IMPHAL, Dec 18 NNN: Recent references to the Kuki people as \u2018foreigners\u2019 and \u2018migrants\u2019 by a nondescript international body in various newspapers has become a matter of grave concern for the Kuki Students Organisation-General Headquarters (KSO-Ghq).
\nThe apex Kuki students\u2019 body said such despicable statements can get out of hand and embroil the people in chaos and the land in a state of anarchy. The historical account propagated by the International Meitei Forum (IMF) does not hold any waters as it lacks scholarly and rational explanation, the KSO dismissed. The claims made by the IMF are a concocted story of the naivet\u00e9 minds, it further negated.
\nAccording to the KSO, the Kuki people like any other ethnic group in the state of Manipur, are indigenous people who inhabited the hills of Manipur since time immemorial. \u201cWhy some people chose not to accept the Kuki people as an aboriginal tribe is nothing but merely a conspiracy to alienate the Kukis by trying to appease a certain group that is engaged with the government in peace talks and negotiations. The people at IMF are advised to stop indulging in such whimsical ideas. They should realize that there are no takers for their outrageous assumptions. Like it or not, the fact is, the Kukis are as much indigenous to the hill region as the Meiteis are to the valley region,\u201d the KSO claimed.
\nThe KSO then said the constant allegation of Kuki influx is ridiculous. \u201cTagging them as immigrants is preposterous.
\nThere may be some Kuki villagers who have migratory tendency, yes, but they are nowhere near to be called \u2018nomads\u2019 in the
\ntruest sense. Migrations amongst Kukis were confined to short distances only, which is well within their realm or sphere
\nof influence. Just as the Meiteis who had at one point of time settled in the vastness of Shan state, Kabaw, and Cachar,
\nthe Kukis were likewise indigenous people who settled in the vast expanse of land that stretched across the length and
\nbreath of countries, which includes the northeastern region of India, western part of Myanmar, and the Chittagong hills of Bangladesh. The present Manipur just happens to be their ancestral land where their settlements are highly concentrated. The migratory culture found among some Kuki villagers was also due to practice of \u2018jhum\u2019 cultivation, which was their mainstay. So it was imperative that they shifted their village location in tandem with the \u2018jhum cycle\u2019. At the end of the day, they always come back and resettled the land when the fertility of the soil got restored,\u201d the Kuki students\u2019 body explained.
\nThe IMF proclaimed its opposition for enactment of the Sixth Scheduled in Hill region of the State. After labeling the Kukis as foreigners, this is adding fuel to fire. The Kukis, after independence have become Indian citizens just as the Meiteis and the Nagas. The Constitutions categorized the Kukis and Nagas as Scheduled Tribes, while the Meiteis belongs
\nto other categories. India is a democratic and welfare State which provides constitutional protection for the weak and backward tribes. It is civilized that they should be protected from exploitation and suppression from majority ethnic groups. Per se the Sixth Scheduled is our birthright as guaranteed under the Indian constitution. The IMF has no right to oppose the 6th Scheduled meant for the tribal people. The tribal people of Manipur have been marginalized and exploited for many decades now. It is time a semblance of emancipation is bestowed upon them. If there can be Nagaland for Nagas, Mizoram for Mizos, Bodoland Teritorial Council for Bodos, Gorkhaland Territorial Administration for Gorkhas, why not a Kuki State for the Kukis? It is logical, as it is everybody\u2019s aspiration to have a State of their own so that he can live with pride and dignity, and be free from exploitation. The spirit of freedom and self-determination are inherent human trait. As humans, if the pursuit of happiness is end and State the mean, nobody is to be blamed for clamoring for a State.
\nThe Kukis protected this land that we called Manipur. Except for the strong opposition put up by the Kukis, Manipur should have been bifurcated long ago. It is because of the Kuki\u2019s opposition for South Nagaland that the boundary of
\nManipur is still intact. It was not the vocal \u2018June Uprising\u2019 but the \u2018silent war\u2019 of the Kukis\u2019 defending their territory that saved and protected Manipur all along.
\nAccording to the KSO, in 1949, it was the Kuki chiefs and soldiers who came out to guard the king in a bid to prevent the signing of the \u2018merger agreement\u2019. The Kuki chiefs made an all-out effort to defend the independence of Manipur at the time of \u2018merger to India\u2019. This is awfully lamentable, the irony being that it was the valley people who forced their own king to sign over Manipur\u2019s independence to India, it added.
\nThe KSO then claimed that the Kukis fought the British in the Kuki Rebellion (1917-19) to defend their land and freedom.
\nAlthough they were defeated, their territory was not annexed by the British. Instead the lands remained with the Kuki chiefs after they accepted the surrender terms, it added. However, these lands were given away during Manipur\u2019s merger
\nwith India. Wherever land the Kukis claimed today are those lands that they shed their bloods for to protect it but signed away to India by others. If not for their land why Kukis should fought a long and protracted war against
\ncolonialism and suffered immense hardships. It should be noted that the Kuki Rebellion or Kuki Rising was one of the longest wars fought in this part of the world. The Kukis had fought the British to uphold and defend their freedom for three long years. The lands they defended with their lives rightfully belongs them, the KSO asserted.
\nThe KSO also said unto this moment the hills of Manipur belong to Kuki and Naga tribes. If the Nagas wants to get
\nseparated from Manipur the Kukis have no choice but to do the same in order to protect their territory. The Kukis definitely can assert their right to live as citizens of their own territory. If there can be a \u2018Naga solution\u2019, why not a \u2018Kuki solution\u2019? Kukis have suffered long enough to deserve a protected territory of their own, it added.
\nIt then advised that the IMF should get its statistics correct before hurling allegation of influx in a futile bid to label the Kukis as foreigners or immigrants. \u201cIt is trying to foment ethnic animosity by confusing people with wrong facts and figures. In 1881 census the population of Old Kukis was 8200 and that of the New Kukis was 27000, together it was 35850 Kuki populations. In that census the Meitei population totals 1,32,400. The 2011 census depicts the Kuki population at around 4.58 lakhs (not 8 lakhs as quoted by the IMF) and the Meitei population at 16 lakhs. Here, the percentage growth of the Kuki and Meitei population over the decades is more or less the same. Therefore there is no
\nquestion of the Kuki population growing rapidly due to immigration and influx. One must remember that the population of
\nthe Meitei people during the \u2018Seven Years Devastation\u2019 was around 5000 only. Rather it is their population growth which should be questioned, not of the Kukis,\u201d the KSO opined.
\n\u201cThe IMF talked about civil war being invited by the Kukis. \u2018Civil war\u2019 is a big word which should not be taken lightly.
\nIf the IMF wants to take the people to a situation where there are no victors but only losers, who are to stop them? They should abstain from making provoking statements in future unless they meant it. The Kukis want no civil war or any war of the sort,\u201d the KSO stated.
\nThe Kukis forsake vast tract of ancestral lands in Tamenglong district and Ukhrul district in the aftermath of the ethnic clash in the interest of peace and mutual co-existence. Thus, the Kukis do not claim any part of land other than the areas they inhabited today. Everybody should see some sense in this and learn to do the same, it added.
\n\u201cTo conclude, the KSO would like to make it clear that the \u2018foreigner\u2019 tag given to the Kuki people is unsolicited and objectionable. There is no \u2018Kuki influx and immigrants\u2019 as claimed by IMF. If the IMF or any other body should choose to use these words again, the KSO will no longer take it lying down. If they so badly want the Kukis to be called \u2018foreigners\u2019, then all the Kuki inhabited lands will become a land \u2018as foreign as it gets\u2019 to the IMF and its people,\u201d the apex Kuki students\u2019 body stated.<\/p>\n\n