The Non-Stop Manipur Meitei Media Linguistic Warfare Towards the Kukis

The enabling of a media environment that normalises bigotry, hatred and misinformation towards Kukis by the Meitei-owned media in Manipur is a calculative and strategic decision they deliberately opted for.  Human relationship with language goes beyond a mere communication, it is the scaffolding of our thoughts, the very architecture of our understanding. It has profound influence on how humans perceive, think and act. Thus, the normalisation of judgemental words from their platform in the society is not a coincidence or an accidental mistake but a deliberate choice.

To understand Manipur conflict in its entirety, understanding the linguistic warfare fought under the aegis of Manipur Meitei media is a necessary. They don’t use Swords or Guns but their battle for minds and hearts are fought with “words.” The language opted by Media as a mean of communication towards their audience does not just “INFORM“ but it also has the power to persuade its audience, thus sculpting public opinion and steer collective actions.

Here in Manipur, the Meiteis opted to normalise languages that incite hatred and violence towards Kukis, even annihilation and Genocidal campaign against the Kukis.

The opting and normalisation of judgemental words like “illegal immigrants” and “refugees“ used towards a particular community is simply heinous, cruel, and unfohnded. It is a well known fact that the judgemental words of these nature carry with them the moral implication that goes beyond the literal definition, but it can evoke strong emotions by-passing rational though processes and steering public opinion in a specific direction. Here the agenda is to evoke hatred and enmity towards Kukis and they succeed in their goal.

Calling for genocide and annihilation of a particular group or community in any modern society will be meted with criticism and condemnation. The culprits will be held instantly accountable. But it is quite surprising that the calls for genocide and annihilation towards Kukis on multiple occasion from different Meitei media platform is meted with silence from the Government side. There is no outrage and condemnation from the public, the political classes, civil societies and most importantly the so called social and human rights activists. It looks like the moral collective conscience of the people of Manipur, particularly the Meiteis, got sedated by their media and bigotry panelist. 

Philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein Rightly noted that “The Limit of my Language is the Limit of My world". Being exposed consistently to their hate filled bigotry program and discussion on their platform, their brains get reprogram to be accustomed to the language spoken by them. It badly dented their moral conscience to an extent that they cannot see the wrong, something that is universally condemned by all.

The calls for genocide are universally condemned by international law, ethicists, and human rights organizations as the ultimate violation of human rights. Such rhetoric is recognized as a dangerous precursor to mass atrocities.

Through the erosion of moral conscience and manufacturing of consent, they forget that they are eroding the normal human aversion to killings and thus normalising violence in the public discourse and enables ordinary citizens to become enablers or perpetrators of atrocities. Today, the Kukis are at the receiving end, but they will always be living with the perpetrators anyway. They also exposed their younger generations to the normalised version of hatred, killings, violence and lawlessness as a collective conscience, thus rule of law, rationality, morality and humanity is something that will become scarce in their societal lives after few years. 

The younger generation of non-Kuki populace in Manipur especially the Meiteis are exposed to an indoctrination by their media that they are never wrong, in this digital age. The crime committed by people belonging to their communities are easily accessible to them. They consumed those information along with whitewashing and the reduction of the intensity of the crime when committed by their people. So their thought process and their interpretation of things and events need no explanation. Thus God forbade, in future, if they become criminals, committing crimes towards their own people, they won’t be able to comprehend where they go wrong. Every attack and atrocity is justified by different so-called experts during their discussion in the media. 

The hatred and prejudices towards Kukis are so normalised that even people in power such as the Government, its agencies and even the judiciary did nothing to hold anyone accountable. It looks like the Kukis are paying taxes that will be channelised to the same media that spew hatred and bigotry daily by their own government in the form of advertising government schemes and policies among others. The government and their agencies are thus not helpless if it wants to hold the media platform and the culprits accountable. Both soft and hard powers are available in their hands but they opted to be blind sided. Thus they are a complicit in their crimes.

It’s not too late for the government to hold the culprits accountable, A little later than this, the moral conscience bankruptcy will cost them and their society badly. If not for Kuki’s sake, they must do it for the people of their own community. For, collective moral conscience serves as a constraint on an individual to behave in accordance with norms, values and law accepted by society. Once that conscience got eroded, no one is safe in a rogue society. Everyone knows Manipur media is amplifying the Meitei society to that path. An inaction by the government will be a green signal for them to validate such bigotry.

The government should remember that pursuing peace at the cost of other’s human rights is a fragile illusion rather than a true solution. The fate of Manipur under a weak government, a timid opposition party, a hate-filled bigotry media platform, the non-visible judiciary and appeasement of the majoritarian policies of the executive needs no expert to predict their future. 

No human race, ethnicity and community deserve to live in the same space with a  supremacist and a bigotry. The Kukis deserve a separate space outside their space.