GUWAHATI: The Thadou Inpi Manipur (TIM), an apex body of the Thadou tribal community, has emphasised the need to rebuild and strengthen confidence and community understanding between the Meitei and Thadou communities in the State, trying to recover from the scars inflicted by two years of ethnic conflict that claimed more than 250 lives since May 2023.
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The organisation said the gradual return to normalcy and peace in Manipur, which has been under the President’s Rule since February 13, has paved the way for mending the Meitei-Thadoi ties and rebuilding trust among all other communities in the multiethnic State.
“All responsible leaders and stakeholders must appreciate the crucial, courageous roles played by the genuine Thadou leaders for community understanding, respectful dialogues and non-violent resolutions, which are essential for lasting peace and development in the State,” the TIM said in a statement.
It highlighted the challenges and threats faced by the Thadou community from “anti-peace vested interest groups often involving armed militant groups, selfish politicians, and individuals for narrow political and selfish gains”.
The TIM condemned the historical and ongoing widespread human rights violations and persecution by “Kuki terrorists and supremacist groups”, whose actions “threaten to annihilate the Thadou identiy” and disturb peace, security, and public safety.
“Further persecution of the Thadou community and Thadou leaders must be resisted by the Central and State governments, civil societies and all right-thinking people,” the organisation said, asserting the community’s identity independent from the Kukis.
“…Thadou is a distinct ethnic group of people, neither Kuki nor subordinate to Kuki, but a separate, independent ethnic entity from Kuki, and that any individual, or elected member/representative, or organisation that uses the name ‘Thadou’ but promotes Kuki is illegitimate and does not represent the Thadou people and their interest,” the TIM said.
“Thadou is one of the indigenous communities of Manipur recorded as only Thadou without any prefix or suffix in the official Scheduled Tribes gazette or orders and all censuses of Manipur since the first Indian census in 1881 till the latest census in 2011 with a population of 2.16 lakh. There should be no confusion between Thadou and Kuki as they are neither the same nor one being under or above the other,” the organisation said.
It claimed that Kuki is not an ethnicity nor the name of an ethnic or cultural group, but a politically motivated vested interest group, with extremist ideology, designed and created for supremacy and control, particularly over the local indigenous communities.
“There is no Kuki other than the controversial ‘Any Kuki Tribes’ (AKT) listed in 2003. The first and only time Kuki had an official population record was the 2011 census, with a population of 28,342. There is a real need to understand what Kuki is and who Kukis are when none of the original 29 recognised tribes of Manipur identify as Kuki, but all firmly reject Kuki identity,” the TIM said.
Acknowledging the importance of the National Register of Citizens in Manipur, the organisation pointed out that such an exercise would not solve the issue of foreigners until the AKT is deleted from official records.
