The civil unrest in Manipur, which is going on for many weeks and it looks like the end is not near. Actually, the turmoil in Manipur is going on since 1949 when the state joined Indian Union. This is mainly due to many factors, the main ones are:
- Meitei tribes’ ethnonationalism and its clash with tribal groups such as Nagas and Kukis.
- The Central Government’s failure to form a manageable territorial unit containing all diverse ethnic groups.
- The divisive electoral politics, and above all the Central Government’s reliance on the Armed Forces Special Powers Act of 1958 (AFSPA) to maintain law and order.
In reality, the fact is the accession of Princely State Manipur to India in 1949 was itself controversial, and the conditions under it were merged did not find favour with many tribal groups.
In 2019, two Manipur-based umbrella extremist organization-the Coordination Committee (CorCom) and Alliance of Socialist Unity, Kangleipak (ASUK)- and Tripura-based National Liberation Front of Twipra (NLFT) announced a shutdown to mark the “ forced merger” of two states with India in 1949. This shutdown affected six districts in the plains of Manipur dominated by the Meitei community. The impact was minimal in the hills dominated by the Kukis.
Though the anti-merger agitation fizzled out, multi-ethnic Manipur was faced with the Nagas’ demand for independence and their subsequent demand for the formation of ‘Nagalim’ incorporating all the Naga-inhabited areas in the North East. The Nagas, who have a home for themselves in Nagaland, are quite numerous in Manipur also.
In 2022, when BJP led coalition came to power in Manipur, mainly with the help of Meiteis, who are high-caste Hindus, the BJP yielded to that community’s demand for Schedule Tribe (ST) status. The Kukis, who lived in hill areas, and had exclusive land rights there as ST, feared Meitei encroachment on their lands if Meiteis got ST status. The Kukis, who are mainly Catholics, feel they are getting sidelined. The State High Court has approved the status of Meiteis as ST.
The unrest in Manipur is basically the fight between Kukis and Meiteis which has taken the state of Manipur to this stage of unrest. There have been allegations that Kukis have been getting arms from kindred tribes across the border in Myanmar. The Myanmarese tribes have been fighting for independence from Buddhist-dominated Myanmar. The infighting in Myanmar led to a huge migrant influx to Kuki Hills in Manipur. While the Kukis tribe has extended traditional hospitality to these migrants, the Meitei-dominated Manipur government has been very worried about this development. The Kukis are demanding a separate state or an autonomous Union Territory status.
Let us go back to history a bit- before independence, there were many kings in Manipur and nearby areas, who used to fight among themselves for supremacy. Few kings drafted Rohingyas and Kukis from Myanmar in their Army. Slowly these Kukis started staying in Manipur hills. Slowly their population started increasing. These Rohingyas and Kukis started farming Opium in the hills. This started happening in the 1950s, at that time China also started eyeing Manipur and started helping anti-Indian groups, But the biggest conspiracy was the entry of Christian Missionaries. These missionaries formed more than 2000 Churches in tribal areas and started converting people. Mainly Meiteis were targeted for conversions. And surprisingly that time PM Nehru banned the entry of Hindu Gurus and other Hindu religious people to Manipur.
In 1981, there was big violence in Manipur, when more than 10,000 Meiteis were killed. This awakened Indira Gandhi, then PM, and she deputed the armed forces in Manipur and started peace talks. As per the peace talk, it was decided that Kukis will stay in the hills and Meiteis will stay in the plains. Additionally, Kukis, who are mainly Christians, were given the benefits of reservations as ST. Slowly Kukis, Rohingyas, and Nagas started cultivating Opium in a big way on the hills, in thousand of farms. This business of Opium slowly started growing and reached more than hundreds of Crore by the first half of the 2000s. In the year 2008, again there was civil unrest, at that on the instruction of Sonia Gandhi, the Manmohan Singh government made a peace pact with the Christian Kukis and Meitei tribe, and gave official sanction for the cultivation of Opium in the hills, and told police not to take any action on this cultivation, although Opium comes under banned drug in India.
After this, Manipur became one of the biggest hubs for supplying opium and other drugs throughout the country.
Then came 2014, when Congress controlled MVA government at the Centre was toppled by BJP-led NDA. This government eye was on those states where religious conversion was in full swing, the central government secretly started acting in Assam, Nagaland, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh, Kerala, Karnataka, UP, J & K, and Tamilnadu.
In 2023, BJP won the state election in Manipur, and Virendra Singh, a 30-year experienced local politician (who came to BJP from Congress) was made CM, and he is from the Meitei tribe. The central government instructed the state CM to stop the cultivation of Opium and destroy the crop. This led to panic in the Kuki tribe, Christian Missionaries, and Rohingyas, along with China and Pakistan. As even China and Pakistan were encouraging opium cultivation for their own drug cartels. All of them want the farming of opium should restart.
Before independence, Meiteis were considered as STs, but Nehru’s government withdrew this benefit, and Christian Kukis were made ST. The Meitei community filed a petition in High Court (HC) that they should be brought back to the ST fold, and in the year 2023 the HC upheld their petition and gave the order that Meitei community is ST. Since Christians, Kukis were unhappy with the decision of the government to ban opium farming, and Christian missionaries were unhappy that their religious conversion was not moving forward under the present state government, this HC judgment added fuel to the fire, and Manipur started burning.
The opposition and anti-national parties are unhappy that the present Modi government has started giving rights to original Indians and outsiders who were flourishing under Congress rule are under check, and these are the people & political parties who are blaming the Modi government for the violence in Manipur. It was the Congress party that gave an undue advantage to the Kukis (Christian community) and ignored Meiteis (Hindu community). Can you imagine a government allowing encouraging the farming of Opium for personal benefit and vote bank?
Let us wait and watch the future development in this matter.
Waiting for your views on this blog.
Anil Malik
Mumbai, India
10th July 2023