Manipur's unyielding struggle for identity and peace

Dipak Kurmi *

The Mahar Regiment incident at Gwaltabi on 20 May 2025 :: Picture Courtery - Chronicle News

In the labyrinthine corridors of Indian politics, few regions have witnessed the sheer audacity and volatility that define Manipur's tumultuous history. From the early 1990s, when a senior legislator urinated on the Speaker's chair in the Manipur Legislative Assembly in a brazen act, to the ethnic clashes of 2023 that plunged the State into a cauldron of violence, Manipur has been a crucible of chaos.

This act of desecration in the 1990s was not merely a stunt but a symbol of the lengths to which political actors in Manipur would go to seize power, even parading fellow legislators to witness the wet spot on the chair as a grotesque trophy of their defiance. A year later, the same Assembly became a battlefield when MLAs, armed with revolvers and pistols, stormed the Speaker's office with murderous intent.

One MLA, in a chilling confession to a journalist, admitted, "Tamo (Big brother), I had gone to kill him, but he has locked himself up in his room, hence the failure to shoot him dead," all the while brandishing his revolver. The provocation stemmed from the Speaker's discretionary interpretation of the 10th Schedule of the Indian Constitution, which allowed him to disqualify MLAs—a power that threatened the ambitions of many.

Remarkably, the police stood as mute spectators outside the Assembly complex, under orders from the Chief Minister, revealing the deep complicity of State machinery in this political theater. In Manipur, such acts of violence and subversion were not only unpaid but willingly executed, earning the State the moniker of a "Reporter's Paradise" for its endless stream of dramatic events.

Fast forward to May 3, 2023, and the State descended into a new abyss of mayhem. Ethnic violence erupted between the majority Meitei community, predominantly Hindu and concentrated in the Imphal Valley, and the Kuki-Zo tribal community, largely Christian and residing in the surrounding hills.

The spark was a Manipur High Court order on April 14, 2023, asking the State Government to send the ethno-graphic and socio-economic report of the Meiteis to the Centre to see if the community can be included Scheduled Tribe (ST) list—a move fiercely opposed by the Kulds, who feared it would erode their own rights and allow Meiteis to encroach on their lands.

The All Tribal Student Union Manipur (ATSUM) organized a "Tribal Solidarity March" on May 3, which quickly escalated into clashes near the Churachandpur and Bishnupur districts' border, followed by widespread house bumings. According to Govt figures as of November 22, 2024, the violence claimed 258 lives, displaced 60,000 people, injured over 1,000, and left 32 missing.

Additionally, 4,786 houses were torched, and 386 religious structures, including Temples and Churches, were vandalized. Unofficial estimates suggest the toll was even higher. The security forces, despite their heavy presence, often stood by as people shot, killed, and burned each other's homes and villages, exposing a glaring failure of governance.

The conflict deepened when Central Security forces, including the Assam Rifles, were accused of obstructing State police efforts to pursue Kuki militants fleeing after attacking Meitei settlements. This incident fuelled allegations of bias, with Meiteis accusing the Assam Rifles of favoring the Kulds—a sentiment that would resurface later in 2025. The then-Chief Minister N Biren Singh, a Meitei and a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), faced severe criticism for his handling of the crisis.

Any critique of Singh was swiftly branded as anti-Meitei or anti-State, a tactic that stifled dissent but inflamed tensions further. The writer of this account, a journalist, became a target of this repression, enduring heavy gunfire at their residence on three occasions and an abduction at gunpoint by an armed group loyal to Singh, simply for daring to criticize his administration.

This dark phase underscored the perilous intersection of politics, ethnicity, and violence in Manipur, where dissent was met with brutal retribution. By early 2025, Manipur's escalating crisis had become an international embarrassment, drawing attention from the European Parliament and resonating across Africa and America.

The Central Government in New Delhi, housed in the North Block, could no longer ignore the fallout. In February 2025, they forced N Biren Singh to resign, imposing President's Rule and placing the State Assembly under animated suspension. Former Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla was appointed as Governor, with hopes that he would usher in a "Meiji restoration" akin to Japan's post-Tokugawa era—a period of reform and stabilization.

Bhalla's initial priority was restoring law and order, beginning with a directive for the surrender of illegal arms, many of which had been looted from police armories during the 2023 violence. The Meitei group Arambai Tenggol, a key player in the conflict, deposited over 300 firearms, but the Kulds made only a token surrender.

No significant efforts were made to recover the latest US-made military hardware in the possession of Kuki militants, highlighting a persistent asymmetry in the State's approach to disarmament. Three months later, the cessation of gunfire between the warring sides prompted the administration to mark the apparent calm with a celebration—the fifth edition of the Shirui Lily Festival, scheduled for May 2025.

The Shirui Lily (Lilium mackliniae), Manipur's State flower, grows in the Shirui mountains of Ukhrul district at an elevation of 7,500 feet, offering a breathtaking view of the Chindwin River lights in Myanmar at night. The State Government allocated Rs 26 crore for the festival, with the Director of Tourism assuring the deployment of adequate security forces to ensure the safe passage of Meiteis travelling 87 kilometers to Ukhrul.

However, tensions simmered beneath the surface. A Kuki group openly declared that Meiteis would not be allowed to pass through Kuki areas enroute to Shirui, prompting a sharp response from the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (Isak-Muivah) [NSCN(I-M)], which asserted that Ukhrul had no Kuki areas and condemned the threats against Meiteis.

On May 20, 2025, a team of 20 journalists boarded a Manipur State Transport bus in Imphal at 7.30 am, escorted by officials from the Directorate of Public Relations, to cover the festival's inauguration by Governor Bhalla. But at the Gwaltabi Post, 50 kilometers from Imphal, the 4th Mahar Regiment of the Indian Army halted the bus in an act that would ignite a firestorm.

The soldiers, aware that the bus carried journalists enroute to a State-sponsored event, ordered the removal of the "MANIPUR STATE TRANSPORT" signage from the windshield. This was not a security check—no frisking or questioning occurred—but a deliberate act, 'reportedly orchestrated by Security Advisor Kuldiep Singh, to appease Kuki separatists' who harbored a deep aversion to the term "Manipur."

The army's rationale, as later reported in The Statesman, was to maintain public security in the leadup to the event, but the action was perceived as a profound insult to Manipur's identity. The fallout was immediate and explosive. The journalists, unaccustomed to protesting against State actors, reacted with unprecedented fury, questioning the motive behind erasing "Manipur" from a bus attending a State-organized event.

The All Manipur Working Journalists Union (AMWJU) and the Editors' Guild Manipur (EGM) convened an emergency meeting, marched to Raj Bhawan to submit a memorandum to Governor Bhalla, and clashed with police twice enroute. They halted publication the next day as a mark of protest.

The Co-ordinating Committee on Manipur Integrity (COCOMI), a powerful Meitei organization, escalated the response by calling a 48-hour Statewide general strike starting midnight on May 21, exempting only festival visitors and essential services.

COCOMI's convenor, Khuraijam Athouba, denounced the army's action as "anti- Manipur" and a direct challenge to the State's historical and cultural identity, demanding the resignations of the Chief Secretary, Security Advisor, and Director General of Police, as well as an apology from Bhalla AMWJU president Bhakta Asem, speaking to The Statesman, emphasized the ongoing boycott of Government-related news and gave the administration 15 days to release the findings of an inquiry committee, headed by Home Commissioner Ashok Singh, constituted on May 21 to investigate the incident.

The army's silence, save for the brief statement in The Statesman, only fuelled the outrage. Political parties, including the Congress Legislative Party led by former Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh, condemned the President's Rule administration under Bhalla for its double standards—professing to uphold Manipur's integrity while allowing actions that undermined it.

Meitei women volunteers took to the streets, intercepting army vehicles and placing "Manipur" posters on their windshields in a defiant act of protest. Meanwhile, earlier in May, the Assam Rifles killed ten Kuki rebels in the Molcham area, claiming they had crossed from Myanmar to disrupt border fencing construction.

This action drew sharp criticism from the National Unity Govt of Myanmar (in exile), which demanded an inquiry and compensation, further complicating the regional dynamics. Manipur's saga, from the political violence of the 1990s to the ethnic bloodshed of 2023 and the identity crisis of 2025, reflects a State caught in a relentless cycle of conflict and mistrust.

The "Made in Manipur" series, as this narrative has been dubbed, no longer echoes with the sounds of bombs and bullets but with the hushed whispers of a people questioning whether their State truly exists in the minds of those at the helm of the Nation.

The Shirui Lily Festival, meant to symbolize renewal, instead became a stark reminder of Manipur's unhealed wounds—a State where the struggle for identity and peace remains as elusive as the delicate flower that blooms in its lofty mountains.