A FRAGMENTED MANIPUR: MEITEI-KUKI NATIONALISM & RELIGIO-RADICAL ETHNOCENTRISM

The continuing ethno-social violence in Manipur is rooted in bureaucratic influence and land-lording. It continues to claim both innocent and militant life, in both intemperate and rampant ways.

- DR. SHADAB AHMED

The Ningthouja Dynasty established by the Meitei monarch Nongda Lairen Pakhangba enthroned themselves at Kangla in the Imphal Valley by the turn of the century. Under this dynasty, Manipur got governed by 6 Royal Houses under an assortment of Meitei Emperors, Kings, Maharajas, Princes and Princesses. Intermittently invaded by the Burmese Konbaung Dynasty, Manipur evolved as a protectorate of British East India Company and subsequently as a princely state of British Raj under British Political Agents and British Administrators. With the Union of India clinching her freedom on account of the lapse of paramountcy of the British Crown, Manipur regained her political autonomy despite staying a monarchy. With independence, the dominantly-Hindu Meitei revolutionized to see the rise of Meitei Nationalism, when the people revolted against monarchy rule demanding a democratic government for the people. Manipur got her first taste of modern insurgency. The will of people won and Manipur became a separate state of the Indian Union in 1972, but the insurgency continued.