Manipur: Between armed forces, Special Powers Act and President's rule

When the Austro-Asiatic settlers, Tibeto-Burman migrants, and Indo-Aryan émigrés settled at various periods of history in India's north-eastern state of Manipur, they could never have predicted that this diverse assimilation of tribal clans would ethnically engender an inter-tribal conflict in 21st-century India.

- DR. SHADAB AHMED

When the Austro-Asiatic settlers, Tibeto-Burman migrants, and Indo-Aryan émigrés settled at various periods of history in India's north-eastern state of Manipur, they could never have predicted that this diverse assimilation of tribal clans would ethnically engender an inter-tribal conflict in 21st-century India. Nor could the mighty British Empire and British Raj, in all their insight and foresight, have predicted that the once mighty Manipur Kingdom would descend into primitive and primal chaos for a resurgent ethnic identity. But this inter-tribal conflict is what keeps the state of Manipur simmering and seething, like a dormant volcano that threatens to erupt in mindless mayhem and cause protracted anarchy.

Manipur to this day remains deeply polarized, between the Meitei and Kuki-Zo communities. This polarization has not only matured among the civilian populace of Manipur but has also spiraled into the aristocracy, bureaucracy, and judiciary of the state. To put it in context, Manipur is broadly and ethnically divided into a predominantly Hindu Meitei and a minority Christian Kuki-Zo population, and there exists deep mistrust between the two communities, which keeps them perennially divided.