Preventing Kukinisation
- The People's Chronicle Editorial :: October 14, 2023 -

We may have said earlier that talking of the war currently being fought between Israel and Palestine in faraway Middle East is not going to make much sense to anyone living in the strife-torn northeastern Indian state of Manipur with the exception of Bnei Menashe, a section of the Kuki-Mizo-Chin tribe who considered themselves to be one of the ten lost tribes of Israel.

As Manipur has been roiled by an unprecedented ethnic conflict that broke out between the Meitei/Meetei and Kuki-Chin communities for more than five months now, people living in the tiny state have their own issues to deal with and clean up the mess they have created before they could afford to talk about the decades old Israel-Palestine conflict which has now become a full-blown war after Hamas, a militant group fighting for the cause of Palestine, launched a multi-pronged launched attack on Israel in the early morning of October 7 and the Israeli troops responded with even more fury.

Even if the war between Israel and Palestine is the talking point everywhere today, we are here not to pass judgement as to who is right and who is wrong in this war, nor to show support or condemn any side.

As a matter of fact, war or bloody confrontation in any form is bad for everyone, and who could know this better than the people of Manipur who are currently grappling with loss of life in terms of hundreds, displacement of thousands of families, destruction of private and public properties and disruption of economic activities.

It would be hard for the resource-starved state to come out from the ruins of the now over five-months long ethnic conflict that is being stoked by elements which are inimical to the idea of Manipur as a home to numerous communities who are inter-dependent on each other for existing since time immemorial.

Having said this, we could not help but point out some lessons that the people of Manipur could learn from the history of Israeli-Palestinian conflict that traces back to the late 19th century when Zionists started a movement to seek establishment of a homeland for the Jewish people, who were scattered around the world, in the then Ottoman-controlled Palestine and how the Israelites slowly took control of the Palestinian territories one after another.

Ever since Israel was established at the expense of the inhabitants of Palestine and uprooted three-quarters of a million of them in 1948, successive Israeli governments have changed the Arabic names of cities, towns, roads and other places across the occupied land and imposed Hebrew versions.

The Hebraization process has been encouraged to strengthen the connection of jews, most of whom had immigrated in recent decades, with the land. This tactic of changing the original names of places had been successfully employed by the Kuki-Chin people during the Naga-Kuki clashes in 1993 and attempts are being made to replicate the same in the current conflict after chasing out Meiteis/Meeteis from their settlements in Churachandpur district and the border of Moreh in Tengnoupal district.

Though none of the displaced Naga people have been able to go back and resettle in their original places in Moreh and other places whose names too have been changed today, may be due to failure of the then government to see the implication; it is heartening to note that the current dispensation has not lose sight of the intention behind Kukinisation of the original names of districts, places and institutions and given warning of prosecution under the relevant law of the land in case anyone acted otherwise.

Along with ensuring the original names of places are not changed randomly on ethic lines and beliefs, the Government of Manipur should also see to it that the displaced people are made to resettle in their original places of settlement at the earliest possible so as to prevent re-enactment of Israeli occupation of Palestinian land on the soil of Manipur.