Daily Times

After a long peaceful stretch that seemed to suggest a decline in violence and a return to normalcy, Manipur bleeds again. Manipur lies in India’s remote northeast, a region linked to the rest of the country by a narrow land corridor that has experienced decades of unrest among separatist and ethnic groups-at least 50,000 people have lost their lives to ethnic conflicts since the 50s when tensions first erupted.

This time, the unrest arose from a dispute over who gets to claim special tribal status and access to the privileges that come with that status. The largest group in the state, the Meitei people, are seeking that designation for themselves, prompting intense opposition from other tribes in the area. Footage from the scene shows people setting fire to homes and vehicles, churches and temples, and vehicles on otherwise empty streets have been burned to the ground.

Despite all this, Manipur has received little to no coverage in Indian news outlets, specifically those affiliated with the government. The army claims that they have the situation completely under control but because the authorities have also shut down all internet services and imposed a state-wide curfew, it is safe to say that this probably isn’t true. If things were really under control, the government wouldn’t grant itself special powers to shoot on sight when confronted with enraged mobs looking for blood. But contrary to the state’s claims, the violence in Manipur was neither unpredictable nor spontaneous-in fact, it has been slowly brimming for decades, finally ready for harvest.

Northeastern India has never been a stranger to violence-with some of the country’s oldest separatist movements, the region has witnessed some of the darkest moments in India’s short history. But unlike other parts of India, the current riots in Manipur do not stem from religious violence as much as they do from the aggressive integrationist attempts of the state and the majority-minded Meitei groups to assimilate tribals and effectively rob them of the little constitutional freedoms they are still allowed. If anything, the current outbreak of violence in Manipur is emblematic of a much deeper disdain for state intervention, particularly when it grants the already influential majority extra powers to bulldoze opposition and dissenters. *