In the way the Manipur ethnic crisis has not only defied resolution for over three years but instead compounded in complexity, one thing is loudly evident. Diagnosis of the conflict has been badly flawed leading to virtually meaningless remedial measures.
Tragic as the destructive storm has been for those trapped in its vortex, it has also offered one vital lesson on how ambulance chasing, headline seeking journalism and punditry can do more harm than good in ameliorating complex multi-layered and dangerous social frictions.
So long as Manipur’s conflict remained a clash between the largely Hindu, valley-dwelling, non-tribal Meiteis, and the Christian Kuki-Zo group of tribes, it was easy for journalists and fact finders trooping into the state to see this conflict in terms of a set of linear, binary conflict equations. It was hence Hindu versus Christians, non-tribals versus tribals, hill versus valley, majority versus minority etc., – familiar conflict templates in much of the Indian heartland.
This flaw should have been obvious from the start. The initial spark was a protest rally on May 3, 2023, by tribals of Manipur against a High Court directive to the government to take forward a long-ignored demand of a section of Meiteis for inclusion in the Schedule Tribes list of the Constitution. The rally was in all hill districts and participated by Nagas and Kuki-Zos alike.
However, when the rally turned violent in Churachandpur district and spread, Nagas stepped away. This should have been a prompt to reassess the understanding of this conflict but this was ignored, probably because the old handy conflict templates would have been overturned. Nagas are also Christians, tribals and considered the hills as their homeland.
This deliberate silence continued, deepening the false knowledge production for policy consumption. However, this flaw is now becoming impossible to hide. While the Meitei and Kuki-Zo conflict has receded, though still simmering, an unfolding Kuki-Nagas conflict is now centre-stage. Even the tribes under the ‘Zo’ suffix in ‘Kuki-Zo’ seem uninterested in this new conflict stage. The original ambulance chasers understandably are silent on this new turn of events.
Trauma scholar Dominick LaCapra predicted this situation in Writing History, Writing Trauma. He showed how representing prolonged conflict truthfully can never be easy. His warning is both for actual subjects of a conflict writing of the conflict, as well as observers from outside assessing the conflict.
While the former are prone to “fidelity to trauma” leading to a sense of victimhood in their portrayal of the conflict, the latter can either end up “numbing empathy” to resort to “objectivism” or else be given to unchecked empathy, and suffer “surrogate victimage” aligning unwarrantedly with the conflict party they preconceive as victims.
LaCapra’s recommendation for trauma representation is to find the “middle-voice”. The trouble with the representation of the Manipur crisis is a scarcity of this voice.
For those left in this mayhem, the only way forward is reconciliation and healing. To not agree to this even at this juncture would amount to the Freudian death wish. This is especially after the macabre hostage taking episode between Nagas and Kukis starting May 13. The Nagas ultimately released all 28 hostages they took 27 days later, but six of the 20 Naga hostages in Kuki custody were found eliminated. Their mutilated corpses indicate they were severely tortured too.
Tensions and violent encounters escalated thereafter. As of present, all movements of the warring communities are restricted within their safe zones. Meiteis are confined within the Imphal valley, Nagas are stuck on the upper reaches of the mountains and Kukis who live largely in the foothills adjoining the Imphal valley, are now left sandwiched between Nagas and Meiteis, therefore bearing the harshest consequences of this movement freeze.
Another vital lesson is clear. As Robert D. Kaplan cautioned in his 2012 bestseller The Revenge of Geography: What the Map Tells Us About Coming Conflicts and the Battle Against Fate, certain geographies are integral and disturbing this integrity can, and indeed have, led to deadly conflicts. Manipur’s multilayered conflict has also demonstrated the state is indeed such a geography. The state communities thus have no other choice than to accept the reality of this geographical destiny and learn to peacefully co-exist.
This article was first published in The Telegraph. The original can be read HERE
Editor, Imphal Review of Arts and Politics and author
