Manipur state in India have a diverse population represents like a mini-India. When nearly 30 communities live together, bickering becomes a part and parcel of people’s collective existence. Manipur has gone through a violent period of insurgency for long time like other northeastern states in India. India’s first Prime minister Nehru bemoaned his sense of failure in dealing effectively with insurgences in several northeastern states. This worry’s was not so much to the military or other situation but rather to a feeling of psychological despair why his government failed to win over these people and assimilate with India.
The Naga and Kuki tribes: The two mostly Christian tribes form around 40 percent of the state’s population, and enjoy “Scheduled Tribe” status, which gives them land-owning rights in the hills and forests. They are the most significant tribes residing in the hills. Other tribal groups, including the Mizo, also constitute the diverse ethnic makeup of the state, which borders Myanmar. the tribes believe the Meiteis are already a dominant community and “call the shots in state politics” and hence should not be given affirmative action. “They see it [Scheduled Tribe status] as the Meiteis eating into their pie” The tribal areas in the northeastern parts of India enjoy certain constitutional protection, and there is “anxiety” amongst them that scheduled tribe status would mean the Meiteis can own land in the hills.
This present Violence in Manipur erupted over a question of who gets to claim special tribal status. Clashes between rival ethnic groups in Manipur, a remote state in India’s northeast, have reportedly killed dozens of people in recent days, and thousands of people were displaced and in army camps and the situation remains volatile, even as the authorities rush troops to the area to quell the disorder and seek to control the flow of information. The largest group in the state, Meitei’s are slightly over half the population, is seeking a special status designation for itself. the present violence had reached an extraordinary level, as people set fire to homes and vehicles, churches and temples. the indian government has flown nearly 10,000 troops of army and paramilitary forces to Manipur, a state of less than 3 million people near the borders with Bangladesh and Myanmar, the state’s governor issued “shoot-at-sight” orders, giving the security forces the authority to fire on mobs “in extreme cases.”
India’s northeast is a patchwork of groups, differing by language and religion, and often at odds with each other and the national government over internal borders and human-rights issues. The recent unrest started with a student group holding a march to protest efforts to reclassify Meiteis, the state’s largest ethnic group, as a “scheduled tribe.” Currently only the state’s Naga and Kuki peoples, who inhabit the rugged hill country, enjoy this designation, which among other things gives an advantage in securing government jobs. A group representing the Meiteis had filed a petition for scheduled-tribe status more than 10 years ago. Last month, Manipur’s High Court issued a ruling noting the long delay and giving the state government just four weeks to recommend a plan to the national government. Many people have fled into neighboring states, including Mizoram, Meghalaya and Nagaland. Governments from other Indian states have been arranging special flights for their residents to be airlifted to safety. thousands of people from different tribes remain in makeshift camps, not knowing when they will be able to return home.
Tensions remain high and the situation remains volatile. It is unclear when or how the unrest will end. The unrest had been simmering. It intensified when the High Court of Manipur on April 19 issued a direction for the submission of the recommendation on the inclusion of the Meiteis in the ST list to the Tribal Affairs Ministry. The tribal groups, who are categorized as Scheduled Tribes, protested the high court order given that the Meiteis already come under the OBC category. The hill tribes believe the safeguards that they enjoy under this ST categorization will be rendered null and void once the dominant Meiteis are brought under the ST umbrella. This immediately divided the Meiteis and the hill tribes who are anyway bonded by their faith into two warring groups. In districts where Meiteis were a minority, they became victims. And in places like Imphal where Meiteis were the majority, pockets where the hill tribes lived for decades became fierce battlefields. The houses in a upscale portion of Imphal of bureaucrats, politicians, engineers, professors, doctors of the hill tribes were burnt one by one by neighbours who are from majority Meitei tribe. Violence is tragic and the collateral is the loss of knowledge, wisdom, memories and linkage to past.
