Kuki Community's Cry for Justice: Is India Failing to Protect Minority Rights?

Owing to its unity in diversity aspiration unlike the concept of Western secularism, Indian secularism is unique. The Indian philosophy of secularism is related to “Sarva Dharma Sambhava” (literally it means that the destination of the paths followed by all religions is the same, though the paths themselves may be different) which means equal respect to all religions and equal protection by the state. It gives its citizens the fundamental Right to Freedom of religion and faith, and management of its affairs under Articles 25-28 of the constitution. What use is of a Right that can’t be protected and practised against the tyranny of a majority community?

The Supreme Court-appointed committee formed to look into the humanitarian aspects of the ethnic violence in Manipur had asked the government in the state in September last year to “immediately identify” all religious buildings in the state and protect them from damage and encroachment. Does the government of Manipur give a cent on the request? The demolition of Chongthu Baptist Church in Aigejang village yet again as they did in Imphal and other Kuki villages attacked by Meitei terrorists is the answer.

Deliberate destruction of non-military targets is considered a war crime. But unlike other civilian buildings, attacks on religious structures have a particular motivation and their destruction has unique, long-term cultural consequences. Churches are often deliberately targeted as centuries-old symbols of history, heritage, and faith, filled with priceless experiences and furnishings of deep meaning to the local community. Destruction of religious buildings is a key component in the definition of cultural genocide. Among many other potential reasons, cultural genocide may be committed for religious motives as part of a campaign of ethnic cleansing in an attempt to remove the evidence of a people from a specific locale or history; as part of an effort to implement a Year Zero, in which the past and its associated culture are deleted and history is “reset”. Hence the attacks on religious buildings, important cultural offices, hospitals, and schools which are owned and run by Kuki and its Civil Society Organizations along with the homes of the Kukis and themselves.

8 months have passed since an ethnic cleansing and genocide pogrom has been executed against the Kuki community by the majority Meitei community in the state. India might not have any domestic law on genocide, even though it has ratified the Convention on Genocide. But as a signatory, it is well informed of the nature and the cruelty of genocide and ethnic cleansing which can be known from its criminalization of the crime under IPC section 153B. Thus its silence on atrocities committed against its groups of citizens and their faith under a government of its jurisdiction to date is rather frightening than a disappointment.

When a crime against humanity like genocide and ethnic cleansing is committed, included in the human rights violations is the violation of many basic Fundamental Rights and Constitutional Rights that a democratic constitution and country endows to its citizens as well. Thus what of Kuki Indians who are violated of, among other rights, their fundamental rights of the Right to Equality under Articles 14-16, the Right to Freedom under Article 19, the Right to Freedom of religion under Articles 25-28, Cultural and Educational rights under Articles 29-30 and last but not the least, their right to life and liberty under Article 21. Rights that cannot be protected and enforced against tyranny are as good as non-existent. Is India not powerful enough to protect their rights and to give them justice?

The direct involvement of the Biren-led government is an established fact by now, living in denial of its involvement will only question one’s intellectual capacity. If one goes back in time a bit, one can see the demo presented by Biren himself to Arambai Tengol prior to the final execution of their pogrom on 3rd May 2023 viz. the demolition of churches and eviction from places particularly belonging only to Kukis, besides the hate, defamatory and belittling speech on Kukis. The only difference is now it is executed on a larger scale. One can say the silence of the central government despite the glaring evidence is proof of its permission to go ahead with the genocide and ethnic cleansing of the Kuki. Or else it could only mean they are kept in the dark? Or that they are powerless and incapable of acting?

The surrender of the Constitutional institutions like the state Legislature and its Executive to a Taliban-like militia - the Arambai Tengol - has murdered democracy, constitutional rights and the constitution itself in the state. Taking an oath not only to protect the integrity of Manipur for Arambai Tengols but also their pledge to fulfil the demands of Arambai Tengol whose demands will not only suppress the democratic and constitutional rights of the Kukis but question the legality of Kuki’s citizenship status means it concurs to their ideology as well. It’s ironic that the central government expects our welfare and protection under a government that doesn’t even consider us their equal but surrenders our democracy and our constitutional rights.

And the Kuki village defence forces’ defense should not, I repeat should never be equated with that of state-sponsored militia the Arambai Tengol. Experiences have taught Nelson Mandela to speak on the issue rightly and I quote “A freedom fighter learns the hard way that it is the oppressor who defines the nature of the struggle, and the oppressed is often left no recourse but to use methods that mirror those of the oppressor. At a point, one can only fight fire with fire”. Left to fend on its own, the Kuki village defence force has no option but to take up the methods their oppressor used, to protect the priceless gift the constitution gives them in the forms of their Rights and their democracy, the land their ancestors fought for even against the mightiest empire that existed on earth and their families, or else what awaits them is annihilation. The Kukis cannot be reliant on the central forces for they become powerless before the radicalised mobs that pave the path for their militia, thus the central forces have advised the Kukis on many occasions to leave their homes for their survival on many instances.

Radicalization of the Meitei community against the Kukis has reached the point where any Kuki is seen as an object to be played against and butchered off, infants and adults alike. They don’t see them as their equals; Kukis’ liberty is seen as a threat to their own and fraternity and being Kuki considered a crime. Dr BR Ambekar stresses the importance of the harmonious existence of Equality, Liberty and Fraternity and says, that without Equality, Liberty would produce supremacy of the few over the many, Equality without Liberty would kill individual initiatives, and without Fraternity, Liberty and Equality can not become a natural course of thing.

Thus where there is no Equality and Liberty in the state of Manipur for the Kuki and the feeling of Fraternity for Kuki by the majority Meitei community as a consequence of prejudices and radicalization, where is the democracy for the Kukis that their forefathers fought for? If the Separate Administration is the solution for the existence of democracy and a way forward to ensure the constitutional rights of the Kukis, then Separate administration is the right India owes them, for an oppressed minority is never a tool to soothe the ego of the majority oppressor. They rather have every right to live with dignity, enjoy all the privileges the constitution endows upon them as citizens of a democratic country like all Indians citizen do.