Nineteen months after violent clashes erupted between the majority Meitei community and the Kuki-Zo tribes in the northeast Indian state of Manipur, the violence has shown no signs of abating. Indeed, the situation has spiraled dangerously. So serious is the breakdown in law and order in Manipur and so hardened are the ethnic boundaries that crossing into the territory of the “other” could be fatal.
This is “not just an ethnic conflict,” H.S. Benjamin Mate, a human rights activist and chairman of the Kuki Organization of Human Rights Trust, told The Diplomat. “The Meiteis,” he said, have “the solid support of the Manipur government against the Kukis.” Mate has authored a report titled, “A historical contextualization of State-sponsored ethnic cleansing” and has drawn attention to the role of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in Manipur in fueling violence against the Kuki-Zo.
While the Meitei are Hindu, the Kuki–Zo are Christian. The latter allege that Chief Minister Biren Singh, a Meitei, has been systematically attempting to wipe them out. His government has been trying to evict them from their lands in the hills and brand them as “drug traffickers.”
The chief minister is believed to enjoy the tacit support of the BJP-led central government. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has steadfastly refused to sack Singh, although calls for his removal have grown over the months.
Violence broke out in Manipur in May 2023. A Tribal Solidarity March by the Kuki-Zo to protest against the Meitei community’s demand to be included in the Scheduled Tribe (ST) list triggered clashes. That morphed into riots, looting, and killings. There were incidents of sexual assault as well in the weeks that followed. A video clip of Meitei men sexually assaulting and parading Kuki women they had stripped naked triggered widespread outrage.
However, nothing seems to have moved the Modi government to act to halt the violence or pull up the state government for its abysmal failure.
In July last year, the Supreme Court of India took suo motu cognizance of the situation in Manipur, terming the video of the stripped women as “deeply disturbing.” “It’s the grossest of constitutional abuse,” then-Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud said. “If the government does not act, we will,” he warned.
However, in the months thereafter the apex court has refrained from even commenting on the deteriorating situation in Manipur. Last week, the Supreme Court said that the “Center and State government must act in Manipur. Not us.” The court is now focused on remedial measures including compensation for property loss, penalizing encroachers, and rehabilitation of the displaced from relief camps.
Manipur’s Meitei comprise nearly 60 percent of the population, while the Kuki-Zo tribals live in the hills. One of the longstanding grievances of the Kuki is that there has been no development in the hills. Indeed, all hospitals, colleges, and other institutions in the state are situated in the Imphal valley, where the Meitei live.
Violence over the past year and the resulting hardening of the divide between the two communities has caused unspeakable hardships for people across ethnic and communal divides, especially for the tribals who have been cut off from hospitals and healthcare, higher educational institutions, the airport, and even government offices.
Curfews, strikes, internet shutdowns, and blasts are daily occurrences. Last week a hand grenade was found on the steps of a private bank in Imphal city. On Sunday, a grenade was found near the home of a government contractor. Relief camps are no longer safe zones with refugees, including women and children, being kidnapped from rival camps. There is little trust between communities. But the erosion of this trust has not taken place overnight.
With highways between the hill districts and the valley shut down, the prices of essential items have skyrocketed and daily survival has become a struggle. These hardships are going largely unreported by the mainstream media. Central security forces man the “buffer zone” between Meitei and Kuki territories, maintaining the fragile status quo.
Significantly, the 10 Kuki members of the Manipur state assembly, including those from the BJP, have stayed away from attending the last two sessions of the state assembly located in the Imphal valley due to security concerns.
The Kuki-Zo are listed in the ST list and they fear that the inclusion of Meitei in that list will eat into their share of reserved seats in government jobs. More worrying is the impact it could have on their hold over their land in the hills. The Kukis believe that once the Meitei demand for ST status is conceded it would enable them to buy tribal land – something they are restricted from doing as non-tribals. They see the Singh government’s attempts to de-notify tribal land as a means to grab their land.
The Kuki-Zo have lost faith in Biren Singh and his government, which they see as biased. They have intensified their demand for a separate administration for the Kukis with legislative powers, which will not be under the majority Meitei ambit. Last week, the 10 Kuki-Zo MLAs took their demands to Delhi’s Jantar Mantar, where they organized a sit-in protest to demand expediting the dialogue for a separate administration.
“Without a separate administration that is not under the authority of the Meitei, there is no way that we can go back to our homes,” a professor at Nagaland University, who did not wish to be named for security reasons, told The Diplomat. Meitei militants have been hunting down Kuki tribals. “We had to flee Imphal overnight with our families to save our lives,” he said
The professor was initially working at Manipur University in Imphal, when his life like hundreds of others was turned upside down on the night of May 3 last year. Armed Meitei mobs entered the university campus at around 7 p.m. and searched for Kuki students and teachers. He and his family managed to take shelter for the night in the Assam Rifles camp and fled the next day to neighboring Nagaland.
With highways blockaded and the valley being out of bounds, the professor has not been able to visit his aging parents in Churachandpur for over a year. “Normally it would take four to five hours to reach from Kohima to my home in Churachandpur, by road. Now it takes me 2 to 3 days. From Kohima, I have to go to Shillong, then Aizwal to reach Churachandpur,” says the anguished professor.
“No Kuki is safe in the valley,” he adds.
Several Manipuris I spoke to have quit government jobs or left their academic courses mid-way. The dire security situation in Manipur has forced them to take their families out of the state. There is a deep-seated terror on both sides, more so with dreaded armed groups like the Aramabai Tengol, a Meitei militia, and Kuki militant groups active and the government acting as a mute spectator.
Kukis feel they are caught between the devil and the deep sea. They feel “betrayed” by Modi and his government. Yet they have no option but to appeal to him to facilitate their demand for a separate administration. Besides, parties across the board, including the Congress, which won both of Manipur’s seats in Parliament in the recent general elections, have been reluctant to do justice to them as it would be perceived as “against the interests” of the Meitei majority.
Meanwhile, in the ongoing winter session of Parliament, opposition leaders have demanded that the Manipur situation be discussed threadbare. The government has refused.
It is strange that President’s Rule has not been imposed in such a precarious situation. There continues to be no accountability despite BJP governments ruling at the center and the state.
Unwilling to concede failure in controlling the situation, Modi continues to resist visiting the state. In contrast, he visits opposition-ruled states with much less provocation. Meanwhile, unable to tackle the deteriorating security situation, the government has reimposed the Armed Forces Special Powers Act in several districts. Instead of moving forward, the clock is going back in the state of Manipur.