Vexatious Sadar Hills : Enticer of Bandhs and Blockades
- Part 1 -

Ceety Khongsai *

Three-day bandh for demand for a separate Kuki state at Saikul, Manipur on 13 May 2012 :: Pix - Bullu Raj

Introduction:

Sadar Hills is the home of multi-ethnic groups with different socio-economic and cultural background having a unique feature of being administered as a separate district since the colonial British regime although officially yet to be declared as a full-fledged revenue district by the government. And since the past fifty years the demand for full-fledged revenue district of Sadar Hills has rendered the people of Manipur untold miseries and suffering as the issue had snowballed every now and then into a major political issue.

The peaceful environment and tranquillity of the hills has also been messily switched on to a nerve shivering hostile relations whenever the issue of Sadar Hills come alive. The narrowly conceive philosophies of tribalism with its adherent claims of exclusive territorial rights of hitherto inhabited land as belonging to their ethnic community since antiquity has sowed the seeds of animosity, hatred, enmity and all other vices of humanity.

In the process the conscience of even saintly men are blinded by ethnic sentiments rather than cling steadfast to the inner call of righteousness. Therefore, no sooner did the districthood demand of Sadar Hills come to the fore; ethnic divisions based on the horrific tales of Joupi massacre and other similar homicide perpetrated on innocent Kukis by NSCN-IM derails the natural process of reconciliation as the issue has been viewed from ethnic perspective rather than for administrative convenience.

In the backdrop of this conflicting claims and confusion it is imperative to understand whether the demand for full-fledged district of Sadar Hills has administrative justification or whether the demand has any hidden agenda which would balkanise the territorial integrity of Manipur?

Or, is the demand for Sadar Hills has anything inconsistent with the demand for Nagalim? Each one of us ought to know about the truth underlying Sadar Hills imbroglio because the people of Manipur has been on the verge of humanitarian crisis due to the infamous economic blockade and counter blockades on the two national highways by the pro and anti-groups of the Sadar Hills demand.

Social Composition:

The social composition of Sadar Hills is heterogeneous. There are Kukis, Nagas, Nepalese, and Meitei etc. who are living and sharing together all the fruits of Sadar Hills in a spirit of live and let live' since the past many years. The composite nature of the society negates the wild speculations about the demand being a camouflage of Kukiland. In fact, today no nation can remain aloof completely because the wind of change happening around the world directly or indirectly influences the lives of one and all.

However, any projects, schemes and development programmes of the Government, State and Central, in the hills need to be carefully studied and implemented cautiously after taking into consideration the ethnic composition and hyper sensitivity of the tribal sentiments to avoid derailment of the schemes or projects. Long years of neglect and underdevelopment of the hills by successive governments has hardened the hearts of the tribals to ethnic centricism.

As such, a little imbalance in matters of fund allocations, distribution of beneficiaries, work programmes etc amongst the different ethnic groups will invariably offend the sentiments of the presumably discriminated ethnic group or groups which bounce back 'in the form of economic blockade on the national highways by one group or the other as all other forms of agitations are considered ineffective to air their long standing grievances.

Its not that the tribals are ignorant about the non-violence method of agitation championed by Mahatma Gandhi but are rather disappointed with its ineptness in the state of Manipur where constitutional methods of strikes or dharnas are consider merely as street outings or roadside get-together by the authorities unless methods of higher magnitude capable of affecting the entire state are resorted to.

Candidly, the issue of Sadar Hills explicitly pertains to the Nagas' dream of self rule in the guise of 'Alternative Arrangement' and final realisation of Nagalim in one hand and the long passionate quest of the Sadarites for better administration to reap the fruits of socio-economic development, a privilege enshrined in the constitution of India to all its citizens. This diametrically opposite stance need to be solve with tact and intelligence in order not to hurt the sentiments of either group by evolving a lasting yet amicable solution.

The Demand and Opposition:

The demand for Sadar Hills districthood is basically based on administrative convenience and nothing more. This is undeniable fact. It may be noted that the entire state of Manipur has been bifurcated into nine districts and these nine districts got further divided. into many sub-divisions principally on administrative convenience.

However, although the demand for Sadar Hills districthood is justified in all aspects and merits unconditional mass support for immediate declaration as a full-fledged revenue district by the government many people still consider the issue a non-issue arid, in spite, of the unbearably long years of sufferings and deprivations of economic benefits to the Sadarites and its consequential economic blockade by the Demand Committee, the government remain adamant on the issue; and even though the people of Manipur are put under complete seize by the restive 90-Days counter- economic blockade of the UNC-ANSAM coalition, the majority Meeteis maintain utmost restraints and patience, in deeds and in words, repulsively considering the issue as a revival of the yester years head hunting catastrophes pretending of not knowing that it is about territorial integrity of Manipur !

The long queues and arduous sleepless nights at sceptically selected few petrol outlets to buy five lit res of petrol in a rationing basis is a tangible proof of Manipuri patience on Sadar Hills issue. On top of this stoic silence, what sores my heart is the fact that the demand for Sadar Hills districthood has often been disappointingly depicted in wrong light by anti-Sadar Hills lobbyists as a seditious step towards Kukiland or Kuki Homeland. On the other hand, the UNC-ANSAM's open campaign for an ALTERNATIVE ARRANGEMENT and the Nagas opposition to inclusion and upgradation of the few Naga inhabited villages within Sadar Hills in the proposed Sadar Hills District has silently been watch by the general public like an IPL cricket match enthusiastically.

The welcome gate erected in honour of Manipur's CM and his council of ministers in Senapati district of Manipur unambiguously reflects the Nagas' policy on Sadar Hills in particular and the territory of Manipur in general. Apparently, under the pretext of protecting their ancestral land or territories the Nagas opposes any move of the government to upgrade Sadar Hills into a full-fledged revenue district along with the few Naga villages for future amalgamation in the new.

Alternative Arrangement: For a time, the UNC-ANSAM has skilfully preferred the term 'Arrangement' to 'Government' to conceal their hidden agenda of redrawing the territorial map of Manipur. Putting it bluntly, an 'Alternative Arrangement' unquestionably signifies an Alternative Government outside the Government of Manipur where the Nagas can rule themselves independently by partitioning off major chunk of areas which they called as their ancestral land from the existing territory of Manipur.

The term 'ancestral land' is pregnant with ambiguity. The 34 plus different ethnic communities inhabiting in the hills are intermingled and live together in the same areas like members of the same family that it becomes difficult for the valley Meeteis to differentiate between the various ethnic groups, and hence the nomenclature 'Hao' signifying the entire hill people came into existence.

Therefore, it will be logically wrong to have exclusive claims over the hills by any of these ethnic communities as belonging to their community alone. Precisely, all of the tribals living in the hills have their own ancestral land and there is no such separate land distinctively identified as 'Naga Ancestral Land'.

If the upgradation of Sadar Hills into a full-fledged revenue district is oppose by the Nagas on the assumption that the few Naga villages within Sadar Hills wants merger with their ambitious Alternative Arrangement or, to be more specific Nagalim, then, many of the Kuki villages scattered through the breadth and length of Manipur Hills has the logical right to oppose any move of the government to include these Kuki villages in the Alternative Arrangement because like the Nagas who wishes to live together with their brothers and sisters under one administrative unit, so also the Kukis impatiently hopes to live together with their families from Myanmar, Bangladesh etc. under the rule of their ancestral government, Kuki Inpi, that had been suppressed and overtaken by the colonial British administration.

The demand for Sadar Hills Districthood, even if taken wildly as 'Kuki District' has nothing to do with Manipur's territorial integrity as the would­be- new- district will lawfully remain as one of the districts of Manipur and its accompanying benefits whatsoever shall be the prerogative of all the Sadarites. It's high time for the majority Meeteis to understand the truth and act affirmatively in lieu of issuing diplomatically worded press statements on the issue and delivering ineffective emotionally blended 'Chingmi-Tammi Amatani' post-dated unity speeches in public podiums.

To be continued...