Colonial and ethnic rifts lie at root of Manipur clashes
This fault line has stoked violence in the past and will continue to roil the state until addressed.
The evacuation of thousands of stranded people across Manipur, fleeing the violence inflicted by an organised mob, has shocked the world. The mayhem that broke out on May 3 has wrongly been linked to the high court’s directive on granting Scheduled Tribe (ST) status to the Meiteis because it happened on the day a tribal solidarity march was organised; some even tried to give it communal overtones. But the riots were a manifestation of a deep-rooted political problem going back decades. This fault line has stoked violence in the past and will continue to roil the state until addressed.
The historical experience of colonial expansion toward the hills from the Imphal valley laid the foundation for an ethnic democracy in Manipur. Before the British, the hill and the valley were different political entities, but administrative conveniences of the colonial government brought the two together under one unit, the Manipur state. They drew a line at the base of the hills, and for their administrative and military conveniences, carved out certain parts of contiguous hill ranges (Naga Hills, Lushai Hills, Chin Hills, and Cachar Hills) and put some regions within the fold of Manipur, which later merged within India, and left out others. Consequently, those who inhabited these territories were separated from their cognate tribes by state and even international borders. This process minoritised the hill tribes and laid the grounds for Meitei dominance in Manipur.
Knowing well the complexity of this problem, the Constituent Assembly formed a sub-committee to look into the matter of various tribes in the Northeast. This panel came up with a constitutional schema, known as the Sixth Schedule, which offered limited autonomy and self-rule to some tribal regions. It was directed at various tribes in erstwhile undivided Assam and left out the two princely states – Manipur and Tripura – because they were separately administered. In 1985, the Sixth Schedule was extended to the tribal areas of Tripura. For about half a century, Manipur hill tribes have asked for Sixth Schedule status, but to no avail. This has created a peculiar situation where each tribal community has a significant chunk of people living across state limits, and even the international border in Myanmar.
In 2015, the then Congress government passed three contentious bills – the Protection of Manipur Peoples Bill, 2015, the Manipur Land Revenue and Land Reforms (Seventh Amendment) Bill, 2015, and the Manipur Shops and Establishments (Second Amendment) Bill, 2015. The government said the bills aimed to protect the rights of indigenous people and imposed bars on outsiders from entering the state, buying land and setting up businesses. But due to procedural lapses, these bills didn’t get the assent of competent authorities.
The legislation stoked long-simmering anxieties among tribal groups, who said the bills will end up undermining all constitutional protections. Violent clashes followed, in which nine people died. It did not help that in a multi-ethnic state such as Manipur, where ethnic identity is highly politicised, the local police force is often compromised and divided along community lines. This situation had justified the existence of underground militant groups for the people.
The trust deficit, between the hills and the plains, and the tribals and the state government, further widened after a string of actions by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government soon after it took power in 2017. First, chief minister N Biren Singh’s administration decided to build a memorial park to 19th century Meitei monarch Chandrakirti Singh in Behiang, Churachandpur. The Meitei king had never ruled the hill areas and so this act was seen as a grave affront in the Kuki-majority town. Then, in 2022, the state government served show-cause notices to some villages in Churachandpur district as part of its drive to enforce Khoupum protected forest restrictions. Some houses were demolished, shattering long-held compacts of leaving tribal villages undisturbed. And finally, in April 2023 as part of an anti-encroachment drive, the administration in Imphal demolished three churches in tribal colonies that they said were built on unauthorised government land.
The fire burning in Manipur today, therefore, has a long trail in history with its roots in colonial governance patterns and ethnic fault lines, which have sprouted deep resentment, anxieties among young people, and underground militancy. Once the fire subsides, the government will need to address these long-pending concerns, equitably and on priority.
L Lam Khan Piang is a professor of sociology at the University of Hyderabad
The views expressed are personal
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