Manipur University Protest: Why Expect Tribals To Join the Meitei?

Tribal students are not joining the Manipur varsity protests for historical reasons.

The tribes have, so far, maintained distance from the protest and maintained silence.

Photo: Arnica Kala/The Quint

The Manipur University protest has been going on for over a month, and it has spiralled into a bigger movement in its call to oust its Vice Chancellor (VC)- Adya Prasad Pandey. The protesting students have made charges against the VC for financial irregularities, promoting his vested interests linked to saffronisation, and side-lining issues of the university, administration and students’ concerns. The protest is led by Manipur University Students Union (MUSU), and supported by the university’s teachers and non-teaching staff. It is also receiving support from various valley-based students’ bodies and organisations, which predominantly belong to the Meitei community.

With the protest slowly taking the centre stage, there has been this constant gaze towards tribal students and its associated bodies to be a part of this and other similar protests. The tribes have, so far, maintained distance from the protest and maintained silence. The onus on them to come out and take part in the protest has become louder.

Tribals Not New To Discrimination

Tribal people feel that this is a part of the dominant politics in Manipur where such experiences are not new. They have been dictated and coerced into remaining submissive, to speak Manipuri and write the script, and be at the receiving end of constant discrimination. In this light, they feel that the current protest, even if it affects everyone, is of least concern to them. All protests in Manipur University in the past concerning tribal issues are led by tribal students themselves.

This lack of support and solidarity between the tribals and the Meitei is deeply shaped by context, history, and politics in Manipur. Distrust between the tribes and the Meitei of Manipur stems largely from the hegemony of the Meitei where tribal people are at the receiving end of it and they are constantly meted with discrimination, harassment and subjugation. The dominant politics largely comes from the Meitei community whose dominance is shaped by arrangements from the state in the post-colonial era and its kingdom in the past. It is also to be seen in the concept of what constitutes Manipuri and why tribal people do not find any convincing space in being Manipuri. They either choose to go by their ethnic identity or simply as Kuki of Manipur and Naga of Manipur.

Social, political, cultural and economic status can be taken up as an indicator to why the Meitei are traditionally wealthier than the tribes. The only thing left for tribals is to fend their lands and resources upon which the valley people are increasingly finding ways to lay a claim. Tribals try to equate the lands and resources with the political power of Meitei, infrastructural developments in Imphal and other valley districts, job opportunities, socio-economic status, and the dominance of the Meitei language—which is clearly a tactic to expand its dominance into the tribal lands and resources.

Call for Unity is Opportunistic

Coming back to the protest, why is it that the valley suddenly remembers of unity for all the people of Manipur when they have distanced themselves in owning up their hegemony over tribals for many decades? The need for unity to come together for the protest in Manipur university is very opportunistic. Tribals have endured the tactic of the valley people using them to manoeuvre their political agenda. The last time the valley people remembered of unity is when “Hingmannasi Eikhoi (let’s live together in unity)” music video was out in 1990s. Between then and now, it is a vacuum which is void of any effort by them as a dominant community to come forward, acknowledge their mistakes and political misadventure, and instill a sense of being a good neighbour.

It is really an abomination that without reflecting on this, they have the audacity to call on tribal students to be a part of the Manipur University protest against the VC. Remember, there was no support from the Meitei students of Manipur University when tribal students were protesting in regards to reservation issue in 2017 and before. Meitei students were not compelled to join the protest.

Even beyond Manipur University too, a reflection must also be made on why no tribals are involved in ILP movement, and why is there no collective fight against AFSPA. It is imperative to mention that all the students in Manipur Universitiy and various affiliated institutions, including tribal students are all affected from this protest and they are certainly losing out their academic year for not getting marksheet, exams being postponed etc.

Denial of Agency

In making a sweeping statement against the tribal students’ organisation as puppets of right-wing government, or calling every tribe as unthinking set of people is demeaning and discriminatory. It can be seen as a denial of their rights, agency and existence.

The choices available to tribal students matter, and the Meitei people must know that their positions and politics are more unreliable and harmful than the right-wing politics—which they are objecting to. There is no point in sermonising tribal people of unity to suit their convenient politics. The least the tribals are expecting from the Meitei is the latter to come forward and work towards building a society by recognising the differences and allowing space for respect to diverse cultures, customs and practices, religions, ethnicity and identity, and political agency. If these are addressed, we wont be experiencing the current complexities we are creating at our political dispensation and circumstances.

(The author is a researcher based in Manipur. This is a personal blog and the views expressed above are the author’s own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for the same.)