Governments failed to imbibe tribal realities

Manipur has once again erupted in violence. This time it is because of the High Court order that directed the Government to recommend ST status to Meiteis of the Manipur valley. It is unfortunate that despite the thrust given to North East development by the Centre since 2014 it continues to simmer in discontent over one thing or the other. It only goes to show that even the BJP government had failed to read the tribal realities in this region right.

North East cannot be compared to the rest of India nor could it be tackled politically. The region is home to many tribes and most of these are exactly integrated as they should have been due to the tight societies that these ethnic groups have and their traditions and cultures. These tribes have coexisted with one another in their respective geographical territories and though there have been intermittent clashes since long, the issue has attained political colour due to the practices of the governments and political parties here over a period.

In the past, the Congress has recklessly allowed migration of Bangladeshis into Assam, in the neighbourhood and created not only disturbances but also ethnic imbalances that are witnessed now. Similarly, in Manipur, Bangladeshis and Myanmarese have filtered in large numbers without any check and this has been the cause of unrest among the Meiteis of Manipur valley. These constitute 53 percent of Manipur’s population but these have been deprived of the ST status since long. These are also not allowed to settle down in the hilly areas of the State.

A recent Manipur High Court order directing the state government to recommend the inclusion of the Meitei community in the Scheduled Tribes (ST) list has again brought to the fore long-standing fault lines between the plains-dwelling community and the state’s Hill tribes. The current imbroglio was a result of a petition that the Meetei (Meitei) Tribe Union filed in the High Court seeking directions to the Manipur government to submit a recommendation to the Union Ministry for Tribal Affairs for the inclusion of the Meetei/Meitei community in the ST list of the Constitution as a “tribe among tribes in Manipur”. In fact, the Meitei community enjoyed tribal status before the merger of the Manipur princely state with the Union of India in 1949. The ST status was important to “preserve” the community and “save the ancestral land, tradition, culture and language”, it has been argued. Those who are already STs opposed the move protesting against the inclusion of an already ‘advanced community’ in the list.

At least the present government should realise that there are too many irreconcilable differences still in Indian society. Jawaharlal Nehru had rightly observed in his reply to the debate on the draft Constitution on January 22, 1947 that “This House cannot bind down the next generation, or the people who will duly succeed us. Therefore let us not trouble ourselves too much about the petty details of what we do. Those details will not survive for long, if they are achieved in conflict. What we achieve in unanimity, what we achieve by cooperation is likely to survive”.

No government since the beginning preferred to even think of talking to the various groups on how to live in the spaces peacefully. Maybe it is too much to expect it from the governments or ourselves to do so as even we do not know how to do so.