Louis Thomas
The turmoil that has rocked Manipur for the past year shows no sign of resolution. This bloodshed is a product of ethnic conflict that has intensified and been exploited by local and central governments for years. Big protests are beginning to erupt in response to this seemingly endless spiral of violence, impunity and injustice.
On 11 November, there was an attack on the Borabekra relief camp in Jiribham district, which comprises people from Meitei villages. The attack was organised by a group associated with the Hmar tribes. The relief camp was also located near a Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) paramilitary camp, and 10 Hmar militants were gunned down by security forces.
Two residents of the relief camp were found dead nearby. Three children and three women were abducted and later killed. 83 people continued to reside in the relief camp even after the incident.
Recently, protests have intensified following the 15 December killing of a youth in Manipur by police. Meira Paibis (a social movement of women in Manipur) blocked National Highway 102, condemning the killings and demanding the release of six other prisoners, who were claimed as village volunteers by the women protestors.
Inter-ethnic violence
The northeast of India has huge history of insurgency movements, and inter-tribal conflicts for territory. Every group had their own armed militias. What triggered the initial protest in Manipur was a false judgement by the Manipur High Court, which gave the Meiteis scheduled tribe status, when they were previously not under that category. This decision would enable upper-caste Hindu Meitei to buy land in the areas inhabited by Kuki tribes, who are mostly Christian.
This led to a mobilisation and protest by Kuki in the Churachandpur and Bishnupur districts. The protest was repressed by the BJP government, led by Biren Singh. The Kuki who resided in Imphal Valley had to flee from their residences to hilly regions to escape the attacks of Meitei mobs, just as Meiteis also had to flee from hills where they were in the minority.
Nearly 250 lost their lives, and thousands were displaced in relief camps, in these ethnic riots. 250 churches and 132 temples were demolished, and 4,700 houses were torched. There had been instances of looting of ammunition and arms from security forces by armed militants of both groups. Drone attacks have even been used by the militant outfits.
The Manipur violence, which started in May 2023, came into the limelight only when large Meitei mobs stripped two Kuki women naked, gang-raped them, and posted videos of the assaults, which were circulated in the media. It is alleged that the state police and the ruling BJP government were silent spectators during these horrific attacks. Prime Minister Modi has not said a word nor visited the state since the crisis erupted.
It is believed that Chief Minister Biren Singh and the BJP government in power are supporting the Meties, reflecting and leaning on ethnic sectarianism and exploiting the religious divide between Meiteis and Kukis. Though Modi campaigned in nearby states for the 2024 General election he never visited Manipur. The state assembly in Manipur is dominated by 39 members, who are Meitis MLAS, with only 10 Kuki. However, the Kuki BJP local assembly members are currently boycotting in opposition to the current violence.
Previously, the Armed Forces Special Powers Act, which grants immunity to armed forces against any prosecution, was used by Manipur governments indiscriminately. In Manipur’s history, there have been many police killings that have gone unnoticed due to this Act.
This law was revoked due to protests, but with the current crisis, the government re-imposed it on 14 November 2024 in five districts. On 10 December, International Human Rights Day, thousands took part in a massive rally in the capital city Imphal against the AFSPA and the killing of civilians by terrorists.
Right to self-determination
Manipur was forcibly and formally annexed into India on 21 September 1949. The government of India invited the king to Assam and forced him to remain there until he signed an agreement recognising this annexation. The historic Kangla Fort from which the Manipur kings ruled is now under the control of the military and it was from there it continued to oppress the people of Manipur.
Under British rule, Manipur was divided into valleys and hills for administration, following a policy of divide and rule. This policy has been continued by the ruling class after independence. There is also resentment amongst the hill people about the lack of development in hills comparatively to the valleys.
Like pre-revolutionary Russia, India is a jailhouse of nations. It is a country containing many diverse cultures, with Bengalis, Tamils, Biharis, Kashmiris, Manipuris, Nagas, Malayalees, Marathis, Telugus, Rajasthanis, Gujaratis and many ethnic minorities in the northeast.
Symptoms of the capitalist crisis, like poverty, unemployment and inequality have also aggravated national, ethnic, caste and gender oppression in the society. These divisions are exploited by the ruling class to distract the masses from the real source of their problems. The Modi government fervently utilises this trick.
Some sections of the poor and downtrodden, desperate for a way out of this crisis, turn to right-wing national movements, identity movements, ethnic movements and petty-bourgeois movements like Shiv Sena, the Naam Tamilar Party (NTK) in Tamil Nadu.
The capitalist crisis has fuelled reactionary but also progressive nationalist movements, both in backward and also in developed capitalist states. Communists have supported the struggle of the Catalan and Palestinian masses for national self-determination as an elementary democratic demand. But ultimately the national question cannot be solved on a capitalist basis.
While Lenin and the Bolsheviks supported the demand of oppressed nations for self-determination (striking a blow at imperialism as a world system), they called upon the communist movement to unite the working class of all nationalities, to win free education, employment for all, and the bringing of the main levers of the economy under workers control.
Lenin in “Thesis on the National Question” states:
“The sum-total of economic and political conditions in Russia therefore demands that Social-Democracy should unite unconditionally workers of all nationalities in all proletarian organisations without exception (political, trade union, co-operative, educational, etc., etc.). The Party should not be federative in structure and should not form national Social-Democratic groups but should unite the proletarians of all nations in the given locality, conduct propaganda and agitation in all the languages of the local proletariat, promote the common struggle of the workers of all nations against every kind of national privilege and should recognise the autonomy of local and regional Party organisations.”
No justice under capitalism!
The extreme right wing, led by Modi, continues to oppress the masses with their reactionary economic policies. Unemployment and inflation are at an all-time high. They continue to divert the class anger along religious, caste and ethnic lines. They explain the Manipur unrest by alleging high immigration of Kukis from the border state of Burma, thus pitting one ethnic group against another.
While the capitalist parties have no solution to ethnic and national conflicts, the Stalinist left in India led by CPI, CPM and CPI-ML has been no alternative to the capitalist parties. Unlike the Bolshevik policy of class independence and revolutionary struggle, their only alternative has been trailing behind national bourgeois parties like Congress and regional capitalist parties like DMK, Shiv Sena, etc., thereby diverting the class anger of masses down class collaborationist lines.
The nationalist movements, and identity movements based on caste and ethnic lines, continue to sharpen in the period of current capitalist decline. The Manipur issue and other ethnic conflicts cannot be solved on a capitalist basis. The working class all over India has to fight and expose the crimes of the regime at all levels.
In the backward countries of South Asia like India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, only a socialist revolution under the leadership of the working class can overthrow feudal backwardness, end sectarian hatred, and lay the basis for building a just and decent socialist society for all.
