It has been a year since the caste violence in Manipur and its sting is still haunting the people. How can Manipuri forget this day when their home state was divided into two communities and families and neighbors who had lived together for generations were separated. The lives of thousands of people were turned upside down. Exactly one year ago, the date of May 3, 2023 was imprinted as a bad memory in the minds of the people of Manipur.
That day the state was divided into two entities by a virtual Line of Control. On this day, caste conflict broke out between the Meitei and Kuki communities due to the ‘Tribal Solidarity March’ organized in the hill districts in protest against the demand of the Meitei community for Scheduled Tribe (ST). It impacted the everyday lives of its residents in countless ways.
More than 200 people lost their lives in the violence. Many thousands of people had to leave their homes and get displaced. Earlier, these three main ethnic groups of the North-Eastern State had been living here historically as per their geographical location. For example, the Meitei in the valley, the Kuki in the southern hills and the Naga in the northern hills, but these communities had never been completely separated with such hostility until May last year. Now the Meitei population is in the Imphal valley and have migrated to the Kuki hills. The state’s deep ethnic cleavages divided the state into plains and hill district boundaries.
State boundaries changed into police posts
The border between Bishnupur and Kuki-dominated Churachandpur or the checkpoints between Meitei-controlled Imphal West and Kuki ‘territory’ Kangpokpi are beginning to look more or less like the borders of enemy countries. These checkpoints, complete with concertina coils, armored vehicles, armed security personnel and sandbag bunkers, have isolated not only the residents but also the police personnel and government officials. Echoing many of his colleagues, one officer says, the state has gone back at least two decades. Police personnel and security forces belonging to the Meitei or Kuki communities are also confined to their respective areas and cannot cross to the other side.
people trapped in tension
Stress has affected people on both small and large levels. As facilities in Imphal are inaccessible, people of Churachandpur are traveling more than 12 hours to Aizawl for medical treatment. At the same time, Imphal airport is closed for Kuki people. College students who have remained in Churachandpur instead of seeking transfer to outside universities have been given the option by the University Grants Commission (UGC) to deposit their answer sheets in sealed envelopes at the District Commissioner’s office. They hope that their answer sheets will be marked and will be safe. At the same time, 53 percent of the state’s population is displaced from the Meitai mountains and they have their own issues.
A Meitai, who runs a transport business in Churachandpur, says, it takes years to build a livable house, ours is all over. More than 4,200 weapons looted from armories in the violence-hit state are still missing and youths with weapons are a common sight in border areas.
