(wl-5019)-ILPS in Manipur and Its Impact on Minority Communities

The Inner Line Permit System (ILPS) is perceived as a legal regime to protect the land and native population of some north-eastern Indian states like Arunachal Pradesh and Mizoram from large-scale migration of Indians from other states. The demand for ILPS implementation in Manipur had been there since the last few decades alongside other movements. When the government revised the new citizenship law, Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) to exclude ILPS protected states and Sixth Scheduled areas in the northeast in 2019, it evoked clamour for ILPS implementation in remaining non-ILPS states in the region. Subsequently, the government abruptly brought Manipur under ILP regime in January 2020 bartering it with the cacophonic local agitation against the then controversial Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB). But this left ILPS juxtaposed with yet another controversial instrument, the National Register of Citizens (NRC). This has caused a lurking fear among the minority communities particularly the indigenous Pangal community of Manipur despite their participation in the longish ILPS movement. Moreover, if the unsubstantiated allegations made against the Pangals about sheltering illegal migrants are anything to go by, their fear is not unfounded. The native tribal communities in the hills are not less worried as evidenced from their long-drawn agitation against the Manipur Peoples’ Protection Bill proposed to facilitate the ILPS implementation. This paper revisits the ILPS movement in Manipur and its subsequent implementation in the state thereby highlighting the perceived impacts on the indigenous minority communities particularly the Pangals of Manipur.