A day before her birth, Nankhothing Vaiphee’s father died in a gunfight with British troops in Manipur. He was one of the Kuki youth who had joined the Indian National Army and was marching towards Kohima when he died. He was joyous, she said, when the INA tricolour was hoisted for the first time at Moirang, 45 km from Imphal.
Today, at the age of 79, Nankhothing finds herself as a refugee in a camp in Tengnoupal, a district that shares the international border with Myanmar. She has lost everything: her father before her birth, and now her home, cattle and books to the ethnic clash between the Meiteis and the Kukis in Manipur.
“They label us as illegal immigrants and narco-terrorists! But are we? If you visit the INA Memorial, you will discover the names of numerous Kuki people who sacrificed their lives for India’s freedom struggle,” said David J. Vaiphei, a lawyer from Moreh.
Manipur has been burning for two horrific months. I have been a regular visitor to this beautiful land of beautiful people, after Irom Chanu Sharmila began her fast against the misuse of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act. I was one of the first few journalists to interview her after she ended her 16-year fast. When she stood against chief minister Okram Ibobi Singh in an election six years ago, I followed her closely.
I remember the day I saw her riding an old Hercules bicycle from Imphal city to Thoubal during her election campaign. She was all alone and looked as though she had been abandoned. In the end, she got 90 votes. That did not diminish my admiration for the women of Manipur. As a south Indian, I had been dumbstruck by the fighting spirit of the Imas (mothers) of Manipur. I have always believed that they are the most fearless fighters. Now, in the war zone that Manipur has become, it is the Imas who are leading the struggle.
Imas or Meira Paibis (torch-bearing women) are making a powerful impact in Manipur. They are taking to the streets, and sitting there, determined to protect their people from attackers. They even clashed with the forces that obstructed Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s peace mission on June 29. The Spear Corps of the Indian Army has accused them of impeding the security forces, hampering their ability to prevent armed youth from setting fire to villages.
Keeping vigil: A Kuki boy guarding his village at Tengnoupal.
Social activist Babloo Loitongbam told me, while we were sipping coffee in a canteen near the Imphal court a few years ago, that circumstances had made Manipuri women the bravest of fighters.
On the morning of July 2, we heard that three people had been killed in a gun battle at Khoijuman Tabi in Bishnupur district. Rushing to the spot, we found that both the Meiteis and the Kukis had built bunkers, like those seen at the India-Pakistan border, and were using machine-guns. The Kuki bunkers, positioned near the hillock, gave them a certain advantage due to their higher elevation.
Immediately after our arrival, Chief Minister Biren Singh’s black Mercedes SUV passed by with heavy security. The bodies recovered from the hill were kept at the residence of the local MLA. Biren Singh visited the families of the dead and, being a former BSF jawan, attempted to visit the actual fighting area. However, machine-guns suddenly started firing from the hilltop. He was forced to return to Imphal, where he encountered blockades at multiple places by local people, who wanted to share their grievances.
Around 150 people have been killed in the ongoing ethnic clash that began in Churachandpur on May 3, after a High Court order to consider giving the Meitis scheduled tribe status. I had then visited Manipur, and now on my second visit to report the conflict, I find the deep-rooted mistrust between communities deepening in the absence of positive stories emerging from either side. Hatred has calcified, and the two communities have armed themselves for territorial defence.
Newspapers in the valley portray the conflict as a struggle between “Kuki militants” and Meitei villagers. Conversely, Kuki social media platforms paint it as a confrontation between “Meitei militants” and Village Defence Volunteers. Geographically, Manipur is divided into hills and valley, and now the division has extended into the minds of the people.
When violence erupted in the Kuki-dominated Churachandpur hill district, the Meiteis retaliated in Imphal city by burning hundreds of Kuki houses and businesses. What could have been resolved as a local issue escalated swiftly into a war that spread across the state wherever the two communities coexisted. About 50,000 people have been displaced, and the government has yet to start the actual rehabilitation process. It may take several months to commence.
The government machinery has come to a standstill. When arson began, Kuki IPS and IAS officers in the state capital fled to Guwahati or Delhi. The director general of police, P. Doungel, who stayed back under heavy protection, was later removed to an unimportant post. In Kuki areas, Meitei houses, cars and godowns were burnt. Ministers’ houses were not spared.
“As officers, we have two primary aims every day: preventing attacks in our district and managing relief works,” said a district collector, on condition of anonymity. “We don’t have long-term plans. Each day presents new challenges. We are striving to establish networks with each community to maintain peace. However, some factors are beyond our control as people are emotionally charged.”
No government schemes have been operational after May 3. The government has issued a ‘no work, no pay’ notice to force its employees to return to their offices. However, Kuki employees are unwilling to return to the valley, where most government offices are located. And Meiteis are unwilling to go to the hill districts dominated by the Kukis. To house displaced people, the government plans to build prefabricated structures.
The nature of the district administration’s work has changed. Each day, the district collector is required to participate in two video conferences with the chief secretary and the security adviser. Officers from the Army, Assam Rifles, BSF and other security forces currently deployed in the district, too, attend these meetings. The objective is to assess the situation.
Longing for peace: Hundreds of Meiteis like Simran (in the wheelchair) are living in refugee camps.
In addition to arson, the administration has to deal with road blockades. The villagers check all vehicles on the Dimapur-Imphal Asian Highway, which serves as the primary route to Manipur. The Meiteis have barricaded roads to the hill districts, where the Kukis reside. During our journeys to Moreh and Churchandpur, we encountered numerous checkpoints, where Meira Paibis, the torch-bearing women, called the shots. They studied our identification cards and checked our bags and vehicle, before giving us permission to proceed. Any items intended to help the affected regions, such as medicine or food supplies, would be confiscated.
“We found ourselves compelled to engage in clandestine measures to transport insulin for a young boy grappling with severe diabetes,” said Ashish Das, a dedicated IAS officer, currently serving as the sub-collector of Machi division in Tengnoupal.
The men may be at the forefront of the war, and it is the women who are leading the public agitation. One can find a large crowd of Meitei women at every junction in the Imphal valley. Without their permission, one cannot move from one destination to another. “We are protecting our land. There is no other way,” said Kh Sapna, a Meitei woman leader in Khurkhul, Imphal West.
In general, Meiteis dislike the Central forces, particularly the Assam Rifles. They believe that the Central forces are supporting Kuki groups. Kukis dislike the Manipur Police, specifically the Manipur Commandos. They believe that the Manipur Police are collaborating with Meitei miscreants attacking Kuki villages.
In the buffer zones where the valley meets the hills, there is tension as the Assam Rifles and the Manipur Police stand face to face. The police are protecting territory from the Kukis residing in the hills. The Assam Rifles are safeguarding Kuki lands from potential Meitei attacks. In Kangpokpi, a few Meiteis were shot dead by security forces in a Kuki area.
In the early hours of the day, I visited the Khurkhul Lamkhai area of Imphal West, where gunshots could be heard from the hillside. In Senjam Chirang village, there was a small camp of the 6th Manipur Rifles. It was at this spot that a merchant navy officer was killed in combat with Kuki groups. The old building of the Manipur Rifles was riddled with bullet marks.
Uncertain times: Tinghoichong, 47, (with husband Salam Paton) is a kidney patient who requires dialysis for her survival.
Inside the camp, a police officer sat in a bunker with a machine-gun, his eyes trained on the hillside. Two other officers peered through binoculars. An officer said there was daily exchange of gunfire. Most of the attacks happened late at night.
It was unsettling to witness two forces of the same country pointing their guns at each other.
Trust in the security forces having eroded, both communities have deployed armed youth as village guards. Many people have found themselves holding a gun for the first time in their lives. While traversing the hills of Moreh, we came across two boys who had left college in Imphal and taken up the defence of their village, with locally procured firearms.
“I am guarding my village; [I am here] not to initiate any attack, but to prevent miscreants from attacking us,” said one of them, holding a rifle. “I am not sure if I will return to college, but I prefer not to reveal my face to the public,” he said, covering his face with a mask. The chieftain of the village said, “These guns are licenced for hunting purposes. The Meiteis possess machine-guns and sniper guns. Unfortunately, we do not have sufficient arms and ammunition.”
Around 4,000 firearms, including AK-47s, INSAS rifles and sniper guns, along with 5,00,000 bullets, were reportedly looted from the Manipur Police armoury. It was later revealed that the police had actually handed over these weapons to one community. Fewer than 1,100 of them were returned.
Illegal arms are easily available in Manipur, and both communities have amassed them. “Previously, the price of an AK47 in black market was around 04-5 lakh. Now, because of high demand, the price has surged to 07-8 lakh,” said a police officer who worked in border villages.
Meitei organisations accuse former Kuki insurgent groups, which signed the Suspension of Operation (SoO) agreement, of having procured a large stock of modern firearms from Myanmar and China.
I visited Churachandpur multiple times, but people from the valley, including journalists and politicians, keep away from the place out of fear. Whenever I visited, I hired Meitei Pangals (Meitei Muslims) as car drivers, as they are acceptable to both communities.
In Churachandpur, various tribal groups, from Kuki to Zo communities, are working together in a well-organised manner. Initially, they used the newly opened Churachandpur Medical College as their temporary office and established different “departments” for relief work, communication and legal services. It resembles the initial setup of a new administration, which is one of their demands.
Churachandpur is now known as Lamka. No one in the area wants their place to be known by its Meitei name. Tribal youth have removed the name Churachandpur from various locations, including the name board of the police station, and have spray-painted the name Lamka.
A tribal awakening is spreading throughout the region, inspired by global indigenous movements. The youth express their tribal identity, emphasising their close connection to the forests, which they consider integral to their existence. They have written “Welcome to Tribal Land” in numerous places in giant letters. Many areas display the hashtag #SOS, symbolising the demand for Separation as the Only Solution. This is the ultimate demand of the Kuki organisations.
Ginza Vualzong, the media convener of the Indigenous Tribal Leaders Forum, said the trust between the tribals and the Meities had been irreparably shattered after the killings and rapes. “We cannot live with Meities any longer,” he said.
Just before reaching the main area of Churachandpur, we saw a massive protest by Kuki women, all dressed in black, in front of 100 coffins. These coffins represent the tribals who were killed in the violence, and most of the bodies are still kept in hospitals in Imphal. “With immense pain, we are protesting for our rights. We have lost our children and husbands,” said Kim, leader of the Kuki Women’s Rights.
The life in refugee camps is miserable. Hathyanwalk, a 40-year-old Kuki woman, recounted the experience of her relatives. They were living in a village in Kangpokpi. On the third day of the riots, miscreants attacked their village and burned everything. While many people ran away, a few hid in the forest. Among them were eight girls, and the father and brother of one of the girls.
The miscreants looted everything, including livestock. One goat ran into the forest, and a person who pursued it discovered the girls and the two men hiding in the forest. He called out to the other looters. “They raped the girls and killed the father and son in front of them by beating them with an iron rod,” said Hathyanwalk. One girl who endured the mass rape lost her mental balance and is undergoing psychiatric treatment in Churachandpur.
Tinghoichong, 47, is a kidney patient who requires dialysis for her survival. Her husband, Salam Paton, is a farmer from Kangpokpi, and they managed to reach Tengnoupal. “We want to go to Churachandpur to save my wife’s life, but we are afraid to travel through the Meitei area,” he said. There is a quarry road to Churachandpur, but after monsoon, the Champai river overflows. It may drown their hopes of reaching there alive.
Hundreds of Meiteis are living in refugee camps in Moirang and other places. Their houses and shops were burnt. “I lost my home. I miss my pet,” said a little girl, Simran.
I met Mairembam Ratan Singh in a relief camp in Moirang in May. His shops and houses in Churachandpur were burnt on the first day of violence. He had worked in an IT company in Delhi, returned home and developed two mobile apps―Needsfinder and Gosuccess―to help youth find employment within Manipur and beyond. Mairembam gave free coaching to young people in the villages. Not too long after, two people got Central service jobs, he said.
In July, I reached out to him and learned that he had relocated to Imphal city and was struggling to find a nurse’s job for his wife.
When the police in Bishnupur stopped Rahul Gandhi, former chief minister Okram Ibobi Singh rushed to the spot. There was high tension. During the confrontation, Ibobi Singh’s security personnel pointed guns at the police.
A day after Rahul’s visit, there was high drama before the chief minister’s residence in Imphal. Biren Singh had apparently decided to resign, but his convoy to the Raj Bhavan was blocked by Meitei women and members of the Arambai Tenggol. They tore up the resignation letter.
Can the Meiteis and the Kukis coexist peacefully once again? I have been posing this question to everyone. The Kuki and Zo people want a separate administration, while the government and the Meiteis want to maintain territorial integrity. This issue may persist for years, for such is the anger.
During my previous visit to Manipur, I had rarely seen the seven-colour Salai Taret flag, which represents the seven Meitei clans. Now it is prominently displayed in many places across the valley.
Law and order in the state is a shambles, but the chief minister appears unfazed. Biren Singh has emerged as the unchallenged leader of the Meiteis, the majority population. He exuded confidence when I met him on the lawns of his bungalow on July 3. On the same day, he presided over the unified security command, a role previously held by security adviser Kuldeep Singh, who was appointed by the Central government under Article 355 of the Constitution, which allows it to assume control over law and order in a state.
Humans have hearts, too. Near Moreh town, I came across five Meitei families in the Kuki area of Sibong Khudengthabi village. Their Kuki neighbours were protecting them. “We have been living here for generations, and this place is our true home,” said Sangolsem Varni Singh, a Meitei.
“We do not wish to leave,” said Tongbram Ibopisak Singh, another Meiti. “Our relatives in the valley often inquire about our well-being, and we reassure them that we are happy and safe.”
In the midst of challenges, such heartening stories remind us of resilience and the compassion that can exist between different communities.