Amid inquiries being conducted by both the State government and the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes, the Manipur government on February 19 junked the claims of Kuki-Zomi tribal people over swathes of land on the Thangjing Hills — where last month the installation of a Cross led to fresh tensions in the State — as “fabricated and concocted”.
The hill range, somewhere in the middle of the buffer zone created between Churachandpur and Bishnupur districts, has been contested by Kukis and Meiteis as that of religious and cultural significance to their respective communities. Contests over the right to pray and worship on the hill range have only escalated since the ethnic conflict between the two communities began on May 3, 2023.
The Manipur government order of Monday comes in response to a statement issued by a Kuki-Zomi youth body based in Churachandpur. The outfit, Lomlhang Som (LS), calls itself a youth forum of the Kuki-Zo people, and had issued a statement on February 15, asserting the community’s claim over the hill range.
‘Violation of SC orders’
The statement said that the LS along with village defence volunteers had initiated and escorted people from nearby areas to erect a Cross on the hills on January 25 this year, re-igniting tensions in the area. The Meitei community claimed that this was a violation of the Supreme Court’s orders to maintain status quo of all religious places in the State.
However, the Kuki-Zomi community has said that the erection of the Cross on Thangjing (spelt as Thang Ting by Kuki-Zomi people) Hills was just a re-assertion of the community’s claim to worship there.
Responding to the outfit’s statement, the Department of Forests, Environment, and Climate Change of the Manipur government on Monday issued orders through the Governor, dismissing the claims made by the LS and the village chief of Ukha Loikhai, one of the Kuki-Zomi villages nearby even though it said that inquiries in this regard were still underway.
The orders said that the notification that had put the village out of the jurisdiction of the Churachandpur-Khoupum Protected Forests had been cancelled in 2022, thus putting it inside its limits and qualifying it as an encroachment on protected lands. The State government continued that a fresh inquiry regarding the village’s status had already been initiated.
It added that the claim made over the Thangjing Hills was “fabricated and concocted” and was made “with a mala fide intention to mislead the general public”. The government order further said “there are no records” of the said land being designated as “Haokip Reserved” as claimed by the LS and the village chief of Ukha Loikhai.
Within days of the village being classified as within the limits of protected forests in 2022, village chief Thenkhomang Haokip had sent detailed complaints to the State government and the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes, saying that No Objection Certificate had not been obtained from him for re-classifying the land.
Months after the ethnic conflict began in 2023, the NCST took cognisance of the complaint and it too started an investigation by invoking its powers as a civil court.
Clash over worship rights
Even in the months before the ethnic conflict began in 2023, the two communities had clashed with each other over worshipping rights on the hill range the year before. After a Kuki students’ body issued a statement barring Meitei people from visiting the hill range, a Meitei body had issued a statement barring Kuki-Zomi people from the nearest town’s main market.
And although this conflict seemed to have been resolved in a meeting between the two communities in 2022, the point of contention has come back since the May 3 ethnic clashes began.
The Kuki-Zomi people have said that even before their people had embraced Christianity, the hill range was sacred to their people, earlier known as “Manmasi people” and their traditional religion “Nungjai Pathen”.
The Meiteis have claimed that they have been praying at the hill range from as far back as at least 2,000 years ago.
Meanwhile, the Indigenous Tribal Leaders’ Forum (ITLF), which had called for a government office shutdown on Monday in light of Kuki-Zo protesters being shot and killed last week during an agitation, withdrew its call late in the evening.
The Manipur government had issued orders to all employees not to follow the call given by the ITLF.
The protest had started because a Kuki-Zomi police official had been suspended by the Churachandpur SP for allegedly appearing with armed village defence volunteers while on duty.
The ITLF had given an ultimatum of 24 hours for the SP and DC of Churachandpur to leave the district over the suspension and action on protesters. With neither of them having left the district, the ITLF said on Monday, “They are now responsible for their own safety and security.”
