Ethnic violence in Manipur is now into the fifth month, but it would not be wrong to say that the violence, which started on May 3, has also impacted the neighbouring state of Mizoram for nearly as long. One of the earliest outcomes of the violence, which has killed over 200 people, was the mass displacement of people, especially from the Kuki community. As per the Mizoram government’s latest data, as of September 20, 2023, 11, 973 displaced persons from Manipur have entered Mizoram. This population is distributed across ten out of eleven districts in Mizoram, with the highest number of displaced persons in Aizawl (4429), followed by Kolasib (3660) and Saitual (2951). Of the total, around 2,000 are living in 32 relief camps while 9, 436 are living outside relief camps. An official informed EastMojo that while they recorded the arrival of the IDPs, they could not keep a track of how many returned.
But how have the displaced persons been coping in these five months? Have the families which fled moved on to other places? What happened to the students and how are they coping?
The need to move on
On June 15, 2023, EastMojo had interviewed James Minthang, a 25-year-old who had fled to Aizawl on June 13 with his family and was living in a transit camp of the Central Young Mizo Association.
He had fled Lamka where he had worked as a high school teacher. But his school had shut down and his family was in peril. With his father being a Meitei and his mother a Kuki, he faced a greater risk and he could not go out even to the market. He had gone viral on social media with people spreading rumours that he possessed guns and was strongly advised to leave. He told EastMojo, “I needed to save my life so I needed to leave my village.” He had mentioned that he planned to go to Bangalore to look for a job in around four months even though he also pondered staying back in Mizoram.
Minthang has now left Mizoram and is in Bangalore, working hard to provide for his small family. “I am in Bangalore now with my family. I started working in a small company. Now it is still quite difficult for us as we have a baby and we are struggling,” he said. Minthang had left Aizawl in July due to the limited scope of employment.
The Central Young Mizo Association (CYMA) transit camp where he had sought refuge has since been closed and the displaced persons have now been moved to a government facility.
MS Ralte, Information and Publication Secretary of the CYMA spoke to EastMojo saying, “On August 12, the IDPs who were living in a transit camp at the CYMA headquarters have seen been moved to a UD&PA facility, the Rajiv Ayoj Yojana centre in Folkland. We transported the displaced persons with officials from Aizawl DC. For around one month we continued to visit them and provide them with ration but now they are in the hands of Aizawl DC.”
The facility now harbours around 300 displaced persons from 70-odd families.
“It is a well-constructed dwelling unit and the government has started its selection process among applicants eligible to live in the unit. But they decided to let the displaced persons take shelter there for now,” he said.
MS Ralte said while there continue to be more displaced persons coming to the state, it is more often as a result of seeking a better livelihood due to the troubled conditions than because of sudden violence. Some also continue to go home when they feel the situation is peaceful.
While the CYMA does not harbour displaced persons in its headquarters, the CYMA Info and Publicity chairman said they continue to provide financial aid to the sick and a safe transport passage to the family of any deceased persons. For sick persons, they provide Rs. 10,000, if the patients are referred to places outside of the state, they are given Rs. 30,000. In case of death, the CYMA hires a morgue van to transport the coffin and also Rs. 10,000 for the family to buy food and necessities. They have so far provided financial aid to 17 ill persons and the families of three deceased persons.
Lalremruat Tonsing, 24, from Lamka, also an internally displaced person residing in Aizawl, was one of the most vocal individuals at an effigy burning rally held at the heart of Aizawl on July 12, 2023. Tomsing is a good example of how the lives of students have been ravaged due to the violence. Tomsing has been actively participating in protests and solidarity marches ever since he came to Mizoram on June 29, 2023.
Tonsing had to repeat a year of college. He was a Bachelor of Arts student at Rayburn College in Lamka and about to complete his second semester. But as his college closed down, so he fled to Aizawl on June 29 and joined J Thankima government college starting from the first semester. Now, after five months in Aizawl, he has become familiar with the city but he told EastMojo that his thoughts are always of his home in Lamka.
“In the beginning, it was a bit hard. Everything is new: the curriculum and syllabus are new. Most of all the place is new, topographically it is very different. But by the grace of God as a human, we can adapt to everything going really well, especially for me I am adapting to this new chapter of life very well. Even the community is really accepting and hospitable. But you know, I cannot stop thinking about home. In these past five months, every time we hear any new information, we spend all our time and mind digging into it. We call up everyone, we read the news and social media…I would call our life not ‘normally normal,’” he said.
He shared how his community back home are now in alert mode due to the arrests following the NIA arrests.
When asked if he would like to go back home to study, Tonsing expressed hesitancy. “In that unstable educational system, I cannot think of going back. I am just stuck here but sometimes I really miss my college, my lecturers and my home,” he said.
“The impact of not going to school will be so big, for us we are a little bit okay. But those younger than us are in such a pitiful generation. First, because of the pandemic, they could not go to school for two years and after one year of normally going to school ethnic violence started again. I used to cry for them,” he said.
Like Tonsing, many school students fled to Mizoram when the violence broke out and have since continued their studies in the capital city of Aizawl.
Vak Lal Biak, 18, still remembers the last day she gave her attendance at her school in Lamka, “On May 2, our schools had started opening and we went to school. We put in our names. But by May 3, all our schools shut down.”
She came to Aizawl on May 8 evening and now attends a school in Aizawl where she continued her grade twelve. Biak expressed that she had a hard time adjusting at first as she felt homesick and missed her old school and friends. “Thinking of our home I could not study and I failed in the first term but now I am slowly adjusting,” she said. Biak said while she had initially aimed to go to Imphal and attend RIMS college, it might not be possible now with the situation.
Other students also expressed how their thoughts, troubled by thoughts of the violence at home, often impacted their studies.
“Right now I miss my parents and my siblings. I usually think of them: what will they eat, will they sleep well. Will they have a good night? Sometimes it disturbs me a lot because of the chaos going on there. As I am now in a different place, I just push myself and concentrate on my studies. I keep those two parts of my life separate,” expressed 19-year-old D. Lhungousiem Haokip, enrolled in eleventh grade.
His friend, 19-year-old David Kai Min Lal, also in eleventh grade told EastMojo how he finds it hard to manage expenses in Mizoram as compared to his hometown. “It’s very hard because in Manipur our money expenses are also different. We also face language problems because here they do not use much English,” he said.
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“I miss everything back at home. Sometimes it’s very difficult to stay, we keep on thinking about what will happen to our parents and friends. Should I go back?” he said.
Lal shared how he had expressed a desire to protect his homeland but his parents advised him against it, “I do not want to stay here because I want to protect my homeland but my parents told me that you need to study hard because more than dying in vain it is better to study because this will not be forever.”
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