About the Author
The Author of this article is Gayathry S who is an Editor of ljrfvoice.com
Introduction
Communal violence is not something new in today’s India. Or we can say that it has continued for decades since the country’s partition in 1947. Even if we can quote ‘Unity in diversity’ as the motto of the oneness of our country, there still exists a lot of disparities among different sects of people in the society. Be it on the linguistic basis or ethnicity there always existed such a situation. Our constitution has always played a more significant role in ensuring equality and justice for each group in the society. The same is the Manipur ethnic violence. But it was not something that spurt up in a single day or night.
Violence clad Manipur
Tensions arose in the State following a High Court order on March 27 recommending the State government to consider the demand of the Meitei community to regard them as a Scheduled tribe. The sudden escalation of the prevailing tension leading to such a break out of violence was the tribal solidarity March led by the All Tribal Student Union Manipur against the High Court directive of giving Scheduled tribe status to Meiteis. Thousands of people took part in the rally in the Churachandpur district wherein violence broke out between tribals and non-tribals in the State. Shoot at sight order in extreme cases was issued on the 4th of May. Houses, churches, temples and vehicles were vandalised and torched. Internet was suspended in the region. Death tolls are over 50 as per unofficial records. Imphal, Churachandpur, Bishnupur, Kangpokpi and Tengnoupal were severely affected districts during the attacks. BSF, CRPF, Army and IAF personnel were deployed to maintain law and order situations. The centre invoked Article 355 in the State on May 5.
The hill-valley divide
Manipur, a princely state annexed after the Anglo – Manipuri war of Khongjom to British Burma joined the Indian Union signing the Instrument of accession in 1947. A merger agreement was also signed in 1949 and was made a Union territory. The Union territory attained it’s statehoodship in 1971 through North-eastern Areas (Reorganization) Act,1971. The population here comprises around 41.39% following Hinduism, 41.29% following Christianity, around 8.40% following Islam and the rest of them comprises other tribal groups. i.e., the majority of the population here is from the Meitei community. This majority population have settled mainly in the valley region which only comprises around 10% of the total land area with highly developed infrastructure facilities, medical care facilities, etc. While the tribal groups like Kukis, Zomis and Nagas living in the hilly regions lack a lot of basic amenities as compared to the majoritarian population. The privileges provided to the tribal community add to the tension between the two groups. According to the provisions under the Land Reform Act, Meiteis cannot buy or own land in hilly areas while the tribes can come to valleys and settle down there. Special provisions have been set for the State under Article 371C of the Constitution. This is one of the root causes of the hill – valley identity crisis. Infiltration from the neighbouring countries and immigration from the neighbouring States also adds to this issue. Even if the Meitei community inhabits only 10% of the land area, they hold 40 out of 60 assembly seats. The state government’s initiative for eviction of tribal villagers from their dwellings in the name of eradication of encroachment into the reserved forest areas and eradicating poppy cultivation has also triggered the violence. Manipur Forest Rules,2021 (No.73) empowers the State Government to evict any trespass/encroachment on forest land. What govt says is they are only eliminating new settlements but in contrast, what the tribals say is they are also eliminating people who have settled there for years and govt didn’t even took the necessary measures for the rehabilitation of such evicted persons. All these circumstances lead to the socio-political rivalry between the two groups.
How is a community listed as a scheduled tribe?
Upon the petition filed in the High Court by the Meitei community for including them into the scheduled tribe list, what petitioners argue is that before merging Manipur to the Union of India, Meiteis were recognised as a tribe. On March 27 of this year, High Court directed the state government for the inclusion of the Meitei community in the Scheduled Tribes list. But this order was called a judicial overreach and was challenged in the supreme court by Dinganglung Gangmei, Chairman of the Hill Areas Committee (HAC) of the Manipur Legislative Assembly as such a directive of the High Court does not fall under its jurisdiction. The bench led by CJI said the power to designate a community as the scheduled tribe is vested with President and not the High Court. The court said the crisis in Manipur is a humanitarian problem.
According to Article 342(1) of the Indian Constitution, “The president may, after consultation with the Governor or Rajpramukh of a State, by public notification, specify the tribes or tribal communities or parts of or groups within tribes or tribal communities which shall for the purposes of this Constitution be deemed to be Scheduled Tribes in relation to that State.”
It means the power to declare a community as a scheduled tribe is vested with the President regarding any State or Union territory. There are certain criterias for determining a community as a scheduled tribe which have been well established by the reports of the Kalelkar committee, Lokur committee, etc. given as follows:
- Indications of primitive traits
- Distinctive culture
- Geographical isolation
- Shyness of contact with the community at large
- Backwardness
Another point to be noted is that the list of scheduled tribes in a State/UT is valid only within that particular State/UT and not beyond it.
Emergency provisions and Article 355
Three types of emergency have been provided under the Constitution:
- National emergency
- Failure of constitutional machinery in States
- Financial emergency
A national emergency under Article 352 is imposed by the President when there is a grave threat to the security of India or any of its territory due to war, external aggression or armed rebellion. This has been imposed in India thrice during the Sino-Indian war in 1962, the Indo-Pak war in 1971 and during 1975-77 in the name of internal disturbance.
Article 356 or otherwise known as President’s rule can be imposed if the president on the governor’s report or if he himself is satisfied that a situation has emerged where the government cannot be carried on as per the constitutional provisions.
Article 360 or financial emergency is declared by President if he is satisfied that a situation has arisen whereby the financial stability or credit of India or any part of territory is threatened.
So Article 355 is placed in Part XVIII under the title ‘Emergency Provisions’. It states “It shall be the duty of the Union to protect every State against external agression and internal disturbance and to ensure that the government of every State is carried on in accordance with the provisions of this Constitution.”
Article 355 as it is was not a part of the original Constitution. It was later added through an amendment in 1949 which was introduced as Article 277A. The inclusion of such a provision was to give a legitimate justification for the implementation of the above said emergency provisions. Father of our constitution, Dr B.R. Ambedkar’s reasoning for the inclusion and purpose of Article 355 :
“The Constitution of India is federal in character, and therefore the States have been delegated sovereign power within their own domain as well as plenary powers to ensure peace, order and democratic governance for themselves with the exception of provisions allowing the Union to override any legislation passed by the States; it is therefore essential to provide that any incursion into the domain of the States, as permitted by Article 356, is carried out in fulfillment of an obligation imposed on the Union by the Constitution, otherwise such intrusion would be a wanton, arbitrary as well as unauthoritative act. Article 355 has been explicitly included in Part XVIII, titled ‘Emergency provisions’ for this reason”.
“Article 355 is there so that Centre takes more attention on the affairs of the State and that is why the adviser(former CRPF chief Kuldeep Singh, newly appointed as the security adviser to the Manipur government) has been sent.” – This is the statement given by Director General of Police P. Doungel to reporters.
“Article 355 of the Constitution has not been promulgated. Had it been invoked, there would have been a notification” – said. Kuldeep Singh.
Technically speaking, whether this emergency provision has been really invoked or not is still a question revolving around. Even the media is giving different opinions on this matter.
Conclusion
In a country like India full of diversity, conflict clad situation arises mainly due to the neglective or biased stand taken by the government on different ethnic groups. Peace and harmony can only be maintained with the foresight of ensuring the rights of each section of the society without neglecting them and working together for the upliftment of the downtrodden. A secular country’s secularism should not be something written to adorn the constitution but to be ensured with the strenuous effort of every mechanism of the country.
