Manipur

Original Source:  https://www.jeyamohan.in/185998/

Dear J,

I read the following in your Aug'16 article published in Dinamalar.

'Irom Sharmila belongs to the Meitei tribal ethnic group. This community claims the complete Manipur as their land. On that behalf, Manipur has been witnessing constant ethnic strife since 1950s, which has resulted in several thousand deaths.'

This article was found when searched for Manipur in the web. It is surprising. Why are there no references in Tamil to such a reality?

- Arasan Kumar


Dear Arasan,

There is a lot being written about Manipur now. Continuous riots and a recent video have triggered our regular and social media browsers to talk about Manipur.

I have always been advising to avoid any immediate reactions. Common readers ought to wait for the detailed articles written from inside the zone.

The voices being raised today against these violence are pretty welcome. They gather as the nation's voice. These are the only source which can move the central government of Modi, that is paralyzed for the sake of political gains.

But any thinking person ought to handle carefully these biased views and the resultant exaggerated emotions whipped up by our media.  

My writings about Manipur are not based out of my readings. Instead, they were based on my personal interactions and discussions during a few trips to that place. I haven't heard about anyone else within TamilNadu who have written such a first hand account. My novel "Kanni Nilam" was written on the background of such direct understanding.

I have been writing about this current situational status in some detail in this site from 2016 onwards. "Kanni Nilam", which is a thriller for general reader also contains this picture. It doesn't entail any extraordinary political knowledge. Anyone, who visits Manipur and interacts with the locals can understand it. I have written several articles. (Failure of Irom Sharmila - https://www.jeyamohan.in/96302/, Irom Sharmila & Anna Hazare - https://www.jeyamohan.in/16714/)

The Meiteis rioting today have been mounting a struggle against the supremacy of Indian government. They demanded the army to be withdrawn and Manipur to be handed over to Meiteis. They mutinied against the army laws decreed at Manipur. Irom Sharmila's fast was for that purpose.

Media portrayed that fast as a Gandhian struggle. They celebrated her as an "Iron Lady". There has been 12 books on Meiteis' mutiny and Irom Sharmila's hunger strike in Tamil alone. I have 4 of those at my home.

For the past 20 years, I have been writing at various avenues about the impending fate of Kukis, Nagas and Angamis if Manipur is handed over to the Meiteis. I was labelled as a Nationalistic fanatic and as a supporter of army by these very same naive political groups in social media. It can be seen in my blog-site as well.

What is the picture being painted on by the media for the past 50 years? "The people of Manipur, as a single united nation, have been struggling against the Indian Union. Therefore, they are being oppressed." Isn't this the picture? But that is not the reality. For the past 50 years, Meiteis, Nagas and Angamis have been engaged in ethnic conflict among themselves. There have been several dangerous riots and destruction, leading to approximately 1 lakh killings in the ethnic conflicts.

The politics of tribes are quite different. The Kukis have been demanding for a separate nation - Kukiland. The claimants of Nagaland as a separate nation have been demanding the same land. No single tribal community is prepared to live with other tribes. As soon as the army gets vacated from an area, it results in an immediate tribal conflict. This has been the reality of the past half century.

How can this be handled? The warring tribal communities must be brought together for a dialogue and a common administrative organization be negotiated. But none of the community has any defined hierarchy or representative. They have only several hundreds of small armed groups. Several groups are constantly being formed. Some groups are spread across India and Myanmar. They are in conflict among themselves and within each group, there are struggles for the chiefdom.

In every part of India, there would be a community who form the majority. Will it be acceptable if they start demanding for supremacy or a separate nation? Who will protect the rights of minorities? Would the good intentions of the majority alone be sufficient? That too, if the question involves a closed community like Meitei and their demands, how can one believe them? The only way is to form a democratic understanding. But that cannot be realized as long as weapons are brandished.

Therefore, since independence, Indian government has used the blanket of army to shroud all the burning issues. It is not a solution, rather just a respite. Any army action is violent in nature. It is oppressive. For the military, everyone is a rioter. It will oppress everyone equally.

I believe in the notion that army's involvement in the civilian administration is against democracy. Every army - be it revolutionary army or supremacist army - is the same in being brutal on the populace. Nevertheless, any government can only involve army to handle the ethnic conflicts.

Five decades of military administration lead to a temporary truce from ethnic conflicts in other areas of Northeast. Today, with the aid of technology, consumerism, education & internal migration for work, those people have become mainstream. Those areas are now experiencing an understanding between the tribal communities and the consequent peace. Assam, Meghalaya & Tripura are the examples. Manipur was also following this path. But, BJP's politics have reignited those conflicts.

The Meiteis who have always opposed the Indian sovereignty, are the supporters of BJP today. State administration is in their hands now. Same was the case when Congress was in power. But the tribal laws have safeguarded the lands of Kukis from falling under the jurisdiction of state government. It comes under the administration of tribal council (Autonomous Administrative Councils). In case, Meiteis are accepted as tribals, it would mean that the complete land of Manipur would come under Meiteis dominance. Kukis have been opposing this.

In the past decade, the dominance of of army was gradually reduced with law & order increasingly being brought into the ambit of police. But Meiteis form a large part of the police force. It is accused of acting like an armed gang of Meiteis.

BJP is a party of the Meiteis there. Therefore, it is not controlling the violence perpetrated by Meiteis. Congress would also be siding with the Meiteis if it comes to power. This is all due to the majoritarianism of Meiteis in Manipur.

Army can be called in to quell the violence of the Meiteis. Peace can be restored within five days. But Meiteis would whine about the army's oppression and would resort back to armed rebellion. There would be a clamour for Meiteiland. Our media would then support Meiteis and oppose the army. They would be portraying Meiteis as fighters. This is what has been taking place continuously.

If the BJP has some semblance of nationalistic vision, it would have reached out to the Meitei tribe and would have tried to guide them towards democratic values. There isn't such a statesman in there nor in the center. The practical approach of withdrawal of ethnic-majoritarian police force and temporarily handing over the state to the army is also not being willed.

Media will be creating a biased emotional intensity without any basic understanding and would be moving on to other things. Everyone would identify their own politics with this situation and would cry hoarse. We are surrounded by people who exploit even such a heinous crime to their own political gains and for their own personal vengeance. There is no difference between them and the perpetrators of the crime.

At this moment, only those who can stand by the truth and those who can stand apart from these politics can bring a solution. Till then, the trouble will continue unabated. This is what we have been witnessing for the half a century.

References
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manipur
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autonomous_administrative_divisions_of_India