By Henry Srebrnik, [Saint John, N.B.] Telegraph-Journal
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government has frightened minorities in India, and his governing style sometimes verges on authoritarian. But this is not, to say the least, an easy country to rule.
India is a vast land with hundreds of different caste, ethnic, religious, and tribal groups, often at odds with each other, sometimes violently. The northeast is a patchwork of small peoples at odds with each other and with the national government over internal borders and human-rights issues.
Recently, there were ethnic clashes in the remote northeastern Indian state of Manipur, a small entity of less than three million people near the borders with Bangladesh and Myanmar. The violence erupted over a question of who gets to claim special tribal status.
The state is home to an ethnically diverse group of communities, each with their own unique language, culture and religion. It was once a princely state under British rule, and was only incorporated into India in 1949, two years after the country gained independence.
The unrest started in early May when the All-Tribal Students Union of Manipur, a group who come from the hill districts of the state inhabited by the Naga and Kuki ethnic groups, held a march in the state capital, Imphal.
They were there to protest efforts by the Meiteis, a largely Hindu people who account for a little over half of the state’s population, to have themselves reclassified as a “scheduled tribe” by the authorities. Currently only the state’s Naga and Kuki peoples enjoy this designation, which among other things gives them an advantage in securing government jobs.
The Meiteis live in the more developed but geographically smaller Imphal Valley, in and around the capital city, while the Naga and Kuki groups live predominantly in agriculturally rich and geographically larger hill districts.
In the communal violence that ensued, mobs attacked homes, vehicles, churches, and temples. The death toll has risen to more than 100. About 23,000 civilians fled the fighting, many into the neighboring states of Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram, and Nagaland. Close to 40,000 security forces have been deployed to quell the violence.
Scheduled tribes have been among the most socio-economically disadvantaged groups in India and have historically been denied access to education and job opportunities, prompting the government to officially recognize them in a bid to correct years of injustice. India reserves government jobs, college admissions and elected seats at all levels of government for communities under this category.
The Meitei had filed a petition for scheduled-tribe status more than 10 years ago and a court in April directed the state government to consider their demand. This would give the Meiteis access to forest lands and guarantee them a proportion of government jobs and places in educational institutions.
But the Meteis already govern the state and dominate positions within the government. They have been privy to more economic and infrastructural advancement than the other ethnic groups.
If the Meitei community are given scheduled tribe status, the other ethnic groups, many of whom are Christian, say they fear they will not have a fair chance for jobs and other benefits. They are also worried that they may lose control over the ancestral forests which they have occupied for decades; those cover around 75 per cent of Manipur. Once the violence began, many of the state forestry offices in Kuki regions were destroyed by rioters.
The current unrest has sparked criticism of Prime Minister Modi and his ruling BJP, whose state party governs Manipur. It was accused of not doing enough to prevent the violence.
“None of the actions taken by the state government or the Union government have inspired confidence in the people of Manipur,” the country’s main opposition party, the Indian National Congress, said in a statement June 12. Their leader, Rahul Gandhi, visited Manipur June 28-29 and called for the restoration of peace.
The flow of refugees from neighbouring Myanmar across its porous1,600-kilometre border with India following that country’s 2021 coup has also exacerbated the ongoing tensions in Manipur, which shares 400 kilometres of that boundary. The Kukis share strong ethnic links with the Chin tribes of Myanmar that have been fleeing into the state.
“Since the coup, this recent violence is the first time where we see that a large number of refugees have come in and created internal problems,” according to Gopal Krishna Pillai, joint secretary in charge of India’s whole northeast, echoing the official line that the refugees are to blame for much of the unrest.
Manipur Chief Minister Nongthombam Biren Singh of the Meitei-dominated BJP state government has also painted the Chin refugees, estimated to number as high as 70,000 people, as a threat, angering the Kuki tribes who welcomed them.
In turn, Kuki elected officials in the state, including some in the BJP, have submitted a letter to the Indian government demanding a separate administration, arguing that the state has been “partitioned” and “our people can no longer exist under Manipur.”
In June, the Indian government established a 51-member peace committee to address the violence in Manipur. However, the committee is proving to be a nonstarter, as organizations representing the ethnic groups have said they will not take part. Both sides feel victimized, so this problem isn’t going away.
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