Manipur has been burning since May. A bloody civil war has engulfed the hilly state in the north-east for more than three months. More than 150 people have died in ethnic violence between the majority Meitei and the minority Kuki over land and influence. The violence has displaced more than 60,000 people. Roads in the state are lined with burnt remains of deserted homes and torched vehicles. Police armouries have been looted, churches and temples ruined and villages destroyed.
The violence began on May 3 after the All Tribal Students Union Manipur (ATSUM) held a solidarity march in all districts to oppose Manipur High Court’s order in April, asking the Manipur State government to send a recommendation to the Centre for giving the Scheduled Tribes (ST) status to the Meitei community, which accounts for 53 per cent of Manipur’s population and live primarily in the Manipur Valley. When the violence escalated the next day, the Centre invoked Article 355 of the Constitution, which empowers the Centre to take necessary steps to protect a State against external aggression or internal disturbances. Soon, convoys of trucks belonging to the Army, the Assam Rifles, the Rapid Action Force, and local police personnel moved into the State and entered several affected areas. Today, more than 160 companies of central forces are deployed in the state.
On May 3 itself, more than 6,000 Meiteis in Churachandpur fled the Kuki-dominated district. Violence spread to other parts of the state like wildfire and houses were vandalised and gutted in violence that lasted more than three hours. But the larger part of India remained unfazed by the goings-on in the hilly state, which sits east of Bangladesh and borders Myanmar.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had been silent on the Manipur violence for 77 days (from May 4 to July 20) and broke his silence only after a shocking video emerged in last week of July of an attack in May in which two Kuki women are seen being paraded naked by Meitei men shortly after their village was razed. The incident occurred on May 4 and the video emerged more than two months later. The shameful video “deeply disturbed” Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud and led him to tell the Centre that “we will take action if you don’t”. The CJI slur forced the Prime Minister to break his silence on July 20 over the ethnic violence but his short, 36-second audio byte wasn’t bereft of politics – he mentioned violence against women in Congress-ruled Rajasthan and Chhatisgarh in the same breath. The monsoon session of the Parliament began the day the PM made the crisp statement on Manipur. The Opposition has stalled the Parliament since the day the session began over its demand for the PM to make a statement on Manipur on the floor of the House.
Manipur is home to an estimated 3.3 million people. Meiteis account for 53% of population and occupy 11% of the geography. Nagas and Kukis, together 40%, are spread over nearly 90% of the area, most of which is forest. The immediate provocation for the violence may have been the HC order seeking state’s recommendation for ST status to the Meiteis but that’s not the only issue for the simmering discontent in the state. Manipur’s Chief Minister N Biren Singh, a Meitei, has taken a tough stance against what he calls encroachment of reserved and protected forest areas in the hills by the tribal communities, mainly Nagas and Kukis. Kukis feel they have been persecuted by the government clampdown in the name of a war against drugs. It is a fact that many acres of land in the hills are used for poppy cultivation. The Kukis are also angered by the government action against Chins, people of the same ethnic group from across the border in Myanmar,who have entered India as illegal immigrants. Kukis consider Chins their kin. Land is another flashpoint. Tribal people are spreading out into surrounding forest areas, which they consider their historical and ancestral right, but the government considers this encroachment on forest land. Meanwhile, the Meiteis are angry because they are not allowed to buy land in the hills even though the tribal people can buy land in the valleys.
A few months ago, the Manipur government undertook a revenue and forest survey in the Churachandpur-Khoupum Protected Forest in Churachandpur district, which was designated a protected forest in 1966. The Chief Minister said that his government used satellite mapping to learn about changes in forest compositions in the hill districts. In November 2022, a forest department notification derecognised 38 villages in the Churachandpur and Noney districts, saying that they fell within the Churachandpur-Khoupum protected forest. These villages, with a population of over 1,000 people each, have existed for the last 50-60 years. The forest department notification affected the tribal people, who called the action selective targeting by the BJP government in the state. Biren Singh has been reported to have called the Kukis “encroachers, poppy cultivators, drug smugglers, and illegal immigrants”.
The Meiteis are educated and have a large presence in the state services. The Manipur Police also has a large number of its officers from the Meitei community. This has led to the charge that the violence in the state is state-sponsored and against the Kukis. It is alleged that the police allowed its armouries to be looted. The charge corroborates police inaction on more than 10,000 FIRs of arson, loot, murder and rape. Police were forced to act in the FIR in the case involving the two Kuki women, whose video made the nation coalesce with shame, only after the video emerged.
Now, six cases have been given to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for probe. The Chief of the Indian Army has hinted at China’s hand in Manipur violence. Some forces may also try to portray the violence as Hindus versus Christians because the Meiteis are largely Hindus and the Kukis, Christians.
But the bottomline is this: Manipur has been a complete failure. The state government failed to stem the discontent among the tribal population over forest land and the proposed ST status to the Meitei community; the Centre failed to limit the violence and take action against the chief minister; the police failed to act as an objective force to maintain law and order; and there has been a discernible bias in the coverage of the violence by the Press; and society failed to prevent weaponization of rape in conflict.
