Location Of Ethnic Groups In Politicization Of Ethnicity
- Part 2 -

Siamchingthang Tungpa *

There are 60 territorial constituencies in the legislative assembly of Manipur, in which the plain region is divided into 40 constituencies and the hill region into 20. All the 20 hill constituencies are reserved for the scheduled tribes, while the rest are unreserved. The 20 hill constituencies virtually belong to the Nagas and the Kukis, and that of the plain region to the Meiteis with the exception of one or two by the Meitei-Muslims or Nepalis.

Therefore, if all the Meitei legislators come forward they can easily form a government.[v] The Nagas and the Kukis allege that they are under-represented in the legislative assembly, and little efforts have been made by the successive governments for the development of the hill region (see, Suan 2009). They contended that since hill region occupies 90 per cent of the land it shall get more constituencies.

Again, Manipur is landlocked practically without inland waterways and railways. It is connected to the rest of India by few highways, the narrow roads with sharp curve. The highway that passes through the adjacent state of Nagaland is Manipur's lifeline, its major link route to outside world. Other highways are very narrow roads. Almost all the essential goods such as fuel, food, petrol, diesel, and medicines are imported from outside. A large number of vehicles bring essential goods through these highways.

The Nagas and the Kukis used to impose frequent indefinite curfews along these highways to mount enough pressure to seek the redress of their grievances. The blockade of these highways has been the most common and effective method to put pressure to bear on the government, but affected the livelihoods of many people due to the acute shortages of essential goods.

It is useful, in this context, to recall the 52-day-long (June 19 to August 11, 2005) blockade of the main highway imposed by a student group in protest against the Manipur government's decision to declare June 18 as "State Integrity Day" in honor of 18 strikers killed while protesting against the extension of ceasefire between the Government of India and the NSCN-IM to Manipur. To provide relief to the people, the Indian Air Force was pressed into service to airlift medicines and other essential goods to Manipur from Guwahati, Assam's capital.

The Nagas demand for Nagaliim, Others Zo armed organization of the UPF demand AHS, and the KNO demand for Kukiland have the tactical support from the adjacent states of Nagaland and Mizoram. Manipur shares border with Nagaland on north, and Mizoram on south and south-west. The Zo peoples and the Nagas inhabit both sides of the border having close cultural affinities. The Naga movement first started in Assam's Naga Hills (today's Nagaland) in order to achieve an independent state of the Naga people (see, Das 2007).

It has spillover effect on Manipur since the former is the home of the largest component of Naga people outside Nagaland. When the British Raj decided to free India the Nagas had sought to set up a country, but they were integrated with India. In the early 1950s, the Naga intellectuals of Assam proposed to set up an administrative region comprising of Assam's Naga Hills and Tuensang Frontier Division of North-East Frontier Agency (today's Arunachal Pradesh).

The Government of India accepted the proposal, and Naga Hills-Tuensang Area came into existence in 1957. In 1963, it was elevated into a state of India known as Nagaland. But, many Nagas rejected Nagaland for not integrating other Naga-concentrated areas of Manipur, Assam, and Arunachal Pradesh to Nagaland. The "contiguous Naga inhabitations" fall into Nagaland, Manipur, Assam and Arunachal Pradesh (Shimray 2000: 3007). The Nagaland legislative assembly had also urged the Government of India to bring all the Nagas of India together into a single political entity. The Naga insurgents also wanted to bring all Nagas of India under a homeland known as Nagalim.

The integration of Naga-concentrated areas in Myanmar with those areas in India is not on their agenda at the moment (see, Chasie and Sanjoy 2009). Further, the two-decade long "Greater Mizoram" movement came to an end after Mizo (Lushai) Hills of Assam became the state of Mizoram in 1987. It has had a great influence on Zopeoples of Manipur since there wanted to unify Zo (Kuki-Chin-Mizo groups) of people inhabiting part of Manipur, Assam, Tripura, Chin Hills, of Myanmar, Chittagong Hill Tract of Bangladest and part of Mizoram (Suan 2009).

Many Zo young people from Manipur had joined the movement (Chaube 1999: 213), but the formation of Mizoram betrayed them (Kipgen 2006). But the Meiteis are against Nagalim and Kukiland or Autonomous Hill State because the Meitei kings had ruled the former kingdom of Manipur that extended to the hill areas (Zehol 1998 &Suan 2009). The Meiteis alleged Manipur is the homeland all the ethnic groups of Manipur. Hence, they are against its division.

Further, the majority of the Meiteis have been converted into Hinduism since the 18th century while the majority of Nagas and Zo peoples have also been converted into Christianity since the early part of 20th century. After embracing Hinduism, the Meiteis considered themselves as members of a higher status group, and considered others inferior people. Thus, the relationship gradually turned into a relationship characterized by subordination-super ordination, and inferiority-superiority (Saha 2005: 233-234).

Meiteilon is not only the language of the Meiteis, but is used for internal communication in the state. Since it is one of the 22 schedule languages of India, it has to be promoted by the government. Every state of India has one or more official languages, and being the principal language Meiteilon is Manipur's official language. The Meiteis wanted to consolidate the language and its written script. The written script, Meitei-Mayek, was replaced in 18th century by the Bengali script after the advent of Hinduism.

Down the line the Meiteis realized the blunder, and wanted to revive the script. After Manipur became a state of India in 1972, the Meiteis wanted the teaching of the language in the schools. In 1977, the legislative assembly of Manipur adopted a resolution to accord Meiteilon, in addition to English, as the official language of Manipur.

Thus, the Manipur Official Language Act, 1979 mandated "Manipuri language written in Bengali script" as the official language of the state. In 1983, the state government introduced Meiteilon as a compulsory subject in all schools in the state. In addition, the Meiteis wanted to substitute the Bengali script by the Meitei script. However, it has not been easy because the Bengali script has been in used for writing for more than 200 years.

The Meitei script was formally introduced in class I and II level from 2005. However, the Nagas and the Kukis have been accusing the government for trying to impose Meiteilon upon them. "The languages of the dominant non-tribals are being forcibly imposed upon the minority tribals. Manipur often witnesses a tug-of-war among dozens of tribal languages versus the dominant Meiteilon. The language problem in Manipur began during the early 1980s when the state government tried to introduce Meiteilon as a compulsory subject in class X. But the issue was settled by keeping Meiteilon as an option for the tribal in lieu of additional English or state's recognized tribal languages.

But the tussle continues with the insertion of Manipuri in the eighth schedule in 1992. The problem of language has immense political implications. The language problem in Manipur creates or worsens ethnic tension in the state" (Shimray 2000: 3007-08).

The Meiteis are in favor of lifting the restriction that debarred them from buying and owning land in the hill region which they as "discriminatory." But, the Nagas and the Kukis said that allowing the settlement of the Meiteis in the hill region would further marginalized them. Some Meitei groups have urged the Government of India to declare Manipur a "Hill State" and follow uniform laws throughout the state. They have also started mobilizing public opinion in favor of the recognition of Meiteis as scheduled tribe.

Concluded .....