Silencing Tribal-Kuki History

Two particularly prominent instances from the recent past underscore the efforts of the majoritarian Meitei government led by N. Biren Singh, with huge support from the valley Meiteis, to suppress and manipulate the historical narrative of the Kuki-Zo tribals.

The first relates to the Chivu Stone Inscription which falsely attributed a British military victory over the Lushai chiefs in 1871-72 to King Chandrakirti Singh. The inscription claims that it commemorates his ‘victory over 112 rebel Lushai chiefs,’ but this is nothing less than a vulgar manipulation and distortion of facts. The Manipur Government used this historical version to persuade the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) to accept it as a fact, even though it deviated from well-documented writings and archival sources.

The British’s military expedition, known as the Lushai Expedition (1871-72) is well documented in the colonial  writings of Alexander Mackenzie (The North East Frontier), R.G. Woodthorpe (The Lushai Expedition), and Carey and Tuck (The Chin Hills, Vol.1). There are also solid archival sources on this historical event which showed that the Manipur contingent, drafted by the then officiating Political Agent of Manipur, Major General W.F. Nuthall under the instruction and command of Brigadier General G. Bourchier (the commanding officer of the Cachar column), had never directly participated nor entered into the Lushai Hills during the Lushai Expedition. The Manipur contingent, against instructions, encamped at Chivu near the Indo-Myanmar border. On March 7, 1872 when the Manipur  contingent was about to return, one of the important chiefs of the Kuki-Zo people, Goukhothang, and his men happened to pass through this  camp whence upon Balaram and Thangal, the two majors commanding the Manipur contingent, ‘treacherously seized’—to borrow Bourchier’s words—Goukhothang and his men. Goukhothang subsequently died in jail in 1873.

On 17 May 2020, the Tribal Intellectual Forum have expressed their dismay on the Manipur Government’s hasty action to build the memorial park during the outbreak of COVID 19 pandemic and appealed to de-notify and withdraw Chivu Stone Inscription and to stop constructing Chandrakirti Memorial Park at Chivu at the Indo-Myanmar border. In a press release dated April 26, 2022 the Zomi Chiefs’ Association, which comprises over 160 Kuki-Zo tribal chiefs in Manipur, expressed its displeasure against the proposed Maharaja Chandrakriti Memorial Park being constructed on the grounds, rightly lamenting that the inscriptions amount to historical distortion. However, in spite of the strong objection by the Kuki-Zo tribals, Manipur CM N Biren Singh inaugurated the Chivu Chandrakirti Memorial Park at Tonjang village in Churachandpur district and laid the foundation stone of the Manipur Southern Cultural Centre at Behiang along the Indo-Myanmar border on 14 October 2022.

The Meitei govt led by N. Biren Singh rather appears to demonstrate a total lack of empathy for the sentiments of the Kuki-Zo Tribals. Notably, the govt is characterized by a majority-centric policy, and relentlessly employs tactics that exacerbate tensions between various communities and marginalize the Kuki-Zo tribals.

The second incident relates to the Anglo-Kuki war of 1917-19. During the World War I that started in 1914, the British recruited over a million people from India to fight or aid in the conflict. From the North East, the British demanded that the Manipur King raise a group of Nagas, Lushais, Kukis and other tribes and press them into service as members of the Imperial Army’s Labour Corps.The Labour Corps provided logistical support to British soldiers.

However, Kuki chiefs refused to participate and revolted against the colonisers in 1917. After two years of fierce Kuki resistance, which tested the Assam Rifles as well as the British army, they were made to surrender. Nevertheless, it is remembered as one of the most significant challenges to British colonial rule. Robert Reid, who was the governor of colonial Assam between 1937 and 1942, had described the long-drawn conflict as “the most serious incident in the history of Manipur and relations with hill subjects… which took Rs 28 lakh to quell”.

The Manipur Police filed two cases against the author and editors of two books on the Anglo-Kuki War (1917-1919), one of the biggest uprisings by the Kukis against British colonial rule. The cases were filed on the basis of a complaint by the Federation of Haomee, an Imphal-based organization that claims to represent the interests of the Tangkhul-Meitei community, but is a mere puppet in the hands of the meiteis.

The first information report against Jangkhomang Guite and Thongkholal Haokip, the editors of the 2018 book, “The Anglo- Kuki War, 1917-1919: A Frontier Uprising Against Imperialism During the First World War”, was registered by the Meitei Police on August 7. Two days later, another first information report was filed against Vijay Chenji, a retired colonel of the Indian army, and the author of “The Anglo-Kuki War 1917-1919: Victory in Defeat”. The Meitei police booked Chenji, Guite and Haokip under the various provisions of the Indian Penal Code dealing with waging war against the Indian government, and promoting enmity between different groups, among others. What is surprising is that the Meitei Police acted very promptly.

An inclusive government should strive to honor and safeguard the historical legacies of all its constituent groups. In Manipur, while there exist numerous memorials commemorating the Meiteis’ resistance against British colonial rule, there is a notable acute absence of similar recognition for the Kuki-Zos and their struggle against the colonial British. This discrepancy suggests a disconcerting pattern in which the government not only fails to celebrate but also appears to employ strategies to belittle, suppress, and even obliterate the historical significance of the Kuki-Zos’ contributions and experiences.