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HOMEWARD BOUND

After six decades, Manipur’s

Burmese Tamils get a glimpse of
their ancestral places in Myanmar
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Opening policy
of the land border last year has enabled Moreh’s Tamils,
who were forced
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Arunabh Saikia  
Feb 24, 2019 Accept
· 09:00 am
 Moreh's Tamils celebrate the Pongal festival in January.

Since he was a little boy, M Mohan had “only two aims” in life: to go
to London and to visit his “father and mother’s houses in Burma”. On
December 23, he fulfilled one of those dreams. He finally tracked
down the house where his mother grew up, in Bago, a town around
100 km to the northeast of Yangon. “It was the most sentimental day
of my life,” recalled Mohan, now 40. “I took a selfie with the house in
the background and updated my Facebook status.”

Mohan, a Tamil who can speak five languages fluently, was born and
brought up in Moreh, a dusty, one-street town in Manipur on the Indo-
Myanmar border where idli dosa shops jostle for space with Manipuri
rice hotels, and local brews share the shelf with Chinese lagers in
paan shops owned by Biharis.

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His parents trace their roots to Myanmar, where the family had lived
and worked for decades before fleeing in 1962 after a military junta
took over. In spite of living a few hundred metres from Myanmar all
his life, Mohan’s expedition took many years because land travel to
the country through Moreh was strictly regulated. Indians required a
special permit from the Myanmar government, in addition to a visa.

This meant flying to Yangon was, for all practical purposes, the only
way to enter the country for Indian passport holders. “I have to go to
Kolkata, and then from there to Yangon. How can a simple man like
me afford all that?” asked Mohan, who exports utensils manufactured
in Tamil Nadu to Myanmar.

In August 2018, though, things changed. Myanmar opened its land

boundary with India in August and made Moreh a legitimate “port of
entry”. Most major towns in Myanmar were now only an affordable
bus ride away. “It was a momentous occasion for all of us Tamils in
Moreh,” exclaimed Mohan. “All of us had harboured this dream of
going to Burma at least once in our lifetime to see how our ancestors
lived, and it was finally going to come true.”

For the Tamils of Moreh, the opening of the new road meant a chance
to connect with a past they could never quite let go of. Almost all of
them, like Mohan’s family, had lived in Burma for decades before
abruptly leaving in the 1960s.
M Mohan fulfilled his childhood dream of going to Myanmar in December. Photo credit:
Arunabh Saikia

Tracing their roots

Indians started flooding into Myanmar after it fell to the British Raj in
the 19th century, filling government posts, manning its ports. By
1931, there were over a million Indians in the country. Then, in
December 1941, at the height of the Second World War, the Japanese
bombed Rangoon. As British troops retreated from the country,
thousands of scared Indians trekked down from Myanmar to India
via Manipur. The Long March, as it is called, was the first wave of
forced migration of Indians from Burma.

The war ended and Myanmar gained freedom in 1948, but the Indian
community remained in a perilous position. Burmese administrators
systemically persecuted Indians, denying them citizenship on racial
grounds and forcing thousands to return to their country of origin.

When the dictator Ne Win grabbed power in the early 1960s, he

actively pursued an anti-minority agenda, nationalising all their
businesses and properties. It triggered a mass expulsion of Indians,
till then a significant population group. Between 1962 and 1964, more
than three lakh Indians were forced out of Myanmar.

The Indo-Myanmar Friendship Gate separates Moreh and the market township of
Namphalong in Burma. Movement is free between 7 am and 4 pm. Photo credit:
Arunabh Saikia
Khwaja Moinuddin’s family fled in a ship sent by the Indian
government to retrieve Indians expelled by the Burmese military. The
ship took them to Tamil Nadu, where they stayed for a few years in a
refugee camp in Tiruchirappalli. “But my grandfather and others
could not adjust – the food, the way of life, it was all very different
from Burma,” Moinuddin said. “So, they decided to try and go back,
this time via road, but were stopped at Moreh by the Burmese Army.”
The family has lived in Moreh ever since.

When Moinuddin’s aging parents heard the border where they were
stopped 50 years ago had finally been opened, they implored their
son to take them to the place they were born. “They are old, they
want to see their home, their land one last time,” he said.

To Moreh via Madras

By local estimates, there are around 3,000 Tamils, Hindu and Muslim,
in Moreh, a town of less than 20,000 people belonging to at least a
dozen distinct communities, including the Kukis and the Manipuri
Meiteis. While Meitei is the lingua franca, the town’s pluralistic
character means most people speak at least three languages – it is
common for people in Moreh to switch languages mid-conversation.
The Namphalong market is awash with Chinese goods and alcohol. Photo credit:
Arunabh Saikia

The Tamils are in a minority now but they were the largest group
until as recently as the mid-1990s, said the residents. Almost of them
share a similar backstory: expelled from Myanmar, ill at ease in their
new homes in Tamil Nadu, and marooned in Moreh since. “Our
people came to Moreh because they wanted to go back to Burma,”
explained Mohan. “They couldn’t, yet they stayed back. But people
started to leave in the 90s as Moreh has few opportunities for higher
education and employment.” Most left for Tamil Nadu, he said.

‘The king of Moreh’

In spite of their dwindling numbers, Moreh’s Tamils continue to be
influential in the town. They dominate the trade, which is entirely
informal but amounts to over Rs 50 crore annually, as per estimates of
the town’s chamber of commerce. The community also controls the
big-ticket furniture business, which thrives on the popular Burmese
teak brought in from across the border.

It is not surprising then that the town’s most powerful trade body, the
Border Trade and Chamber of Commerce, is populated almost
entirely by the Tamils. Heading the association is V Shekhar, who
enjoys a singular position in Moreh’s power structure. Shekhar, who
is also president of the local branch of the Tamil Sangam, no longer
lives in Moreh and visits only occasionally. Yet, his legend endures.
As Abdul Gaffar, who deals in Burmese teak furniture, put it: “In
Moreh, there’s no one above Shekhar anna.”
A hoarding in Moreh depicts the leaders of the town's four major communities. Photo
credit: Arunabh Saikia

The testament to Shekhar’s authority in Moreh lies in his steadfast

control over the local businesses even while ethnic militias warred
over the years to take control of the border town, and the lucrative
contraband trade route it sits on. His patronage, local community
leaders claimed, is required for all significant cross-border trade.
“Without the support and approval of Shekhar, you cannot do any big
business in Moreh,” said a Kuki community leader who asked not to
be identified.

In the 1990s, Tangkhul Nagas, organised under the banner of the

National Socialist Council of Nagaland (Isak-Muviah), tried to wrest
control of the town from the Kukis and the Meiteis. A long bloody
fight ensued, at the end of which the Kukis prevailed. Leading the
Kuki charge was the Kuki National Organisation and its armed wing,
the Kuki National Army. Ever since, the town of Moreh has been
under the control of the Kukis, although Meitei nationalist groups
continue to exert influence from their camps across the border. Yet,
Shekhar never lost his control on the town’s trade.
Members of the Tamil community in Moreh. Photo credit: Arunabh Saikia

A leader of the United Naga Council, which was at the forefront of the
Kuki-Naga clashes of the 1990s and is now the apex body of Nagas in
Manipur, described Shekhar as “the king of Moreh town”. “He can
manage all kinds of armed groups as well as the security forces,” said
the Naga leader.

Underneath the apparent chaos of Moreh, a symbiotic system

coordinated by Shekhar keeps the town together, said an executive
member of the chamber of commerce. “All of us, depending on the
size of our businesses, pay a survival tax to the armed groups
annually,” he claimed.
The office of the Tamil Sangam in Moreh. Photo credit: Arunabh Saikia

A second home
This year, Shekhar was the chief guest at the Pongal celebrations held
by the Tamil community. Many of Moreh’s Tamils still long for
Myanmar, a place they call home. But over the years, they have
fashioned a home out of Moreh.

Its youth club is one of the most active in the area, regularly
organising sports and cultural programmes. A fire-walking festival
organised by the community is one of the biggest events in Moreh’s
cultural calendar, with people from all communities thronging it in
large numbers.
Sri Angalaparameshwari temple in Moreh. Photo credit: Arunabh Saikia

In the late 2000s, the Tamil Sangam flew in workers from Chennai to
build the Sri Angalaparameshwari temple, among the grandest
religious structures in the North East. The temple sees devotees not
only from elsewhere in India but also Myanmar.

Today, with the border opening up, the Tamils can finally get a
glimpse of Burma, a place close to their hearts. As SM Ganeshan, the
Tamil Sangam’s education secretary, who recently took the land route
to Yangon to see his birthplace, said, “I went there as a tourist only,
 but it felt really good to meet my relatives there for the first time after
I left as a child. Everything is so nice there, surrounded by nature.”

Also read: The curious case of pillar 81: Why Manipur is suddenly
debating where its border with Myanmar falls

Forged in the chaos of World War II, a Pakistani-Burmese love

affair

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Moreh Burma Myanmar India-Myanmar Relations Manipur

Burmese Tamils Border Opening Border Trade North East Insurgency

North East Ground Reports

    

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