Meitei Demand For Scheduled Tribes tag
Readers' comments: Meitei demand for Scheduled Tribe status 'logical,' 'necessary'
https://amp.scroll.in/article/1048876/readers-comments-meitei-demand-for-scheduled-tribe-status-logical-necessary
«It is a sad thing that a legislator has been assaulted ("Manipur violence: BJP MLA assaulted by mob in Imphal, critical") but unfortunately, they probably had it coming for setting one people against another and profiting from it.» – Alokmay Datta
Did the Kukis do that, "setting one people against another, and profiting from it," or did rather the Meiteis do that?
This is an extremely malicious statement, and one that deliberately inverts the Perpetrators and the Victims, falsely putting the Victims as the Perpetrators. A police complaint needs to be filed, and this "Alokmay Datta" needs to be arrested, and put on trial.
Lucio Mascarenhas
«As a Meitei, I find this article ("Why Manipur's tribes are alarmed by court push for Scheduled Tribe status for the Meitei community") one-sided and false in many aspects.
«1. Within Meitei, there is no general nor EWS (Economically Weaker Section) quota. We are all OBC (Other Backward Classes) or SC (Scheduled Caste). It's similar to some Hindus being OBCs and some SC. Meiteis are in itself very diverse. So, the writer stating otherwise should check his facts.
«2. This article conveniently does not mention that Meiteis were included in "tribe" in previous census records before 1947. This legitimate Meitei Scheduled Tribe demand is for correcting a historical blunder of removing the Meities from that (Most of the "tribes" from pre-independence census were put in ST list after Independence).
«3. Meiteis want to be included in ST list of India, not the ST list of Manipur, so why should the present Scheduled Tribes of Manipur only compare Meiteis vis-à-vis themselves? Why not compare Meiteis with all Indian tribes? Then we will see that our demand is not only logical but also necessary.
«4. Which state of India has a division that more than 60% of that state population should reside only in 8% of that state's land? Ninety per cent of Manipur is protected by the Constitution from non-STs. Further, anyone in India, including Scheduled Tribes, can buy and reside in the 8% valley land. How is this situation tenable? Which state of India, nay, the world, has this rule?
«5. This is a matter of survival for Meiteis. Railways will be operational in Manipur from 2024. If we don't have constitutional protection for our lands, we will meet the same fate as indigenous peoples in Tripura and Assam. So to say our demand is a threat to the peace of Manipur is akin to saying "let Meities perish since our lands are protected by Article 370C, we won't be affected by the incoming of outsiders."
«Also the state government can only send recommendation for inclusion in the Scheduled Tribes list. Its actual inclusion will be vetted by the Ministry of Tribal Affairs and other central government machineries. If the tribals of Manipur are so sure that our demand is illogical then why are they opposing? Meiteis don't control the ministry of tribal affairs.
«Last but not the least, when the present Manipuri tribals became STs, did they consult every one from the valley? Did we oppose when you took away 90% of land rights from Manipur? Did we say to maintain peace and integrity and pressure them not to become ST? They should ponder upon these questions.
«Alberta Potsangbam»
This is a truckload, nay, shipload, of bullshit.
1. The fact is that Meiteis have 27% Central reservation quota as OBCs, besides Scheduled Caste quota, AND ALSO EWS quota. Alberta is baldly, blatantly lying, that Meiteis aren't covered by EWS quota.
2. Scheduled Tribes are a subset of category "Tribes." Every Tribe is not necessarily the same thing as a Scheduled Tribe (ST).
The ST tag is given to tribes that were oppressed and hindered from equal opportunities.
It is obvious that not every Tribe is backward, oppressed.
For example, both the Gonds and the Pannas are tribes. Yet, the Gonds were a warlike tribe that conquered and set up kingdoms, and monopolized land ownership.
Gonds affirm their "tradition" that members of the Panna tribe are subordinate to the Gonds, and are, by Gond "traditional law," forbidden from owning land.
The 2002 Kandhamal Pogroms was an intersection of Gond racial Supremacism and Colonialism against the Pannas, and of Gond neo-Hindu Supremacism against the Christian Pannas.
3. There are no separate list of Scheduled Tribes maintained by the Federal government and state governments; it is one and the same list. Reservation percentages vary between states and the Federal government.
4. Alberta asks, "Which state of India, or anywhere in the world, is there a division that more than 60% of that state population should reside only in 8% of that state's land?"
Actually, very, very many, throughout the world.
Take for example, Fiji. Native Fijians exclusively own all the land. Indo-Fijians, imported by England, are allowed only to lease land, not to own it.
The same happened in Ceylon, where the Sinhala Buddhist Racist Supremacists howled against the Hindu Tamils ownership of Tamil Eelam, the "Northern Province," and the "Eastern Province," when Tamil population density was much less than that of the Sinhala.
Julius Jayewardene set up Sinhala Colonies named "Dollar Camp," "Reagan Camp," etc. in Tamil Country.
It was not the fault of the Tamils that the Sinhala bred like rabbits and began to covet the lands of the Tamils, anymore than that it is the fault of the Kukis that the Meiteis bred like rabbits and now covet the Kukiland!
Hitler based his wars on precisely the same principles that the Meiteis are now claiming - the concept of "Lebensraum" (Room to expand) against Poland and Russia.
There is absolutely no difference between Hitler's pretensions to a right to "Lebensraum" over the Slavic homelands, and what the Meiteis are claiming against Kukiland.
Meiteiland and Kukiland are neighbors; Kukiland is not a subpart of Meiteiland. Meiteis wish to colonize Kukiland, genocide the Kukis, rob their land. The Meiteis' Genocide of the Kukis goes hand in hand, as a means to the end of Colonization.
Should China, with it's billion plus, not invade, annex and colonize sparsely populated Mongolia?
Mongolia was ruled by the Manchus who also ruled China, for the same period of time.
If the Chinese can colonize Formosa and Manchuria, why not Mongolia?
It's the same principle that the Meiteis lay claim to!
5. Meiteis want, nay "demand," "free movement of people" within the Manipur Pradesh, so that they can flood into, colonize Kukiland, genocide the Kukis, yet at the same time, they want to prevent people from Mainland India flooding in into the Manipur Pradesh! This is plain and simple Hypocrisy!
"Indian Railways will be operational in Manipur by 2024. If we don't have constitutional protection for our lands, we will meet the same fate as the indigenous peoples of Tripura and Assam."
Meiteis do not need Scheduled Tribes tag to protect themselves from a flood of people brought in by the Indian Railways.
That is searching for mangoes on coconut palms.
If Meiteis seek to protect themselves against an influx from Mainland India, they should agitate for Autonomous Territory tags for Meiteiland.
6. a. "When the present Manipuri tribals became STs, did they consult every one from the valley? Did we say to maintain peace and integrity and pressure them not to become ST?"
There is no law, nor any custom, that requires the Nagas and the Kukis, or the Government of India, to "consult" the Meiteis before granting Scheduled Tribes tag to the Nagas and Kukis.
Meiteis did not have, and do not have, any kind of "veto rights."
This Pretension is pure, unadulterated bullshit.
Also, if the Meiteis did pretend to such a "Veto right," the time to exercise it was in the early 1950s, not in the 2020s. That's 70 years too late. Your stupidity, stolidity, is your fault, and no one elses. Look up "Law of Limitations."
The fact of the matter is that the Meiteis of 1950 didn't give a hoot to Scheduled Tribes tag in 1950s.
The Meiteis of today are inventing excuses because they are eyeing the relatively sparsely populated Kukiland and want to kill off and or drive off the Kukis under the lie of the Kukis being "illegal immigrants from Burma," and to steal the lands of the Kukis, colonize the Kukiland.
They are looking for fig-leaves for their naked, broad daylight Criminality!
6. b. "Did we oppose when you took away 90% of land rights from Manipur?"
The Meiteis are deliberately lying when they pretend that there was a change made in 1950, by Nehru, where Kukiland was separated from Meiteiland, firewalled against Meitei Colonization. That actually goes back to the time when the Kingdom of Manipur became a Protectorate of England. At that time, the Kingdom of Manipur had been devastated by the Burmese, all it's conquests stripped off, the Kingdom of Manipur restricted back to it's natural boundaries, the Imphal Valley, the Meiteileipak or Meiteiland. For administrative convenience, England allowed the puppet Kingdom of Manipur to encroach on the Nagas and on Kukiland. However, seeing the arrogant, racist attitude of the Meiteis, and seeing also the fierce resistance of the Nagas and Kukis, England effectively segregated the governance of Meiteiland from Kukiland.
It would be a great fool that pretends that England partitioned Kukiland from Meiteiland.
England generally preferred that natives take up the burden of government in remote tracts and were partial to the Meiteis, to the extent of allowing the Meiteis to encroach upon the Kukis.
However, Meitei insolence, arrogance, and tactlessness, aggravated Kukiland, forcing England to intervene and effectively take over the governance of Kukiland, firewalling it from the Meiteis.
Meiteiland and Kukiland have been separate, parallel nations for nearly two millennia.
Lucio Mascarenhas
