Is Hodophobia Prevailing in the Town?

Hodophobia is the fear of travelling. Any phobia is irrational, yet it is a different kind today. We have been experiencing it in our town in Imphal in the heart of Manipur; because, if you are a Meitei, you cannot go to any Kuki area; and it is the same the other way around.

In our neighbourhoods, some people would consider that it is a nasty political-conflict situation and not prefer it calling hodophobia. Regardless, people are reluctant to venture beyond the valley and by people, it includes even those in the government and its institutions. The present conflict between the Meitei and Kuki ethnic groups in Manipur has manifested into a reality that has hardly ever been witnessed anywhere else in the world.

More than the usage of hodophobia, the balkanisation is so deep that observers maintain it is worse than those days following the partition of British India in the late 1940s. The Indian nation-state is another party deeply involved albeit conveniently detached from the issues affecting several ethnic groups living in its territory and neighbouring Burma. The causes and reasons of the conflict that exploded in May 2023 will depend on who you ask. 

Still, politics is all about taking sides—for one, it is the Indian chicanery to engage with militant organisations belonging to specific ethnic groups in the name of national security and fighting insurgency; and two, the exclusivist ethnonationalist projects of several groups in the region match the Indian vibes at the same frequency. Where do you stand when the supreme nation-state is at a crossroad itself? Clearly what we have been experiencing is an ethnic clash while both physical and nonphysical agencies are instigating the gory divide for all the questionable motives. 

If we take a couple of steps back, it is not difficult to see the big picture. How will people feel a sense of safety and security when the State is covertly sponsoring a proxy war? Any kind of war results in death and destruction. This is also the reason why it is exactly why the onus is on the State of India, and no other agency, for the latest violent shitstorm. 

Roadblocks

Refer to a few recent media reports:

The National Investigation Agency has said in a chargesheet that the “China-Myanmar module” of the Isak-Muivah faction of the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN-IM) supported the cadres of two banned Meitei outfits to infiltrate India in order to exploit the current ethnic unrest in Manipur with a larger goal to destabilise the State and wage a war against the Government of India. (China-Myanmar module of NSCN-IM helped banned outfits in Manipur: NIA China-Myanmar module of NSCN-IM helped banned outfits in Manipur: NIA, The Hindu, 15 May 2024)

The next day: 

The National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN)...accused the Indian security forces of helping the Kuki militant groups to wage war against the Meitei revolutionary groups in Myanmar. (Indian forces helping Kuki militants to wage war against Meitei groups in Myanmar: NSCN, The Hindu, 16 May 2024)

A few days later, an Imphal-based People’s Chronicle daily also reported on the press statement released by the NSCN (IM):

The statement...claimed that the central forces are collaborating with Kuki National Army (KNA-B) and Chin People’s Defence Force (PDF) to fuel the ongoing conflict in the region. According to NSCN, Central security forces supplied combat materials and GI pipes for bomb-making to KNA (B) and Chin PDF. The Naga rebel group alleged that a bomb-making factory in Phaiyang village, run by KNA (B), received training and operational support from Indian forces, including on usage of drones. (CFs trained KNA (B) in bomb making: NSCN, People’s Chronicle, 23 May 2024)

A section from Sudip Chakravarti’s The Eastern Gate: War and Peace in Nagaland, Manipur and India’s Far East (p 73). Published in 2022 by Simon and Schuster.

It is another farce how the Indian State started domesticating the Kuki insurgents with the controversial suspension-of-operations agreement in 2005. That was a different era. In the valley, Imphal was knee deep in shit over well-documented State terrorism and the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act; and in some parts of the hills, the Kuki people were recovering from the 90s genocidal clash with the Nagas. 

Nonetheless, the Indian military does not have any prior military operations or any related clash with the Kuki insurgents. It has been with not one, not two, not five or even ten, but along with an amazing number of 25 rebel groups in the first place. Somehow, they started the SoO... Many people are still wondering over this kind of sorcery. Regardless, it would be sheer stupidity if that has been conceived as a plan to contain insurgency in this ethnically diverse and politically volatile region. 

Geopolitics, the other factor, is such a disgrace for people who cannot venture beyond 20 kilometers. It is a bit embarrassing to also note that we have a roof over our head, at least, when more than 60,000 people, in a land of approximately 3.5 million people, are living as refugees in their homeland.   

And conveniently, two parties are indulging in a mud-slinging campaign but what can private individuals do when both of them have ulterior motives? Please remember that NSCN IM and the Govt of India are legal entities of a peace agreement that started in 1997. It is an eyesore that both of them are attempting to kick each other’s bums. Nobody can beat the military absurdity of India, and its Bollywood-defying melodrama in the borderlands. Now and then, its Necklace of Diamonds Strategy sounds realistic....but again, at what cost? It is so completely meaningless just to be a peripheral wasteland in the Indian nation-state for Manipur that was forcefully merged to be a part of. That’s not the issue, though, today.

How deadly is it to travel beyond Sekmai? Beyond Keithelmanbi? Beyond Kwakta? For Kukis, it is the opposite direction.You might get shot in the face. You might disappear without a trace. You might reappear on social media the next day, but as a corpse kicked into a ditch by people in military fatigues. So, it is pretty rational. The fear has reasons; and perhaps, this is not hodophobia, which some people also refer to it as stadephobia, to mean it as a fear of distance rather than travelling. Again, apparently, it is none of them! It is just obnoxious politics.   

Trips and Travelling

In my school and college days in the late 90s and 2000s, Imphal was never a safe place to go out, particularly in the evenings. Then it was known for random killings and fake encounters, which are well publicised in the public domain, thanks to the government of those days, trigger-happy and obedient cops, and acts like the AFSPA. Although, those did not deter me to hang out with friends and come back home only in the midnight hours—all around the town—yet the point is, things have changed. Today, you just cannot step your foot beyond the valley unlike anytime before. 

A few days ago (20 May), three Kukis were killed and from social media reports, they were shot dead in the act while they were attempting to invade the Tronglaobi village in Bishnupur, which is one of the so-called valley districts inhabited by the Meiteis. The Kukis are in the southern and south-western hills, with many of them allegedly freeloaded into this nation-state from Burma. This is not without a reason. They claim they share the same ethnicity, and that is why they have no issues with the Mizos in further south in Mizoram. However, their arguments rip the reasons out of what citizenship is in a modern nation-state. It is in this context that the 2024 Indian general elections have been conducted!

On the other hand, there is also a war in Burma. However, today, if you ask anyone in Imphal, who cannot go beyond the valley, they will tell you the same thing: it is their problem. Only a person succumbed to that kind of literal existential state can only understand what it means to show reluctance in a humanitarian crisis.    

Forget about making any plan for a trip or travelling, just see that the capable yet clueless military establishment of the Indian nation-state is occupied with the nation-building project over there, when it is clearly an issue that needs to be resolved more discretely. What kind of cruel English-cold irony is that the idea of India has remained incomplete even after achieving independence for 76 years? How can you call yourself a complete country when parts of the body politic is ripped off relentlessly? And this is important because the Indian State is one of the parties to all the conflicts, and this will not change despite the number of times it gatecrashes to play a negotiator’s role.

If the State is a bit more transparent and non-deceiving, the animosity can be reduced to a human-tolerable level. The freedom to travel in a hinterland is now a test for the building of a fragmented nation, and Imphal just a testing room with not much sight in sight.

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• Also on this blog:

The Indian Connection with Manipur Riots

• Read more:

India and Manipur

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