People of Manipur and IIOJK are struggling to protect their distinct identity and existential threat by Indian (Hindutva) settler colonial designs. The BJP-led government aims to fiddle with Article 370 C, barring Meiteis from buying tribal lands/ property as it did with Article 370 in IIOJK. Indian state’s non-adherence to its own constitution and violation of UNSC Resolutions (IIOJK) is the trigger point and main cause, from which violent indigenous struggles have been originating. It is pertinent to mention that India is a signatory of the UN Declaration on the Rights of the Indigenous People (UNDRIP) but has been flouting their rights with impunity. The people of IIOJK and tribal communities of Manipur are the victim of a Hindu supremacist mindset endeavoring to protect the interests of the Hindu community. To target the indigenous status of any community; displacement, forced assimilation, and induced disappearance of its heritage and institutions are carried out at the first stage. This is what is being carried out in IIOJK and now in Manipur as well. True settler colonialism will “extinguish itself,” so there is no indigenous community to stand in distinction from the realized settlers. The primary objective of settler colonialism is to permanently occupy the territory: settler states recruit settler classes that “bring with them a purported sovereign prerogative to establish a new state on someone else’s land.” Erasing Kashmiris’ political identity, disempowering the Muslim majority community to reduce them to second-class citizens, turning them into a political minority, and minimizing their role in political decision-making presently underway. The same threat is looming large for Manipur’s Hill Tribes/ Scheduled Tribes. The objective of the abolition of Article 370 in IIOK was to change the demography of only Muslim-majority regions and deprive Kashmiris of their true leadership by installing a BJP CM. The same fate is feared by Manipur’s Hill Tribes. Under Article 370, the outsiders were not allowed to buy property in IIOJK and same Article 371C in Manipur’s Tribal area the outsider cannot buy land. Therefore, after including Meitei Community of Hindus into Schedule Tribes, they would be able to buy land and settle in their areas on the same pattern as happening in IIOJK where settlers (Hindus/ non-locals) are purchasing land/ property. India has learned an important lesson from the current situation in Manipur; accept the fact that, the struggle for the right to self-determination in IIOJK is indigenous. India prefers self-serving political interests over humanity by using underprivileged and minority status for political machination which can be termed grave HRVs. Manipur protests against the Indian state is just a glimpse of Skelton. India is hiding in the cupboard.
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