Manipur tribal violence

At least 54 people have been killed and 23,000 displaced amid ethnic violence in India’s northeastern state of Manipur. Internet access remains mostly suspended, while curfews have been imposed in most of the state. But violence continued throughout the weekend despite the central government in New Delhi intervening and the military also being deployed to stop the infighting, which began after the government decided to grant tribal status to the majority Meitei tribe, which constitutes over half of the state’s population. This threatened the much smaller currently recognised tribes — including the Kuki and Naga which combined account for about 40% of the state’s population — as the affirmative action policies that apply to tribes would all be diluted if the move is approved. It is also worth noting that most of the top leadership in the state’s BJP government is from the Meitei tribe, and smaller tribes have noted the Meitis dominate the state’s political system.

Meanwhile, religion also plays a role — the Meiteis are mostly Hindu, while the Kuki and Naga are both Christian — although analysts are divided on whether it directly ties to the current dispute beyond the BJP’s Hindutva roots. At the same time, visuals of churches being attacked are a reminder that places of worship are not off-limit. There is no doubt, however, that the main cause of the dispute is over land ownership: scheduled castes enjoy exclusive land rights in some areas to prevent outsiders from removing them from their ancestral lands. The Naga and Kuki mostly live on and around the hills, while the Meitei are from the plains and only have a nominal presence in hilly areas. However, land rights would allow them to expand this presence at the expense of the existing recognised tribes.

While not quite the same, we also see some parallels to the BJP central government’s actions in Occupied Kashmir — namely, giving ‘outsiders’ property rights that may skew demographics and strengthen their own voting bases at the expense of established local populations.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 9^th, 2023.

Like Opinion & Editorial on Facebook, follow @ETOpEd on Twitter to receive all updates on all our daily pieces.