Insurgency and Counterinsurgency: Case Study of Manipur

Abstract

The Indian army, from the colonial era has been trained for conventional warfare. They have been used to curb the internal disturbances caused by non-state actors especially against insurgencies in Kashmir and the Northeast. Currently in northern part of India insurgency is the main problem and creates the war like situations like curfew and strike, sometimes which clearly challenges the model of democracy. Insurgency is an organized movement aimed to overthrow or destruct the constitutional government by the use of subversion, terrorism as well as armed conflict. And similar attempts by the state to crush them is known as counterinsurgency. This counterinsurgency often changes its nature to repression and human right violations. The northeast region of India comprised of eight states: Assam, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Tripura and Sikkim and all eight states have been poorly connected to the mainland India. but all of them has been surrounded by major countries like China, Myanmar, Bangladesh and Bhutan. it is very unfortunate to see that the numbers and information of the entire region is not sufficiently analyzed and communicated to the center, which creates the further misinformation, mismanagement and alienation. At another level, these all conflicts contribute to the violent forms, it has not only affects the Indian sovereignty but also affects the life of various people living in the entire region. As of now, among all of the eight states Manipur remains the most violent states in the north-east India. Manipur comes under the armed forces special power act, 1958. which had made the situation of Manipur from bad to worst. In this paper, I will critically analyze the history of Manipur with respect of AFSPA,1958 violations of human rights, role of Irom Chanu Sharmila also known as the "Iron Lady" or "Mengoubi” who has been on hunger strike for the 16 years to safe guard the rights of people of Manipur from the draconian law of AFSPA and the actions of Indian government.