Some notes on the situation in Manipur
Featured image: Map of the Northeast region of Indian State, and its bordering countries. Source: Le Monde Diplomatique
The struggle in Manipur is far from its end. Week after week the old Indian State claims that the situation is controlled, but in reality there are new armed clashes, mobilizations of the masses and casualties among the repressive forcesi. When the revolts began, the bourgeois media and bourgeois politicians tried to cover up reality, stating that they were clashes between radicalized religious/ethnic groups, hiding the class character, the struggle for the land and the role of imperialismii.
In Manipur there is a contradiction between, on the one hand the Indian ruling classes and their collaborators in the State of Manipur, gathered within the Meitei group, and on the other hand, the poor peasantry that mostly are within into two different tribes, the Kuki and the Naga. But not all the peasantry is united, and the old Indian State tries to take advantage of the contradictions within the people to put up some peasants against others and to put peoples against peoples, or at least try to isolate them. This is clearly seen with the Kuki and the Naga groups. Both are mainly peasants and live in the area of The Hills, but her involvement in the struggle during these months against the Indian ruling classes and the Indian State, has been very different.
Since the arrival of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to the Government of Manipur in 2017, the focus of its attacks have been the Kuki. The ruling classes of the Indian State and their lackeys in Manipur try to take away the lands of this part of the peasantry. The ruling classes and the BJP are using the instability of the region as an excuse to criminalize and attack the Kuki, stating that this group are illegal immigrants from Myanmar and that they must be expelled from lands which they are occupying illegally. They argue this by taking advantage of the fact that in Myanmar there is a big Zo community (formed by the Kuki and Chin peoples among others) and part of it is migrating to India due to the coup d’état and the civil war in Myanmar since 2021. Many Indian bourgeois media have spread this false information against the Kuki, they have accused them of being “narco-guerrillas” due to the traditional plants of poppy in the area. Other media simply speak of “communal/ethnic violence” putting the same responsibility on the Kuki side, and on the reactionary militias and the Indian government side. The reality is that the Indian State carries a reactionary policy of systematic attack and ethnic cleansing in the area, to be able to take away the land from the poor peasantry, while the peasantry has justifiably resisted the oppression it suffers.
The situation of the Naga is different, due to they remain relatively distanced in the current struggle in Manipur. When the first tribal marches began against the inclusion of the Meitei group in the list of Scheduled Tribes, the Naga joined the Kuki. But lately, the reactionary groups and the Indian State have focused on attacking the Kuki. On the other hand, the attitude of the Naga has been to move away from the struggle and stated that they cannot intervene in a confrontation that they consider its just between Meitei and Kuki. They also ask for a peace agreement between the peasant Kuki and the Indian State, but always remaining untouched the Naga’s lands. There is no close alliance between the peasantry of the Kuki and Naga communities and this is not something strange or new. During the recent history of the region, both peoples have had confrontations and each one has their own aspirations and historical development, in a territory where multiple peoples exist.
The territory of Manipur was an independent kingdom at the end of the 19th century that was framed in the Imphal Valley and its population was mainly formed by the Meitei people, but was defeated and subjected by the British government from the year 1891. Later, between 1947 and 1949 Manipur was annexed to the newly formed Indian State, being governed directly by Delhi without granting any type of autonomy to the territory. In 1972 the State of Manipur was formed within India. This caused the split in two groups within the Meitei people: those traditional local dominant classes, which were aligned with the Indian ruling classes in order to continue controlling the region; on the other hand, a part of the people that formed a national movement in Manipur. This national movement rose in arms since 1964, and in 1980 the Indian State sent its armed forces to Manipur. Since that time there has been military presence, revolts and constant clashes, etc. As for the local ruling classes of the Meitei group, they have been always contrary to the rights of self -determination of the Kuki and the Naga, due to their own interests to possess the peasant lands of The Hills. The Meitei National Movement has also confronted the Kuki and Naga peoples, because they understood that a new independent State in Manipur would include the tribal lands from The Hills.
On the other hand, the Kuki also had a stable territory with their own government in the region, but were expelled by British imperialism after the Anglo-Kuki war (1917-1919), causing a diaspora of the Kuki people throughout the northeastern India and the surrounding territories: between Bangladesh, Myanmar, and mainly in the Indian States of Mizoram, Assam and Manipur. Since the 80s Kuki’s insurgency grew. It had its boom especially since the 90s in which there was an armed confrontation between the Naga and Kuki movements. After numerous insurgent clashes, the Kuki peasant guerrillas signed a peace agreement with the Indian State in 2005. But in March 2023 the BJP government in Manipur withdrew from the agreement, resuming repression against the Kuki insurgency.
Regarding the Naga, they are another people scattered among several territories, such as Nagaland, Manipur, Assam or Arunachal Pradesh in India, and other countries as Myanmar. They also remained under the dominance of British imperialism since the end of the 19th century. After the independence of the Indian State, they declared their independence in their own territory in 1947 and began the struggle against the Indian State. In 1954 the Indian State sent its armed forces to the Naga territory to suppress this uprising. In 1975, Shillong’s Agreements were signed, and several guerrilla groups of the Naga people delivered the weapons, joined the Indian bourgeois apparatus, accepted the Constitution of the Indian State and accepted the State of Nagaland integrated into the Indian State. However, numerous guerrilla groups continued in active, and the Naga national movement also continued in active in Manipur, functioning as support for groups in Nagaland and struggling for their own aspirations of national self -determination, and defending their own lands in The Hills. Also the Naga movement claimed a common territory (“The Great Nagalim”) for all its people, which included several territories of the Indian State and Myanmar.
From 1992 until 1997 there was a war between the Kuki and Naga peoples and their guerrillas, causing the death of approximately 1,000 people from the Kuki people, thousands of displaced, and tensions between both peoples that have continued until nowadays. The clashes between the Kuki and the Naga took place primarily among the poor peasantry, encouraged by reactionary elements in both sides. The ruling classes of Manipur and Indian State made nothing to stop this clashes because these benefit them. The clashes weakened both national movements and turn the peasants against each other, making easier to take away their lands and defeat the national movements.
Through a brief historical review of this area we can analyze how there is a constant conflict around the possession of the land, and that the reactionary forces present in the area are the cause of the suffering of the oppressed peoples and the peasantry of the whole region: on the one hand we have the imperialism, with the oppression of peoples in the area and their expulsion from their original lands, causing a diaspora between several states; on the other hand we have the governments of the semi-colonial and semi-feudal states of the area, especially the Indian State with the BJP government, which has baited the contradictions within the people, and has even carried out ethnic cleansing; also we have the local ruling classes, collaborators of the old Indian State and imperialism when opposing other peoples and their own people; then we have the reactionary elements acting inside these peoples, which has isolated them from each other and contributes confrontation of the masses with each other, diverting the point of attention that should be the ruling classes and the struggle against them; finally, within each national movement, there is also a contradiction between the combative elements of the people that do not give up from their struggle, and on the other hand those conciliator elements that want to be integrated into the oppressive state, make career in the bureaucratic bourgeois structure and dismantle the struggle of its people.
In the old Indian State, contradictions are sharpening in many territories such as Haryana, Kashmir, Manipur, etc. In addition there are many other contradictions and latent conflicts in other territories. In particular, the Northeast of India is a very unstable area that at any time could suffer new eruptions in other districts or states, and that is far from being “peaceful” or having backed to normalcy. Although the Indian ruling classes use reactionary nationalism, religion, ethnicity or other excuses to cause clashes within the people, every few years the revolts are directed against the State, the government and against repressive forces. The ruling classes often need to send their armed forces and deploy thousands of their troops to control the situation. In addition, despite the betrayals of part of the national movements, despite the repression and the setbacks suffered, the oppressed masses insist on their struggle even after many decades. For its part, the Indian State has repeatedly shown its reactionary character, its inability to effectively control the masses and how rotten the old semi-colonial and semi-feudal State is. Is the hour that the struggles of the different oppressed peoples of India unites with the revolutionary forces led by the Communist Party of India (Maoist), so with People’s War, to sweep away imperialism, semi-feudality and bureaucratic capitalism.
iYou can consult our previous publications regarding the struggle in Manipur: https://redherald.org/tag/manipur/
iiWe previously analyzed the truly character of this struggle: https://redherald.org/2023/07/02/india-on-the-current-struggle-in-manipur/
