Meiteis vs Kukis - A divide like no other in Manipur

Kangpokpi: In the pitch darkness of a quiet night, our bus was stopped by a couple of men who got in, took a quick look, ensured there were no Meiteis and got off. As we let out a collective sigh of relief, the realisation hit anew -- the divide in Manipur is complete, perhaps like none other.

Away from the headlines about violence in the northeast state, the schism in Manipur between the Kukis and Meitei communities is a lived reality, felt every minute of every day. The acrimony has been well known since the outbreak of hostilities last May, but a trip this week to cover the Congress’ Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra made me understand how deep it actually runs.

On the night of January 16, our bus full of journalists and a Congress representative was headed from Kohima to Imphal -- a distance of about 140 km that takes over five hours due to the condition of the road -- was stopped twice at 'check posts' manned by the Kukis.

The first time, the Kuki men got off when they realised we were all media personnel headed to Imphal to catch a flight the next day. There were some worries that the men could have been armed.

We were stopped again soon after.

The second 'check post' was guarded by Kuki women who stopped the bus and asked Lekha Nair, the woman representative of the Congress, to make an entry of the names of the people on the bus. A few journalists also got down to help her out.

Just then, a man came running seeing the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra flag on the bus, put up to allow the bus 'smooth passage' on a route not considered safe these days -- ever since May in fact when violence broke out between the Kuki and Meitei communities and the country woke up to the ethnic tension in the state.

The man apologised on behalf of the Kuki women, saying they did not mean to stop journalists and had mistaken them for "someone else". The bus moved on. And my one thought was - what if one of us was the "someone else"? Yes, they would have been taken off the bus and then what? The questions haunted. The back-to-back checks only reinforced what many of us had been feeling since January 14 when we reached Manipur to cover the launch of the Rahul Gandhi-led yatra.

Signs of the Kuki-Meitei divide first became evident when my colleague from PTI-Bhasha, Anwarul Haq, and I reached the venue of the yatra launch in Thoubal, about 25 km from the Manipur capital Imphal. Volunteers from a Meitei organisation handed us a glazed-paper booklet on "Kuki atrocities".

The next day, the yatra moved to Kohima in Nagaland from Imphal. The rips in the frayed social fabric became evident, unravelling as we travelled the distance in a bus full of journalists on January 15.

Several Kukis were seen lined up with banners seeking justice and highlighting the "atrocities" on them.

The stark divide became even more apparent as our bus moved into Kuki areas of Kangpokpi district under which falls the village of B Phainom where two women were paraded naked last May, a video of which went viral and led to massive outrage across the country. Kangpokpi is about 40 km from Imphal.

Banners stating that 'Meitei products not allowed' and "outsiders" not allowed between 5 pm-6 am were seen outside Kuki villages, a reminder if any were needed of the yawning gulf between the two communities.

Those were our observations. But we were secure because we were travelling as part of a convoy.

The journey back to Imphal, where some of us had to return to take a flight to Delhi was dramatic. A little scary. And not just because of the checkpoints.

After Rahul Gandhi's press conference on January 16 at Chiephobozou in Nagaland, I rushed back in a taxi to Kohima, about 20 km of a hill drive, where my colleague, down with fever, was covering the presser for our Hindi service virtually.

My taxi driver who brought me back from Chiephobozou to Kohima had told me that it would be difficult to get a cab or any public transport to Imphal.

So, now I had to decide whether to take the arduous journey to Imphal the same evening along with other journalists who were travelling on the Congress-arranged bus that evening directly from Chiephobozou or travel the next day making my own arrangements.

I asked my colleague, still down with high fever, if he would be able to undertake the journey to Imphal which would be a bumpy ride in the dark amid cold winds.

My colleague agreed that we will not be able to undertake the journey alone and it was best that we join other journalists.

I called the Congress coordinator to ask where their bus was and luckily it was just a few minutes away from Kohima (one has to pass Kohima on way to Imphal). They agreed to pick us up from the hotel.

The school bus was packed with luggage kept at the back. The journey began with all of us packed in with hardly any space to manoeuvre.

The internet was patchy to say the least and we struggled to send our stories on the press conference to the Delhi desk, working on our mobile phone and transmitting what we had written whenever the signal came back on.

And as often happens in long distance journeys, some belted out Hindi films songs. But the mood quickly turned sombre when we crossed the Kuki ‘check posts’.

After that brief exchange with members of the community, no one talked too much, perhaps internalising what we had just witnessed. It had dawned on everyone that what we had witnessed was a divide not just physical but also of hearts and it was indeed a sad realisation.

We reached Imphal around 10.15 pm.

The drivers all along were either Muslims or Nagas, one more indicator of what Manipur society is today.

The troubled reality hit home again the next morning when we thought of exploring the local market in Imphal.

As we entered the all-woman market where we could buy shawls and handicrafts, we were met with a poster in bold, saying 'Go Back Kuki Refugees'. There was another seeking support for Meiteis' inclusion in the Scheduled Tribe list. We boarded our flight to Delhi that evening. As my colleague and I sat in the lounge waiting for our delayed flight, we reflected on the dramatic two days that had been.

And we both had just one inference -- "this is a divide like no other". Manipur has been rocked by ethnic violence since May last year which has claimed over 180 lives. The violence erupted on May 3 last year after a 'Tribal Solidarity March' was organised in the hill districts to protest against the Meitei community's demand for Scheduled Tribe (ST) status.

Meiteis account for about 53 per cent of Manipur’s population and live mostly in the Imphal Valley, while tribals, which include Nagas and Kukis, constitute 40 per cent and reside mainly in the hill districts.