‘Violence in Manipur must stop, weapons must be returned and there must be a truce and reconciliation panel’.
As the crisis in Manipur refuses to abate almost two months since it exploded on 9 May, a keen observer of the situation in the northeast state Lt. Gen. Shokin Chauhan (Retd), who was the Chairman of the Ceasefire Monitoring Group in August 2018, has said that talks between communities without any external element present is the only way to salvage the situation.
Chauhan, who as a young Major and company commander in 1988-1990, worked with several Kuki tribes and to this day, he feels that Meiteis versus Kukis at this level is a first of its kind. “Given my time with the Nagas as CFMG after my retirement when ceasefire agreements were signed, I saw how they have noted down all incidents of wrongdoings according to them since the 1950s onwards and they even quote it to remind you,” said Lt. Gen. Chauhan, adding these are extremely sensitive people.
As The Sunday Guardian spoke to the former Director General of Assam Rifles, India’s oldest and largest paramilitary force that has been decorated many times for many roles, he said education and economic policy to ensure the tribals remain a part of India are of utmost importance. Excerpts:
Q: Do you see a solution to the Manipur crisis in sight?
A: There is always a solution when you are dealing with human beings but the issue is that there are deep scars at the moment, … and the schism in the society needs to be removed and among the many things that must happen, there must be peace; secondly, the weapons must be deposited; third, the leaders of the two communities of the two tribal groups must sit down, I feel, …. where they sit down and talk and sort the issues out among themselves…I repeat, the violence must stop… the weapons must be returned and there must be a truce and reconciliation committee so that communities can have a chance to heal.
Q: We know that the Northeast was on the road of development under DoNER; what went wrong on 9 May?
A: It was not May 9 at all .. May 3/4 was just the spark. It was actually 23 April, when CM Biren was to go to Churachandpur. He was to inaugurate an Open air gym, he did not reach there yet, and the tribal kuki, the tribal students committee burnt down the gym and then started the process for the rest of it.
Q: Do you see external hands in the crisis?
A: There are 2/3 issues here: One, is the location of Manipur, it is India’s most Northeast state. It is bordered by Myanmar’s Sagaing region which is populated by the Chin people. The Chins are battling the Myanmar army in the recent battle of Tatmadaw against its own people. The Chins are actually the Chinzos, the Mizos and Kukis. The Kukis derive their background from the Chinzo, so they have a very close community connect. with the Mizos of Mizoram and Kukis of Manipur. In Myanmar itself, the Kukis and Meiteis are on opposite sides of the spectrum, the Meiteis are with Tatmadaw, and the Kuki and Ching are against them.
So, the issue of getting weapons is actually superfluous because there are a lot of weapons on sale in Myanmar, the reason being that there is a small region of Myanmar bordering China’s Yunnan province; Ruili is a well-known place for grey market and all insurgent groups buy grey market weapons from Ruili.
So that gives China the deniability it seeks—that they are not involved—but actually in reality everything sold in Ruili is controlled by the PLA. So what happens is that if there is already a schism between communities, the PLA are certain in creating erosion, there is absolutely no doubt about it.
The hidden outside hand is the hand of people living opposite Manipur in Myanmar and second thing is easy availability of weapons from Ruili controlled by the PLA, and there comes in the Chinese interest. Any problem in India is automatically used by the Chinese to create more chaos, especially in the NE because of its geostrategic location. This is something that has been used and existed since WWII, when Japanese came through China Myanmar—the Battle of Imphal and Kohima followed. The routes existed in 1944, they exist in 2023, nothing much has changed. The rival problems are the same. There is no doubt in my mind that there is an outside hand. But the greater problem is lack of trust between communities staying on the other side and then bleeding into Manipur.
Q: Is it poppy or religion at the heart of darkness shrouding Manipur?
A: I would say neither. It is this distrust between the people and their economic situation which has forced them to cultivate poppy. But where does the end product go, who profits from it? Narcotics money is being earned across the communities by various people. It is definitely not religion.
It is intercommunity problem—lack of trust and the fact they have been used by dishonest politicians and are being manipulated.
Q: Are the rifts between the hills and Imphal permanent, because some of the tales of horror that came out showed both older and younger generations saying they will not set foot on the plains ever?
A: The rift should not be permanent but it is very deep. Actually, before the crisis, the younger generation was experiencing intercommunity bonhomie, the lines were blurred, there was camaraderie. They appear to belong to the state of Manipur rather than any community. They did not identify themselves as Kuki or Meitei.
But this has taken that away. So, they have to forget this, they have to have peace, return the weapons because those weapons are causing problems and then they have to sit down and talk this together. Only the people of the communities should do this, and nobody else should be involved. After all the whites and South Africans have done this, so why can’t these communities talk? They have been there for centuries and they will be there for many more; they cannot just move away or settle somewhere else. So talk they have to, to settle and put it in the past.
Q: As an unidentified school teacher became the latest victim on 6 July, do you feel more tribes / sub tribes / or from neighbouring states joined the Kuki v/s Meitei ethnic clashes?
A: There is an uncertain uneasy calm between the tribal communities across that region—be it Nagas, Kukis, Meities, … I hope they rise above this and get together.
You know you cannot change geography, these ancient lands, ancient ppl. they have been there for several generations and they will be there for several hundred more generations. I do not see them moving to any other part of the world, so they have to get together, communities have to sit down and talk. But the more these unidentified school teachers, the more different tribes get hurt, things will be messier. Community loyalty is huge… how strongly they feel about themselves and how insecure they are can only be explained if you understand that these are tribal people who hold on to their culture, legacy, tradition much more securely than we could ever understand. Their roots run deep into their histories. They are so strongly into their recorded history that they do not allow you or themselves to forget it.
Tribal loyalties, tribal culture–one that is different or even say almost foreign to us, something that we in the mainland might not fathom–is what dictates their lives, so if one attacks the other will retaliate that is normal standard issue, there is no dearth of weapons
Though they have been at peace for 70 to 100 years there is a longer history of violence between them. Arable land is an expensive commodity in the NE. So, this may be a battle for land or commodity, may be an economic problem, manipulated prob or an ancient problem
When you talk to them, there is a lot of pain, cultural, historical problems, there is no one issue here; you can’t put a finger and say this caused it. I have a long association with the area both as an Army man and later and I strongly believe we need policies to deal with these very fragile communities, they are very small in comparison to the mainland and we have to be more careful, definitely more sensitive–what will work in the long run–we must create schools there, jobs there, we must bring education there and we must make ppl of these communities part of the economic growth of India.
They must see their future in India and in the economic growth of India, so that they drown these cultural differences and join the mainstream, and this is my personal opinion. I feel sympathetic towards these communities, I believe in the NE stretch of India, both my father and I have fought insurgencies in the region as armed personnel. I retain a great deal of sensitivity towards these very small fragile communities and I have found them to be wonderful, honourable people, very talented with immense potential. So, I genuinely hope they get over this and continue on their path of economic progress which is of utmost importance. They must have a future in our country.