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ABSTRACT
Voting patterns in the hills of Manipur show high ethnic voting indicating extremely partisan attachments. The salience of ethnicity in voting preference is reinforced by conflicts in the past. Periodic elections only exacerbated such divisions through partisan mobilisation and competition for representation along ethnic lines. Cross-ethnic voting is prevalent among groups wherein cousinage alliance cannot be forged due to past conflicts. The neck and neck competition for political representation among ethnic groups has sidelined the democratic rights of individuals over partisan group interests. In such deeply divided societies ensuring individual rights is the challenge of democratic governance, and the only viable solution to this pervasive problem appears to be a constitutional reform with the aim of having a more inclusive representation.
Acknowledgments
I am grateful to the reviewers and the feedback from my colleague Dr. P. Punneth.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1. Weßels, “Political Representation and Democracy.”
2. Powell, Elections as Instruments of Democracy, 89.
3. See note 1 above.
4. For details about the history of integration of Indian states see Haokip “Theoretical considerations of political integration and the Indian experience.”
5. Shankar and Rodrigues, The Indian Parliament, 3–4
6. See note 1 above.
7. Embree, “India – A Plural Society”, 46.
8. Yang, “Challenges Facing India’s Pluralistic Society”, 107
9. Dalton, McAllister and Wattenberg, “Political Parties and their Publics”, 20.
10. Christophe Jaffrelot details this in his 2003 work, India’s Silent Revolution. The Rise of the Lower Castes in North India.
11. Tawa Lama-Rewal, “Political representation in India: Enlarging the perspective”, 165.
12. Yadav, “Representation”, 354.
13. For more detailed analysis on this see Brar 2020.
14. Brass, The Politics of India since Independence, 67.
15. Kumar and Rai, Measuring Voting Behaviour in India, xv.
16. Brass, op. cit.
17. Brass, op. cit., 67–68.
18. Kothari, Caste in Indian Politics, 4.
19. Kothari, Politics in India, 247.
20. Chatterji et. al., Majoritarian State.
21. Haokip, “Northeast to the Centre”, 10.
22. There are Panchayat Raj Institutions and Autonomous District Councils in the Northeast which have smaller constituencies to elect their representatives.
23. Jaffrelot, India’s Silent Revolution,1.
24. Tribes of Manipur, http://www.trimanipur.res.in/Masters/Title.aspx?ref=tribes_of_manipur (Accessed on 14 November 2019). Some are still clamouring for recognition as a separate tribe identity.
25. For such attempts for smaller group identity among the Kom, Koireng, Chiru and others for a Komrem identity, see Akhup, “The Lived Reality of Koms (Komrem) in Manipur”, for Zo people see Thangtungnung, “Ethnic history and identity of the zo tribes in north East India”, and for Zeliangrongs see Kamei, “Adaptation, Change and Continuity”.
26. Retrieved on 7 May 2020 at: http://www.populationu.com/in/manipur-population
27. The Kuki-Naga conflict in 1993 took more than 1000 lives and more than 300 villages burnt down and uprooted, which largely resulted in huge internal displacement. The conflict was mainly territorial – a fight for territorial dominance. The conflict mostly affects the Kukis who were scattered in the northern hills of the state, primarily Ukhrul and Tamenglong districts. The displaced people from these districts primarily moved to Kuki dominated districts such as Sadar Hills, Churachandpur, Chandel and Tengnoupal. For more details see Haokip, “Essays on the Kuki–Naga Conflict: A Review”.
28. Ngaihte, “How Does the Delimitation of Constituencies Influence Elections in Manipur?”.
29. All constituencies in Kakching and Jiribam districts, and except Lilong, Thoubal and Wangkhem constituencies in Thoubal district were clubbed together with the Outer Manipur Parliamentary Constituency in 1954 by the Delimitation Commission of India to balance the number of voters between the Inner and Outer Parliamentary Constituencies. For further details see Ngaihte “How Does the Delimitation of Constituencies Influence Elections in Manipur?”.
30. On how much past memories are important to the present politics see Haokip, “Memories that always return”.
31. Of late, the Meiteis are demanding ST status. For details on the politics of this demand see Haokip, “The Politics of Scheduled Tribe Status in Manipur”.
32. Ninglun Hanghal, “Know your MP – Election 2019ʹ, accessed 20 October 2019, at: https://www.thesangaiexpress.com/know-your-mp-election-2019/
33. Daenekindt, “Partner Politics”, 1124.
34. Dunning and Harrison, “Cross-cutting cleavages and ethnic voting”, 21.
35. For identity shift of the Nagas of Chandel district, despite much cultural affinity with Kuki tribes, see Gangte, “Significance of Kuki Uprising”, 63–64.
36. Wolfinger, “The Development and Persistence of Ethnic Voting”, 896.
37. Horowitz, Ethnic Groups in Conflict; Mill, Considerations on Representative Government; Rabushka and Sheplse, Politics in Plural Societies; Sisk, Power Sharing and International Mediation in Ethnic Conflicts.
38. Birnir, Ethnicity and Electoral Politics; Chandra, “Ethnic Parties and Democratic Stability”.
39. Houle, “Does ethnic voting harm democracy?”, 838, 825.
40. Jones, “Group Rights”.
41. Lijphart, “Constitutional Design for Divided Societies”, 96.
42. Andeweg, “Consociational Democracy”, 509.
43. See note 41 above, 97
44. Regarding the need for political autonomy of the hill tribes read Haokip, “Dereliction of Duties or the Politics of “Political Quadrangle”?”.
45. For details on this see Haokip, “ Ethnocracy in Deeply Divided Societies”.
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Thongkholal Haokip
Dr. Thongkholal Haokip is assistant professor at Centre for the Study of Law and Governance, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India. He was formerly with the Department of Political Science, Presidency University, Kolkata, India. He has authored India’s Look East Policy and the Northeast (2015) and edited The Kukis of Northeast India: Politics and Culture (2013), and co-edited The Anglo-Kuki War, 1917–1919 A Frontier Uprising against Imperialism during the First World War (2019).