Analysis of information sources in references of the Wikipedia article "2023–2024 Manipur violence" in English language version.
The state has fractured on ethnic lines, with rival Meitei and Kuki-Zo militias setting up blockades to keep out members of the opposing community.
[There] are myriad underlying reasons. The Kukis say a war on drugs waged by the Meitei-led government is a screen to uproot their communities. Illegal migration from Myanmar has heightened tensions. There is pressure on land use from a growing population and unemployment has pushed youth towards the various militias.
... the [High Court] order came amid an escalation in the Biren Singh government's concerted campaign to stir up majoritarian sentiments against Kukis, using the same tactics it had employed against the Pangals. The scale of this campaign, however, is exponentially higher.
[In early May] Things did not get better. Mobs led by Arambai Tenggol—a Meitei militia that enjoyed the patronage of senior Bharatiya Janata Party leaders, including the chief minister, Biren Singh, and Manipur's titular king and Rajya Sabha MP, Leishemba Sanajaoba—were scouring the city, looking for Kukis in passing cars, in houses and in hostels.
[In] the Imphal Valley, Meitei mobs led by Arambai Tenggol and Meetei Leepun, often supported by police commandos, sprang into action. They raided police armouries and carried out massacres in tribal neighbourhoods throughout the valley, killing over seventy people and destroying nearly two thousand houses.
Amid a high level inquiry into the ongoing Kuki-Meitei clashes in Manipur, the BJP government in the state is increasingly pushing its claim that Myanmar-based drug lords and 'illegal immigrants' from the neighbouring country were behind the violence...
... the [Bharatiya Janata Party] has favoured popularising and reimagining Manipur's culture and traditions, emphasising the Meiteis. It has also aided in the formation of several Meitei-based organisations. This has sparked a concern among the state's diverse ethnic communities, prompting them to launch their own version of ethnic politics to counter Meitei majoritarianism, which could dangerously lead to the disintegration of Manipur into numerous sub-factions.... It is important to note that the Meiteis' demand for the ST status is closely linked to the BJP's majoritarian politics of inciting the Meiteis to further solidify their dominance over minorities through the benefits provided for the ST category.
Spiraling violence in the northeastern state takes cues from the ruling party's majoritarianism.
The march was a grand success in Churachandpur district where a record crowd, estimated to be more than one lakh [100,000], including students started the march from Lamka Public Ground, Hiangtam Lamka and culminated at Peace Ground, Tuibong, as reported by our Churachandpur correspondent. There were no reports of any untoward incident till 1 pm.
Intermittent violence — emerging from an ethnic conflict between Meitei and Kuki communities
Things began to turn ugly around 2.15 pm that day after a tyre was seen burning along the plaque of the Kuki War memorial gate near Torbung, kilometers ahead of Churachandpur. Around the same time, police found two bodies in Kangvai village, a kilometre away from Torbung. Following this, massive crowds began building up on the Torbung-Kangwai stretch of the Imphal-Churachandpur highway.
The Centre and Manipur government told the Supreme Court that the genesis of ethnic violence in the state was the crackdown on illegal Myanmar migrants' illicit poppy cultivation and drug business in the hill districts...
The miscreants' act resulted in a clash between the villagers of Churachandpur and Bishnpur districts, around Kangvai locality where the majority population belongs to the Kuki tribal community. Locals told The Wire their houses were burnt, forcing dozens of them to rush to nearby forests for shelter and safety.
'They [Meitei mobs] only moved back only after Kukis from neighbouring villages and towns came to confront them. The initial violence was in Kangvai village. Police and commandos remained mute spectators and sided with them as they went about ransacking and destroying houses. Over 30 people have been injured,' says [Kelvin Neihsial of All Manipur Tribal Union].
Fuelling this conflict are also allegations of illegal immigration. In March, leaders of several students' organisations representing the Meitei community protested outside Biren Singh's home, alleging that "illegal immigrants from Myanmar, Nepal and Bangladesh" were marginalising "the indigenous people of Manipur". They demanded the implementation of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and the setting up of a population commission.
Thus, the standpoint of the dominant valley-based Meitei community on the 'territorial integrity' of Manipur remains a major challenge to the demands for 'Greater Nagalim', separate 'Kuki State', and extension of the Sixth Schedule in the hill areas of Manipur.
Things began to turn ugly around 2.15 pm that day after a tyre was seen burning along the plaque of the Kuki War memorial gate near Torbung, kilometers ahead of Churachandpur. Around the same time, police found two bodies in Kangvai village, a kilometre away from Torbung. Following this, massive crowds began building up on the Torbung-Kangwai stretch of the Imphal-Churachandpur highway.
Biren Singh may have found these militant organisations very useful to aggressively push his integrationist and majoritarian agenda and conveniently use this to electorally consolidate his position by neutralising intermittent challenges from powerful factional leaders within the BJP.
Such charges are rooted in the Manipur government's barely-veiled Meitei majoritarian stance that has been on display throughout the conflict... The Manipur commandos, an elite counter-insurgency unit of the state police, in particular, has been widely charged with siding with Meitei mobs.
Manipur's Chief Minister and Bharatiya Janata Party leader N. Biren Singh, a Meitei, has blamed illegal migrants and drug lords from Myanmar for the lingering violence, claiming such forces were trying to "destabilise the state".
The eviction drive, which began in February, declared the forest dwellers as encroachers and was seen as anti-tribal.
It was under Mr. Singh's leadership that the BJP not only increased its seat share in the Manipur Assembly, from 21 (in 2017) to 32 (in 2022), but had also managed to weather several storms while running a minority government in the last five years. Unlike 2017, when the BJP formed the government in dubious circumstances — the Congress had emerged as the single largest party with 28 seats — the ruling party had a clear-cut majority on its own this time.
Reports about a clash between people who had imposed a counter-blockade at Torbung and those returning from the rally started doing the rounds at Torbung. The stand-off that initially started with pelting stones soon escalated with vehicles and properties being targeted. Violence and arson rapidly engulfed the neighbouring Kangvai area as people were seen leaving their homes and running into an open field.
(Lead paragraph: Several houses, shops and vehicles have been torched at Torbung, Bangla, Kangvai and Phougakchao Ikhai situated along the adjoining areas of Churachandpur and Bishnupur districts.) It is reported that the properties were torched for launching a counter agitation against the Solidarity March of ATSUM.
Later, a large number of people from Churachandpur side stormed towards Bangla and Torbung along Tiddim Road and destroyed several shops.
Highlighting a few instances of involving the Kukis in the recent past, these leaders from the majority community are habituated to generalising the entire Kuki population as refugees and migrants.... What is being noticed is that hate speech, earlier the territory of individuals, was now taking place at the institutional level.
It has been four months since violence erupted between the Kuki and Meitei communities in Manipur, which claimed the lives of around 200 people and left more than 70,000 people displaced.
The miscreants' act resulted in a clash between the villagers of Churachandpur and Bishnpur districts, around Kangvai locality where the majority population belongs to the Kuki tribal community. Locals told The Wire their houses were burnt, forcing dozens of them to rush to nearby forests for shelter and safety.
'They [Meitei mobs] only moved back only after Kukis from neighbouring villages and towns came to confront them. The initial violence was in Kangvai village. Police and commandos remained mute spectators and sided with them as they went about ransacking and destroying houses. Over 30 people have been injured,' says [Kelvin Neihsial of All Manipur Tribal Union].
"Since the coup, this recent violence is the first time where we see that a large number of refugees have come in and created internal problems," said Gopal Krishna Pillai, a former home secretary and joint secretary in charge of India's whole northeast, echoing the official line that the refugees are to blame for the unrest.... But some observers maintain that the government is scapegoating the tribal peoples. "Now, it is easier to target the Kukis as illegal immigrants," said Angshuman Choudhury, an expert on the region at the New Delhi-based Center for Policy Research.
Thus, the standpoint of the dominant valley-based Meitei community on the 'territorial integrity' of Manipur remains a major challenge to the demands for 'Greater Nagalim', separate 'Kuki State', and extension of the Sixth Schedule in the hill areas of Manipur.
