Into the tribal cross-currents thrown up by Manipur’s unrest, which is now on for a year-and-a-half, resolutions moved by a section of the state’s single-largest tribe, the Thadous, have sent fresh ripples.

In resolutions passed at a ‘Thadou Convention’ held in Guwahati on November 1-2, a section of the community “disowned” the term Kuki, condemned “escalating Kuki supremacy” and supported an NRC (National Register of Citizens) exercise in Manipur to secure “indigenous communities”.

While Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh, seen by most Kuki-Zos as the prime villain in their conflict with the Meities, has praised the move, several Kuki-Zo groups, among them the apex Thadou body based in Manipur, have slammed the resolutions.

Many Thadous figure among the tribals killed in the ongoing ethnic strife between the Meities and Kuki-Zos in the state.

The Guwahati convention was organised by two groups, the Thadou Community International and Thadou Students’ Association. On November 1, it released the first, “historic” declaration, which said: “Thadou is a distinct ethnic group of people, with our own distinct dialect, culture, traditions and great history. Thadou is not Kuki, or underneath Kuki, or part of Kuki, but a separate, independent entity from Kuki.”

What has added to the Kuki-Zo suspicions about the convention is that one of its core organisers was Manipur BJP spokesperson Michael Lamjathang Haokip. In August, he featured prominently in the news after his family’s home in Kuki-Zo-majority Churachandpur was torched during a rally by Kuki-Zo groups demanding separate administration – an attack condemned by CM Biren Singh.

Speaking to The Indian Express, Haokip said the Thadou Convention was attended by around 200 delegates, physically and virtually. Underlining that the Thadous are “not Kukis”, the BJP leader said: “Our identity is always mistaken as Kuki. We feel both the Meiteis and Kukis have targeted us, and we are sandwiched in between.”

Haokip argued that the only group who now identify as ‘Kuki’ are the 28,000 odd population of ‘Any Kuki tribes’ as per the last Census, in 2011. About the sizeable number of Thadous who identify as ‘Kuki’, Haokip said: “They are subdued and suppressed by Kuki supremacists, Kuki militants… But our Thadou identity doesn’t fade away.”

According to him, identifying the Thadous as Kuki “makes the situation more complex”. “The Thadous feel there is nothing to gain from this conflict, it is a misunderstanding between the Kukis and Meiteis… Kuki supremacists have overrun us, they have taken control over the areas where we live… This is a long standing demand of the Thadou people. They have endured enough of the supremacists.”

He added that the Thadous were not looking for any political gains. “We have not given any call for a Kuki council or Kuki state whatsoever. We don’t expect anything political out of this crisis.”

The other statement issued at the convention was for an NRC exercise in Manipur, which aligns with what the Biren government has been calling for. Implementation of an NRC also has the support of Meitei and Naga groups, with the Kukis painted by many as “illegal immigrants” from Myanmar who are clashing with the government due to its crackdown on “poppy cultivation” by them.

“NRC is a sensational subject. The Meiteis have accused the Kukis of being illegal immigrants and refugees… Others also support an NRC exercise… As an indigenous tribe of Manipur, as native inhabitants of the state, the Thadous have nothing to fear from an NRC,” Haokip said.

Welcoming the Thadou Convention’s resolutions, Biren said Tuesday: “Peace will definitely come. The Thadou is one of the oldest tribes in the state. The Thadou Convention’s support for the NRC and the War on Drugs campaign has been welcomed by several organisations in the state.”

However, several Kuki-Zo groups have slammed the convention’s resolutions – including for the creation of ‘Thadou Inpi Manipur’, a representative body of tribal leaders – as an attempt to “create divisions” among them. Even the apex body of the Thadou tribe, the Thadou Inpi General Headquarters, has distanced itself from the convention, saying the organisers were not representative of the community and were “invalid”.

In a statement, the Thadou Inpi General Headquarters said these bodies initiated the convention without its “knowledge and consent”.

The two broad umbrellas under which most of the tribes of Manipur’s hills are clubbed – Naga and Kuki – are both terms which crystallized under British colonial rule and had not originally been used by the clans and the tribes themselves. This usage persisted, so that when the first list of Scheduled Tribes was created post-Independence in 1951, all the tribes in Manipur were clubbed together under terms like ‘Any Naga tribe’, ‘Any Kuki tribe’ and ‘Any Lushai tribe’.

However, over time, the demands by different groups for recognition as individual entities led to the slow expansion of the ST list to 33. Of these, 32 are distinct tribes, plus a continuing ‘Any Kuki tribes’ category.

Among these 33 ST groups, the Thadous are the largest: the 2011 Census enumerated their population at 2.15 lakh, or over 18% of the total tribal population in the state. The ‘Any Kuki tribes’ accounted for just 28,342 in comparison.

In their paper ‘The Politics of Identifying with and Distancing from Kuki Identity in Manipur’, Vibha Arora and Ngamjahao Kipgen wrote about various “mutations” in “Kuki identity” – with some tribes asserting their distinct identities over time and some aligning with the Naga identity instead. They attributed this to factors such as inter-clan rivalries and relationships with Naga groups. They also identified the Thadous as a hegemonic group within the ‘Kuki’ identity.

“The political domination and ascendancy of the Thadous has been resented by other clan leaders, who feel marginalized and unrepresented in political decisions affecting them… The perceived desire to further distinctive clan identity and the concurrent experience of membership in the Kuki category has led to so much of ethnic fission, factionalism and identity shifts, that many prefer not to use Kuki as a self-referent; only the Thadous use it willingly today,” they wrote.