Marginalization of the minority communities in India has become a norm and Muslims living the northeast state of the country is no exception. Manipuri Muslims, who are called Pangal do not have adequate representation in core areas of power, prosperity and development. Only a few Mulims in Manipur are holding government key post. When the bill Protection of Manipuri People was drafted in 2018, the government here did not bother to include any Muslim representative in it. Interestingly, the bill aims mainly at preventing the Muslims from neighboring nations predominately Rohingyas from occupying land and settling in Manipur. Marginalization of Pangal is justified on the pretext of their sympathy towards Rohingyas. Rohingyas are blamed for for various imagined offenses here.
Maginalization of Pangals is going on despite the fact that they have long history in the state. They have been present in Manipur for about five centuries and they are indeed the original settler in legal parlance so they cannot be discriminated on any pretext and any law or rule must include them precisely, which is not a reality. Pangal Muslims are targeted by the narrow minded people in the name of other Muslims settling in the state as well.
Displacement
The marginalization of Pangal Muslims can be seen from the fact of their displacement. The large number of Pangals had been killed in 1993 massacre. They are sometimes forced from their lands in the name of forest and paddy fields. They are evicted on the pretext of environmental laws as well. Emboldened by the Government actions, the people of other tribes and communities harass and marginalize them also.
The rise of the Bhartiya Janta Party in Manipur in the second decade of 21st Century has resulted in further marginalization of Pangals. Attacks and lynching have been reported in the recent years 2016 has led to a rise of hate crimes against Pangals. Yumnam Devjit, the son of Yumnam Joykumar Singh, wrote in a facebook post that the Qurbani ritual done during Eid al- Adha was nothing but training for Muslims to kill. In September 2018, a Pangal man named Mohamed Farooq Khan was lynched by a mob and the video of his lynching was soon spread throughout social media. He allegedly stole a scooter which was the mob’s motivation for the lynching but there was also a more likely possibility that Khan was wrongfully framed for the theft. This incident had led many Pangals to fear for their safety.
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