BEIJING: The recent severe riots in Indian State of Manipur are serious consequences of Narendra Modi’s strong push for extreme nationalism and severe crackdown on religious and ethnic minorities since he took office, Cheng Xizhong, Visiting Prof. of Southwest University of Political Science and Law said on Sunday.
He noted that on May 03, armed conflicts broke out in Manipur in northeastern India, resulting in at least 54 deaths and thousands of people becoming destitute and homeless.
Prof. Cheng, who is also former Defense Attache in South Asian countries observed that there are six states in northeastern India, namely Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura.
These states have little political status in India and are often discriminated against, with a long-standing armed struggle of the people for liberation and the states for independence.
In addition, in the illegally occupied southern Tibetan of China, namely the illegally established ‘Arunachal Pradesh’, local people strongly demand the return of the land to Tibet of China, he added.
He said that northeastern India is a very special region that is connected to the mainland of India only by the narrow Siliguri Corridor known also as the Chicken’s Neck.
Indian literary giant Rabindranath Tagore once said that India has never been a country, but a geographical concept. In history, India was composed of hundreds of loose tribal states. After Britain invaded South Asia, it took more than a hundred years to integrate the loose states in the South Asian subcontinent into British India. Later, British India disintegrated, and India, Pakistan and other countries became independent one after another, he added.
Prof. Cheng believes that there are two fundamental factors that hinder the maintenance of national unity in India today: firstly, India is a multilingual country, with no more than 500 million people speaking Hindi, the national language, among its 1.4 billion population; secondly, India is a multi-ethnic country, with only 46.3 percent of the Hindu people.
He said that since BJP leader Narendra Modi took office, he has forcefully promoted extreme nationalism and severely cracked down on religious and ethnic minorities, thereby exacerbating nationwide unrest.
In response to the current armed struggle of the people of Manipur, the Indian government has cut off the internet service and implemented closed management, sent heavy troops to brutally suppress the people, and issued orders to kill the innocent people, which means that military and police can shoot at the people in special circumstances, he added.
Wherever there is oppression, there is resistance. In the northeastern India, where ethnic minorities dominate, armed struggle is now on the rise.
In the northeastern India, some political parties and armed organizations demand independence, while others believe that their land is part of Chinese territory.
He remembers that a leader of a legitimate Indian political party once asked him: “My appearance is no different from that of a Chinese person. I have Chinese blood flowing in my body. Why don’t you come and liberate us?
