ASIA/INDIA - Archbishop Neli: the path to peace in Manipur is not achieved with weapons and separation walls

by Paolo Affatato

Imphal (Agenzia Fides) - "Peace and reconciliation in Manipur cannot be based on the separation of ethnic communities; they will not be achieved by building a new separation wall on the border with Myanmar, which the state wants to build for over 1,600 kilometers," says the Archbishop of Imphal, capital of the Indian state of Manipur, Linus Neli. "Peace - continues the Archbishop - will not be achieved by rearming ethnic groups, as is dangerously happening between the Kuki and Meitei communities. Peace will be achieved by resuming dialogue and negotiations, and by pursuing a path of equality and justice that overcomes old rivalries and ethnic claims".

In an interview with Fides, the Archbishop speaks about the crisis that has shaken north-east India for over a year. The Archbishop places the problem in the ethnic and cultural reality of the northeastern region of India, "a region with its own specific dimension, characterized by ethnic, linguistic and cultural pluralism".

The northeast of India includes the seven states of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura, as well as the Himalayan state of Sikkim and the Jalpaiguri region, which legally belongs to West Bengal. "It is also geographically remote," the Archbishop notes, "because it is only connected to the rest of the country by a narrow corridor between Bhutan and Bangladesh, the Siliguri Corridor. This geographical peculiarity is not irrelevant, also in terms of relations with the central government in New Delhi," he notes.

The region has often been plagued by social, ethnic and political conflicts and tensions in the past. When they were founded, the Northeastern States were created, said the Archbishop, "to give the respective indigenous communities the opportunity to preserve their identity and to make their own contribution to the Indian Federation with the unique resources of their cultural heritage. Some tribal groups are also infinitely small communities and are only now entering the highly competitive world of modern India."

Northeast India, meanwhile, is one of the regions in India where the concentration of citizens of Christian faith is the highest: of the approximately 27.8 million Christians in the whole of India, around 7.8 million live in this region in the Northeast. "This also gives rise to our responsibility to promote peace, justice and brotherhood between people and groups of different faiths, languages, cultures and ethnicities," said the Archbishop.

Archbishop Neli outlines and explains the internal situation in Manipur, where "there are three major ethnic groups: the Kuki, the Meitei and the Naga. Coexistence and relations between the ethnic groups have not been easy in the past either. There is a dispute over who came first, i.e. who can claim more rights in social life, because the Kuki came centuries ago (from the 16th century, ed.) from neighboring Myanmar (where they are called Chin, ed.). The confrontation, even the conflict, has always had a central theme: ownership of land as a source of livelihood and wealth. The current conflict between Kuki and Meitei is no exception: it is basically about land rights," he explains.

"Geographically speaking - and here too the geographical aspect cannot be neglected - the Meitei now own about 10% of the land and are settled in the valley where the capital Imphal is located. The other groups, Naga and Kuki, live in the hill and mountain regions, claim about 90 percent of the land and are recognized as so-called scheduled tribes." These are historically marginalized tribes who are granted Indian state welfare and support programs, special rights and, in northeast India, autonomous self-government in some cases.

In March 2023, a ruling by the Manipur High Court recommended that the central government include the Meitei community in the list of "recognized tribal communities," sparking protests that later escalated into clashes and general conflict. "It must be said that the Meitei are a numerical minority, but they are a political majority that controls the local government (the state's prime minister is N. Biren Singh, a member of the Baratiya Janata Party, the party of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, ed.) and has over the years pursued policies that other groups believe discriminate against the tribal population."
There is also the religious element, because the Meitei are Hindus and live - an exception in India - as a minority in a state with a majority Christian population. "In recent years, Hindu extremists have tried to colonize the area," explains the Pastor of the Catholic community in Imphal. "The destruction of the Christian chapels during the conflict is, however, due, among other things, to the internal religious disputes within the Meitei community, which then reunited against the common enemy, the Kukis," he adds, providing an element that complicates the picture that does not appear in the media.

"Christians," continues Archbishop Neli, "are everywhere, in all three tribal communities, the Kuki, the Meitei and the Naga, and therefore, in essence, the experience of being brothers and sisters in Christ can restore the sense of community and fraternity and help to see the other not as an enemy, but as brothers and sisters with whom one can live peacefully. Faith in Christ helps to create peace and justice."

The Archbishop refers to the current situation of absolute separation, with military checkpoints between the areas inhabited by the Meitei and the Kuki, who cannot enter each other's territories: "This separation may have temporarily broken the spiral of conflict, but it is not enough because it has not healed the trauma and wounds (more than 220 victims and 67,000 displaced people), nor has it calmed the hatred and desire for revenge: in fact, all the communities are currently rearming and organizing themselves with increasingly heavy weapons. It gives the impression of a powder keg ready to explode. And if this were to happen, the use of these weapons would make the conflict even bloodier," he notes.
In this context, Archbishop Neli, who himself belongs to the Naga ethnic group and is considered "neutral", has no problem visiting the parishes in the various areas where there are also priests (76 in the diocese), who are also divided by ethnicity. "Because I am a Naga, I can visit the various communities and be at their side. This also applies to religious and priests from the Indian state of Kerala (in southern India). I can say that during my visits I have seen a clear desire: people are hungry and thirsty for peace. It is urgent that a political solution be sought and pursued with all energy," he says, reporting on the situation of more than 1,000 Catholic Kuki refugees who have had to leave areas such as the city of Imphal where they used to live. "The Catholic community offers them support and food, and we have also built small wooden houses where they can stay," he reports.

At the political level, the Archbishop expresses doubts about the plan announced by Home Minister Amit Shah in the central government because "the central government has long neglected Manipur and the response to dealing with the violence has been inadequate, there has been no clear political vision and now the social, employment and economic crisis is deepening in the entire state, which is today stuck in the impasse of inability to communicate between regions and groups, with negative consequences for businesses, schools and socio-economic activities".

In addition, fearing the infiltration of Kuki militants from Myanmar, the government has started building a separation wall to seal off a 1,600-kilometer border, "which means institutionalizing separations, reasoning according to the logic of division, which, however, continues to agitate minds and fuel hatred," he notes.

Politicians, adds Archbishop Neli, “should think about concrete solutions and measures, such as the possible creation of two different autonomous administrative units or - another proposal that has emerged - that the Kuki districts become a Union State, that is, directly dependent on the central government. But any proposal can only start from a dialogue, a mediation, a negotiation that takes into account the need to create geographical and socio-cultural harmony.”

“This process,” concludes Archbishop Neli, “starts from a fundamental assumption that must be accepted by all: the recognition of others as ‘brothers in humanity’, the basis that allows coexistence even between peoples who differ in language, history, ethnicity, culture and religion. This is why we are also inspired by Pope Francis’ document ‘Fratelli Tutti’, which we hope will be welcomed by Christians and non-Christians".
(Agenzia Fides, 25/9/2024)

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