Since May 2023, the Indian state of Manipur has been riven by ethnic violence as members of the majority Meitei and the minority Kuki hill tribe have been locked in conflict. But the fighting, which has left over a hundred dead and tens of thousands homeless, is merely the latest in a long history of ethnic tensions in the state. More to the point, it has revived calls for Manipur to be divided, thus allowing the Kuki to establish a homeland within India.
Manipur lies in northeast India, close to the borders with Bangladesh, China and Burma, also known as Myanmar. Once an independent kingdom, it became a princely state within British India in the Kate nineteenth century. Then, after Indian independence, it briefly became an independent kingdom again before uniting with India, where it became an Indian state in 1972. However, throughout its history, it has faced a conflict between the various main groups: the Meitei, the Naga and the Kuki - the latter two recognised as ‘Scheduled Tribes’ and thus protected under the Indian Constitution. This tension has been fed by the privileges enjoyed by the Hindu-majority Meitei and the Christian Kuki ties to neighbouring regional groups, including the Mizo and the Chin, in Burma. But while this at one stage led to an armed independence movement, since 2008, the Kuki insurgents have accepted a ceasefire agreement - the Suspension of Operation (SoO). However, this was thrown into doubt when the Manipur government refused to renew the SoO, and the Manipur Hugh Court called for the Meitei also to be given Scheduled Tribe status. Seen as a threat by the Kuki, this soon led to rioting and wider unrest. It has also fed calls for a new Kuki territory within India, known as Kukiland. But is this likely?
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