Home >> Articles >> Indigenous Peoples and Right To Live Together

Fringe people, fringe area, native land, native peoples or indigenous peoples with all the inherent inter-community rivalries, problems, issues, etc. these are the things that struck my mind when I started thinking of the indigenous peoples of Manipur, after I was approached by the organizers to be a substitute speaker and suggested to focus on the rights of every indigenous communities both scheduled tribes and non-scheduled ones - the Meitei and Meitei Pangal to settle in any part of Manipur.

Now, let me begin with the fact that the majority of the indigenous peoples of Manipur - Meitei and Meitei Pangal which consist about 2/3rd of the total population, is deprived of their rights to call themselves a rightful citizen of the state of Manipur. The present constitutional provisions - of the 33 indigenous groups of people or communities, only 31 communities which are listed in the list of Scheduled tribes have the right to settle in any part of the state of Manipur. Whereas the Meitei and Meitei Pangal can settle only in the valley area constituting about 9 % of the total area of the state. This is a bizarre constitutional situation.

The background is that during the British rule in Manipur from 1891 to 1947, the hills of Manipur have been reserved by the British authority for the hill communities to protect them from exploitation by the advanced people from the mainland Hindu heartland of India.

However, the interesting part of the story is that the Meitei community which were converted to Hindu in the 18th century and the Meitei Pangals were also included in the advance communities of the mainland India, basically because of the religious factor. In addition to it, the Vaishnavite culture and taboo of the Hindu Meitei had helped in the social division of the then Manipur Society. Indeed, the majority of the Meitei were proud to be Hindus and did not question the British authority when it denied the Meitei Community from settling and owning lands in the hills, probably because the Meitei wanted to identify themselves with the mainland Hindu Indians. Another reason could have been that in the minds of the Meitei there was enough land in the valley.

After independence in 1947 the psyche of the Meitei community remained the same and it was probably under the impression that there was enough of fertile land in the valley and that nobody among the rulers or social leaders bothered to take a review of the then existing law initiated by the British even during the Self-Rule period between August 15, 1947 to October 15, 1949. Indeed, there was no voice in this regard, from any quarter of the Meitei and Meitei-pangal groups.

When Manipur was merged into the dominion of India on October 15, 1949 and become a part of the Indian republic, nobody especially the political leaders of Manipur ever made any demand to the Government of India to rectify the constitutional provision which deny the Meitei and Meitei-Pangal Communities the right to settle in any part of Manipur as if it was natural and justified.

However the need for the rights of every indigenous groups of people to settle in any part of Manipur without any discrimination started feeling strongly after:
(i) the pressure in the valley area were felt due to the huge population growth in the valley since 1950s;
(ii) lands were required for use in developmental activities of the State like construction of infra-structure development for industries, institutions, national highways and state highways etc;
(iii) plans for developmental project like the seri - project, the plantation of tea, coffee etc are taken up.

The total area of Manipur is hardly 23 thousand sq. km with a population of 20 lakhs or so which is like a big city of a country in the world. When the world has been reduced to global village, Manipur remains to be a vast land of cities, towns, hills and valley of the medieval age with leaders with feudal attitude or the mindset of a Bushman. This has been the curse of the society. The social and the political leaders fail to show the people that the best option open to us is to nurture and develop a social culture which can absorb ideas from the developed society as to how we could also march towards development.

Now it is necessary to remind ourselves that a community does not have the right to deny any right to an individual belonging to another community from residing and owning land in any part of the state. No government does have the moral right and authority to do so, especially against any indigenous people.

However the question of protecting the indigenous communities from the onslaught of advanced major communities is a different matter. But the demand by a community or group of communities for the exclusive right of any part of the territory definitely goes against the spirit of equality and fraternity acceptable to the indigenous peoples. Therefore it should be done away with.

If the indigenous peoples of Manipur do care for their children and for their future generations, they must realize that they are the common custodian of this small piece of land, in which all the indigenous groups of people have been living together since time immemorial. There is no valid reason to stick to an archaic act banning fellow indigenous groups to live together.

Indeed the people must look for other positive options which will help develop a balanced development economically in every nook and corner of Manipur. Take for example, Tamenglong district, it is a place for punishment posting for the government employees not because it is a hill district but because of the deplorable road conditions which takes 8/9 hours to reach from Imphal. When there is no good road and effective communication how can there be development.

The basic requirement of development of any place is good and all season roads connected to all important towns and villages. They are like the arteries of the heart. This is the basic necessity which should be realised by those who are responsible for taking decisions, policy planning and work execution.

Indeed the economic development of the state will integrate the society into a homogeneous society irrespective of the differences of language or community. This is exactly what is happening in other societies where economic activities remove the barrier of language, community, religion, etc.

Therefore the attention of all especially, the elected leaders and the government -- the Chief Minister and his cabinet may be drawn to the fact that what we require today is to enact and implement a proper land law in the state of Manipur in place of the existing one which will take into account the difficulties faced by the communities living in the interior part of the hills. But at the same it must take into accounts the rights of all the 33 indigenous communities of Manipur. While enacting and implementing the law the governments, both the state and union must not deny or deprive any of the 33 communities of their rights to settle in any part of the territory of Manipur without any discrimination. This may be the best guarantee of the people of Manipur to go ahead in the direction of development and this will promote the spirit of integrity among the indigenous peoples of Manipur.