India: Manipur conflict fuels demands for separate state

DW (English)

An ethnic conflict in the state of Manipur has reignited demands from the Kuki-Zo community for a separate homeland within India. DW's Adil Bhat met Kuki activists who say longstanding tensions between the Kuki minority and the Meitei majority make it a necessity.

Transcript

00:00 These are students in a school listening to a professor.

00:04 But the school has been repurposed and the students carry guns rather than books.

00:10 We are going to defend our motherland and that's our main purpose.

00:14 Professor Lampety is turning the political theory he used to teach into practice.

00:21 He has become a leader among the Kuki people and is preparing these young people to fight.

00:29 Are we ready to defend our motherland?

00:31 Yes, we are ready!

00:33 That motherland is the hilly part of Manipur.

00:36 The Kuki Zoo and other tribes who live there feel so threatened by the Metis who live in the valley,

00:44 they want a separate zoo homeland.

00:46 Rifle number three, clear!

00:48 There is a great discrimination, let me say, let me use that word,

00:52 discrimination between the hills and the plains.

00:56 If we say that we don't need arms, that means they are going to take up all our land by force.

01:02 So the only way is to prevent and to defend, to protect ourselves is taking up arms for now.

01:08 But the political solution will be there and that's what we want.

01:12 Until that political solution comes, these earnest young men will carry and use guns.

01:20 As we film, Long receives news of intense fighting on the border that separates hills from plains.

01:27 He sends a small group to go and help.

01:31 Boys have already arrived to fill their places.

01:35 Some are already here, practicing with wooden and toy guns.

01:42 The Zoo Kuki Student Federation works with posters and pamphlets calling for a separate state.

01:50 Leon Nolop is clear, it's time for things to change.

01:56 Their enthusiasm is clear as they hunt for somewhere to put their message.

02:11 And settle on the wall of a hospital.

02:14 So these paintings of gravities are made by our very own people.

02:18 These more or less express our cultural desire, our political aspirations for a separate state.

02:27 These are just symbolism to our political aspirations.

02:30 Down in Manipur's capital, Imphal, those aspirations provoke fury.

02:37 These women, members of the majority Meti people, they are determined to keep Manipur whole.

02:45 The effigy they burn is of the Chief Minister of a neighbouring state.

02:52 He supports a separate zoo homeland.

02:56 We believe in a united Manipur. We believe in one India.

03:02 And therefore any kind of separatism is strongly condemnable and against it.

03:07 And Manipur cannot be divided at any cost.

03:10 These young men may demand a high cost.

03:13 Some may still be too little to fight.

03:17 And some may not yet have real guns.

03:21 But the next generation of Kuki fighters is preparing to fight.

03:27 fight.

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