TODAY -

ILPS and Indigenous Peoples Rights: Manipur
- Part 2 -

Khwairakpam Gajananda *

ILP : Meira Paibi Rally  for pro-ILPS at  Keishampat Crossing :: July 21 2015.
ILP : Meira Paibi Rally for pro-ILPS at Keishampat Crossing on July 21 2015 :: Pix - Shankar Khangembam



(4) Declaration on the Rights of Persons belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities (1992)
This Declaration deals with all minorities, which includes many of the world's Indigenous Peoples. It only concerns individual rights, although collective rights might be derived from those individual rights.

The Declaration deals both with States' obligations towards minorities as well as the rights of minority people. Topics that are dealt with include: the national or ethnic, cultural, religious or linguistic identity of minorities (Article 1); the free expression and development of culture; association of minorities amongst themselves; participation in decisions regarding the minority (Article 2); the exercise of minority rights, both individual and in groups (Article 3); and education of and about minorities (Article 4).

The UN bodies recognize that indigenous culture is directly linked to land, water and other resources and language. In this scenario, 'Media' thus plays the vital role as a non-violent weapon to spread awareness/information within and without indigenous communities.

INDIAN CONSTITUTIONS

In India, there are about 461 ethnic groups, which are recognized as Scheduled Tribes (ST). They are considered to be India's Indigenous Peoples. The constitutions of India gives equal respect to all communities, sects, lingual and ethnic groups etc. in the country. The constitution also guarantees to all citizens the freedom of speech (Article 19), freedom of religion (Article 25), equality (Articles 14 to 17), liberty (Article 21), etc.

India has several laws and constitutional provisions, such as the Fifth (5th) Schedule for mainland India and the Sixth (6th) Schedule for certain areas of North-east India, which recognize Indigenous Peoples' rights to land and self-governance. The laws aimed at protecting indigenous peoples have, however, numerous shortcomings and their implementation is far from satisfactory.

There are numerous indigenous people residing in the hills of Northern, North-Eastern and Southern India, Andaman & Nicobar Island, Himalayan regions of India etc. Some of the examples are: Bodo-Kachari: Assam (Bodoland), Arunachal Pradesh; Karbi: Assam; Khasi-Jaintia: Meghalaya, Assam; Mishmi people: Arunachal Pradesh; Nocte: Arunachal Pradesh; Mizo people: Mizoram; Naga: Nagaland; Tripuri (Borok): Tripura; Ladakhi: Jammu and Kashmir; Andamanese: Andaman Islands; Jangil (Rutland Jarawa): now extinct, formerly of Rutland Island, Andamans; Onge: Little Andaman; Nicobarese people (Holchu): Nicobar Islands, India; Shompen: Nicobar Islands, India; Bhutia: Sikkim; Kota: Nilgiris etc.

Lahual and Spiti, Himachal Pradesh has strict rules for non-native people to reside or buy land or plot. Foreigners are being permitted to visit the restricted/protected areas by the authorities specified under Section 3 of the Foreigners (Protected Areas) Order 1958 by the State Government of Himachal Pradesh. Similarly, in Ladakh since May 1, 2014, Indian Nationals or Tourists need to present valid Photo ID, Nationality Proof at the Indo Tibetan Border Police or Army check-posts.

However, all foreign nationals need to apply for PAP (Protect Area Permits) in a group of two or more through a registered travel agent in Leh. Acquiring PAP, allow foreigners to visit the restricted areas in Ladakh of Nubra Valley, Tso Moriri, Pangong Tso, and Dah–Hanu Villages. The States of Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Nagaland and Nicobar Islands have similar types of ILPS imposed in their respective States. The aspirations to protect/preserved Indigenous Peoples of Indian States such as Jharkhand, Meghalaya, Odisha, Sikkim, Telangana, Uttaranchal, West Bengal and other hills regions of India are gaining momentum, because most of the ethnic minority groups believed that over the time they are slowly becoming minorities in their own homeland.

The Constitutions of India, Article 19 (D) & (E) allows all the citizens to move freely throughout the territory of India and to reside and settle in any part of the territory of India, however, sub-clause (5) emphasizes that the State can impose reasonable restrictions on the exercise of any of the rights conferred by the said sub-clauses (D & E) for the protection of the interests of any indigenous community.

In Manipur, the said sub-clause of the article has been violated. There is no provision to protect the Indigenous Tribal Peoples—those who mainly reside in the four valleys districts of Manipur, whose populations, land and cultural identities are day-by-day diminishing. Thus, it is high-time for the State and Central Government to conserve/preserve the indigenous peoples of Manipur, before it is too late!

MANIPUR AND INNER LINE PERMIT SYSTEMS (ILPS)

Manipur comprises of complex set of indigenous Scheduled Castes (SC); Scheduled Tribes (ST) and General categories communities. The tribal Kukis and Nagas dominated the hilly areas, which is about 90% of the land (20089 km2) of Manipur. These two ethnic communities have very closed affinity with Meetei (General and OBC Categories) and shared historically, socially, culturally, economically and demographically—since thousands of years.

Manipur Land Revenue and Land Reforms (MLR & LR) Act 1960 provide protections of indigenous tribal lands of Manipur in the five Hills Districts of Manipur, which is again strengthened with the recently held Autonomous District Council (ADC) elections and the proposed 6th Schedule to be implemented there. However, the porous Myanmar border provided safe-haven for foreigners to infiltrate in many districts of Manipur e.g. Churachandpur, Chandel and Ukhrul.

The very close affinities to the ethnicity, languages and traditions of many Manipuri tribal and the Myanmarese people generally helped the latter to migrate and settle in many parts of Manipur—without proper documents or verifications. The Acts and Laws thus provided for Manipuri's are toothless and are compromised at the cost of the original Manipuri tribal's socio-economy, natural resources, land, culture and traditions.

On the other hand, the 'Meeteis', original ethnic Manipuri people residing mainly in the four valley districts (only 10% or 2238 km2 of the total geographical areas of Manipur) are day by day marginalized due to the pressures from various angles. The general populations of Meeteis are regarded as General Category with small sections of the community coming under Scheduled Caste (SC) and after the introductions of Other Backward Classes (OBC) insignificant numbers of socio-economically backward families were included in OBC categories by the Indian Union.

The history of Meeteis can be trace back to 33 AD, which is very distinct and thousands of years old language and folklores—found both orally and in written. Culturally, Meeteis can be regarded as one of the community, which has the richest cultures in the World. Indisputably, Meetei with distinct culture, tradition and language can be regarded as true indigenous community as per UN declarations, thus should be protected under the Constitutions of India.

Some of the points that seriously threaten the valley dwelling peoples and their lands in the four districts of Manipur are:

1. The four districts of Manipur is open for any Indian Citizen to purchase or reside, thus the land areas of Meeteis and Tribal are shrinking considerably since Indian independence.

2. Hybridizations due to migrations and immigrations seriously altered the genetic pools of the Indigenous Peoples in valley districts.

3. Dilutions and adulterations of cultures, traditions and languages during last three-four centuries and the significant socio-economic alterations after the merger of Manipur to the Indian Union, will slowly bring the Meetei community to minority level in their own homeland.

4. Though the present population growth rate of Manipur is about 18%, which is more than the national average—it is believed that the rate is mainly due to immense migrations of non-indigenous communities, foreigners such as Bangladeshi, Myanmarese, Nepalis etc.

5. In Manipur, there is no provision to protect the ST and SC communities who are presently residing in many small pockets of the valley districts and

6. Trans-boundaries subversive activities, thus arise in Manipur can be directly or indirectly linked with our inappropriate plans, policies, programs or legislative actions, which does not provide comprehensive protections for the Indigenous Peoples of Manipur.

The present mass actions taken up by the people of Manipur to introduce ILPS can be regarded as visionaries' decisions to safeguard the unique traditions, cultures, languages, lands, natural resources, ecology, biodiversity and environment of Manipur. The political and government wills to protect and safeguard its own subjects, therefore, will give better impetus to bring peace and harmony to the State and to the Nation.

Concluded...


* Khwairakpam Gajananda (PhD) wrote this article for e-pao.net
The writer is Associate Professor, Center for Environmental Sciences, College of Natural Sciences, Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and can be contacted at gajkh(aT)yahoo(doT)com
This article was posted on July 31, 2015.


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