International Meeteis Forum

The International Meeteis Forum (or "International Meitei Forum", IMF) is a Meitei ethnic advocacy group in the Indian state of Manipur. Its objectives are to assert Meitei indigeneity in Manipur, to unify Meiteis around the world, to campaign for the territorial integrity of the Manipur state and to block the influx of alleged foreigners. Founded in 2012 by a retired army officer R. K. Rajendro, it later teamed up with the Federation of Haomee with similar ideological motivations. Both the organisations generated free-flowing hate speech against the Kuki community of Manipur, labelling them as "immigrants" or "foreigners", which was instrumental in the generation of 2023 Manipur violence.

Background
Manipur is a state in the northeast of India, a former princely state of British Raj, embedded in the Northern Arakan Yoma mountain range. It consists of a 700 square mile valley, mainly populated by the Meitei community, and the surrounding hill regions populated by hill tribes classified as Nagas (in the north) and Kukis (in the south). The hill tribes have long campaigned for autonomy, launching multiple insurgent movements, and the Meitei have consistently blocked all such efforts.

In 2012, the Union Government reached peace agreements with the Naga and Kuki insurgent groups. The Naga group, NSCN-IM, had the ongoing demand for "Greater Nagaland", i.e., to merge the Naga-inhabited areas of Manipur into the Nagaland state. The Kuki groups likewise had the demand for a separate "Kukiland" state for the Kuki-inhabited areas. The International Meeteis Forum was formed in this context, in order to protect the "interest of [the] Meiteis". It argued for the inclusion of the Meiteis in the peace talks, and declared, "no agreement without the consent of Meiteis would be accepted".

Prior to this, the founder R. K. Rajendro had written an article in a newspaper claiming that the Kukis had migrated from Myanmar and the British had planted Kuki settlements in Manipur. A Naga organisation found the argument attractive, and claimed that prior to the 19th and 20th centuries, "our forefathers" had not experienced inter-tribal conflict. This is not in accordance with the historical record as documented by scholars.

Anti-Kuki activism
Soon after its formation, the IMF condemned the demand for "Kukiland", claiming that Kukis had recently migrated from Myanmar between 1855 and 1881, and that they numbered only about 8,000 people at that time. The original settlers of Manipur were claimed to have been Meitei and Naga communities, and therefore, the later entrants should be "pushed back". At the same time, grandiose claims were made for the historical extent of Manipur. The Kuki Students Organisation (KSO) responded to the IMF statements as having become a "matter of grave concern".

As the demand for "Kukiland" as a separate state grew, the IMF also stepped up its attacks on the Kuki community. In 2013, it rejected the Kukis' claim of being one of the indigenous communities of Manipur and announced that it would launch a signature campaign against the Kukis for claiming so. It declared that there was a "continuous influx of Kukis" from Myanmar and Muslims from Bangladesh, which was causing a "dangerous demographic change" in Manipur, which would render Meiteis to become a minority.

In 2015, the Kuki Research Forum of scholars responded to a column written by R. K. Rajendro in The Sangai Express, calling his comments "incendiary", "communal" and "exclusivist". Recalling Rajendro's labelling of Kukis as "foreigners", they countered with historical facts and the views of acclaimed historians. They stated that Rajendro's propaganda had no place in a civilised society and called on the media to uphold the ethics of journalism. In response, Ch. Birendra (listed as the Organiser of IMF) wrote another column in the same newspaper, addressing the Kuki Research Forum scholars as "dear descendants of immigrants", and taking personal jibes about holding "double citizenship of both Manipur and Myanmar". He also repeated the usual arguments of IMF labelling Kukis as immigrants and foreigners.

In 2016, journalist Phanjoubam Chingkheinganba countered the narrative of branding Kukis as "foreigners", stating that it was generated by an elderly retired army officer, whose organisation consisted of "less than half a dozen persons". He commented that the retired officer did not seem to grasp the modern meaning of "foreigner" and the discourse was seriously offensive to the Kukis.

However, by 2019, R. K. Rajendro was being listed in the core committed of Federation of Haomee (FoH), a much larger organisation founded on the back of the successful Inner Line Permit movement in Manipur. FoH was focused on the issue of "indigeneity" of Manipur's communities. Rajendro introduced his ideas on the othering of Kukis into FoH, which was used to oppose the Union government's peace talks with Kuki organisations, labelling them as "foreign militant outfits".

In 2022, scholar Haoginlen Chongloi noted that both IMF and FoH had been involved in spreading venomous hate speech directed at the Kukis for several years.

Impact
By 2022, the IMF discourse on the othering of Kukis of Manipur had entered the mainstream of the Meitei society. The chief minister N. Biren Singh branded a human rights cum greater-Kukiland activist, Mark T. Haokip, as "Myanmarese", despite he being a descendant of an Indian National Army freedom fighter. New Meitei groups such as the People's Movement for Resurgent Manipur and the Coordinating Committee on Manipur Integrity (COCOMI) replicated the chief minister's branding. The Kuki tribal body Kuki Inpi issued a statement raising an alarm about a "groundswell of Kuki-Chin-Mizophobia" in Manipur and accused the Biren Singh government of "outright abhorrence and racial discrimination" against the Kukis of Manipur.

In the same year, an English translation of R. K. Rajendro's book Manipur after the Coming of Kukis was published, wherein Rajendro characterised the Meiteis and Nagas as natives of Manipur (the "Haomee"), and Kukis as recent arrivals from Burma.

By May 2023, when large-scale violence erupted in Manipur, there were a large number of Meitei organisations subscribing to the view that Kukis were "foreigners" or "outsiders". Pramot Singh, the founder of Meitei Leepun, claimed in an interview on The Wire, that the Kukis were not "part of the family" of Manipur and described them as "tenants" in the state. Several news reports and commentaries pointed out that the discourse had been normalised in the Meitei society. In the first week of violence, 77 Kukis were killed, mostly innocent civilians in the Imphal Valley, as compared to 10 Meiteis.