Thadou: Thadous Rejects Kuki Identity: Request to Be Recognized as a Different Ethnic Group | Guwahati News

Guwahati: Manipur‘s dominant tribe, thadourejected colonial-era classification and post-independence bureaucratic terminology and kuki The group claims that this label was arbitrarily imposed without their explicit consent.
Thadou Convention 2024The meeting, which concluded in Guwahati on Saturday, stated that among the victims of the tragic violence in Manipur since May 3, 2023, the Thadous were the most affected but silenced victims due to mistaken identity or indulging in violence.
The convention demonstrated the deepest empathy for the survivors of the violence and their families, and also affirmed Myanmar’s solidarity with the Thadou people affected by the ongoing political unrest in the country.
The “Declaration” of the Thadou Convention states: “The Thadou are a distinct ethnic group of people with our own distinct language, culture, traditions and great history. Thadou is not Kuki or under Kuki or part of Kuki; It is an independent entity, separate from Kuki.”
Participants also confirmed that the Thadou people formed an independent community. indigenous community Among the 29 indigenous tribes of Manipur recognized by the 1956 Presidential Order. The Thadou have always been known and recorded as Thadou, without any prefix or suffix, and have consistently been the largest tribe in Manipur since India’s first census in 1881 until the last census in 2011 when the Thadou population was recorded . 2,15,913” is stated in the declaration.
The Convention also called for the removal of “Any Kuki Tribe” from the Manipur ST list, stating: “There is no Kuki except ‘Any Kuki Tribe’ (AKT), which came into being fraudulently in 2003 for political reasons. “Repealing the AKT would provide great justice and right the wrong, and is critical to resolving or preventing related problems both now and in the future.”
He noted that Thadou rejected and rejected the term “Kuki”, which was “invented by colonial administrators, supposedly as a combination of several constituent tribes, without which it does not exist and is irrelevant. This term has never been adopted by any of the other related tribes (Aimol, Gangte) , Hmar, Kom, Mizo, Paite, Simte, Vaiphei, Zou, etc.) Therefore, any attempt to merge or confuse the Thadou identity with Kuki will be interpreted as the imposition of Thadou and the people of Thadou. It can never be accepted by
The meeting condemned organizations using “Thadou-Kuki” or similar combinations, declaring that they lacked the authority to represent Thadou interests.