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International Meeteis Forum
Founded5 December 2012[1][2]
TypeMeitei organisation
FocusAssertion of Meitei indigeneity in Manipur[3]
HeadquartersImphal
Area served
Imphal Valley, Manipur, India
President
R. K. Rajendro (till May 2023)[4][5]
Organiser
Ch. Birendra[6]

The International Meeteis Forum (or "International Meitei Forum", IMF) is a Meitei ethnic advocacy group in the Indian state of Manipur. Its objectives are to assert Meitei indigeneity in Manipur, to unify Meiteis around the world, to campaign for the territorial integrity of the Manipur state and to block the influx of alleged foreigners.[7][2] Founded in 2012 by a retired army officer R. K. Rajendro,[a] it later teamed up with the Federation of Haomee with similar ideological motivations.[9] Both the organisations generated free-flowing hate speech against the Kuki community of Manipur,[10] labelling them as "immigrants" or "foreigners",[11][b] which was instrumental in the generation of 2023 Manipur violence.[13][14][15]

Background

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The districts of Manipur as of 2011. The districts in the middle, the Imphal valley: Imphal East, Imphal West, Thoubal and Bishnupur densely populated and dominated by the Meitei people, whereas the outer districts are primarily hilly, sparsely populated and dominated by non-Meitei peoples. The people in the valley are predominantly Hindu and those in the Hills are primarily Christians.

Manipur is a state in the northeast of India, a former princely state of British Raj, embedded in the Northern Arakan Yoma mountain range. It consists of a 700 square mile valley, mainly populated by the Meitei community, and the surrounding hill regions populated by hill tribes classified as Nagas (in the north) and Kukis (in the south). The hill tribes have long campaigned for autonomy, launching multiple insurgent movements, and the Meitei have consistently blocked all such efforts.[16][17]

In 2012, the Union Government reached peace agreements with the Naga and Kuki insurgent groups. The Naga group, NSCN-IM, had the ongoing demand for "Greater Nagaland", i.e., to merge the Naga-inhabited areas of Manipur into the Nagaland state. The Kuki groups likewise had the demand for a separate "Kukiland" state for the Kuki-inhabited areas. The International Meeteis Forum was formed in this context, in order to protect the "interest of [the] Meiteis". It argued for the inclusion of the Meiteis in the peace talks, and declared, "no agreement without the consent of Meiteis would be accepted".[2]

Prior to this, the founder R. K. Rajendro had written an article in a newspaper claiming that the Kukis had migrated from Myanmar and the British had planted Kuki settlements in Manipur. A Naga organisation found the argument attractive, and claimed that prior to the 19th and 20th centuries, "our forefathers" had not experienced inter-tribal conflict.[18] This is not in accordance with the historical record as documented by scholars.[c]

Anti-Kuki activism

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Soon after its formation, the IMF condemned the demand for "Kukiland", claiming that Kukis had recently migrated from Myanmar between 1855 and 1881, and that they numbered only about 8,000 people at that time. The original settlers of Manipur were claimed to have been Meitei and Naga communities, and therefore, the later entrants should be "pushed back".[23][24] At the same time, grandiose claims were made for the historical extent of Manipur.[25][26] The Kuki Students Organisation (KSO) responded to the IMF statements as having become a "matter of grave concern".[27][d]

As the demand for "Kukiland" as a separate state grew, the IMF also stepped up its attacks on the Kuki community. In 2013, it rejected the Kukis' claim of being one of the indigenous communities of Manipur and announced that it would launch a signature campaign against the Kukis for claiming so.[3] It declared that there was a "continuous influx of Kukis" from Myanmar and Muslims from Bangladesh, which was causing a "dangerous demographic change" in Manipur, which would render Meiteis to become a minority.[31]

In 2015, the Kuki Research Forum of scholars responded to a column written by R. K. Rajendro in The Sangai Express, calling his comments "incendiary", "communal" and "exclusivist". Recalling Rajendro's labelling of Kukis as "foreigners", they countered with historical facts and the views of acclaimed historians. They stated that Rajendro's propaganda had no place in a civilised society and called on the media to uphold the ethics of journalism.[32] In response, Ch. Birendra (listed as the Organiser of IMF) wrote another column in the same newspaper, addressing the Kuki Research Forum scholars as "dear descendants of immigrants", and taking personal jibes about holding "double citizenship of both Manipur and Myanmar". He also repeated the usual arguments of IMF labelling Kukis as immigrants and foreigners.[12]

In 2016, journalist Phanjoubam Chingkheinganba countered the narrative of branding Kukis as "foreigners", stating that it was generated by an elderly retired army officer, whose organisation consisted of "less than half a dozen persons". He commented that the retired officer did not seem to grasp the modern meaning of "foreigner" and the discourse was seriously offensive to the Kukis.[33]

However, by 2019, R. K. Rajendro was being listed in the core committed of Federation of Haomee (FoH),[8] a much larger organisation founded on the back of the successful Inner Line Permit movement in Manipur.[e] FoH was focused on the issue of "indigeneity" of Manipur's communities.[36][37] Rajendro introduced his ideas on the othering of Kukis into FoH, which was used to oppose the Union government's peace talks with Kuki organisations, labelling them as "foreign militant outfits".[8]

In 2022, scholar Haoginlen Chongloi noted that both IMF and FoH had been involved in spreading venomous hate speech directed at the Kukis for several years.[10]

Impact

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By 2022, the IMF discourse on the othering of Kukis of Manipur had entered the mainstream of the Meitei society.[38] The chief minister N. Biren Singh branded a human rights cum greater-Kukiland activist, Mark T. Haokip,[f] as "Myanmarese", despite he being a descendant of an Indian National Army freedom fighter.[10] New Meitei groups such as the People's Movement for Resurgent Manipur and the Coordinating Committee on Manipur Integrity (COCOMI) replicated the chief minister's branding. The Kuki tribal body Kuki Inpi issued a statement raising an alarm about a "groundswell of Kuki-Chin-Mizophobia" in Manipur and accused the Biren Singh government of "outright abhorrence and racial discrimination" against the Kukis of Manipur.[39]

In the same year, an English translation of R. K. Rajendro's book Manipur after the Coming of Kukis was published, wherein Rajendro characterised the Meiteis and Nagas as natives of Manipur (the "Haomee"),[g] and Kukis as recent arrivals from Burma.[40]

By May 2023, when large-scale violence erupted in Manipur, there were a large number of Meitei organisations subscribing to the view that Kukis were "foreigners" or "outsiders". Pramot Singh, the founder of Meitei Leepun, claimed in an interview on The Wire, that the Kukis were not "part of the family" of Manipur and described them as "tenants" in the state.[41] Several news reports and commentaries pointed out that the discourse had been normalised in the Meitei society.[13][14][15] In the first week of violence, 77 Kukis were killed, mostly innocent civilians in the Imphal Valley, as compared to 10 Meiteis.[42][43][44]

Notes

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  1. ^ Also referred to as "R. K. Rajendra Singh".[8]
  2. ^ In an open letter to the scholars of Kuki Research Forum in 2015, the Organiser Ch. Birendra addressed them as "D/Descendants of immigrants".[12]
  3. ^ Scholar Pum Khan Pau notes that Captain McCulloch, a British resident in Manipur, "found them in the 1840s scattered around the valley of Manipur".[19] McCulloch believed that the "scattering" occurred because they were being pushed north by more powerful tribes to the south,[20] but he did not claim direct knowledge of this fact. McCulloch also stated that Khongjais (Kukis) used to be to the south of the Kabui Nagas (to the west of the Manipur valley) and sometimes made "bloody attacks" on them. Hence he created a string of Kuki villages "as a buffer to the Kabui villages".[21][20] Thus, the settlements created by McCulloch as a protection for the Naga areas were being interpreted by Rajendro and his Naga followers as encroachments into the Naga areas.[22]
  4. ^ When Kukis had spread out through the territory of present day Manipur cannot be stated with certainty. The Manipur chronicle Cheitharol Kumbaba has references to prince Herachandra having taken shelter with Kukis (termed "Khongchais") in 1819, during a Burmese occupation of Manipur, and then raising rebellion with their help.[28][29] References to "Khongchais" in the chronicle date back to 1503.[30]
  5. ^ Federation of Haomee was founded by S. Jadumani, who had earlier headed Joint Committee on Inner Line Permit System (JCILPS),[34] an organisation representing "xenophobic hegemony of Meitei nationalism".[35]
  6. ^ Mark T. Haokip, who called himself the President of the "People’s Democratic Republic of Kukiland", described his organisation as a "Human Rights based Non-Violent Political government of the Kuki Nation". According to scholar Thongkholal Haokip, "he discusses on social media about territorial politics in Manipur, drawing from [the] colonial census accounts a century back, and other academic works in recent years." He described him as a "political" victim of the "majoritarian" politics of the Manipur government.[39]
  7. ^ In the Meitei language, "Haomee" or "Yelhoumee" has the sense of "sons of the soil".

References

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  1. ^ Haokip, Spurn Thy Neighbour (2016), p. 178.
  2. ^ a b c Meiteis demand say in accord, The Telegraph (India), 8 December 2012. ProQuest 2286665405
  3. ^ a b Haokip, Spurn Thy Neighbour (2016), pp. 178–179.
  4. ^ Haokip, Spurn Thy Neighbour (2016), p. 185.
  5. ^ Paojel Chaoba, Centre ready to implement 6th Schedule in hill areas of Manipur, awaits chief secretary's reply, Imphal Free Press, (via Kangla Online), 1 July 2015. ProQuest 1692238259
  6. ^ IMF appeals communal harmony, Hueiyen News Service, (via e-pao.net), 21 April 2015.
  7. ^ Haokip, Spurn Thy Neighbour (2016), pp. 178–179, 185–186.
  8. ^ a b c Vangamla Salle K. S., ‘Centre must abrogate peace talks with foreign-based Kuki outfits’, EastMojo, 26 August 2019.
  9. ^ Haokip, Memory and kinship across the Indo-Myanmar border (2023).
  10. ^ a b c Haoginlen Chongloi, Free-Flowing Hate Speech, Rampant Racial Profiling: How Manipur Grew Intolerant, The Wire, 18 June 2022
  11. ^ Rejoinder to R.K. Rajendro, President, International Meitei Forum, E-Pao.net, 21 May 2015. "It is a repeated slogan and speeches of R.K Rajendro and the International Meitei Forum that ‘Kukis are foreigners’."
  12. ^ a b Ch Birendra, International Meitei Forum states stand: A Rejoinder, The Sangai Express, via e-pao.net, 5 June 2015.
  13. ^ a b Kaushik Deka, Drugs, land rights, tribal identity and illegal immigration-Why Manipur is burning, India Today NE, 5 May 2023. "Kukis have often been attacked as "immigrants" or "foreigners", suggesting they had migrated from Myanmar and are not native to the Manipur Hills, which is strongly disputed by them."
  14. ^ a b Anshuman Behera, Interpreting the ethnic strife in Manipur, Observer Research Foundation, 17 May 2023. "As the Kukis are seen as foreigners and outsiders, the escalated demands for the NRC add to the apprehensions of the former... The state government's demolition and eviction drives, the process of 'othering' by terming the Kukis as outsiders and foreigners, alleging the Kukis were responsible for the poppy cultivation and influx of 'illegal migrants from Myanmar, and the Meitei community's demand for the tribal status wrapped with the old wounds of ethnic strife have directly contributed to the revival of violent incidents in restive Manipur."
  15. ^ a b Pradip Phanjoubam, The myriad hues of Manipur's internal tussles, The New Indian Express, 22 May 2023. "The answer may lie in certain developments in recent times. One is the revival of an old narrative that the Kukis are nomadic and not indigenous to Manipur. Muivah has said this in several recent public statements as well. Other rivals also added to this, insulting the Kukis indiscriminately with adjectives like 'refugees', 'foreigners', etc., making this an open sore for the latter."
  16. ^ Haokip, The Governor, Hill Areas Committee and Upsurge in the Hills (2017), "Holkhomang Haokip, the then Outer Manipur Member of Parliament during 13th Lok Sabha, also wrote to the Chairman, National Constitution Review Committee, for the extension of Sixth Schedule to the six ADCs arguing that: ‘the working of these Councils for the past fifteen years and its experiences was found to be inadequate with no empowerment to the people in any manner. It has, in fact, belied the hopes, rights and aspirations of the Tribal people of Manipur.’".
  17. ^ Paojel Chaoba, Centre ready to implement 6th Schedule in hill areas of Manipur, awaits chief secretary's reply, Imphal Free Press, (via Kangla Online), 1 July 2015. ProQuest 1692238259. "The [Hill Areas Committee], in 1983, 1990 and 2002 re-affirmed its 1978 resolution demanding extension of 6th schedule to Manipur hills. The state cabinet recommended for the same on three occasions, in 1991, 1992 and 2001. Various government-appointed commissions also recommended for the same. Nothing came out of them till today."
  18. ^ Zeliangrong Baudi to KNO, Imphal Free Press, via e-pao.net, 6 December 2012. ProQuest 1222012235. "This fact is well accounted by R. K Rajendro in his article, "Myanmar Amasung Manipur da leiba Kuki sing," in Poknapham daily newspaper dated 19th March, 2012. In the press box item it states, "Yumhong toiba Kuki Chingmising asina Kanagumba leibak amada akaknaba Burma amasung Manipur da yum hongduna khundaruba khudunggi sajinnaba itihas semduna leibak tuda leijaramliba miyamdugi mathak thongnaba hekta hotnei. Makhoibu changpham piriba leibak tuda autonomous state nattraga ningtamba homeland piyu hekta hai..., [Nomadic tribe Kukis try to distort history to dominate the indigenous people wherever they go. They usually ask for autonomous state or homeland in the countries they're given refuge]", pointed out the Zeliangrong body"
  19. ^ Pau, Indo-Burma Frontier and the Making of the Chin Hills (2019), pp. 56–57.
  20. ^ a b McCulloch, Account of the Valley of Munnipore (1859), p. 55.
  21. ^ & Pau, Indo-Burma Frontier and the Making of the Chin Hills (2019), p. 59: "The Sylhet-Manipur road, which was then under construction, passed through the Kabui Naga territory... McCulloch's solution was to plant a line of Kuki colonies as a buffer to the Kabui villages.".
  22. ^ Zeliangrong Baudi to KNO, Imphal Free Press, 6 December 2012. ProQuest 1222012235 "Kuki exodus began after the adoption of planting Kukis in British frontier in the Naga hills and the Naga areas of Nagaland and Manipur in 1850s by Col. M. C. Cullock [McCulloch]".
  23. ^ IMF condemns appeal for Kukiland, The Statesman (India), 10 December 2012. ProQuest 1235601552.
  24. ^ Now, Meitei body comes out against proposed Kuki map, The Sangai Express, via e-pao.net, 8 December 2012.
  25. ^ IMF condemns appeal for Kukiland, The Statesman (India), 10 December 2012. ProQuest 1235601552. "Mentioning the historical background, members of the forum said the territory of Manipur extended up to South [China] Sea bordering Yunan in China and it stretched up to Brahmaputra, as well."
  26. ^ Kukis have no land in Manipur: IMF, Nagaland Post, 9 December 2012.
  27. ^ Kuki Students' Organisation hits out at IMF, gives point by point rebuttal, The Sangai Express, 18 December 2012. "Recent references to the Kuki people as 'foreigners' and 'migrants' by a newly floated 'international body' in various newspapers has become a matter of grave concern for the Kuki Students' Organisation-General Head-quarters."
  28. ^ Guite, Against State, against History (2018), pp. 436–437.
  29. ^ Parratt, The Court Chronicle, Vol. 2 (2009), pp. 81–82.
  30. ^ Kuki Research Forum on objective historical position of the Kukis in Manipur, Ukhrul Times, 25 May 2022.
  31. ^ Haokip, Spurn Thy Neighbour (2016), pp. 185–186.
  32. ^ Rejoinder to R.K. Rajendro, President, International Meitei Forum, E-Pao.net, 21 May 2015.
  33. ^ Phanjoubam Chingkheinganba, Kukis are not foreigners, illegal foreign immigrants are, e-pao.net, 6 September 2016.
  34. ^ MHA objects to ILP resolution, Imphal Free Press. 17 July 2012. ProQuest 1026551113. "A 72-years old social activist K B Sharma went [on] observing fast while the Joint Committee on Inner Line Permit led by Sapamcha Jadumani launched relentless campaign forcing the state Assembly on Friday (13th July) to pass a Private Member Bill on the introduction of the Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulations, 1873 provisions in Manipur."
  35. ^ Thoudam, Natasa (2021), "Divisive Politics of the Inner Line Permit in Three Stories from Manipur in India's Northeast", South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies, 44 (4): 790–806, doi:10.1080/00856401.2021.1940479
  36. ^ Haokip, Territoriality, Conflict and Citizenship (2023), pp. 17–18.
  37. ^ Federation of Haomee rejects Manipur People's Bill 2018 / Non indigenous tribal groups should be excluded: Jadumani, Imphal Free Press, 8 November 2018. ProQuest 2130604267
  38. ^ Rajkumar Bobichand, Demand for a Separate Kuki State Can Lead to Violent Ethnic Conflicts in Manipur, Imphal Review of Arts and Politics, 17 December 2022. "[Quoting the Kuki State Demand Committee]: Instead of suppressing the ongoing hate campaign against the Kuki community by the dominant Meitei organisations, the incessant hate speeches against them were floated across the local dailies and social network platforms right under [the Manipur government's] nose."
  39. ^ a b Rokibuz Zaman, The arrest of an activist in Manipur has resurfaced ethnic tensions, Scroll.in, 3 July 2022.
  40. ^ Salam Rupachandra Singh, RK Rajendra's Manipur after the coming of Kukis, e-pao.net, 11 July 2023. "The Kukis themselves have claimed that they had been once in the Khongsai village of Burma and as such they are also known by the name Khongsai."
  41. ^ Karan Thapar, Watch | Meitei Pride Group's Threat: 'Kukis Mainly Illegal, Modi Must Intervene or There'll Be Civil War', The Wire, 6 June 2023.
  42. ^ Krishn Kaushik, Bunkers, sniper rifles: Deepening sectarian war in India dents Modi's image, Reuters, 28 July 2023.
  43. ^ Rokibuz Zaman, In Imphal, two families recount two days of horror that ended in death, Scroll.in, 5 May 2023.
  44. ^ Saptarshi Basak, 'Hell! I Had a Normal Life': Kukis Share Horror Tales of Escaping Mobs in Imphal, The Quint, 9 May 2023.

Bibliography

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