Silent invasion of Manipur by Kuki-Zo tribes by side-lining the Manipur Hill Areas (Acquisition of Chiefs’ Rights) Act, 1967
- Part 3 -

Prof. K. Yugindro Singh *

1. Raise of the Kuki-Zos and Fall of the Meiteis in Manipur

The introduction of Free Movement Regime (FMR) in 1950, the abolition of Permit System in 1950 and the introduction of Scheduled Tribes list in Manipur in 1951 did pave fertile grounds for influx of Kuki-Zo tribes into Manipur from Burma (now Myanmar), East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) and neighbouring States for taking settlement in the hill areas of Manipur under the patronage of hereditary Chiefs.

Notably, Manipur has 398 km long porous border with Myanmar. Vide their Notification No. 4/15/50-F.I., dated 26.9.1950 the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India introduced “The Free Movement Regime (FMR)” whereby the “hill tribes, who is either a citizen of India or the Union of Burma and who is ordinarily a resident in any area within 40 km (25 miles) on either side of the India-Burma frontier” were exempted from the carrying of passport or visa while entering into India.

“The Permit System for entry into and exit from Manipur” which was introduced in 1901 and further retained by the Government of India vide letter No. 120/47/C-26-27 dated 17.1.1948 issued by the Office of the Advisor for Excluded Areas & State, Shillong was abolished by Himmat Singh, the then Chief Commissioner, Manipur on 18th November, 1950 vide Notification No. 8597-601 H.D. dated 18.11.1950.

The Ministry of Law, Government of India, vide their notification No. S.R.O. 1427-B dated 20.9.1951, notified the first Scheduled Tribes list of Manipur comprising of three generic tribe names viz. (i) Any Kuki tribe, (ii) Any Lushai tribe and (iii) Any Naga tribe.

The sequence of changes in administrative rules that were introduced swiftly after Manipur’s merger into India on 15th October 1949 could be a design for facilitating easy entry of Kuki-Zos into Manipur from Burma (now Myanmar) and Lushai Hills (now Mizoram) meticulously worked out by Thangkhopao Kipgen (T. Kipgen), the then Assistant Secretary (Home & Development) to the Government of Manipur. T. Kipgen was a Kuki nationalist who had strong desire to establish a “larger Kuki-Chin/Kuki-Zo confederation”.

He founded in 1946 both the Kuki Inpi, Manipur (KIM) as its founding President and the Kuki National Assembly as its founding Secretary. T. Kipgen was instrumental for ceding Manipur into India in October, 1949. Vide Manipur Government Order No. 40 of 1950 dated 21.1.1950 under File No. A-I-3560-6, the Government Secretariat was divided into four departments viz., Revenue Department, Finance Department, Home Department and Development Department and T. Kipgen was appointed as Assistant Secretary (Home and Development). Vide Manipur Government Order No. 50 of 1950 dated 24.1.1950 under File No. A-I-3623-36, T. Kipgen was additionally given the charge of Deputy Collector investing with him the power of Magistrate of the First Class.

T. Kipgen remained as the de-facto administrator of the hill areas of Manipur for 22 years (1950-1972). He was the first IAS officer (1953 batch) and he left Manipur in 1972 to join as the Chief Secretary of Goa which he held until his retirement in 1978.

He played key roles behind the enactment of various laws for providing Special Provisions for the hill areas of Manipur namely, “The Manipur (Village Authorities in Hill Areas) Act, 1956”, “The Manipur Land Revenue and Land Reforms Act, 1960”, “Section 52 (Special provisions for Hill Areas of Manipur) in the Government Union Territories Act, 1963”, “The Manipur (Hill Areas) District Councils Act, 1971”, “Article 371C of the Constitution of India”, “The Manipur Legislative Assembly (Hill Areas) Order, 1972”, among others.

Because of the presence so many laws for providing Special Provisions for the hill areas of Manipur, this tiny State of Manipur which is just 22,327 sq. km. in area is wrongly divided into two regions namely,
(i) “Hill areas” with 92% of total area exclusively inhabited by Kuki-Zo (currently about 70%) and Naga tribes (currently about 22%) and
(ii) “Valley areas” with 8% of total area inhabited by all communities irrespective of castes, creed, race and religion which include the Meiteis, the Muslims, the Nepalis, Kuki-Zo tribes, Naga tribes, the Bengalis, the Punjabis, Jains, among others.

The tag of ‘Scheduled Tribe’ is being used as a powerful means for giving Indian Citizenship to the Kuki-Zo refugees/illegal migrants sneaking into Manipur just like ‘Visa on Arrival under the patronage of hereditary Chiefs.

It is an established fact that thousands of Chin-Kuki-Zo refugees/ illegal migrants have taken settlements silently and illegally in many reserved forest lands in the hill areas of Manipur indulging in various kinds of subversive activities including the so-called notorious narco-terrorism.

Taking supports from these refugees/illegal migrants, the Kuki-Zos of Manipur have now claimed that they have hegemonically occupied more than 70% of the total geographical area of the State of Manipur including the hill areas surrounding the central valley and have even started demanding a separate homeland of the Kuki-Zos by dismembering Manipur.

They have been ceaselessly attempting with all-out efforts to realize the long-cherished dream of a larger Kuki-Mizo-Chin confederation called ‘ZALENGAM’ to be formed dissecting from the territories of India, Myanmar and Bangladesh.

Notably, the Scheduled Tribes of Manipur including the Kuki-Zo tribes are annually entitled to receive financial assistance in terms of several crores of Rupees from the Ministry of Tribal Affairs, Government of India under various welfare schemes of the Ministry apart from enjoying reservation in posts/services and exemption from paying income tax, among others.

For instance, the details of fund released by the Ministry of Tribal Affairs, Government of India exclusively for the Scheduled Tribes of Manipur for the financial years 2017-18, 2018-19, 2019-20 which constituted more than one-third of the total central fund released to the Government of Manipur for each financial year, are as under:

Financial Year	Fund Released to the Govt. of Manipur from Ministry of Tribal Affairs	Total Fund released to the Govt. of Manipur from various Ministries of the Govt. of India	Share of Fund from the Ministry of Tribal Affairs to the Total Central Fund
2017-18	Rs. 133,64.32 lacs	Rs. 404,45.86 lacs	33.04%
2018-19	Rs. 153,87.55 lacs	Rs. 369,28.49 lacs	41.67%
2019-20	Rs. 151,41.82 lacs	Rs. 425,01.23 lacs	35.63%

On the other hand, for want of safeguards and protections under the Constitution of India, the overall socio-economic and living conditions of the Meiteis have been rapidly deteriorating thereby compelling them to face various challenges such as:

(i) Rapid decline of land holdings of the Meiteis in Manipur: Existing land laws which are in force in Manipur have segregated the Meiteis to take settlement only in the central valley which constitutes merely 8% of the geographical area of Manipur. Since many poverty-stricken Meiteis have been selling their lands to people of other communities, the share of land holdings of the Meiteis in Manipur is continuously shrinking. It is estimated that currently, the share of land holdings of the Meiteis in Manipur is about 4% of the geographical area of Manipur.

(ii) Rapid decline of the Meiteis’ population in Manipur: The share of the Meiteis’ population to the total population of Manipur has decreased from 56.2% in 1881 to 44.9% in 2011 with annual growth rate of 7.17%. On the other hand, the share of the Muslims’ population to the total population of Manipur has increased from 2.2% in 1881 to 8.4% in 2011 with annual growth rate of 37.03% which is more than the population growth rate of the Meiteis.

(iii) Lowest birth rate of the Meiteis in Manipur: As per the Report of 5th National Family Health Survey (2019-20), Meitei women have the lowest “Total Fertility Rate” (TFR) value of 1.77 which is the lowest among all communities living in Manipur. Since this value of TFR is much lower than the minimum critical value (2.11) required for sustainable survivance, it may be speculated that days are not far away for the Meiteis to become a minority community in Manipur.

(iv) Deplorable economic conditions of the Meiteis in Manipur: Agriculturalist Meiteis cannot produce agricultural yields sufficiently to meet their financial needs. The traditional cottage market is dwindling day by day. Machines have substituted many traditional looms driving out many Meiteis from their self-employment. The products of big business enterprises from outside the state have gradually taken over the market of cottage industry products. Thousands of employable Meiteis remain without gainful employment. There is no major industry in Manipur where they can be employed. In terms of the Monthly Per Capita Consumption Expenditure (MPCE) which measures the standard of living, the Meiteis have lower MPCE than the Scheduled Tribes in both Rural and Urban areas of Manipur. For instance, for the financial year 2011-12, MPCE for STs, SCs, and OBCs were Rs. 1526.00, Rs. 1251.00, Rs. 1523.00 respectively in the rural areas of Manipur and Rs. 1748.00, Rs. 1506.00 and Rs. 1455.00 respectively in the urban areas of Manipur.

(v) Insecurity being faced by the Meiteis in Manipur: The central valley of Manipur is the traditional home of the Meiteis. The central valley is surrounded in all directions by rows of hills inhabited by Kuki-Zo tribes. The Meiteis living in the central valley of Manipur is currently facing insecurity and the fear of being attacked by the Kuki-Zo militants. The current conflict in Manipur has led to the creation of a “Buffer Zone” which have restricted the movement of the Meiteis only in within the central valley. The crucial National Highways like NH-2 and NH-37 connecting the state to other parts of India are not open to the Meiteis.. Going by air is the only option available to the Meiteis for going to outside the state. This has caused immense hardships and inconveniences to the students, patients and low-income earners.

Considering the dubious trend of explosive population growth rates among certain communities on one hand and the declining trend of the population growth of the Meiteis with very low TFR coupled with the vulnerable shrinkage of their land areas in Manipur on the other hand, it may be arithmetically speculated that days are not far away for the Meiteis to become a minority community in the State with acute shortage of land even to accommodate their own ethnic populace. Hence in the streaming scenario, extinction of Meitei looming large at not much distant future, may not be an exaggeration!!

The dangerously vulnerable and deplorable conditions being faced by the Meiteis in today’s Manipur might not have come up, had the Meiteis claimed for Scheduled Tribe in 1949 when the Government of India asked the Dewan, Manipur State to give the list of Scheduled Tribes and Scheduled Castes vide letter No. S/Misc/270/49/3 dated 4.5.1949 of the Office of the Advisor to the Governor of Assam, Shillong.

The Meiteis had missed the bus for inclusion in the first Scheduled Tribe list of Manipur notified on 20th September 1951 as the then influential upper classes/elites of the Manipuris (Meiteis/Meetei) had the misconception that brandishing Meiteis as Scheduled Tribes would make themselves “polluted”, being it the influence of the superstitious “Mangba-Sengba (Pollution-Restitution)” culture that had irrationally stigmatized the “Haos or Tribes” as “Mangba (Pollution)”.

As its fallout, the present generation of the Meiteis is paying heavy price for missing the opportunities of inclusion in the Scheduled Tribes list in the past. However, it remains as a bare fact that the Government of India under the British had already recognized the Meiteis as a primitive tribe endorsing the monograph “The Meitheis” by T.C. Hodson, published in 1908 under the orders of the Government of India as the authority on the ethnography of the Meiteis.



To be continued...

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* Prof. K. Yugindro Singh, wrote this article for e-pao.net
The writer is Former Acting Vice-Chancellor, Manipur University,
and may be reached at yugindro361(AT)gmail(DOT)com
This article was webcasted on May 26 2025.

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