Guwahati, Nov. 17: The Coordinating Committee on Manipur Integrity (COCOMI), a joint body of Meitei civil society organisations, on Monday submitted a memorandum to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, refuting claims made by leaders of the United People’s Front (UPF) and Kuki National Organisation (KNO) on Manipur’s hill areas, during meetings with Union home ministry officials earlier this month in New Delhi.
“The assertion that the hill areas of Manipur were never under the rule of the Maharaja of Manipur is a deliberate misrepresentation of historical and legal facts, specifically designed to justify the demand for a separate Kuki administrative territory;” COCOMI convenor Khuraijam Athouba stated in the memorandum to the Prime Minister.
“On the contrary, historical records, the Manipur State Darbar Rules (1907), and post-independence judicial rulings (1963 and 1979) unequivocally affirm that the entire territory of Manipur, including the hill areas, remained under the continuous and lawful jurisdiction of the state and its successors,” Athouba said.
COCOMI emphasised that the presence of Kuki groups in Manipur was a colonial-era development and that owing to the absence of pre-colonial continuity, the claim of Kuki indigeneity did not meet internationally recognised standards.
Further, the committee stated that the term “Kuki” is a colonial construct, used by British administrators as a blanket label for multiple clans of the Chin-Lushai region. Such categorisation, it stated, cannot serve as the basis for claims of ancestral land rights.
The memorandum further highlights that the Manipur State Darbar managed both hills and valley areas until merger with India, and that state ownership continuity was protected by Article 372 of the Constitution as well as the Merged States Laws Act of 1949.
“The assertion of indigeneity and ancestral land rights by the Kukis, as advanced by the KNO and UPF, lacks historical validity, legal foundation, and cultural authenticity. Their identity is a colonial construct, and their settlement was facilitated by British policy sanctioned by the Manipur State authorities,” Athouba stated.
The committee urged the Centre and the Union home ministry to dismiss the claims of UPF and KNO, which, it claimed, was contrary to the documented legal and administrative continuity of the state of Manipur.
“Granting such demands would be an act of rewarding historically untenable claims, thereby undermining the territorial integrity and legitimate rights of the indigenous people of Manipur,” the COCOMI convenor stated.
