Manipur: a Year on, Thousands of Lives Disrupted but the Conflict Continues

In October, 2023, a chargesheet filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation revealed that women who were paraded naked in Manipur to the mob were allegedly driven by the police. This latest news report comes as the ethnic conflict in Manipur completes a year, with no resolution seemingly in sight. The conflict has left over 200 people dead and 70,000 displaced Manipuris. 

As per the report, three women had sought for help from the police on May 4 a day of violence first broke out in the state but they were reportedly left to the mob, as per NDTV. The state has been rife with violence the whole year and continues to be very much still in turmoil. The conflict has left over displaced 40,000 Manipuris forced to live in makeshift, and ethnically divided, relief camps. 

The conflict started in May last year when violence erupted after Kuki-Zo communities protested against the demand for Scheduled Tribe status for the Meitei community. The Meiteis had also been demanding for a National Registry of Citizens in the state. The two ethnic groups form the majority of the population of the state, with Meiteis constituting 51 % of the population. Meiteis are noted to have a larger share in the state’s legislative assembly and are considered to wield more political influence in the state, according to The Wire. Interestingly, January witnessed the state government forming an all-tribe panel to decide the fate of the ST status for the Kuki population. 

Today the state seems to have transformed into a militarised zone, from what it seems and reportedly stands divided. There are ethnically divided area-wise checkpoints by the police and also with militants standing guard and barring entry, restricting entry from the hill to the valley areas. The Lok Sabha polling process also saw violence at the poll booths allegedly by the Arambai Tengol, a radical Meitei group, which led to many Kuki bodies saying that they would boycott the polls. Two persons were also killed a few days before polling took place in the state on April 19. 

Manipur also faced one of the worlds’ longest internet bans in 2023 when the Indian government implemented an internet shutdown that extended for more than 5,000 hours over the course of the year. In September 2023, after visiting Manipur, doctors from the Indian Doctors for Peace and Development (IDPD) held a press conference in Delhi highlighting that the internet ban prevented crucial medical assistance from reaching affected people. Similarly, the people living in relief camps still find it unsafe to reach their homes, despite a year of the conflict. They live in difficult conditions where food is meagre and medicinal supplies are highly low. 

Even as the chief minister claimed in March 2024 that peace is “gradually” returning to the state, news has recently arrived on May 2nd of a 41 year old woman named Umarani being shot dead in the state’s Bishnupur region. The CM has repeated his focus on the issues of ‘illegal migration’ in recent times. He has even shared a video on April 29 on his timeline, in which the video cautions viewers about illegal immigration in the state since 1967. Shockingly the video also states that the population of ‘Chin Kuki Zo’ has seen an ‘unprecedented surge.’ 

*Unnatural growth of 996 New Villages Due to Illegal Immigration: Threat to Indigenous People and National Security*

Will anyone accept the unnatural growth of new villages and population, causing massive changes to the demography in their own state or country due to the influx… pic.twitter.com/k1lU4Pba7l

— N.Biren Singh (Modi Ka Parivar) (@NBirenSingh) April 29, 2024

Chief Minister N Biren Singh has been criticised by observers for how he has handled the crisis in the state. Interestingly, the Assam Rifles, a centrally administered paramilitary force, released in a report Singh had stoked the flames of conflict in the state. The Rifles stated that the violence in the state was due to the CM’s “political authoritarianism and ambition”, according to Mint. As the polling continues in the rest of the country as normal, the people of Manipur continue to suffer a year on with displacement, hunger, and violence. .