ExplainerWhy did India’s Manipur state explode in ethnic violence?

The road to Heiroklian is smooth and freshly laid, with a sign proclaiming it part of an Indian government development initiative. But ethnic violence has reduced the village itself to little more than smouldering ashes. Sanatomba picked through the ruins of his sister’s home in the northeastern state of Manipur, trying to salvage anything of value, but could only recover a traditional stool. “This used to be my sister’s kitchen,” the 20-year-old said. “That was her room and she kept her TV there, the fridge there, the almirah (cupboard) for clothes there. But now everything she shared with her husband, four children and other family members is gone forever.” More than 60 people have been killed in the hilly border region in clashes between the majority Meitei people, who are mostly Hindus, and the mainly Christian Kuki tribe. Thousands of troops have been deployed to restore order, while around 35,000 residents have fled their homes for the safety of ad hoc army-run camps for the displaced. Sanatomba’s sibling is among them. They are Kuki, and he is sure she and her family will never be able to return. “She told me to come here and look for anything I can find,” he said, his hands and feet covered in black soot. Death toll rises to 54 after ethnic clashes in India’s remote northeast The rest of the village suffered a similar fate, its three settlements littered with broken doors, burnt-down water tanks, and forced-open metal trunks. The towering village church, a school building, and even a jackfruit tree were set on fire by the attackers. The raiders stole residents’ cattle and poultry, Sanatomba said. “Those animals they couldn’t take alive, they killed and took away as meat,” he said. “I am afraid of Meitei people.” The far-flung states of northeast India – sandwiched between Bangladesh, China and Myanmar – have long been a tinderbox of tensions between different ethnic groups. The spark for the latest ethnic clash was a protest about plans to give the Meitei “Scheduled Tribe” status. A form of affirmative action to combat structural inequality and discrimination, that classification would give them guaranteed quotas of government jobs and college admissions. Violence erupted in the regional capital Imphal and elsewhere, with protesters setting fire to vehicles and buildings. According to villagers, Meitei mobs armed with guns and petrol cans then attacked Kuki settlements in the hills. Authorities are concerned there could be more reprisal attacks “as both communities have now accumulated weapons”, an army officer said. “Are you sure that none of you have any weapons that you would like to surrender?” a senior officer asked a Kuki gathering at a village outside Imphal on Monday. “The other community has promised to surrender their weapons if you do too,” he added. “I want you to consider this as it doesn’t help either community to have these weapons in circulation.” None of the mostly male audience did so. Thanglallem Kuki, 32, a teacher at a private school, watched from a hilltop as his village of Kamuching was attacked and burned to the ground, spending two nights in the jungle before being rescued and taken to an army camp. He said the Meitei mob went from house to house, retrieving valuables, electronic gadgets, cooking gas cylinders, and even mattresses, loading their loot into vehicles. “After that they burned the houses and they were burning one house to another house,” he said. “For the first time when they burned the houses, they left some houses unburnt and they stormed in after two days again and they completely burnt it.” He had been left with nothing, he said. “We were looking and crying with broken hearts and we looked down on our houses being burnt to ashes with helplessness and without hope.” What sparked Manipur’s deadly clashes? The violence in the state bordering Myanmar began on May 3 when tribal groups clashed with a non-tribal group, the ethnic majority Meitei, over economic benefits and quotas given to the tribes. The trouble was quelled after New Delhi rushed thousands of paramilitary and army troops to the state of 3.2 million people. On May 3, members of the Kuki and Naga tribes, who inhabit Manipur’s hills and are regarded as Scheduled Tribes, or India’s most disadvantaged groups, launched a protest against the possible extension of their benefits to the dominant Meiteis. The Meitei have sought special benefits for more than a decade, but received a fillip last month after the Manipur High Court recommended the government should consider the demand and set a deadline of mid-May. It has been building up for a long time … but the government was not paying attention Pradip Phanjoubam, Indian journalist Meiteis account for half of Manipur’s population and extending limited affirmative action quotas to them would mean they would get a share in education and government jobs reserved for Kukis and Nagas. Meiteis have traditionally lived in Manipur’s more prosperous valley region that makes up 10 per cent of the state’s area. They have also had better access to employment and economic opportunities. Nagas and Kukis live in the poorly developed hills. The development imbalance favouring the valley over the hills has been a point of contention and rivalry between the ethnic groups. Why did ethnic violence explode now? Meiteis, Nagas and Kukis mostly coexisted peacefully until unrelated events in recent months exposed old faultlines. Manipur shares a nearly 400km (250-mile) border with Myanmar and the coup there in 2021 pushed thousands of refugees into the Indian state. Kukis share ethnic lineage with Myanmar’s Chin tribe and Meiteis feared they would be outnumbered by the arrival of the refugees. Separately, the state government in February launched a drive to evict tribal communities from forests in the hills, saying they had encroached on government land, sparking anger among tribal people that they were being forced out of their homes. “It has been building up for a long time, in some ways unseen and some ways quite openly, but the government was not paying attention,” said Pradip Phanjoubam, editor of the Imphal Review of Arts and Politics.