United Indifference

The perils of tweaking tribal identities

- Rakhi Bose

TWENTY-four-year-old J's* (name withheld) mother was pregnant with him in June, 1997, when the PaiteKuki conflict broke out in the tribal-populated hills of Manipur. The Kuki family had lived in Khopibung village of Saikul at the time. His mother recalls how they had to run away from their homes in the middle of the night in a bid to escape the ethnic violence that had unfolded in the region following the massacre of at least 10 Paite men in one night by armed militants belonging to the Kuki National Front (KNF). J’s parents fled the village and lived for days in relief camps before finally settling down in New Lambulane, a neighbourhood in the East Imphal region. Over the years, the family rebuilt their life. J was born and his sister followed soon. Almost 25 years later, J and his family were displaced once again in May 2024 due to ethnic clashes, this time between the Kukis and valley-dwelling Meiteis. “All the memories and trauma of those years came flooding back,” J’s mother recalls inside a rented house in Kangpokpi district of Manipur. This time, however, was even worse. J’s sister was allegedly gang-raped by armed Meitei militia. The family has lodged an FIR in the case, but remains shaken; investigations have been slow. J is jobless as he lost all documents in the violence, his father is too ill to work, his mother makes ends meet by selling vegetables on a cart, while the sister recuperates from her mental and physical wounds.