Chand Meetei.

He says even paramilitary forces and police couldn’t stop the arson and attack in Churachandpur and Moreh as it was meticulously planned.

Multiple calls to Churachandpur Superintendent of Police by IndiaToday.In to ascertain how things actually unfolded didn’t yield result.

The violence has made Olympic medalist and boxing icon MC Mary Kom to plead for help. “My state Manipur is burning, kindly help,” she tweeted.

Chand Meetei now fears more violence, especially reprisal strikes in the Imphal valley and attacks on Meiteis in the valley-hill border. Unverified videos of lynchings and gunshot deaths are doing the rounds on the internet, fanning embers of a feud that goes back several decades.