Nation building: The need for Southern Manipur Autonomous Territorial Council

Manipur and its borderland communities are a unique source of indigeneity, places of untapped opportunities and remarkable elasticity. Border contact is a central feature of economic and political life. Although the borderland communities are contentiously argued to be the territorial margins of the country, given the time, space and profound investigation of forms of governance, they are no less centre than the normalised centre.

Despite these avenues, the borderland regions are masked by insurgency, insecurity and poverty. In a refined state of affairs, borderland communities could thrive by unlocking their potential and rich culture that will be critical to achieving the Act East Policy, which is significant national interest. 

The trans-border community occupying Southern Manipur comes under the umbrella of Zomi. The term ‘Zomi’ (‘Zo People’) is derived from the generic name ‘Zo’, the progenitor of the Zomi. In the past, they were the non-tribal plain peoples of Burma, Bangladesh, and India identified as the Chin, Kuki, or Lushai. The British employed these terms to christen those ‘wild hill tribes’ living in the ‘un-administered area’ and were subsequently legalised to be the names for the newly adopted subjects by Queen Victoria of England.

However, their essence as Zomi is derived not from their lived reality in the highlands or hills but is derived from Zo, a great ancestor and their descendant from whom they trace their origin.

Founded in April 1993, the Zomi Re-Organisation/Army is the political platform of the political aspiration of the Zomi. It spearheaded the United People’s Front (UPF) political banner formed in Mizoram under the aegis of ZRO President Thanglianpau Guite at Aizawl in 2008, who was nominated as the Chairman of the UPF.

The newly set up political banner, i.e., UPF, was dreamt to be an umbrella organisation of all the like-minded militant organisations and entered into a Tripartite Agreement/Suspense of Operation (SoO), which Involved GoM & GoI in 2008. The ZRO/ZRA entered into SoO with the Government of India in 2005 to address and resolve the political demands of the Zomi in Manipur State through a peaceful political process. Tripartite SoO involving the governments of India and Manipur was signed under the banner of UPF and KNO in 2008.

On July 1, 2022, the ZRO convened a press conference stating their paramount demand was the Southern Manipur Autonomous Territorial Council (SMATC). Briefing the media, Ketheose Zomi, Secretary, MEA ZRO/A, said that after several rounds of talks, the BJP and NEDA leaders offered the creation of an Autonomous Territorial Council based on the Sixth Schedule with the Bodo Territorial Council model on February 19, 2017.

The BJP central leadership showed their probity in their promise and appointed an Interlocutor for SoO groups on July 27, 2017. Since then, tripartite political talks have continued under a healthy atmosphere. Ketheose Zomi added that while the preparation for the accord takes shape, a difference of opinion emerges concerning the Territorial Council’s official name.

The UPF (Zomi) and HPC(D) leaders revised the name to Southern Manipur Autonomous Territorial Council (SMATC) by seeking the interest of the people with the vision of inclusively accommodating both tribal and non-tribal communities. This act of empathy and the concept of harmonious existence within and across the communities has always been historical and cultural among the Zomi people. Verily, SMATC is neutral to communal names and is based on contiguous geographical space along the southern parts of Manipur.

This claim is also supplemented through political records that southern Manipur, as one of the original districts in Manipur, is recognised and recorded as such in the Gazetted of India. Adding to this, the region is relatively enclosed with fewer complexities, claims and counter-claims.

While the Government is sincerely working towards the peaceful conclusion of political talks with SoO groups in Manipur, the Chief Minister of Manipur expressed his desire to conclude the talks at the earliest possible.

He asserted the significance of the people’s role and to refrain from diluting the Government’s arbitration to pave the way for peaceful, harmonious and equitable development and to usher in an era of vibrant administration in this strategically located border state of the country.

The CM added that conducting the talk within the parameters of SoO ground rules and the Constitution of India deliberately denied any threat to the State’s integrity. Ketheose Zomi asserts his aspiration for the political talks to reach their logical conclusion with a rich political harvest.

On paper, the existing Autonomous District Council (ADC) in Manipur framed under Article 371-C supposedly must carry out the indigenous ways of life while governed under the Manipur state.

However, the experiences of hill people concerning their relationship with the state and valley people observed in the past decades through the day-to-day administration, political and economic inequalities represent the deliberate construction of the border communities in a disadvantageous position.

In this context, a cautious understanding of the underlying politics of the government must be manifested. The portrayal of the Government as a providence to the border communities reveals that the acts of promising autonomy serve several purposes, both beneficial for the border communities and the government.

It is a win-win situation rather than the standard representation of the governed as categories that require the government’s care.

The culture and tradition of heroising the state as the caretaker must be revisited as it is otherwise the border communities whose positions and ways of receiving the governmental affluence affect the sovereign’s relations with other international sovereignties.

Achieving this autonomous status reaffirms that the borderland people are extending help to the government rather than the Government extending its support to the borderland communities.

This notion is established in the light of acknowledging the Government’s intervention to reassemble the existing autonomy under article 371-C into a Territorial Council based on the Sixth Schedule autonomous structure, which is also not a solution to borderland communities. 

However, with the hope of strengthening the promised SMATC from the frailty and the problems of the existing ADCs in Northeast India, the SMATC has the potential to become the model for tribal areas administration in Northeast India.

The government must be concerned about its position because the degree of autonomy it leases within SMATC will affect the implementation of policies such as the AEP, which can further relatively impact the sovereign’s image in the South Asian nations, including the West.

Since the indigenous communities remain the grassroots stakeholders in the success of the relations between the East and the West, this region’s geopolitical location can enhance India’s partnerships with both. The AEP will not succeed as long as the Union government is insensitive to the needs of indigenous people.

This intensifies the position of the Southern Manipur Autonomous Territorial Council as a critical factor in the success of the AEP, which cannot be underestimated as it further determines India’s engagement with its neighbours.

Finally, given the growing geopolitical pressure by China against India, it is essential to secure North East India border regions by all means. Security and safeguarding of the area should begin by creating a robust, vibrant and functional local administrative set-up in the borderlands.

Strong and stable administration is one of the prerogatives for border security. Autonomy without peoples’ propensity to decide their ways of social, cultural, economic and political life is a misnomer.  

Sangmuan Hangsing is a Delhi-based independent researcher. Suanmuanlian Tonsing is a Doctoral candidate at the School of Information, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor.

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