Thangkhanlal Ngaihte
ONE interesting feature of the communal violence witnessed recently in and around Manipur’s border town of Moreh is that while the Meiteis were insistent on the removal of central forces (in this case, the Assam Rifles), the Kukis were equally adamant that they stay put. There are some who argue that the conflict is only between the Meitei militant outfit — the United National Liberation Front — and the Kuki National Army. But this seems to be disingenuous. The UNLF and other Meitei organisations like the Meira Paibi and Meitei Council Moreh have alleged clandestine collusion between Kuki militants and the Assam Rifles against them and made the latter’s removal a condition for agreeing to peace. The Kuki side — from the KNA to the Kuki Students’ Organisation to the Hill Tribal Council — is, on the other hand, against the deployment of state forces (in this case, the India Reserve Battalion) in place of the Assam Rifles.
These diametrically opposite views hold more significance than meets the eye. Because they show how deep the gulf is between the “hills” and the “plains” and bares the deep-seated belief that Meitei and tribal interests are incompatible. They also lend the lie to chief minister Ibobi Singh’s rhetorical assertion that there is nothing communal in the conflict. More importantly, these divergent views hold that attempts to project the conflict as only between two militant groups is more wishful thinking than an acceptance of reality.
The fact, simply, is that the Meiteis saw the Assam Rifles as acting at the tribals’ behest. On the other hand, the Kukis saw the same Central forces as a bulwark against Meitei domination. The Kukis, rightly or wrongly, see the state forces as representing Meitei interests. The distrust is so deep that when an IRB personnel, a Kuki, died of gunshot wounds during the height of the conflict in June, there were allegations that the killing was an inside job.
This mutual distrust is neither recent nor isolated. The Justice Jeevan Reddy Committee report on the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act recommended its scrapping but was equally emphatic that the Army continue to be deployed in the region which, it said, was “the overwhelming desire of the overwhelming majority of the region”. A majority opinion within the Meitei community, then and now, is that the AF(SP) Act should go and along with it the Army. An overwhelming majority of the Kuki-Zomi tribals, then and now, believes that they just wouldn’t be able to do without the Army. Even if the dracocian Act is scrapped, the Army should stay. In fact, the Army came into these areas in the first place subsequent to numerous appeals for its deployment by tribal civil organisations.
Now, why would the tribal people so much want the Army to stay? It is a truism that wherever the Army operates, human rights violations follow. The Army, whether the Rajputana Rifles, Garhwal Rifles or Assam Rifles, has been responsible for quite a number of needless deaths and other acts in Churachandpur and Chandel, as was also the case in Imphal. Had the circumstances been normal, the people in the hill districts would have hated the Army as much as the people in the Valley do.
But the tribals wanted the Army to stay, and that is simply because they see a threat larger and much more sinister than whatever evil the Army represents. The tribals feel threatened. They see a larger insidious design behind the forays made by outfits like the UNLF in tribal areas. They see attempts to intimidate and dominate them and usurp their lands. In short, they see outfits like the UNLF and other front organisations as instruments of Meitei domination. Since they cannot fend off these threats on their own, they hope to do so with the Army’s help. It’s as simple as that.
Now, the anger is so widespread and the distrust so deep that every little outrage is a powder keg. The recent Phaizol rape case (a young tribal housewife was molested by three militants in a paddy field in front of her children) was serious and disgusting, but it would not have entire Churachandpur district up in arms against “Valley-based militants” had it been seen as an aberration and not part of a process. That the UNLF had left a trail of suffering, illwill and anger in its wake since its foray into tribal areas six years ago is a matter of record. That the entire Meitei civil society (if there is any such thing) was in denial during all this time is also well accepted.
The big problem is, if one asks Ibobi Singh he would insist that except for some miscreants out to create trouble, everything was bright and beautiful. And all those civil organisations trying to foster “chingmi-tammi” integrity in the state would do nothing more than issue press releases or sign MoUs or take out peace rallies. They just love to wallow in symbolic acts.
But as long as we delude ourselves with our own fantasies and not confront reality, the road will inexorably lead downhill.
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(The author is a freelance contributor.)
Source: http://www.thestatesman.net/page.news.php?clid=14&theme=&usrsess=1&id=166770
ONE interesting feature of the communal violence witnessed recently in and around Manipur’s border town of Moreh is that while the Meiteis were insistent on the removal of central forces (in this case, the Assam Rifles), the Kukis were equally adamant that they stay put. There are some who argue that the conflict is only between the Meitei militant outfit — the United National Liberation Front — and the Kuki National Army. But this seems to be disingenuous. The UNLF and other Meitei organisations like the Meira Paibi and Meitei Council Moreh have alleged clandestine collusion between Kuki militants and the Assam Rifles against them and made the latter’s removal a condition for agreeing to peace. The Kuki side — from the KNA to the Kuki Students’ Organisation to the Hill Tribal Council — is, on the other hand, against the deployment of state forces (in this case, the India Reserve Battalion) in place of the Assam Rifles.
These diametrically opposite views hold more significance than meets the eye. Because they show how deep the gulf is between the “hills” and the “plains” and bares the deep-seated belief that Meitei and tribal interests are incompatible. They also lend the lie to chief minister Ibobi Singh’s rhetorical assertion that there is nothing communal in the conflict. More importantly, these divergent views hold that attempts to project the conflict as only between two militant groups is more wishful thinking than an acceptance of reality.
The fact, simply, is that the Meiteis saw the Assam Rifles as acting at the tribals’ behest. On the other hand, the Kukis saw the same Central forces as a bulwark against Meitei domination. The Kukis, rightly or wrongly, see the state forces as representing Meitei interests. The distrust is so deep that when an IRB personnel, a Kuki, died of gunshot wounds during the height of the conflict in June, there were allegations that the killing was an inside job.
This mutual distrust is neither recent nor isolated. The Justice Jeevan Reddy Committee report on the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act recommended its scrapping but was equally emphatic that the Army continue to be deployed in the region which, it said, was “the overwhelming desire of the overwhelming majority of the region”. A majority opinion within the Meitei community, then and now, is that the AF(SP) Act should go and along with it the Army. An overwhelming majority of the Kuki-Zomi tribals, then and now, believes that they just wouldn’t be able to do without the Army. Even if the dracocian Act is scrapped, the Army should stay. In fact, the Army came into these areas in the first place subsequent to numerous appeals for its deployment by tribal civil organisations.
Now, why would the tribal people so much want the Army to stay? It is a truism that wherever the Army operates, human rights violations follow. The Army, whether the Rajputana Rifles, Garhwal Rifles or Assam Rifles, has been responsible for quite a number of needless deaths and other acts in Churachandpur and Chandel, as was also the case in Imphal. Had the circumstances been normal, the people in the hill districts would have hated the Army as much as the people in the Valley do.
But the tribals wanted the Army to stay, and that is simply because they see a threat larger and much more sinister than whatever evil the Army represents. The tribals feel threatened. They see a larger insidious design behind the forays made by outfits like the UNLF in tribal areas. They see attempts to intimidate and dominate them and usurp their lands. In short, they see outfits like the UNLF and other front organisations as instruments of Meitei domination. Since they cannot fend off these threats on their own, they hope to do so with the Army’s help. It’s as simple as that.
Now, the anger is so widespread and the distrust so deep that every little outrage is a powder keg. The recent Phaizol rape case (a young tribal housewife was molested by three militants in a paddy field in front of her children) was serious and disgusting, but it would not have entire Churachandpur district up in arms against “Valley-based militants” had it been seen as an aberration and not part of a process. That the UNLF had left a trail of suffering, illwill and anger in its wake since its foray into tribal areas six years ago is a matter of record. That the entire Meitei civil society (if there is any such thing) was in denial during all this time is also well accepted.
The big problem is, if one asks Ibobi Singh he would insist that except for some miscreants out to create trouble, everything was bright and beautiful. And all those civil organisations trying to foster “chingmi-tammi” integrity in the state would do nothing more than issue press releases or sign MoUs or take out peace rallies. They just love to wallow in symbolic acts.
But as long as we delude ourselves with our own fantasies and not confront reality, the road will inexorably lead downhill.
-------------------------------------
(The author is a freelance contributor.)
Source: http://www.thestatesman.net/page.news.php?clid=14&theme=&usrsess=1&id=166770
