Spurn Thy Neighbour: The Politics of Indigeneity in Manipur

Abstract

This article examines the recurrent ‘politics of indigeneity’ in Manipur with the emerging notions of space and territoriality, and the increasing demand for ‘political space’ by marginal groups. The perpetual xenophobic anxiety and perceived threat of ‘homogenization’, which aroused the drive for ‘ethnic revivalism’ in recent years, have been dominating the state’s day-to-day ethno-political life. Treating ‘tribes as indigenous people’ and the synonymous usage of ‘indigenous people as original inhabitant’, the ethno-politics of territory translates into the ‘politics of indigeneity’. The emergent ‘indigenous tribe’ politics is a strategy not only to claim further rights and entitlements from the state but also to question the ‘indigeneity’ of certain marginal ‘others’ in the state and their rights.

The syllable in Kuki-Chin

“…"Kuki" and "Chin" are used to refer to both languages and ethnic groups in a region where an already complex socio-political situation is further complicated by the legacy of colonialism. While Chin people have occupied the Chin Hills in what is now Myanmar since at least the eighth Century (Lehman 1963), "Kuki" is a particularly loaded term in northeastern India, where there is ongoing political tension around tribal divisions between Kuki and Naga groups (Haokip 2016).…”

Dereliction of Duties or the Politics of ‘Political Quadrangle’? The Governor, Hill Areas Committee and Upsurge in the Hills of Manipur

“…The state system slowly dilutes the self-sustained local system of governance. In such lived experience calling for a ‘collective life’ beyond the village is to exclude such areas from the imagination of Manipur; or worst, it is mischievous in the eyes of such hill people—an ‘exercise of domination over the hills of Manipur’ (Haokip, 2016, pp. 186–187).…”