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#Thread India's eyes have moved off #Manipur. But the fires that the powerful lit in the state will burn for more than a generation. A twitter note reflecting on us who watch it from afar.
1. It is understandable that many average citizens from the respective communities have been outraged at the mayhem and in anger blamed the other side entirely for it. This is what the violence was supposed to deliver for the powerful - hate and anger.
Some of them, angrily share the plight of only their community members on social media to highlight how the other is the only oppressor in this episode
3. But how have we as observers reacted?
4. Many of us who on an average have little empathy, interest or understanding of the social and political dynamics of Manipur have tried to fit the news to confirm our mainland narratives.
5. A majoritarian communal attack by the Hindi majority Meitei in valley against the christian minority Kuki in the hills. Triggered by the RSS support to Meitei, empowered by the BJP state govt being either the subtext or direct claim.
6. Another trope: An environmental debate about land and resources and a historical asymmetric division of these with the BJP state government suddenly acting to remove 'encroachments' without due process.
7. Some talk of: The influx of 'migrant' Kuki and the response of that by Meitei in the plains who feel constricted in the valley.
8. The demand of ST status by Meitei community and the response of Kuki community against it as a whole, is another element that many of us throw in.
9. And now of course we have many kuki leaders, cutting across party lines, coming out asking for a separate administrative arrangement for their community.
10. Some of us try to blend the Manipur episode into the Hindutva vs Minorities conflict that the BJP + RSS fuels and supports in mainland India. The Manipur episode becomes one more proof for us of what is very true in several parts of mainland India.
11. Some of us write or think about the Manipur riots, either directly or subconciously, as if the whole of two communities are some violent, primitive community always waiting to have a go at each other.
12. This plays to the stereotype that large parts of India fosters about our people in India's northeast. The stereotype that is attached to the 'tribal' and 'tribalism'. I know so many in mainland who unwittingly (forget the ones blatantly racist) fall for this trope.
13. Consequently we end up either demonising one community as evil or we end up infantilising and thinking of both communities as a whole as intrinsically violent and ever-ready to kill each other given the first provocation.
14. Remember when communal riots so often take place in mainland India how the sane amongst us take effort to dig, comment, understand who are the political forces and vested interests fueling the violence.
15. How we take extra effort to distinguish the power players and politics that is first radicalsing the people and then arming the radicals with impunity, arms and money to undertake riots.
16. We take pain to describe how there are 'ordinary' citizens from both impacted communities who are merely victims of these ugly games of power.
17. Why didnt we focus more in the case of Manipur on the role of the state and the government as separate from the people and the people in both communities as separate from the radicalised elements? And how the other fissures have only been used as trigger by vested interests?
18. Why did we not by default wonder how the drug trade in the state has been carried out with impunity for so long at such scale and how the state and other powerful actors have either played along or played in it?
19. Is it possible that the Central agencies were not aware of such a crisis for long while?
20. Who are the political actors across communities that fueled the trade and then the communal riots?
21. Why wouldnt we be aware that in small tightly knit communities with each member living in physical and emotional connect with rest it would be difficult for the moderate voices of BOTH communities to speak out at this juncture so what you will hear from the state is limited?
23. That at a time when the state acknowledges that of arms (guns etc) have gone missing and been found among the radicalised and that there are armed groups who live in part shadow acceptance by state, it is not possible for the average citizen to speak out.
24. That the RSS may be trying to increase its influence in the meitei with BJP in power but the meitei hinduism is not that of rest of India. That the story is not a simple fit for the majority vs minority rift tgat we try to fight against in mainland India.
25. That the violent actors have emerged from both communities and that they have been empowered by a horrible political play money and power which we must uncover and write about.
26. That we all give a free pass to the State - the centre and the state government and its many policing and intelligence agencies - when we play into these tropes that just are too convenient and easy to play on social media fitting with existing politics.
27. I write as a journalist and as a person who comes from mainland India but has his life and loved ones in Manipur.
28. It anguishes and angers me to see so many in mainland India react with emotional/political naivete, reductionism and myopia while thinking/suggesting we in Manipur are the emotional ones there just waiting to kill each other.
29. Our world is as complex and layered with politics, economy, interests, identity, history, social dynamics and aspirations as any. Its just different from mainland India's mix. Substantively so.
30. Those who willingly or otherwise demonise one community in entirety or the other, or both. You are using our lives to fit your story and preconceived biases. Dont. Thank you to several others who have spent time thinking, writing or observing more deeply on Manipur. END
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