Roadblocks in Manipur because of fight over land
Yesterday, Union Home Secretary G K Pillai met Manipur Chief Secretary D S Poonia and Nagaland Additional Chief Secretaries A Jamir and Toshi Aier to discuss possible solutions to the problem.
In the meantime, the Government of Manipur has issued an arrest warrant for blockade leaders. For Naga Tribals, the measure is a grave insult and an attempt to criminalise their demands.
Here is what Fr Walter Fernandes, director of the North Eastern Social Research Centre in Assam, had to say about the crisis.
The 3.5 million people of Manipur are divided into three main ethnic groups. The Meitei and related communities are around 60 per cent of the population, the Naga and the Chin-Kuki Tribals together represent about 34 per cent of the population, and the rest are 6 to 7 percent.”
The hill areas, where the tribal people live, account for 90 per cent of the state’s surface. That means that 60 per cent of the population lives on 10 percent of the land. They would also like to have more of it.
Manipur is divided into nine districts. The Meitei dominate two, the Naga three, the Kuki two and four others are mixed.
The immediate cause of the conflict is the ongoing controversy surrounding the elections to the Autonomous District Council. The Nagas have been demanding the application of the Sixth Schedule of the Indian constitution since the early 1980s, which allows for autonomous regions within states.
The Government of Manipur has accepted this demand “with local adjustments” but it has not responded to specific letters from the central government since 1991. The basic issue around the demand is land in the hill areas, which Manipur would like to open to people from the plains, and which the Nagas want to protect. However, this is never stated in public.
Under the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution, Naga land, which is central to their tribal identity, would be protected. However, the Naga and the Kuki-Mizo are split over the Sixth Schedule, which would allow for a highly autonomous district council.
The tribal areas also come under the Hill Areas Act, which the Manipur government has amended on three occasion since it came into force in 1971.
The Nagas feel that the law has watered down their rights; consequently, they have reacted by trying to stop the elections unless the provisions of the Sixth Schedule are fully implemented. Hence, their slogan: “No Sixth Schedule, no elections”. The state instead went ahead with elections under the terms of the Hill Areas Act.
The Government of Manipur is opposed to the Sixth Schedule for another reason, the fear of Naga integration.
The term Naga applies to about 26 tribes, half of them living in the neighbouring state of Nagaland. Others tribes live in Manipur, including the Tanghkul, the biggest Naga tribe to which Naga militant leader Mr Muivah belongs. Some Nagas also live in Arunachal Pradesh and Assam.
The Meitei fear that if full Naga autonomy is granted within Manipur, it might lead to Naga joining Nagaland, thus creating Nagalim, Grater Nagaland. On this possibility, the Chin-Kuki are ambiguous.
This is the background to the current controversy.
When the Manipur Government decided to go ahead with the elections for a watered down council, the Nagas and a section of the Kuki-Mizo opposed the move.
Manipur’s chief minister promised to negotiate on the Sixth Schedule issue after the elections but no one believed him. In retaliation, the All Naga Student Association of Manipur (ANSAM) imposed a blockade on Highway 39, a road that is the lifeline of Manipur.
The elections took place, but voting was extremely low in the three Naga dominated districts, high in two others and medium in the remaining two tribal districts.
The confusion was further compounded by Muivah’s decision of to visit his native village and the Manipur government’s refusal to allow him to go there.
He was offered a helicopter to fly in, but he refused and tried to enter Manipur by road at the Mao Gate state crossing. He was stopped and in the melee that followed two students died.
Adding more fuel to the controversy, the Naga Student Federation (NSF) in Kohima, the capital of Nagaland, decided to hold the organisation’s jubilee celebrations in Manipur.
Fearing trouble, the Manipur government threatened to arrest NSF leaders if they came, and issued a warrant for the arrest of ANSAM leaders.
In short, Muivah’s attempt to visit Manipur led to the blockade, which got Nagaland involved, this in turn diverted the attention from the main issue, namely council elections and the Sixth Schedule.
At this stage, it is important to find a compromise on the election issue. It is also necessary to address the ethnic problem and the land issue in Manipur as well as give the Sixth Schedule an interpretation that excludes greater Naga integration at the expense of Manipur. This way, the fears of the Government of Manipur can be put to rest.
The Sixth Schedule has to protect tribal land but it has to do without infringing on the rights of other communities.
Those who are trying to facilitate dialogue between ethnic communities have to deal first with the blockade and this immediate issue.
(Nirmala Carvalho contributed to the article)
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