The Manipur crisis necessitates the need for not just military intervention but also socio-ethnographic and geopolitical strategising and inter-community dialogue that includes all stakeholders in an equal capacity
The north-eastern state of Manipur has been in the spate of violence for nearly two months now with conflict between two ethnic groups바카라dominant Meiteis and tribal Kukis바카라deepening into irreparable schisms. The conflict, which started on May 3, has already claimed 120 lives (officially) and over 3,000 have been reported injured. Over 50,000 people have been displaced from their homes.
But who is causing the violence in Manipur?
Violent clashes broke out in Manipur after a 바카라Tribal Solidarity March바카라 was organised in the hill districts on May 3 to protest against the Meitei community바카라s demand for Scheduled Tribe (ST) status. However, Kuki leaders and community members Outlook spoke with claim that the reasons behind the Kuki-Meitei clash run much deeper than the Meiteis바카라 ST demand.
As of now, militants belonging to both, Kuki and Meitei groups are being accused of causing violence by the other. While the hill-inhabiting Kukis claim new-formed Meitei groups like Meitei Leepun and Arambai Tenggol are carrying out 바카라genocide바카라 against Kukis with the support of state forces, the Meitei community in and around the Imphal Valley claims that militant Kuki groups under the Suspension of Operations (SoO) agreement is behind the violence.
Earlier, Chief Minister N Biren Singh had said that security forces have killed 40 바카라militants바카라 in Manipur in an effort to counter the violence. More recently, a team of 23 Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs) and leaders, including legislators belonging to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), National People바카라s Party (NPP), and Janata Dal (United) in Manipur urged the Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to take action against Kuki militant groups under SoO agreement, accusing them of violating ceasefire ground rules.
As per reports, the group, which included Rajya Sabha Member of Parliament (MP) Leishemba Sanajaoba, has demanded that cadres of the SoO groups be brought back to their respective designated camps in order to curb the casualties in the ongoing violence.
Manipur and 바카라Militancy바카라
The former princely state of Manipur formally became a part of the Union of India in 1972. Since then (and in fact from before that), the state has broadly seen two parallel kinds of militant movements바카라one led by the Meiteis for Kangleipak and cessation from India and the other led by Kuki-Zomi groups demanding a separate homeland for Kukis.
The Kuki National Organisation (KNO) is an umbrella group of 17 Kuki insurgent groups, and the United People바카라s Front (UPF) represents eight other Kuki insurgent groups. The UPF, which is another umbrella organisation comprising Kuki-Zo revolutionary groups, was also formed in 2006. The political objectives of both, UPF and, KNO are identical and focus on the demand for separate statehood for the Kukis. However, it is to be noted that much of the Kuki-Zomi groups organised post-1993 as a way to counter Naga aggression.
Meanwhile, the Meiteis have been organising since the 50s against the unification of 바카라Kangleipak바카라바카라the pre-British kingdom of Manipuri Meiteis in the Valley바카라with the Union of India. The United National Liberation Front (UNLF) was formed in 1964 demanding secession from India. This was followed by the emergence of a number of Meitei groups known as 바카라Valley Insurgent Groups바카라, including the People바카라s Revolutionary Party of Kangleipak (PREPAK) and the People바카라s Liberation Army (PLA). These groups functioned with the twin objective of cessation from India and warding off Naga aggression.
By the 80s, Manipur was declared a disturbed area but militancy in the region was brought under control with a series of ceasefire interventions with Kuki-Zomi groups. The Valley Insurgent Groups, however, technically remain active as they have never entered an official agreement with the Centre or even participated in any peace talks over the years. Now, new groups like Arambai Tenggol and Meieti Leepun (led by Pramod Singh) have been at the centre of the current violence unfolding in Manipur. Leepun, a 바카라cultural바카라 organisation working for preserving Meitei identity and religion, has publicly warned of further retaliation and 바카라a bigger blow is to come바카라, as reported by The Indian Express.
What is SoO?
On August 10, 2005, Kuki National Organisation (KNO) signed the Suspension of Operations (SoO) [Ceasefire] with the Army which was followed by another SoO (tripartite agreement) on August 22, 2008, signed between the Government of India, KNO and the Government of Manipur state. The UPF also signed the same SoO on August 22, 2008.
At present, there are about 2,200 cadres in the SoO groups staying in their 14 designated camps, says Ngamjahao Kipgen, a researcher of Kuki identity, who teaches sociology at IIT Guwahati.
Tripartite means an agreement that involves State, the Centre and the designated group. 바카라It is a common strategy across various states in the Northeast,바카라 says Samrat Sinha, Professor at Jindal Global Law School (JGLS) of O.P. Jindal Global University (JGU). 바카라Two key components of the SoO arrangements are funding and monitoring. For SoO groups, the funding mechanism is unclear, but I think the Centre provides funding while the state disburses and jointly monitors with central forces,바카라 he states.
Speaking on Manipur, Sinha adds that the state presents a 바카라complex바카라 case and it is difficult to say if the present violence was exacerbated by the existence of SoO camps, as has been alleged by the dominant community.
바카라It is difficult to judge the failure or success of the SoO setup. It was successful insofar the situation did not emerge earlier and there was some mechanism in place from 2008. SoO could have led to some kind of political settlement but the future is uncertain, Sinha states, adding that in the SoO, there are many micro-level variations, and is not functional in the fringe villages that border the Valley and the hills. This is the region where violence has been sustained in the past month.
While Manipur legislators and Meitei leadership have been blaming Kuki militants for the violence, Kukis have claimed that it바카라s actually Meitei militants backed by CM Biren Singh and the Manipur Police Commandos that have been carrying out attacks on Kuki villages.
바카라Many of the SoO camps have been robbed of arms and ammunition during the violence when other groups attacked Kuki areas. And if Kuki militants were so active, why would Kuki villages be seeking protection from the Army and the Centre?바카라 asks DJ Haokip, a Kuki Student Organisation (KSO) leader from Churachandpur where the first incident of violence broke out on May 3. Amid rumours of SoO camps being robbed of arms and ammunition, Army officials were quoted by a report in Hindustan Times on June 9 as saying that almost all weapons of Kuki militant groups under SoO agreement in Manipur remain intact and in their designated camps.
Since the violence in May, Kukis have blocked National Highway 2, the key supply lifeline of the Valley, while Imphal remains unsafe for Kukis who have been exterminated from the Valley. Ten tribal MLAs belonging to Kuki community have also demanded a separate administration for hill districts in Manipur. While the demand strengthened after the May 3 violence, the calls for a separate administration and/or separate 바카라homeland바카라 or Kukiland for the Kukis have been recurrent demands among Kukis and the key reason for Kuki militancy.
Coexistence, conflict and the 바카라Search for Homeland바카라
The Kukis are said to have migrated and settled in the present inhabited place (present-day Manipur) as early as the pre-historic times along with or after the Meitei advent in Manipur Valley, explains Kipgen.
The Kuki people are today divided by the political boundary of India and Myanmar. But there is an idea of a single homeland for all Kukis-Zale바카라n-gam. While the physical demarcations of this homeland might be sketchy, the place exists in the memories of the Kuki ancestors.
바카라Zale바카라n-gam is an ideological concept propounded by P S Haokip, the President of the KNO, which means 바카라freedom of the people in their land바카라,바카라 Kipgen explains.
Haokip propagated the ideology of Zale바카라n-gam as the means to unite the erstwhile ancestral domain of the Kukis prior to the British rule and restore the Kuki nation Zale바카라n-gam. It encapsulates and expounds the essence of Kuki history and nationalism and the restoration of the erstwhile Kuki territory in the pre-colonial period.
바카라There has been a desire to unify all the Kuki inhabited areas into a single administrative unit. Currently, their demand is for a separate homeland/Kukiland within the framework of the Indian Constitution,바카라 Kipgen states, referring to the demand for separate administration raised by Kukis following the May 3 violence.
However, Kipgen highlights that despite the Kukis바카라 search for Zale바카라n-gam beyond the Meitei kingdom of Kangleipak (Manipur), the two communities have coexisted peacefully for time immemorial.
바카라The Kukis and Meiteis have more or less followed the principle of peaceful co-existence. This can be necessitated from the assistance extended to the Meitei maharajah by the Kuki chiefs in the erstwhile period,바카라 he states.
바카라For instance, the Meitei King Chourajit could not fight the Ava바카라s (Burmese) army in 1810 and therefore, asked the Kukis for help by declaring 바카라the hills surround Manipur Golden land like a stockade and the tribal guards the stockades바카라, Kipgen states. And in due course of time, the Kuki chiefs also sent their irregulars to guard the maharajah and his Kingdom so as to resist the merger agreement on the eve of Manipur바카라s annexation to India in 1949 when Manipur was merged with the Indian Union.
바카라The merger led to a wider gulf between the hill dwellers and the plainsmen. Under this new system, various hill areas under the British administration became a 바카라Scheduled Area바카라 and the Acts forbid the plain peoples (Meiteis) to settle in tribal areas/the hilly region. This clearly alienates the Meiteis and the tribals (the Nagas and the Kukis),바카라 Kipgen adds.
To put it in a nutshell, it is pertinent to note that since time immemorial, Kangleipak (Manipur) and Zale바카라n-gam (Kukiland) have been in peaceful co-existence with mutual respect for territorial integrity and that the inhabitants vis-à-vis the Meiteis and the Kukis have been living peacefully in their own respective territories without any interference in each other바카라s internal affairs.
It would be prudent to recall and retrospect the events that occurred in 1891 (Khongjom War also known as Anglo-Manipur War) and in 1917바카라1919 (Anglo-Kuki War) in which the Meitei바카라s land (Kangleipak/Manipur) and the Zale바카라n-gam were subjugated and conquered successively by the British colonial which put them under the same administration.
The Hill-Valley Divide
The ongoing violence has further deepened the divide between hills and plains-people, which is at the heart of the tribal militancy.
In the Art of Not Being Governed바카라An Anarchist History of Upland Southeast Asia, anthropologist James C Scott outlines how state formation in the valleys creates sections that are 바카라non-state바카라 that inhabit the hills. At the core of this distinction between state and non-state is 바카라surplus바카라.
Imphal-based political analyst Pradip Phanjouban explains that surplus is the necessary first step of the process of state formation and intellectual/political/economic activity. Thus, communities practicing shifting agriculture in hills and making frugal produce that lasts from season to season remained left out of the process, meaning they became 바카라non-state바카라.
This distinction between state and non-state makes itself felt across various metrics바카라the style of warfare the two groups practice, (guerrilla vs structured army), the style of governance (local vs national), and even their perception of concepts like 바카라democracy바카라, 바카라republic바카라 or 바카라freedom바카라. It can also be seen in the state바카라s response to these groups in that areas considered 바카라non-state바카라 often suffer from lack of resources. A case in point are the hill regions of Manipur that remain woefully underdeveloped. All major universities, colleges, hospitals, government offices and emergency services are located in Imphal, and the nearby valley region.
With the focus of the centre as well as the state fixed on punishing 바카라militants바카라 rather than finding peaceful solution to the ethnic conflict through dialogue, the hunting of Kuki 바카라militants바카라 perhaps once again brings to the fore this divide between state and non-state, where armed forces of the state are considered legal while armed forces of the 바카라non-state바카라 are considered militant.
The Manipur crisis necessitates the need for not just military intervention but also socio-ethnographic and geopolitical strategising and inter-community dialogue that includes all stakeholders in an equal capacity. A Khongsai, the Kuki Innpi President, says: 바카라At present, Kukis are not equally represented in the peace talks바카라. Slamming the Centre and state바카라s efforts to 바카라restore normalcy바카라 in the violence-hit districts, Khongsai adds, 바카라peace cannot be violently imposed in the name of restoring normalcy. This matter requires deeper introspection바카라.