ATSUM meets Union TA Minister, argues against ST demand
Source: The Sangai Express

Kangpokpi, November 19 2022: A team of the All Tribal Students' Union Manipur (ATSUM) met the Union Minister of Tribal Affairs today at Delhi and apprised him of why the Meitei community should not be given ST status.

The ATSUM team led by its president Paotinthang Lupheng and general secretary SR Andria called on Union Minister of Tribal Affairs, Arjun Munda at his official quarters at Tughlak road, New Delhi, and apprised him of the threat and insecurity felt by the tribal people of Manipur due to the alleged illogical and illegitimate demand of the STDCM for inclusion of Meetei/Meitei community in the Scheduled Tribes categories.

According to the ATSUM, the Union Minister after patiently hearing out the woes of the Manipur tribal student leaders assured the team that as the matter being 'Constitutional', it will be examined minutely before any decision is made.

The ATSUM team also reportedly submitted a memorandum to the Union Minister pointing out the valid reasons as to why the Meitei community should not be given ST status.

In the memorandum, ATSUM stated that in the event of the demand for inclusion of Meitei/Meetei Community in the ST category gaining momentum with most of the legislators from the valley including the Rajya Sabha MP openly declaring their support without taking into account the alleged irrationality of the demand and sentiments of the tribal community of the State, the ATSUM is constrained to remind you for perusal and intervention as the future of the tribal communities looks bleak and uncertain.

It continued that ATSUM, time and again, unequivocally expressed its stated position on the contested demand of the majority community as it posed serious threat to the land and existence of tribal people with the empirical reasoning that the Meetei/Meitei communities are an advanced community marked by 2000 years of civilization, unbroken lineage of kingship, superlative cultural advancement with its exquisite classical dances purportedly shown as the finest form of arts, Meitei Language (Manipuri) recognised under the Eight schedule of the Indian constitution, urban civilization for eons, participation and signing of international treaties with the British in 1762 AD and 1826 AD, academic advancement with high literacy rate.

The fact that the Meetei/Meitei community has done exceedingly well in the fields of technology, medical, engineering, sports and civil services under UPSC is indicative of their advancement, it added.

For instance, 15 students from the community cracked the NDA examination last year, two civil services this year and the bulk of MBBS successful students in the whole North-Eastern States came from the Meetei/Meitei community while it may be noted that all the State and Central higher educational institutes in Manipur are concentrated in the Meitei dominated valley districts, particularly Imphal East and Imphal West districts.

ATSUM also pointed out in its representation that recruitments conducted in all these institutions under Unreserved (UR) category are being filled up by the members of the Meitei community.

This is just one of the evidences to show that Meitei is an advanced community rather than "backward", it added.

It also stated that presently, the ST of Manipur has 31% reservation in all State Government services.

If the advanced Meitei community is recognised as ST by the Government, all the seats reserved for ST in the present will be occupied by the Meiteis, it added.

It further stated that despite being already availing the reservations from SC and OBC categories, the Meiteis are insisting for inclusion in ST category with a sole objective of grasping the benefits presently reserved for the hill tribes.

It may be recalled that the entry of the Meena community of Rajasthan into the ST category has seriously dented the prospect of other aspirants from the tribal community of India within the purview of UPSC, SSC and other equivalent examinations under the Government of India with them reaping the maximum benefits and the others in trickles.

And if the Meetei/Meitei community who are far advanced than the Meena community are incorporated, it will definitely spell a collective doom for the whole tribal community of India and Manipur in particular, it added.

It is a well known fact that the Meitei/Meetei community, a majority in the State of Manipur categorised as General, Scheduled Caste and Other Backward Classes is excelling and commanding in all aspects of life.

Besides Government jobs, their districts are far ahead of other districts in the whole Northeast India, it further added.

ATSUM also included the CDI value and rank in districtwise over infrastructural development index of districts of Manipur (2009), and registered Industrial units, investment and production (2005-2006) tally.

It then stated that ATSUM, as an apex hill based tribal students' organisation living in the State of Manipur, is duty bound to share its opinion and displeasure over the ill-conceived demand of the STDCM for granting of ST status to the Meeteis who have been living at par with the rest of the privileged section of societies in all spheres of lives for the past 75 years of independence.

The illogical claim that the Meeteis fulfilled all the criterion to become a Schedule Tribe on the basis of Mongoloid race and prevalence of distinctive religion and culture is irrational on the ground that any community big or small practice some form of religion and posses a unique culture of their own.

In other words, having religion or separate culture doesn't necessarily mean or constitute the prime reason to include a particular community in the list of Schedule Tribe, it added.

It also stated that in the Constitution of India, no criteria has been spelt out for specification of a community as a Scheduled Tribe.

However, taking into account the definitions in a 1931 census and the reports of the First Backward Classes Commission 1955, the advisory committee on revision of ST/SC 1967 and basically basing on Article 342 of the Constitution, the following criteria are followed for specification of a community as a Scheduled Tribe - indication of primitive traits; distinctive culture; geographical isolation; shyness of contact with the community at large; and backwardness, it added.

The Scheduled Tribes are the tribes or tribal communities or part of groups within these tribes and tribal communities which have been declared as such by the President through a public notification partly by habitat and geographical isolation but even more on the basis of social, religion, linguistic and cultural distinctiveness - their tribal characteristics.

Scheduled Tribes are spread across the country mainly in the forest and hilly regions segregated from the rest of the world socially and economically, it further added.

It is worth mentioning that during a debate in the constituent assembly, Dr Ambedkar, the Chairman of the drafting committee was very particular about the word Schedule to be used before the 'tribe and the caste' to mean the 'selected or the chosen ones'.

Thus in the context of India, Scheduled group/tribe means the selected tribes for protective discrimination to be valid for 10 years after the promulgation of the Constitution of India.

But since the scheduled group couldn't come up at par with the rest of the citizens in all spheres of lives, protective discrimination continues even after sixty years of independence.

It is quite obvious that the plain people viz Meetei/Meitei were included in the general category of the people by the Central Government due to the simple fact that the Meiteis have superseded the component characteristic of a tribe, the ATSUM representation added.

It further stated that in the course of a continuous process of civilization for over a period of 2000 years dating back from 33 AD, the Meiteis have abandoned/discarded their primitive cultural traits from being tribal to general, from rural or urbanization, economic backwardness to economically advanced people in the valley of the 'golden kingdom'.

Therefore, the empirical points of arguments and the modalities for deciding claims for inclusion of the Meities in the Scheduled Tribe category involves rational philosophy to ascertain that the proposals are based on the broad criterion such as - way of living, social custom and religious practices, dialect, and educational and economic Status.

While analyzing the above the criteria, it should be noted that the tribes in India are tribes in transition.

The criterion of backwardness remains as the main criterion.

The relative backwardness of a community as compared to the society at large and other communities in the area has therefore to be judged.

Such data should inter-alia include the data on representation of the community in the Govemment/public sectors services, political institutions like Parliament, State Assemblies and local bodies, it stated.

It also stated that the social divide between the people of the hills and valley and the derogatory name given to the tribas of Manipur by the Meeteis as 'Haos' besides social segregation as untouchables to the Hill men/tribal is an established fact that the Meeteis have crossed several phase of civilisation to the mainstream of modernity.

Since time immemorial, the hills-valley divide has been a major theme in understanding the ethnic relations in India's Northeastern State of Manipur.

The hills nestle numerous historical communities, also known in India's Constitutional discourse as 'tribe'.

Generally speaking, the hill people are understood as Scheduled Tribe for their primitive characteristic, topographical isolation and economic backwardness while Meiteis/Meeteis of the Manipur valley are undeniably the upper class society occupying the highest status in the social strata of Manipur since time immemorial.

ATSUM also stated in the memorandum that the land of the tribal indigenous peoples in the hills of Manipur is protected by the constitutional provisions which restricted purchase of land in the hills by non-tribal people, including the Meiteis and the demand for ST status by the Meitei now, 70 years after the Constitution of India made provision for Scheduled Tribes, is only a nefarious policy to gain constitutional means to grab the lands of the tribal people in the hills.

"In the light of the above facts and circumstances, the tribal people of the State apprised you to help prevent inclusion of Meitei/Meetei as Scheduled Tribe in the Constitution of India," it stated and added that the recognition of Meitei/Meetei as Scheduled Tribe will not only sound a dead knell to the constitutional protection given to hill people of Manipur but also have far reaching negative social impact on all the tribal communities in other parts of the country and it will be a contempt for the democratic principles of justice and equality, the foundations on which this great country is built upon.

As such, this illogical and illegitimate demand has to be prevented at all cost, it added.

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