The night of May 3, 2023 was a defining moment in the history of Manipuri Muslims or Meitei Pangal in official terminology, or simply Pangal as locally known. Instinctively and without any centralised command, Muslim localities rescued members of both the warring nations, as they call themselves. In Imphal, the capital of Manipur, since the ancient ages upto this day, Muslims have rescued thousands of Christian Kukis from the jaws of death at the risk of Meiteis’ wrath. Atthe other end, at the periphery of Meitei-dominated central valley and the beginning of Kuki-dominated Churachandpur hills, the Muslims of Kwakta took in with open arms the fleeing Meiteis from the guns and fires of Kuki onslaught.
At the border of the valley and surrounding nine ranges of hills, in the southern end of valley and beginning of hills, is Kwakta, a prosperous trading town, which is a mainly Muslim habitat. Neighbouring it towards the hills are Meitei localities –Torbung, Bangla, Waikhurok and also Kuki localities like Kangvai. On 3rd May afternoon, at around 3 pm, Meiteis started fleeing towards Kwakta unable to withstand the onslaught of gun fires and mass burning of Meitei houses by Kukis. Muslims immediately arranged places of stay and food for them. In the south-east of Manipur, at Moreh too – the trade town bordering Myanmar (formerly Burma) – Muslims temporarily sheltered Meiteis fleeing Kuki onslaught.
At the heart of Imphal is Hatta-Golapati, the only full-fledged Muslim locality. Neighbouring it is Checkon, the tribal locality. In the night of 3rd May, around 7 pm, Meitei mobs numbering thousands started attacking the tribal localities in Imphal city and the tribals started fleeing towards the neighbouring Muslim habitats. Muslims hastily arranged food and lodging for them, while waiting for central forces’ rescue teams. It was only after midnight that most of them were shifted to compounds of security forces, thereby lessening the danger of oncoming mob fury of dominant Meitei mobs. By that time already dozens of innocent Kukis had paid with their lives in the capital city.
In the following days of violent conflict, both communities burnt the houses of other communities and relief camps sprang up both in the valley and surrounding hills. All the Muslim villages and towns voluntarily and immediately collected relief material and money and went to the relief camps in the valley areas. But the relief camps at the hills were out of reach of Muslims as the fighting continued in the adjoining areas of hills and valley, effectively shielding movement of goods and people between the two. There were two pockets of Muslims in Kuki areas in the hills, namely Churachandpur and Moreh. They were untouched by the violence and the people there were neutral in the fighting.
The relief material Pangals (Manipuri Muslims) have provided includes all possible essential items and money. Rice, dal (pulses), cooking oil, utensils, clothes, blankets, soaps and detergents are the main items supplied so far. On the Eidal-Adha day, in the heart of Imphal, at IboyaimaSanglen of Bhagyachandra Open Air Theatre, in the Palace Compound, Muslims had Eid meal with hundreds of Meiteis who had been rendered homeless due to this unfortunate violent conflict. This event was jointly organised by three Muslim organisations namely Manipur Zone of Jamaat-e-Islami Hind, United Peace-making Organisation, and Meitei Pangal Cultural Organisation and one Meitei organisation namely All Manipur United Clubs Organisation.
What prompted Muslims to initiate the spontaneous act of mass aid and support to suffering communities? I think it is the education and training of Islam, laboriously and meticulously inculcated by Muslim jamaats and madrasas, about serving the people in need. I have experienced during these trying days, even common people, including the most degraded Muslim politicians, speaking the language of tawbah and islah, and khidmat and ihsan. It seems that Muslims have inculcated the Qur’ānic terms and are almost ready to act on it. But the push from the Muslim leadership is lacking. There is neither press release nor public call towards reformation. The public is hungry for change and reformation, but the leadership seems reluctant to take the plunge towards the struggle for personal change of aiming high, working hard and climbing the spiral of holistic development.
However, neutrality is not free from dangers in situations of violent conflict. Some of the Meitei militants, CSOs, and public are putting a lot of pressures and demands that the Muslims in Manipur take sides and join the fighting. They are openly saying that only relief work or material support in fighting the enemy is not enough, physical presence of fighters in the battle frontlines is required. The Muslim response is that civil wars do not benefit the nation, rather it leads to division and dis-integrity. And integrity of Manipur state is very dear to all of us. Therefore, all of us should avoid fighting and leave the act of fighting armed parties or identifying illegal immigrants or maintaining the security of citizens to the government.
Mobs can never take the place of state administration. Together, the central and state forces in Manipur number nearly 100,000 amidst a tiny population of just about 30 lakhs. Controlling violence must not be difficult or time-taking for the government of the day. To be fair to our Meitei brothers and sisters, many of them appreciate Muslims’ neutrality and are ready to consider the anti-war viewpoints. Some of them, including the titular king and present MP LeishembaSanajaoba and one Sanamahi religious leader expressedly suggested that Pangals should initiate peace initiative as a neutral community in the ongoing ethnic violence.
However, those who are trying to drag the Muslims into this horrendous conflict never stop as can be seen in an article by one Jaideep Mazumdar in Swarajya. The said article was reproduced in a Meitei-run Imphal daily, namely, The Sangai Express of July 26,2023. It says that Muslims known as Pangals have been clashing with Kukis. This is a purely false narrative.
There are also fringe elements among Muslims who urge to join the warring communities at the side of Meiteis and save the tiny minority of about 8% Muslims from the wrath of 53% majority Meiteis, whose habitats overwhelmingly surround all Muslim localities.They argue that Meiteis control the administration, are highly educated, organised and possess well-trained, well-equipped separatist militant groups linked with foreign governments.
The sane elements among Muslims respond to that argument to weigh in the overwhelming odds of enmity with the surrounding tribes, who only have goodwill for Muslims, and who have never attacked Muslims. Compare this friendly behaviour of tribals to what happened exactly 30 years before this year’s May 3 violent incidents. Starting May 3 of 1993, Meitei mobs massacred Muslims, based on similar unfounded rumours of minority Muslims raping and killing a group of Meitei women and men. Those crimes have never been addressed by the successive governments and the result is the repetition of mob violence and civil war in a much bigger and unimaginable scale today.
Whatever happens, Meitei Pangals or Manipuri Muslims cannot live apart from the Meiteis, as we speak the same language, have similar culture, common motherland, live together on a piece of land, share a common destiny. In the worst period of Manipur history i.e. seven years of devastation, starting from 1819 to 1826, when Avas, the mainland Burmese/ Myanmarese occupied Manipur and devastated it, Meiteis and Pangals together fled to South Assam, Tripura and Bangladesh. Even today, there are many villages of Pangals and Meiteis living side by side in Barak valley, Tripura, and Sylhet – those who stayed behind after the liberation of Manipur from Burma/Myanmar after those heart-rending years.