Complex Interplay of Manipur’s Ethnic Strife and Myanmar’s Political Crisis

Keywords: Northeast India, Myanmar, Manipur, Ethnic Conflict, Meitei, Chin, Kuki-Zo

Date: 11 Sept 2023

The ethnic strife in Manipur, a northeastern Indian state bordering Myanmar, has been fueled by historical grievances, resource redistribution politics, unchecked immigration, illicit drug trade and fear of cultural changes. The political crisis post-2021 coup in Myanmar has impacted Manipur’s internal dynamics and further sharpened inter-communal distrust. 

Myanmar junta’s February 2021 coup triggered new political alliances with the pro-democracy forces fighting alongside various Ethnic Armed Organizations (EAOs) nationwide against the Tatmadaw (or the military) regime. This has led to millions of Myanmar’s civilians being internally displaced and several thousands have fled to neighboring countries for survival and livelihood. 

Myanmar’s political conflict in the Indo-Myanmar region also shaped the context in which Manipur’s grievances have been expressed and addressed. Myanmar’s EAOs battling the junta require neighboring nations’ support, besides building cross-border inter-ethnic alliance, for sustenance. 

The Chin armed groups such as the Chin National Army (CNA) and Chin National Front (CNF) have been fighting to oust the military regime along the Indo-Myanmar borders, whom Junta airstrikes have repeatedly attacked. Cadres escaped into India and sought sanctuary in India’s northeastern states of Mizoram and Manipur. 

In January 2022, the junta forces invaded CNA’s headquarters at Camp Victoria in Myanmar’s Chin state bordering Indian states of Mizoram and Manipur. Civilians and cadres of Chin armed groups reportedly entered Mizoram and then Manipur due to ethnic and familial ties with Mizo and Kuki-Zo communities. 

The Irrawaddy reported that the junta enlisted India’s northeast insurgent groups to crush resistance groups in western Myanmar. Based on an interview with the CNF spokesman, Salat Htet Ni, it stated that the Manipur-based Zomi Revolutionary Army/Organization (ZRA/ZRO), which is in a ceasefire with the Indian government, launched armed raids against CNA/CNF bases in Chin state. 

It also reported that the ZRA had active clashes with the PDFs and CNF in Chin’s Tedim region at the behest of the Tatmadaw in January 2022. The report stated that Manipur’s “Meitei armed groups” joined with junta forces in Chin state’s Tonzang Township to crush resistance forces. 

Post-2021 inflow of Myanmar refugees into Manipur has raised concerns owing to the ease with which non-citizen immigrants blend into Kuki-Zo villages and towns. In July this year, the Manipur government identified 718 unlawful Myanmar citizens in Chandel district. 

Poppy cultivation is another factor contributing to communal hatred and violence between the two primary conflicting ethnic groups in Manipur. The northern part of Chin state, adjoining Manipur’s southern districts of Churachandpur and Kangpokpi districts, is dense with poppy cultivation, according to the UNODC. 

Poppy growing business sustains armed movements of Myanmar’s EAOs along the Indo-Myanmar borders. The military regime often gives concessions to poppy growers linked to anti-regime EAOs in exchange for peace deals with the military regime. Interestingly, CNF claimed that Manipur’s valley-based armed groups engaged in poppy cultivation in Chin state against its wishes. 

Manipuri CSOs, especially the Meitei groups, have alleged that many armed militant groups from Myanmar who entered Manipur joined poppy plantations and were involved in the illicit drug trade. The Kuki-Zo community has vehemently denied the allegation. 

Manipuri CSOs have further alleged that such nefarious activities are used to fund illegal cross-border movements of immigrants, including armed militants from Myanmar, into Manipur to realize the political demand of ethnic homeland transcending national boundaries for the Kuki-Zo ethnic groups. A prominent Manipur valley-based CSO has termed this as “narco-terrorism.” 

A 2021 report by the Amsterdam-based Transnational Institute revealed an increase in poppy cultivation across the Manipur hill districts, with Saikul (Kangpokpi), Chandel and Ukhrul sharing the most significant proportion of poppy growing areas in the state of Manipur. 

Anxiety among valley communities in Manipur, especially the Meitei communities, have been fueled by the consistent rise of settlements and villages in hill districts inhabited by Nagas and Kukis between 1969 and 2021, according to a data published in The Hindu (May 2023). It revealed an alarming rise of 262 settlements (nearly double) in the Kuki tribal-dominated district of Churachandpur within a span of 52 years. 

The changes in settlement patterns and trends in the hills ignite apprehensions among the Meitei community of Manipur, leading to the demand for various safeguarding mechanisms, which includes a demand for the Scheduled Tribe status to protect and preserve the long-established ethnic and cultural equilibrium in the state. 

In the absence of a convincing policy of the government to systematically deal with Myanmar’s refugee issue, anxiety-filled resentments among valley-based communities in Manipur has become a potent factor for inter-ethnic mistrust and hostility in the past two years. 

The genesis of Manipur mayhem lies in the amalgamation of factors ranging from inter-community mistrust, politics of redistribution and categorization, unchecked immigration, and illicit drug business in Manipur. 

The echoes of Manipur violence have already been felt in other neighboring states of Mizoram, Assam, Nagaland, and Meghalaya. Failing to find a sustainable and peaceful resolution to the Manipur crisis may create the ground for another round of ethno-religious communal violence in India’s northeastern states with the potential of jeopardizing India’s national security. 

Md. Farijuddin Khan is Assistant Professor at the Department of Political Science, Dhanamanjuri University, Manipur.