Explained | What is behind Manipur’s widespread unrest? 

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The story so far: Manipur has been restive since February when the BJP-led government launched an eviction drive seen as targeting a specific tribal group. The drive led to protests but not on the scale of the one on May 3 triggered by the Manipur High Court’s direction to the State to pursue a 10-year-old recommendation to grant Scheduled Tribe (ST) status to the non-tribal Meitei community.

What is Manipur’s ethnic composition?

Geography has a lot to do with Manipur’s problems. The State is like a football stadium with the Imphal Valley representing the playfield at the centre and the surrounding hills the galleries. Four highways, two of them lifelines for the State, are the valley’s access points to the world beyond. The valley, which comprises about 10% of Manipur’s landmass, is dominated by the non-tribal Meitei who account for more than 64% of the population of the State and yields 40 of the State’s 60 MLAs. The hills comprising 90% of the geographical area are inhabited by more than 35% recognised tribes but send only 20 MLAs to the Assembly. While a majority of the Meiteis are Hindus followed by Muslims, the 33 recognised tribes, broadly classified into ‘Any Naga tribes’ and ‘Any Kuki tribes’ are largely Christians.

What is the Meitei argument?

Hearing a petition by eight people representing the Meetei (Meitei) Tribe Union, the Manipur High Court on April 19 directed the State government to submit, within four weeks, a 10-year-old recommendation to the Union Tribal Affairs Ministry for the inclusion of the Meitei community in the ST list. The Court referred to the Ministry’s letter in May 2013 to the Manipur government seeking specific recommendations along with the latest socio-economic survey and ethnographic report. The letter followed a representation submitted by the Scheduled Tribe Demand Committee of Manipur (STDCM), which began demanding ST status for the Meiteis in 2012. The petitioners told the High Court that the Meiteis were recognised as a tribe before the merger of the State with the Union of India in 1949. They argued that the ST status is needed to “preserve” the community and “save the ancestral land, tradition, culture, and language” of the Meiteis. The STDCM also said the Meiteis needed constitutional safeguards against outsiders, stating that the community has been kept away from the hills while the tribal people can buy land in the “shrinking” Imphal Valley.

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Why are tribal groups against ST status for Meiteis?

The tribal groups say the Meiteis have a demographic and political advantage besides being more advanced than them academically and in other aspects. They feel the ST status to the Meiteis would lead to loss of job opportunities and allow them to acquire land in the hills and push the tribals out. Groups such as the All Tribal Students’ Union of Manipur point out that the language of the Meitei people is included in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution and many of them have access to benefits associated with the SC, OBC or EWS status. “To the hill tribal people of Manipur, the demand for ST status is a ploy to attenuate the fervent political demands of the Kukis and Nagas, as well as a tacit strategy of the dominant valley dwellers to make inroads into the hill areas of the State,” Jawaharlal Nehru University lecturer Thongkholal Haokip wrote in ‘The Politics of Scheduled Tribe Status in Manipur’.

What led to the unrest?

Pro-government groups in Manipur claim some tribal groups with vested interests are trying to scuttle Chief Minister Nongthombam Biren Singh’s crusade against drugs. The anti-drug drive began with destroying poppy fields and the theory that “illegal settlers” from Myanmar — ethnically related to the Kuki-Zomi people of Manipur — are behind clearing forests and government lands to grow opium and cannabis. The first violent protest on March 10 was against the eviction of the residents of a Kuki village. This made the State government withdraw from the suspension of operations with two Kuki extremist groups accused of inciting the protesters. The large-scale arson and violence claiming the life of at least one person on May 3 and 4 followed a “tribal solidarity rally” against the reported move to include the Meiteis in the ST list.

• Manipur has been restive since February when the BJP-led government launched an eviction drive seen as targeting a specific tribal group. The drive led to protests but not on the scale of the one on May 3 triggered by the Manipur High Court’s direction to the State to pursue a 10-year-old recommendation to grant Scheduled Tribe (ST) status to the non-tribal Meitei community.
• The first violent protest on March 10 was against the eviction of the residents of a Kuki village. This made the State government withdraw from the suspension of operations with two Kuki extremist groups accused of inciting the protesters.
• The large-scale arson and violence claiming the life of at least one person on May 3 and 4 followed a “tribal solidarity rally” against the reported move to include the Meiteis in the ST list.