Two and a half years after an ethnic violence between Meiteis and Kuk-Zo group of tribes in Manipur exploded on May 3, 2023, claiming more than 260 lives and displacing 60,000 people from their homes, this conflict is coming to resemble a war on a quicksand. The warring parties, as well as those tasked to mediate, are left helplessly frozen and in danger of sinking deeper into the marsh should any try to agitate too much.
For close to a year since the imposition of President’s Rule in the state, the guns have by and large have fallen silent but the conflict can hardly be said to have concluded. Hostilities still persist, though only as what Johan Galtung called a “frozen conflict”. This frustrating stagnancy is also evident in the rather sombre celebration of Christmas and New Year this year. Good wishes and prayers for peace were exchanged and parties were still held widely, but the magical mood of a sense of change, hope, and optimism that once characterised these celebrations remained subdued.
Instead, a sub-conscious sense of guilt burdening these communities at war, was unmistakable. The very knowledge of over 60,000 of their compatriots were still languishing in make shift relief camps, many of them on the verge of despair, ensured this.
The government has made it amply clear that the first condition for a return to normalcy will necessarily have to be to facilitate the return of all the displaced people to their original homes, both in the hills and valley – homes that they have had to abandon, in many cases, under tragic circumstances.
There are however forces who are reluctant to admit that a reconciliation is the only way forward. As adage goes, wars have domestic uses, for there is nothing like the spectre of a threat of external aggression which can divert the attention and discontent of people away from the failures and personal agendas of their leaders.
These vested interests come in different hues. Some seemingly want to keep this strife simmering for the material gains they get, or can get, out of it. These would include those prospecting the real estate values of conflict abandoned lands and properties, as well as those who have been profiting from disbursement of relief benefits to the displaced.
There are also self-righteous populists on either side who made demagogic and militant public posturings to consolidate their holds on their constituencies, even at the cost of communal hatred entrenching deeper. They now find they cannot shift their stances openly even after hostilities have cooled considerably, for fear the people they have been inciting may turn against them.
In the past few months, while there have been encouraging stories of neighbouring Meitei and Kuki-Zo villages in the foothills coming out to tend to their respective paddy fields in plain sight of each other without discomfort, there have also been depressing mood darkening stories.
Last fortnight, in its effort to start its promised process of resettlement by yearend, the government allowed 67 Meitei families of 386 people to return to their abandoned village Torbung in the southern foothills in Bisnupur district adjoining Churachandpur district. Then on the night of December 16-17, the village was fired upon with automatic weapons from the hills causing panic.
The situation was easily brought under control, but in the following days, Kuki-Zo civil society leaders organised rallies to reiterate that there cannot be any reconciliation before their demand for a Union Territory carved out of Manipur is granted.
Overlooked in this demand is that this conflict cannot be treated as a bilateral matter between Meiteis and Kuki-Zos. Manipur is a multi-ethnic state with a complex maze of fault-lines between its communities. For instance, another major community, the Nagas, claim all of the hills where Kukis are now settled, except for Churachandpur district, are theirs and it was they who allowed the constantly spreading Kukis to settle amongst them.
On this quicksand, any such concession will open a pandoras box of bigger conflicts. The way forward must be first for all to come out of the quicksand. Reminiscent in all these is also Leon Trotsky words that “you may not be interested in war but war is interested you.”
This article was first published in The Telegraph. The original can be read HERE
Editor, Imphal Review of Arts and Politics and author
