WHAT REALLY HAPPENING IN MANIPUR? (History to Present day)

FIGHT BETWEEN MEITEIS-NAGAS-KUKIS (brief explanation)

In the above picture, you can see the beauty of MANIPUR. It is one of the 8 beautiful states in the Northeast of India.

WHAT REALLY HAPPENING IN MANIPUR?

History:

Before coming into today’s violence in Manipur between different communities We have to go way back to British colonialism, Manipur is first ruled by the Meitei kings every Meitei ruler is descended by PAKHANGBA which symbolizes the “dragon with a tail in his mouth“. Here comes the conflict …..

• The Nagas(30% Population) are tribal people who mostly follow Christianity and lived on the hills(90% Area of Manipur)
• The Meiteis(60% Population) are educated and rulers and their religion is polytheism [i.e Not Hinduism] live in the valley(10% Area of Manipur).

Nagas always raid on Meiteis kingdom and in the 18th century Myanmar(Burma) tried to occupy Manipur

British Colonialism:

When the British came to Manipur, In 1891 they signed a deal with Manipur(meitei) king that they help fight Nagas and stop the Myanmar raid on Manipur. For that Britishers started giving free lands on hills to kukis in Manipur.

• The Kukis(30% Population right now) are tribal people from Myanmar who lived across the Manipur borders and they started migrating to Manipur for the settlements and they mostly follow Christianity.

Present Situation:

“With the increase of migration of Kukis and the increase in population of nagas, Meiteis fear that their culture and language are under threat and they started fighting against Kukis and nagas and the Indian government for a separate state and consider them as Schedule Tribe (S.T) Quota for their children education and jobs purposes“

In 2013 Meiteis made a petition for an ST quota list and it’s been dragged on for 10 years but in April 2023 the supreme court considered their demands and requested the state government to pass the file to National Commission for Scheduled Tribes (NCST).

There begin the conflicts on May 2023, when the Kukis and Nagas and the other existing 36 ST communities in the state did not agree with the Supreme courts decision because the Metei people dominate in more than half the State’s population.

From there on Minority communities takes the law under their hand and made chaos in the Manipur state.

My thoughts:

The solution to this problem is, First the Indian government has to control the violence and build trust in the government. broader-based, autonomy-based, and history-based views are needed to be considered and work for the common interests of the people.