Recently when the Manipur department of Tribal Affairs and Hills issued an order demanding detailed documentation of their villages and hills from 1964 to the present, Kuki Chiefs' Association, Manipur (KCAM) were aghast. It issued a directive that no Kuki-Zo chief shall submit any documents or papers to the state government that seek to undermine the traditional governance and the rights inherent to it. It stated that it views the order issued by the state government as not only insensitive but also a manifestation of discrimination and injustices against its community. It also alleged that the order seeks to undermine the chieftainship and the associated rights that have been integral to the identity and governance of the Kuki-Zo people. As usual, the Kuki elite had been playing the victim card.
Earlier they use to bombard the national media and social media with concocted historical narratives and false propaganda. This time, it is only condemnation of the government move and of undermining the rights enjoyed by the chiefs through the practice of absolute rule and ownership of all lands. Commoners have no right or individual land ownership rights and in fact they are all tenants of the chief.
In the Kuki areas, all of the village land is owned by the chief and the villagers are his tenants living under his patronage, who are given temporary rights for tilling the land on the condition that a portion of the produce should be given to the chief, the landowner. It is simply because of this factor that new villages keep cropping up in Kuki dominated areas as the brothers of the chief wants a slice of the pie.
Now, the cat is out of the bag. The whole idea is of self-preservation by the Kuki chiefs or the Kuki elite and of furthering the institution of Chieftainship, and not of the common Kuki populace who toils hard in the fields to fill up the coffers of the chiefs. Nobody knows that, many of the Kuki-Zo MLAs and politicians besides the cream of bureaucracy are chiefs and it is them who is fuelling the crisis.
Well, the recent decision seeking detailed documentation of villages in the hills from 1964 to the present is one of the most pragmatic decisions taken by the government led by the beleaguered Chief Minister N Biren Singh so far. While bringing the plight of common Kuki-Zo populace in focus, the decision also managed to expose the selfish designs of the Kuki chiefs and elite. Everyone knows that, it is the Kuki-Zo commoners languishing in the bunkers and fighting for a imagined Kukiland while the leaders and elite live in comfort in Churachandpur and Kangpokpi or elsewhere.
Another important decision of the Biren government was of restricting government scheme benefits to unrecognised villages. There was dejection all around when the state government took a decision that no new recognition would be given to villages having less than 50 households while also suggesting a separate land holding system in the hill areas as the idea of a common land law for the state had been rejected by certain groups.
In the course of the conflict, Chief Minister N Biren Singh had flagged the issues of illegal infiltration, poppy cultivation and drug smuggling, devastation of forests land and separatists’ designs. But so far, the move of village documentation is indeed a clever ploy to expose the Kuki elite. He had recently been in the defensive mode with the controversial tapes in national circuit and an internal revolt. But, with this move he managed to come back in play in the power circuit. He has a ‘never say die’ attitude.
(The views expressed are personal)
