MANIPUR’S ETHNIC FAULTLINES

Context: The ongoing violence between the Kuki-Zomi tribals and the largely Hindu Meiteis in Manipur is the first time in three decades that the state has witnessed direct clashes between two ethnic groups.
The Manipur valley is encircled by skirts of low hills that spread into Nagaland and Mizoram.
In these hill areas live 15 Naga tribes and the Chin-Kuki-Mizo-Zomi group, which includes the Kuki, Thadou, Hmar, Paite, Vaiphei and Zou peoples.
The Kangleipak kingdom, then a British protectorate, was repeatedly raided by Naga tribes who came down from the northern hills.
The British political agent in Manipur is believed to have brought the Kuki-Zomi from the Kuki-Chin hills of Burma to protect the valley from plunder by acting as a buffer between the Meiteis and the Nagas.
The Kukis, like the Nagas, were fierce headhunting warriors and the Maharaja gave them land along the ridges, where they could act as a shield for the Imphal valley below.

Kuki-Meitei divide

Ethnic tensions between the hill communities and the Meiteis have existed from the time of the erstwhile kingdom.
But it escalated with the advent of the Naga national movement in the 1950s, and the call for an independent Naga nation.
The Naga insurgency was countered by the rise of insurgent groups among the Meiteis and Kuki-Zomi.
The Kuki-Zomi groups began to militarise, and the Kukis launched their own movement for ‘Kukiland’.
Unlike the Naga movement, however, the Kuki-Zomi demand was for a state within India, not a separate national homeland.
Even though the Kukis had started out as protectors of the Meitei people, the Kukiland demand created a rift between the communities.
Many Kukis fled to Churachandpur, a district dominated by the Kuki-Zomi people.

Meitei fears

The Meiteis contend that in a state where the government is the largest employer, reservation for STs in jobs amounts to an unfair advantage.
While tribals can buy land in the valley, Meiteis are prohibited from buying land in the hills.

SOURCE: THE HINDU, THE ECONOMIC TIMES, PIB

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