Professor Kham Khan Suan Hausing, the Head of the Department for Political Science at the University of Hyderabad (UoH), has been issued a summons notice by the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate, Imphal East, on Thursday, July 6. The summons was issued in relation to a case where he was accused of defaming the Metei community in an interview with The Wire. In the interview, Hausing had spoken against the role of Meitei outfits and the state-sponsored violence against the Zomi-Kuki tribals in Manipur.
The Chief Judicial Magistrate of the Imphal East district court took cognisance of the charges filed by Manihar Moirangthem Singh, a member of the Meitei Tribe Union. The union was responsible for securing the order, which recommended the inclusion of Meiteis in the Scheduled Tribe (ST) list.
The court noted that the complainant Singh and a witness gave statements against Hausing’s interview with The Wire. The statements speak about his “derogatory remarks against holy religious sites associated historically with the Meitei community, namely Koubru, Thangjing and others.”
The complainant also alleged that Hausing made false statements to defame the Meitei community, which heightened communal enmity.
Hausing has been charged with sections 153A (promoting enmity on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, or language), 200 (knowingly declaring something false), 295(A) (deliberate acts to outrage religious feeling), 298 (verbally outraging religious feelings), 505(1), and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
In a statement, Professor Hausing said, “If a majoritarian state and its regime chose to use its coercive monopoly of power to silence truth and violate human rights with impunity, we have to remain united, reclaim and fight for these #ManipurViolence @UNCHRSS @ABC @CNN @BBCWorld”
If a majoritarian state and its regime chose to use its coercive monopoly of power to silence truth and violate human rights with impunity, we have to remain united, reclaim and fight for these #ManipurViolence @UNCHRSS @ABC @CNN @BBCWorld
— Kham Khan Suan Hausing (@kksuanh) July 7, 2023
Speaking to TNM on the condition of anonymity, a UoH research scholar spoke about Professor Hausing’s work on federalism in Northeast India. “It is absurd that Professor Hausing has been booked on grounds for outraging religious feelings when in actuality, the whole struggle of the Kuki tribals is an identity-based one. Religion does not factor in here at all,” the research scholar said.
Stating that the significant driver of the current conversation in Manipur is premised on an insider-outsider narrative of power, the scholar said that Professor Hausing’s work on the ‘institutional riot system’ and his challenging of the belief that Kuki-Zomi tribes are foreigners and poppy growers gave rise to the complaint.
A research scholar from the Kuki community in UoH’s Political Science Department remarked that the charges were to be expected as “there is a complete ethnicisation and polarisation of all institutions in Manipur.”
The Students Federation of India released a statement condemning the charges against the professor. “Hausing is a prominent scholar on North-East politics and federalism. Attacking such a prominent scholar is nothing but an attack on academic freedom. We stand in solidarity with the professor. We strongly believe that peace and harmony must be the utmost priority in Manipur at the moment,” the statement read.
The Ambedkar Students Association (ASA) remarked the charges are “an attack on academic freedom and put him (Hausing) at risk in a politically volatile atmosphere.”