“Give the dog a bad name and hang him!” by MT Kuki

 The Use of Labelling as a Weapon in the Meitei-Kuki Clash for Tribal Land (By M.T. Kuki)

“Give the dog a bad name and hang him!” 

The recent ethnic pogrom unleashed upon the tribal Kukis by the majority Meiteis in Manipur is a culmination of the sustained demonization and labelling of Kukis as “non-indigenous, refugees/ illegal immigrants, poppy planters/ drug dealers, narco-terrorists, etc.” Labelling theory in Sociology posits that people become “deviant” as a result of others forcing that identity upon them. According to sociologist Howard S. Becker, (1963:9), “the deviant is one to whom that label has successfully been applied…”  The Kukis, unfortunately, have “successfully” been labelled everything that is bad and undesirable and the recent ethnic violence has to be seen from this optics.

Manipur is inhabited by three main ethnic groups, viz. the Meiteis in the valley, and the Naga and Kuki tribes in the hills. After the Shillong Accord of 1975, NSCN-IM emerged as the frontal Naga organisation demanding integration of all Naga-inhabited areas of neighbouring states into a Greater Nagaland. The Kukis, on the other hand, had no such political ambition and were contented being a part of Manipur. In the early 1990s, the NSCN-IM carried out a pogrom against the Kukis in areas adjacent to Naga-majority areas and hence the seeds of Kuki-Naga enmity and distrust was sown. As such, whenever there were indications that the Indo-Naga Talks were likely to be finalised, all of Manipur rose up to proclaim, “Manipur kaaiba yaroi (Manipur cannot be broken up)!” and the Kukis were invariably the ones standing side-by-side with their Meitei brethren to protect the territorial integrity of Manipur.  For the Meitei-Kuki combine, the Nagas were the common enemy at that point of time.

However, the situation turned upside-down when Mr. Biren Singh, who has always been a Kuki-baiter, became Chief Minister of Manipur following the 2017 assembly elections. Around this time, one Haomee Federation was formed by an unlikely alliance of Meiteis and Nagas and right from inception, this organisation started its hate campaign against the Kukis by labelling them as “refugees/ illegal immigrants/ non-indigenous.” In its 1st Indigenous People’s Assembly dated 5th August, 2022, it declared 25 ethnic communities as the “First Settler/Aborigines/Indigenous and Native People of Manipur.” These 25 communities are: Anal, Aimol, Chiru, Chothe, Inpui, Lamkang, Liangmei, Kabui, Kharam, Khoibu, Kom, Koireng, Maring, Mao, Maram, Meetei, Monsang, Moyon, Paomei, Purum, Rongmei, Thangal, Tangkhul, Tarao and Zeme. 

The deliberate exclusion of any tribe who identifies as Kuki is glaring and it exposes the hidden agenda of this organisation playing the “indigenous” card. It is interesting to note, though that tribes like Aimol, Chiru, Chothe and Kom traditionally and culturally belong to the Kuki group even though there have been repeated attempts by the NSCN-IM to incorporate them into the Naga fold. That the list of tribes included by the Haomee Federation as “indigenous community” is the same as that of the NSCN-IM’s list of Naga tribes may or may not be a coincidence, but one thing is for sure - the earlier equation of Meitei + Kuki versus Nagas has now changed into Meitei + Naga versus Kukis!  

Let us now look at how labelling theory works. A News Nine Report shows that 381 Meiteis, 1083 Muslims, 873 Kukis and 181 others have been arrested in drug-related cases. However, only those cases where Kukis are involved have been highlighted and exaggerated by the media and Mr. Biren himself on his social media handles. In this regard, it must be noted that all these arrested persons are just “mules” and get paid a pittance as compared to the real kingpins - invariably the rich valley or mainland businessmen – who have always gone unpunished. In an infamous case of one tribal drug-lord arrested by the police, MPS Officer Th. Brinda submitted to the High Court that she was pressurised by none other than the Chief Minister himself to let off the smuggler because he happens to be a close associate of his wife! Several other high profile drug cases with possible political links have quietly been buried as well and one Meitei MLA has in fact written to the Home Minister to look into these cold cases.

As for the “non-indigenous” tag, a small group of Kukis believe they are descendants of the lost tribe of Israel, Manasseh. This has been gleefully latched onto and exaggerated by the Meiteis and Nagas within the Haomee Federation as proof that Kukis are not indigenous to Manipur. The truth is, this has more to do with religious belief (and perhaps the opportunity for migration to Israel) and nothing to do with ethnic or genealogical roots. With regard to “Burmese refugee” tag, it must be noted that Burma was separated from British India in 1937; the political boundary did not align with the socio-demographic boundary and so some Kuki areas remained with Myanmar. As relatives found themselves on different sides of the border, some migration did take place but this number is in hundreds or thousands at the most, not in lakhs as made out to be by the Haomee Federation’s propaganda. The same kind of migration is true of Nagas in Ukhrul district and also of the Meiteis from Kabaw Valley, but this fact has conveniently been swept under the carpet.  

At this juncture, it is pertinent to mention that an inherently militant and radical organisation called “Arambai Tenggol” and the “Meetei Leepun” have sprung up under the full patronage of CM Biren Singh and Rajya Sabha MP Sanajaoba. Photos of the two leaders hobnobbing with members of the group, including the gun-toting leader Korounganba Khuman, are available in the public domain. These two organisations and the Haomee Federation have incessantly attacked the Kukis and created a false and repulsive image in the minds of the general Meitei populace. Facebook and WhatsApp are handy tools to further this agenda; any Kuki criticising the CM on Facebook is promptly arrested while any Meitei attacking the Kukis with the vilest abuses is left untouched in spite of police FIRs. The CM himself has often engaged in crude and crass arguments like a juvenile with some Kuki youth, which is really unbecoming of a Chief Minister.

Therefore, when ATSUM announced a rally to protest the Manipur High Court’s order to recommend Meiteis as STs, the Kukis were immediately singled out and systematically attacked even though the Nagas were also part of the rally. The “surgical strikes” on Kuki houses even in mixed residential colonies suggest that they had already been marked beforehand, with some survivors describing a strange “red” paint sprayed at their gates few days before the violence. I shall not narrate the scale and intensity of the violence that was unleashed upon the Kukis in this article. Suffice to say, all sorts of justifications based on the labels discussed above (poppy planters, non-indigenous, refugees) and false propaganda have sprung up to justify the barbaric atrocities perpetrated mainly by the Arambai Tenggol and Meetei Leepun foot-soldiers with the tacit approval of the Chief Minister himself. Manipur Police also took sides and survivors recount how the police commandos led from the front in attacking the Kukis (videos to support this charge available in public domain). Burning of churches was one ploy to give it a religious angle to gain sympathy of the powers that be in the Government and mainstream media. Thus, the ATSUM rally was just the spark required to ignite the pogrom; everything had been pre-planned. 

The Meiteis’ ST demand is also illogical and untenable in all respects; how can the Meiteis having a written history of many centuries, ruled by kings/maharajahs, having rich cultural heritage and a language with its own script already included in the VIII Schedule of Indian Constitution, having all political and economic power concentrated in its hands and already enjoying SC and OBC statuses, suddenly rise up to demand a backward ST tag? On the surface, it is really absurd, illogical and devoid of any reason, but it all makes sense when you realise that the real agenda behind this ST demand is TRIBAL LAND - Kukis’ land to be specific - and not the constitutional benefits the ST tag carries. Once granted ST status, the Meiteis will legally and illegally occupy the tribal land belonging to the Kukis; in fact, this process had started with the various anti-Kuki legislations and eviction drives, culminating in the violent ethnic cleansing.

Today, the Kukis have fallen victim yet again. But the Kukis will rise up stronger than before. The Mighty British Empire was witness to our Strength and Resilience for three years (1917-19). God bless the Kuki Nation!