Demand for ST status on Meiteis : What is wrong or right with it
- Sangai Express Editorial :: August 05, 2013 -

Scheduled Tribe status for the Meiteis.

What is wrong with this ? Or what is right with this ?

To the Scheduled Tribe Demand Committee, Manipur and others including Dr Irengbam Mohendra Singh, a columnist of The Sangai Express, a man who minces no word in stating his stand, there is nothing wrong for the Meiteis to demand their inclusion in the list of Scheduled Tribes.

To the numerous tribal organisations in Manipur, including the All Tribal Students Union, Manipur and others, there is everything wrong for the Meiteis to raise such a demand.

When the framers of the Constitution of India came up with the idea of ST and SC and job reservations plus other incentives for the people clubbed under these two categories, the understanding of Scheduled Tribes was closely associated with the academic definition of who or what is a tribal.

With the passage of time and with the dynamics of politics taking different turns and twists, today the understanding of who or what is a tribal has taken on a totally different meaning.

It is in this context that the two opposing sides adopted by the advocates of Meiteis as STs and those against it should be studied.

Going by the tone of the arguments, for and against the proposal put forth, there is nothing to suggest that the academic understanding of the term tribal has been taken into consideration.

What has emerged instead are the perks and privileges provided by the Constitution.

It is not so much about the criterion that defines a group of people as tribals but about the perks and privileges that come along with being tagged a Scheduled Tribe.

Certainly not what the framers of the Constitution of India would have foreseen, but with the changing political dynamics, ever since India became a republic or after Manipur merged with India in 1949, the academic definition of tribal or the traits that define a group of people as tribal seems to have been relegated to the background.

If this was not the case then it should not have taken 60 years or so for the STDCM to raise the demand that the Meiteis too should be granted ST status.

This same argument too should stick with those who have raised their voice against the demand raised by the STDCM.

Arguments and counter arguments can continue, starting from the Mongoloid features of the North East people backed by the definition and universal understanding of indigenous people.

But can there be a consensus in the different line of interpretations put forth within these parameters ?

Unlikely, for as noted above, the demand and the opposition to granting ST status on the Meiteis have more to do with the perks and privileges that are associated with the ST tag. Job reservation, admission in educational institutions, line of promotion, land holdings, paying taxes.

These are central to the demand and the opposition to the ST status for the Meiteis.

A question of survival as Dr Irengbam Mohendra has put it ? "Endangered species" is the term used by the good doctor while referring to the Meiteis and in justifying the demand that ST status be granted to the Meiteis.

This line of thought may have stemmed from some premises, notably the land law prevailing in Manipur, wherein the Meiteis, by virtue of not being tribals are not allowed to settle in the hills but the tribals are allowed to settle in the valley area.

There is food for thought here, but yet at the same time, can't the State Government formulate a land law which can allow the Meiteis to settle in any part of Manipur, without the ST tag ?

No easy answer here, and the more reason to remind the Government of India that the status of ST and the perks and privileges that come along with the ST tag should not be a permanent arrangement.

Laying an even playing ground for everyone was the philosophy behind clubbing the people into ST, SC and the other benefits that came along with it.

Isn't 60 years long enough to have laid down the even playing field, is the question that ought to be raised now.