Imphal, May 7 (). The ugly face of ethnic conflict has once again loomed large in Manipur, but this time its impact has been felt in other northeastern states as well and it may continue for a long time.
In the wake of ongoing unrest in Manipur, over 1600 people have crossed the border into Assam’s Cachar district and over 30 people, mostly women and children, have taken shelter in Mizoram’s Saitual district.
Members of Kuki and Meitei communities clashed with each other in Meghalaya’s capital Shillong following caste violence in Manipur on Thursday night and police arrested 16 people in connection with the incident. Security has been tightened in the hill town.
The authorities of both the states have arranged temporary shelters in some government schools and they have been provided with food and other essential items.
Two districts of Mizoram – Aizawl and Saitual share a border of about 95 km with Manipur, which has inter-state borders of 204 km and 225 km with Assam and Nagaland respectively.
Several tribal and non-tribal communities especially Meitei, Naga, Kuki, Mizo, Chakma are living in various North Eastern states, presenting a complex linguistic mosaic with more than 200 dialects.
The North Eastern region is home to 45.58 million people (2011 census). The indigenous tribals constitute about 28 percent of the population and mostly speak their mother tongue.
Tribals and non-tribals belong to Hindu, Christian and Muslim communities with different lifestyles, cultures, traditions and languages.
Any negative incident involving one or two communities in a particular state often has an adverse effect in other states in the region, leading to ethnic unrest.
Apart from militancy, ethnic conflicts such as Naga-Kuki, Meitei vs other tribals, Chakma vs other tribals, and many others have claimed thousands of lives and caused huge property damage during the past several decades in the North Eastern region.
From the beginning of this year, unrest broke out again in Manipur due to various reasons. Unprecedented violent clashes, attacks and arson took place at various places during the Tribal Solidarity March called by the All Tribal Students’ Union of Manipur (ATSUM) on 3 May.
Acting on a writ petition filed by the Meitei Trade Union, Acting Chief Justice of the Manipur High Court M.V. Muraleedharan had on April 19 directed the state government to submit a recommendation to include the Meitei community in the Scheduled Tribe (ST) list to the Union Ministry of Tribal Affairs.
The High Court order states: The issue of inclusion of the Meitei community in the list of Scheduled Tribes of the Constitution is pending for nearly ten years and more. No satisfactory explanation is being offered by the respondent State.
The High Court order turned into a major controversy as thousands of tribals turned up for a tribal solidarity march called by a student body in 10 hill districts on May 3.
Earlier, a civil writ petition filed by eight members of the Meitei Tribes Association, led by union secretary Mutum Churamani Meitei, sought issuance of a writ of mandamus directing the union to submit a recommendation in response to the first respondent (Manipur government) Went.
According to Meitei and other agitators, the influx of outsiders from both inside and outside the country, including people from Myanmar, Nepal and Bangladesh, has significantly affected Manipur’s identity, culture, economy, administration and environment.
SGK
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