While conceptualizing this edition dedicated to Manipur as an Independence Day special (also FORCE anniversary), a couplet by Urdu poet Khumar Barabankvi kept playing on my mind—Ab Na Jale Koi Makaan, Ab Na Uthe Kahin Dhuan/ Aag Jali Bujh Gayi, Aag Dabi Bujhayiye (Let no home be burnt again, let there be no smoke from burning homes/ the flames have been extinguished, now the ambers need to be cooled). When I mentioned this to our primary contributor in this issue, Nandita Haksar, she corrected me.

“The flames have not been extinguished. On the contrary, newer flames are being lit in places which were not affected until now,” she said. It’s been three years since the current spate of violence broke out in Manipur and yet peace remains an illusion. 

This alone makes multi-ethnic, multi-religious Manipur a very serious internal security challenge in the 80th year of independence. Everything that could have gone wrong has been going wrong in the small Northeastern state which shares its borders with Nagaland, Assam, Mizoram and Myanmar. In fact, its longest border, 398km, is with Myanmar’s Sagaing Region and Chin state, both of which are in midst of debilitating civil war. Manipur also shares ethnicity with the people of Chin state.

Sparse industrialisation and economic underdevelopment have put disproportionate pressure on land and government employment, making competition extremely acute; and the sense of discrimination high. Since shared resources are hugely contested, inter and intra ethnic rivalries have hardened over the years, creating their own silos. In such a situation, a sensitive and imaginative government would have deployed all its resources to contain the violence which broke out between Meiteis and Kukis in 2023 on the issue of extending the scheduled tribe status to the former.

Not only was that violence allowed to go out of control for reasons of both omission and commission, but earlier this year when violence singed the hitherto untouched Naga community, the government of India has once again been found wringing its hands. The only thing that has emerged out of New Delhi is a deadline—2029—to end insurgency from the whole of Northeast. A similar deadline was announced for Leftwing extremism in central India. The government announced victory on the appointed date, but how has that changed the lives the tribal people remained unanswered.

Specific to Manipur, such is the distrust among communities that borders have been created within the state and are being enforced by the armed militias of each community. Building bridges across these borders should be the priority and thereafter removing these weapon-enforced borders. One doesn’t need a deadline for this, but honest communication, which creates safe space for all grievances to be heard. The FORCE cover story combines expert opinions with ground-based voices from the three primary stakeholders in Manipur—the Meiteis, Kukis and Nagas. In their answers lie, both possibilities and hope.

The August issue also takes stock of government’s much hailed aatmanirbhar (self-reliant) call. The results are mixed, as the readers will discover. Happy Independence Day!