What Do You Think, When Will Normalcy Return In Manipur?

“Manipur has been broken into two different countries”, said my co traveller as we boarded the flight to Imphal. Our friend, a development practitioner, was waiting for us in the Imphal airport. We moved out of the airport in his car towards Bishnupur. It was my maiden trip to Manipur. On the way we spotted ‘Malom bus stop’. Malom reminded me of the infamous Malom massacre where ten civilians were killed and which had led Irom Sharmila to go for fast unto death as her protest against AFSPA. Irom, who was arrested and forcefully fed in custody, had broken her fast after 16 years to further take the issue of AFSPA in the legislative assembly. Her dreams were shattered when she had received only 90 votes in 2017 Manipur assembly elections.

As our car furthered towards Bishnupur, multiple images of Manipur from my secondary memory slipped over to my primary, the editorial written by Arundhati Roy in a leading daily comparing the fast unto death protest of Irom to the eighteen day spectacle of Anna Hazare, the image of Irom reading Che Guevara’s ‘Motorcycle Diaries’ when Anubha Bhonsle had met her in hospital, the case of Thangjam Manoroma who was raped and killed by firing six bullets in her vagina in 2004, the allegation by Assam Rifles that Manoroma draped in a Sarong had tried to flee from their custody on their way to police station and an entire platoon had failed to match up her pace of feeling in a Phenek and hence had resorted to firing sixteen bulltes, mothers’ protest at Kangla Fort, Kishlay Bhattacharjee coming across the Che Guevara T-shirts in Paona Bazaar and his interaction with Manipuri youths in the market and my personal stint of association with Save Sharmila Campaign during my college days.

But in the tenure of the last one year, the primary issue in Manipur has been the ongoing armed conflict between Meitei and Kuki-Zo communities which had broken on May 3rd, 2023. On 14th April, 2023, Manipur High Court had passed an order asking the State Government to send a recommendation to the Central Government to grant ST status to Meities living in the valleys. Kuki-Zo communities protested granting ST status to Meities whose population in the state is around 51%. They alleged that granting ST status to Meities will allow them to buy lands in hills under Schedule 5th of the Indian Constitution and conducted peaceful protests against the High Court order. But violence had erupted in the Meitei dominated Bishnupir district and Kuki-Zo dominated Churachandpur districts leading to trails of murders, rapes and arson. As per state data, 221 persons have been killed, 60000 displaced, 5000 houses burnt and 400 religious structures including churches and temples demolished till date.

Bishnupur- now an exclusive Meitei land.

Our car stopped in front of an NGO office in Bishnupur. We met an NGO worker there. “It has been over a year now, I have not met my friends. Trying to meet my Kuki-Zo friends now will endanger the lives of my family members. If I mistakenly cross over to the Kuki-Zo area, I will be killed”, he said. After a brief chit chat on the prevailing conditions of relief camps in the region, we headed towards a relief camp in Bishnupur.

We crossed the Lok-Tak lake while moving towards the relief camp. “Lok-Tak has been witnessing a surge in crowds since May 2023. Meitei people of this region, who previously used to visit hills on holidays, have resorted to visiting Lok-Tak lake nowadays”, said our guide. I asked him what would happen if he tried visiting hills now, “I will be killed. If any Kuki ventures inside our Meitei area, she would be killed by the local committees and vice versa”.

We stopped at the gate of a relief camp (Takamu Water Sports Camp). It was a tourist attraction beneath the Lok-Tak lake now turned to a relief camp. It was housing 145 IDP Meitei families and a population of over 200 children. The relief camp had concrete structures housing the displaced families. Children in school uniforms were seen in and around the campus. The food is being cooked in the community kitchens within the campus.

Ibobi approached us wearing a cap with ‘Hello Democracy’ written on it. He asked us to look at the cracks in the walls of the concrete structure where he and his family have been living. I asked him what he used to do before the conflict broke and how he spends his days now? “I have 100 Bighas of land in my village. I had to leave them off and run here on May 3rd last year. Since then I have been spending my days without any specific work. I don’t have a job. We are provided meals and basic medicines, and my children are admitted to the nearby government school. But I don’t even have 10 Rs cash in my pocket. I don’t know when I will be able to go back to my village”, Ibobi said.

“Adults are mentally stressed. Looming uncertainties, lack of income, exhausting savings have been taking a toll on their mental health”, said our Guide as we walked through the relief camp. Angom Prem Kumar, a 36 year IDP had died by suicide on 7th July, 2024, in a relief camp at Bishnupur district. He was originally a resident of Kuki-Zo dominated Chruchandpur district and used to work as a daily wager, displaced during the violence. On 10th July, 2024, another person of the relief camp we were in had tried to attempt suicide to be later saved by other dwellers.

We approached a few mothers to have a group discussion with us on the mental health issues children in relief camps have been facing. “My child suddenly wakes up from sleep at night and starts to run while screaming”, said a mother of a 7 year old. “My child is scared of being alone even for a minute. She would run out of places where she is alone. This compromises her study time as I have multiple chores to do and hence cannot sit with her while she is supposed to study”, said a mother of a 12 year old. “The other day a resident of the camp was watching some film on his mobile phone. Sounds of bullets were heard from the film. My child got terrified hearing these sounds. I had to spend a lot of time consoling her”, said a mother of a 9 year old.

We also met Tama Devi, mother of a 1 year old child. 9 month pregnant Tama and her family had to flee their village on 3rd May, 2023 and she delivered her child on 6th May, 2023. The child was delivered in a government hospital at Imphal.

From the relief camp we headed towards Sardar Patel Government High School, Bishnupur where multiple IDP children were admitted after they were shifted to the relief camps. I asked the teachers of the school on challenges IDP children have been facing in the school. “Children are mentally very disturbed. They are not attentive during the classes and cry if we speak to them a bit sternly”, said a teacher. “Children used to study English as their medium of instruction previously in the Kuki-Zo dominated areas. After the violence they have shifted to ‘this side’. Heere the medium of instruction in most of the government schools is the Manipuri language with its distinctive script. Children are facing a lot of challenges to suddenly cope up with the new script”, said another teacher of the school.

We moved out of the school and headed towards the ‘other country’ (as my co-traveller claimed). On our way our guide drove us through the Meitei villages. “What do you think, when will normalcy return?”I asked our guide. “I don’t think it will ever return. We constitute a large section of the population in Manipur but our land holding is less than 10%. This is the reason we deserve lands in hills which are presently occupied by Kukis. Until we get justice, normalcy will hardly return in the state”.

(A Meitei song plays in the car)

Our guide had dropped us till Kwakta village. “I can’t go ahead of this point or else ‘they’ will kill me. The road ahead takes you to the Kuki-Zo areas”, said our guide. We had crossed multiple checkpoints of Meitei ‘village defenders’ guarded by sand filled sacks to Kwakta village.

Kwakta village- now a buffer zone

Kwakta village is dominated by the Meitei Muslim population called Meitei Pangals. This village has drawn a border between the Meitei dominated Bishnupur district and the Kuki-Zo dominated Churachandpur district. It is a buffer zone between both the conflicting communities. Though Kuki-Zo people are not allowed to venture into this territory, Meitei Muslim people can travel to the Kuki-Zo areas. This is the last point till which Meitei people are allowed.

We booked an auto from Kwakta village to the border to Churachandpur village. On our way I asked the auto driver, a Meitei Muslim man, “What do you think, when will normalcy return?”. “The leaders need to sit together and point this out. But for the time being the situations on both sides are grim. No community is willing to sit for talks”, replied our auto driver.

We traveled through the village. Settlements in the village were constructed around the Masjids. We crossed a number of shops and halal marked restaurants to reach the border of Churachandpur district.

6 checkpoints of the Indian military welcomed us at the border. As we moved from one checkpoint to the other, furnishing our documents and answering the questions posed by the security personnel, we saw remains of burnt vehicles, burnt, ransacked and demolished houses and closed schools.

Our auto driver took aur through the checkpoints after we made entries of our names, purpose of visit and phone numbers in the registers of the security forces. He had dropped us to the border of Churachandpur district.

Churachandpur - now an exclusive Kuki-Zo land

On the border of Churachandpur district, we were greeted by the Indigenous Tribal Leaders Forum (ITLF) checkposts. Our IDs were thoroughly checked and after recording our names, phone numbers and purpose of visit, we were let go after donating some amount of cash for their ‘community works’. A friend from an NGO in Churachandpur was waiting to pick us up in his car.

“You people are so lucky. You can move around freely. It’s been more than a year since I have not visited Imphal. I have no idea if I will ever be able to visit Imphal again”, said our friend as he drove us through the Kuki-Zo dominated villages. (A hard rock English song plays in the car)

We were in the area a day after the 12 hour shutdown that was called and enacted by an apex body of Kukis, Kuki Inpi Manipur (KIM). The shutdown was called in protest of police action  against 5 Kuki youths on 9th July, 2024 who had been protecting their villages in Tamenglong and Kangpokpi districts. The Kuki civil society organizations had alleged that the state police is allowing a free hand to the members of Arambai Tenggol, a Meitei insurgent group while cracking down on Kuki victims who have been protecting their villages. It has also been alleged that members of Arambai Tenggol roam around the city of Imphal openly with guns without any action by the security forces.

We passed across the wall of remembrance, that has been enacted in the heart of Churachandpur district, as a memorial of the slain Kukis in this conflict.

“This part of the state has been totally cut off. Meteis have prohibited plying of trucks and vehicles carrying groceries and petroleum to Churachandpur. For a mere requirement we need to travel for 20 hours to Aizawl. The district no longer has an administration. One of our team members had bought a scooty last year, it's been more than a year and the scooty is not registered yet as the District Transport Officer is not available. The collector and the SP lives in Imphal and never shows here. Another team member has lost her mother during the conflict as there was no dialysis technician in the hospital. Her mother was a kidney patient," said an NGO worker.

In February 2024, a mob had charred down the collector office in Churachandpur district following an altercation between the protesting mob and the district authorities. The district authorities had fired on the mod claiming two lives and injuring a dozen. The mob was protesting near the collector office upon the suspension of a Kuki policeman. It was alleged that the Kuki policeman had posted a photograph of himself holding a gun while guarding his village as a ‘frontline defender’.

“What do you think, when will normalcy return?”, I asked an NGO worker. “It will not return in our lifetime. I feel very happy and content that I don’t have to see those valley people anymore”, he replied.

A civil society leader said, “I agree that people on both sides have been suffering. But, the magnitude of suffering on the side of Kukis has been much larger than the other side. There are so many women I know who had to flee when they were 9 months pregnant and had to deliver babies in jungles. They just had a half liter bottle of water with them then. How can one compare our plight with the ones who have captured the facilities of capital Imphal? The state has been highly biased towards them whereas our region is stateless. The collector is claiming that people in relief camps have reduced and has reduced the ration for relief camps, but it is not true. Had the church not supported us, our people would have starved to death by now. They have been alleging us to be poppy cultivators. Kuki laborers get 400 INR per day as their daily wage. They are forced to cultivate by Metei militant groups. The poppy is further processed into Cocaine and Heroin by the Meities and sold for exorbitant profits”.

The next morning we headed towards a relief camp in Churachandpur district. The camp was stationed in an under construction university campus. It was housing more than 500 people, 300 of them being children. Tarpaulin was used to make rooms for dwellers in the building. The toilet was around 2 kilometers away from the building. Some NGO have installed 3 make-shift washrooms in close vicinity for people to use during emergencies.

Jacob, an IDP said, “We are not provided enough rice for food by the district administration. We have somehow managed our children to attend schools. Some of them are attending government schools and some private schools. There is no school in the close vicinity of this camp. Back in our homes, our fields have been captured. We just want to go back to our native villages”.

Likewise we did in the relief camp at Bishnupur, here too we approached a few mothers to hold a discussion on the issue of mental health impacts of children. “Last christmas, someone nearby to the camp we were living in burst crackers. My child was so scared. He ran away like anything”, said a mother of a 9 year old child. “We had run away from our village last year before they could reach us. So, our children had not witnessed any violence”, said a mother of 3 children. “My child is always sad since last year and breaks down on any small instance of heartbreak. She has been asking me to take her back home”, said a mother of a 12 year old child.

We met Jenny, a 55 year old lady. She was looking after a 9 month old infant. The mother of the infant, Jenny’s daughter-in-law has passed away after giving birth to the child in kidney failure as she could not get a dialysis facility in the district hospital. Jenny’s son has been a ‘frontline defender’ in his village.

“Frontline defenders are village guards managed by the local Kuki committees”, said an NGO worker. She further said, “People with disabilities are the worst sufferers. Imagine carrying a disabled person in your shoulder while running for life through rugged terrains of jungles. In a camp of only 14 families, 8 families have members with severe disabilities.”

From the camp we headed towards a community school for IDP children run by Kuki Students Organization (KSO). It was a day of parents meeting in the school. The teachers of the school were busy distributing new school uniforms and books to children. “We have no government support. We have managed these new uniforms by donations from churches. We have talked to government and private schools to accommodate Kuki IDP children free of cost. The private schools have been now unable to accommodate these children free of cost as they are running out of money to pay their teachers. We don’t teach Manipuri language anymore here. Our school is an English medium school and we teach Hindi as a subject to children.”

We headed further to a government school. Half of the building in the government school has been turned into a relief camp. Teachers were conducting 5 classes (Grade 1 to 5) in two classrooms. “Children had not yet coped up with covid-19 induced school closure and now again their education is being adversely affected by this ongoing conflict. It has been just two months since we have started schooling in this building. Prior to it, we were using the adjacent church compound for conducting classes as the entire school building was turned to a relief camp. Children come from marginalized sections and as their parents are in financial distress, they tend to vent out their frustration on children. As a result, many IDP children hardly participate during the classes”. As we were moving out of the school campus, the teacher called us back and said, “Don’t mention my or the school’s name anywhere. The state administration is very vindictive towards our community, hence mentioning my name would invite troubles for me”.

As we headed out of Churachandpur, we met a leader of the World Kuki-Zo Intellectual Council. He has attributed this conflict to a State-Centre nexus for handing over the oil resources discovered in hills to Jubiliant Oil and Gas Private Limited. He has further added that they demand a Union Territory status for the Kuki-Zo dominated areas. I asked him whether UT status would give more power to the center for handing over the oil resources? He did not answer.

Fast Forward

It is a myth that normalcy is returning to Manipur. The conflicting communities have been in no mood for peace negotiations. The areas dominated by Meities and Kuki-Zos have snapped its connections with each other. Presently the only mode of transport from Imphal to Guwahati for Meities is flight as buses ply from the Kuki-Zo dominated areas. The Kuki-Zos of Churachandpur have to travel to Aizwal to get basic supplies. The apathy of the state government towards the Kuki-Zo dominated areas has been fueling a strong feeling of resentment. It is high time that the state government strengthens its civil administration in the Kuki-Zo dominated areas so that the faith in the state administration is restored. Both communities are grappling with financial insecurities and utter price rise of basic commodities. The daily wagers, street vendors, businessmen, domestic workers are all on the same boat of looming insecurities. Children are the worst victims of this ongoing conflict.It is also of utmost importance that mental health facilities for both adult and children IDPs are initiated in relief camps.

It has been alleged by members of both communities that NSCN has been selling arms to both sides. United Naga Council had released a statement in February 2024 warning both the communities to not drag Nagas in their conflict while maintaining a neutral stand on this conflict. In July 22,2024, as per a press release issued by the Government of the People's Republic of Nagalim, NSCN has moved from its neutral stand regarding this conflict and has urged Arambai Tenggol to stop atrocities on Christians of the region.

As we moved towards Imphal airport in Tadobi’s, an entrepreneur from Imphal, car, he said, “We local businessmen are worst affected. We don’t have much capital like the big Hindi-speaking traders community. Hence, we are unable to compete with them in terms of price of commodities in the Imphal market. “What do you think, when will normalcy return?”I asked him. “Manipur has been witness to multiple conflicts. The Nagas and Kuki-Zos were fighting each other in the early 90s. We, the Meitei community, had played a great role in building peace between these communities. Normalcy is bound to return, but it will take time, maybe a decade or a lifetime, I can’t say.” (A Hindi song plays in the car).

(Names of persons have been changed to protect their identities)