Why Manipur scares minorities

Members of the Christian community protest against the violence in Manipur at Maqsuda Chowk in Jalandhar, Punjab. Pic/Twitter

The debate on the Opposition's no-confidence motion will unlikely focus on the fear the events in Manipur have spawned among India's minority and marginalised groups. Their fear is about Hindutva outfits, enjoying State patronage, targeting them. This has had them protest, in different parts of the country, against the State's complicity in the violence in Manipur even though they have no ethnic ties with the Kukis.

Discount the massive protest in Mizoram, for the Mizos and Kukis are ethnically bonded. But the same cannot be said of protests in Meghalaya and Arunachal Pradesh. The Nagas and Kukis are considered historical rivals, but last week the women's wing of the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (I-M), the most influential group among the Nagas, issued a statement saying "humanity is under attack in the most ruthless and cruel manner, that finds no parallel in the history of Manipur."

In Jharkhand, tribal organisations gathered for three consecutive days at Ranchi's Albert Ekka Chowk against the desultory ethnic battle in Manipur. Activist Dayamani Barla thought the Manipur violence was deliberately allowed in a bid to control power and resources there. Chhattisgarh's Adivasi Samaj organised a successful bandh last Monday in Bastar. The biggest surprise was Gujarat, where markets in several tribal-dominated districts were shut in solidarity with the Kukis.

Aligarh Muslim University students overcame their fear of the Uttar Pradesh government to agitate for the rights of Kukis. Their show of concern was in contrast to their silence over Hindutva outfits ordering Muslims to leave Purola town, Uttarakhand, weeks ago.

Punjab batting for Kukis is not a surprise, as the state has been at the vanguard of the emerging trend of minorities in one part of India expressing empathy for a minority group being oppressed in another part. Punjab had agitated fiercely against the reading down of Article 370, flashing posters that said: "Our pain is shared, our enemy is shared." Sikhs participated in Muslim-led protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019.

"Our enemy" in the poster was a reference to the organisations subscribing to Hindutva. They demonise the minorities in different pockets to acquire electoral majority and try to assimilate them into the Hindu fold. In tribal belts, it is also about appropriating resources for big businesses.

To achieve their goals, right-wing groups adopt different strategies depending on the identity of minorities caught in their crosshairs. But the goal everywhere is the same: establish the hegemony of Hindutva and homogenise India. It is not a coincidence that most of the social groups mentioned above have also expressed their disapproval of a uniform civil code.

A 2019 Caravan magazine story, Land of the Rising Sangh, provides telling examples of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh's strategy in the Northeast. At Khonoma, a Nagaland village, a rock resembling the head of a man was believed to represent the guardian spirit of the forest. It was declared to be Lord Siva's head. Near Ziro, in Arunachal Pradesh, a large, pointed rock was declared a Shivaling and the place rechristened the Sidheshwar Nath temple.

The Caravan story says a day at Vivekananda Kendra Vidyalayas in the region begins with a "Hindu prayer, followed by an hour of bhajans. Before every meal, irrespective of their faith, students recite another Hindu prayer. The day ends with another hour-long prayer session." The RSS also encourages the followers of indigenous religions to challenge Christian missionaries, some of whose bank accounts were frozen for allegedly violating the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act. Keeping the Northeast's ethnic cauldron perpetually simmering is not an exception for the Sangh.

After mercilessly demonising Muslims for a decade, the Bharatiya Janata Party is wooing Pasmanda, or backward caste, Muslims in order to divide the community. The party raised the bogey of Khalistan to undermine Punjab's overwhelming support for the farmer movement. It tried but failed to stoke the ire of Sikhs against Christians over their alleged proselytisation activities. Hundreds of participants in the Pathalgadi movement in Jharkhand were booked for sedition. Whenever and wherever Adivasis protest, they are summarily labelled Maoists.

India's minorities have drawn two lessons from Manipur. One, it is safer for minorities to live in contiguous areas and urban ghettos. Otherwise, they can be easy meat in a riot directed against them. This is why Manipur is witnessing a transfer of population between the valley, where the Meiteis dominate, and the hills, which is the Kuki turf. New borders will emerge in India, as had happened in Ahmedabad, where Muslims, irrespective of their class, flocked to Juhapura after the 2002 Gujarat riots.

Two, it is increasingly becoming the common sense that the casualties among the Kukis would have been infinitely higher had they not possessed arms to counter the armed Meitei groups. This fact could prompt misguided segments among minorities to arm themselves, an eventuality that could be perilous for India.

The banding of minorities out of their common fear is still at an incipient stage. The Amritsar-based sociologist Paramjit Singh Judge predicts, "Should the BJP get another term, this trend of minority consolidation across religious, ethnic and regional boundaries will only intensify." The barbarity in Manipur has given a new twist to minority politics.

The writer is a senior journalist.
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