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Manipur riots: The chilling methods in the madness

The ground for these riots was set by increasing, seemingly concerted attempts both by the state government and valley-based civil society organisations

kham khan suan hansing writes on manipur violence and the ethnic faultlines in imphal

Charred remains of a vehicle that was set ablaze after violence broke out in Imphal on Thursday. (PTI)

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The large-scale communal riots that have spread like wildfire in Manipur since May 3 are deeply disturbing and have exposed the collapse of law and order in the state. The immediate spark for the violence was provided by the retaliatory destruction of the Anglo-Kuki War Memorial Gate in Leisang and razing of Vaiphei houses in Kangvai village by Meitei mobs following the beating up of a Meitei driver whose tripper truck hit a bike and ran over a stock of water bottles kept for use by peaceful tribal protestors in Lamka on the same day. However, these riots seem to follow an established pattern witnessed in other parts of India. This pattern follows what Paul Brass calls an “institutionalised riot system” (IRS), wherein riots are prepared, activated and sustained with explanatory justifications.

Brass argued that far from being unpredictable, unpreventable and spontaneous, Hindu-Muslim riots are manufactured and sustained by an institutional ecosystem. If early reports about the riots in Manipur are any indication, it could fit as a textbook case of Brass’s IRS.

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To put matters into perspective, the preparatory ground for these riots was set by increasing, seemingly concerted attempts both by the state government and valley-based civil society organisations (CSOs) to dilute the intra-state constitutional asymmetry under Article 371C and undermine the historical protection for tribal land rights. After several attempts to extend the Manipur Land Revenue and Land Reforms Act, 1961 (MLR&LR Act) to the hill areas, a controversial Bill (along with two others) was introduced by the state in 2015 to amend this law. These Bills precipitated an unprecedented tribal uprising. The death of nine tribal protestors — including seven killed in police firing — was seen as the reason to protest for over 632 days to negotiate more secure tribal land rights, without much success. However, tribal dead bodies were used as “symbolic martyrs” and became a powerful rallying force around which tribal unity and solidarity were weaved.

This was transient and exploited by the state government to divide and rule over tribal factions, some of whom were co-opted by the state to perpetuate a series of developmental and land-related policies which have a direct bearing on existing tribal land rights. The declaration of large swathes of land in Kuki-Zomi-Hmar inhabited areas in Southern Manipur as Reserved Forest (RF), Protected Forest (PF), Wildlife Sanctuary (WS), and Wetlands without following established procedures and the aggressive drive by the state to evict the tribals as illegal encroachers had antagonised them to no end. A series of evictions took place in the past couple of months and several villages in the hills and churches in Imphal were razed to the ground. The manner in which three churches were razed to the ground before sunrise, allegedly without following established law and procedure after the Manipur High Court (HC) dismissed the appeal against the state’s refusal to regularise their dak chitha (land document), was seen as “lawless law enforcement”.

In all of this, it became apparent that existing asymmetrical institutions like the District Councils and the Hill Areas Committee (HAC), mandated under Article 371C of the Indian Constitution to protect tribal rights and interests, were rendered toothless. In fact, the recent resolutions by the HAC which tried to negate any action of the state to declare areas as RF, PF, and WS, without its input, and its displeasure over the HC order asking the state cabinet to clarify its position on the Meitei demand for Scheduled Tribe status within four weeks to the Union Ministry of Tribal Affairs invited condemnation from various Meitei CSOs.

As civil society groups, both in the hills and valley, became more vocal and aggressive to push their radicalised communal agenda, they opened up new sites of conflict. Social media is a powerful platform where hardened positions from both sides were relayed live, with communal overtones. The live display of protests on platforms, ill-informed media reports where tribals are branded as “illegal immigrants” and “encroachers”, regular media debates organized around contentious issues like the demand for tribal land protection and the Meitei ST demand, and coercive handling by the police of tribal protests have aroused communal passions and provided ammunition to both sides. These have, over time, sowed the seed of hatred. The institutional ecosystem of hate that activates and sustains riots could not be starker if one were to make a longitudinal comparison of the tweets of influential leaders with those of valley-based social media warriors. Their positions seem indistinguishable.

There are no visible signs of immediate closure. The seeming leeway given to ragtag mobs in the valley to violently target and indulge in extensive arson of tribal houses and churches in various localities is galling. That no Kuki-Zomi is longer safe becomes evident as the houses of high-ranking tribal leaders — including Letpao Haokip, Tribal Affairs Minister and V Hangkhanlian, a former minister — have been torched. The unprecedented targeting and vandalisation of tribals’ properties in Manipur University where ragtag mobs reportedly entered women’s hostels and the inability of the university administration to protect tribals demonstrate the precarity of tribal lives and properties. Unleashing the same mobs in tribal areas to target and raze Meitei settlements to the ground is bound to be used conveniently by what Brass calls riot “conversion specialists”.

For now, there are indications that the methods in this madness remain confined to what is called in civil war literature as “ethnic cleansing” — creating fear, and sanitization of mixed populated areas to establish ethnic homogeneity.

Given that the state police is already deeply communalised, the law and order machinery cannot be invested in them. The imposition of President’s Rule and sufficient deployment of the army seems to be the only plausible way to restore law and order for now. While the restoration of law and order may be the immediate need of the hour to foreclose impending human tragedy, the hardened positions taken by both the hill tribals and valley communities will need a shifting of constitutional gears to accommodate their distinctive aspirations.

Manipur riots: The chilling methods in the madness

The ground for these riots was set by increasing, seemingly concerted attempts both by the state government and valley-based civil society organisations

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