On 3 May 2023, ethnic violence erupted in India's north-eastern state of Manipur between the Meitei people, a majority that lives in the Imphal Valley, and the Kuki-Zo tribal community from the surrounding hills. According to government figures, as of 22 November 2024, 258 people have been killed in the violence and 60,000 people have been displaced. Earlier figures also mentioned over 1,000 injured, and 32 missing. 4,786 houses were burnt and 386 religious structures were vandalised, including temples and churches. Unofficial figures are higher.
The proximate cause of the violence was a row over an affirmative action measure. On 14 April 2023, the Manipur High Court passed an order that seemingly recommended a Scheduled Tribe status for the dominant Meitei community, a decision later criticised by the Supreme Court. On 3 May, the tribal communities held protest rallies against the Meitei demand for Scheduled Tribe status, while the Meitei community held counter-rallies and counter-blockades. After one of these rallies, clashes broke out between Kuki and Meitei groups near the mutual border of the Churachandpur and Bishnupur districts, followed by house burning.
Feelings were already inflamed prior to 3 May due to the policies of the state government headed by chief minister N. Biren Singh, himself a Meitei, who was seen vilifying Kukis with vices such as "poppy cultivation", "forest encroachment", "drug smuggling", and harbouring "illegal immigrants". Kukis had held a rally in March 2023 against his policies, and in another incident, burnt down a venue the chief minister was meant to inaugurate. The chief minister also patronised Meitei nationalist militias, named Arambai Tenggol and Meitei Leepun, which carried the flag for his policies and were primed to target the Kuki community. They were active in the 3 May rallies of the Meiteis.
Once initiated, the violence quickly spread to the Kuki-dominated Churachandpur town and the Meitei-dominated Imphal Valley, targeting the minority community in each area. While the Kukis limited themselves to house-burning, the Meitei mobs in the valley, mobilising in thousands, engaged in wanton killing of Kuki civilians living amongst them, including students, officials, soldiers and even legislators.
According to Reuters, 77 Kukis and 10 Meiteis died within the first week.
On 18 May, the 10 elected legislators belonging to the Kuki community unanimously demanded a 'separate administration' for Kukis, claiming that the Kukis could no longer live amongst the Meiteis. A month later, the influential Meitei civil body COCOMI declared a "Manipuri national war" against "Chin-Kuki narco-terrorists", essentially pitting the two communities against each other.
By this time, the situation had already taken the shape of a civil war with both the communities arming themselves, some with licensed guns and some with advanced weapons, and setting up bunkers to defend themselves. Meitei militias led mobs of civilians to raid state police armouries and loot sophisticated arms matching those of Kukis, whose militant groups were presumed to supply arms to civilians. By October, 6,000 arms and 600,000 rounds of ammunition were said to have been looted, in addition to mortars, grenades, bullet-proof vests, police uniforms etc.
Chief minister Biren Singh stuck to his position through the mayhem, claiming to work towards peace and defying many calls for his resignation. Partisan state and police bias were widely alleged. In the general election for the Union Parliament, Singh's Bharatiya Janata Party lost both the seats in the state to opposition Indian National Congress.
Eventually, a Kuki civil body approached the Supreme Court of India with purported audio tapes of Singh, where he is heard claiming that he himself instigated the violence, and a reputed forensic laboratory said that the voice belongs to him with 93% certainty.
Facing the threat of a no confidence motion in the impending Assembly session, Singh resigned on 9 February 2025, after 20 months of intermittent violence.
President's Rule was declared a few days later, whereby the Union government took direct control of the state administration through its appointed Governor. The violence between Meiteis and Kukis largely subsided during the President's Rule, but very little progress towards a peace settlement was made.
On 4 February 2026, the Government of Manipur was reinstated with BJP leader Yumnam Khemchand Singh as the Chief Minister of Manipur. Soon after he was sworn in, a new phase of the conflict began between Kuki and Naga communities initially at the village of Litan, but gradually spread to other parts of the state.
On 3 May 2023, ethnic violence erupted in India's north-eastern state of Manipur between the Meitei people, a majority that lives in the Imphal Valley, and the Kuki-Zo tribal community from the surrounding hills. According to government figures, as of 22 November 2024, 258 people have been killed in the violence and 60,000 people have been displaced. Earlier figures also mentioned over 1,000 injured, and 32 missing. 4,786 houses were burnt and 386 religious structures were vandalised, including temples and churches. Unofficial figures are higher.
The trigger of the violence was a row over an affirmative action measure. On 14 April 2023, the Manipur High Court passed an order that seemingly recommended a Scheduled Tribe status for the dominant Meitei community, a decision later criticised by the Supreme Court. On 3 May, the tribal communities held protest rallies against the Meitei demand for Scheduled Tribe status, while the Meitei community held counter-rallies and counter-blockades. After one of these rallies, clashes broke out between Kuki and Meitei groups near the mutual border of the Churachandpur and Bishnupur districts, followed by house burning.
Feelings were already inflamed prior to 3 May due to the policies of the state government headed by chief minister N. Biren Singh, himself a Meitei, who was seen vilifying Kukis with vices such as "poppy cultivation", "forest encroachment", "drug smuggling", and harbouring "illegal immigrants". Kukis had held a rally in March 2023 against his policies, and in another incident, burnt down a venue the chief minister was meant to inaugurate. The chief minister also patronised Meitei nationalist militias, named Arambai Tenggol and Meitei Leepun, which carried the flag for his policies and were primed to target the Kuki community. They were active in the 3 May rallies of the Meiteis.
Once initiated, the violence quickly spread to the Kuki-dominated Churachandpur town and the Meitei-dominated Imphal Valley, targeting the minority community in each area. While the Kukis limited themselves to house-burning, the Meitei mobs in the valley, mobilising in thousands, engaged in wanton killing of Kuki civilians living amongst them, including students, officials, soldiers and even legislators. According to Reuters, 77 Kukis and 10 Meiteis died within the first week.
On 18 May, the 10 elected legislators belonging to the Kuki community unanimously demanded a 'separate administration' for Kukis, claiming that the Kukis could no longer live amongst the Meiteis. A month later, the influential Meitei civil body COCOMI declared a "Manipuri national war" against "Chin-Kuki narco-terrorists", essentially pitting the two communities against each other. By this time, the situation had already taken the shape of a civil war with both the communities arming themselves, some with licensed guns and some with advanced weapons, and setting up bunkers to defend themselves. Meitei militias led mobs of civilians to raid state police armouries and loot sophisticated arms matching those of Kukis, whose militant groups were presumed to supply arms to civilians. By October, 6,000 arms and 600,000 rounds of ammunition were said to have been looted, in addition to mortars, grenades, bullet-proof vests, police uniforms etc.
Chief minister Biren Singh stuck to his position through the mayhem, claiming to work towards peace and defying many calls for his resignation. Partisan state and police bias were widely alleged. In the general election for the Union Parliament, Singh's Bharatiya Janata Party lost both the seats in the state to opposition Indian National Congress. Eventually, a Kuki civil body approached the Supreme Court of India with purported audio tapes of Singh, where he is heard claiming that he himself instigated the violence, and a reputed forensic laboratory said that the voice belongs to him with 93% certainty. Facing the threat of a no confidence motion in the impending Assembly session, Singh resigned on 9 February 2025, after 20 months of intermittent violence.
President's Rule was declared a few days later, whereby the Union government took direct control of the state administration through its appointed Governor. The violence between Meiteis and Kukis largely subsided during the President's Rule, but very little progress towards a peace settlement was made.
On 4 February 2026, the Government of Manipur was reinstated with BJP leader Yumnam Khemchand Singh as the Chief Minister of Manipur. Soon after he was sworn in, a new phase of the conflict began between Kuki and Naga communities initially at the village of Litan, but gradually spread to other parts of the state.
Background
Manipur is a state in northeast India, bordering Myanmar to its east and south. The Imphal Valley constitutes about 10% of the geographical area of the state with 57% of the population, predominantly Meitei, who are majority Hindus, with minorities of Muslims and native Sanamahism followers. The surrounding hills constitute 90% of the geographical area of the state with 43% of the population belonging to 34 tribal groups broadly categorised as Nagas and Kukis, who follow Christianity. The Nagas dominate the northern districts while the Kukis are predominant in the south. The tribal people have the Scheduled Tribe (ST) status, whereas the Meitei have been accorded Other Backward Class (OBC) status, with some classified as Scheduled Castes (SC) in certain areas. Tensions between the Meitei Hindus and the tribal Christians is a long-standing problem, exacerbated by the long-standing insurgency in the state and that in the neighbouring state of Nagaland, where a long-standing demand of Manipur's merger into the Naga-majority state by Naga insurgent groups like NSCM has fuelled ethnic tensions, imposition of AFSPA & counter-protests against army brutalities led by Irom Sharmila Chanu.
Scholars write that the hill tribes, whose administration had largely been left to the respective chiefs known as Khullakpa by the Meitei Kings, came to be administered by the British after the Anglo-Manipur War of 1891. The British administrative control became more intensive after the Kuki Rebellion of 1917–1919 and they continued to administer the hill areas directly until 1947. Scholars believe the colonial administration employed the "divide and rule" policy which widened existing divide between the peoples. On the contrary, the hill regions are noted by some scholars as forming part of Zomia inhabited by "non-state" peoples. They came to be administered only after the Kuki Rebellion, After Indian independence, the hill tribes continued to enjoy a protected status. Even though the Manipur Land Revenue and Land Reforms Act, 1960, prohibits transfer of tribal land to non-tribals except by special permission, the seventh amendment (2015) is seen as an attempt by the valley dwellers to grab tribal land. The valley-based Meitei dominate the political establishment. Of the 60 constituencies of the Manipur Legislative Assembly, 40 are held by the valley and 20 are in the hill districts. The tribal population is not prohibited from settling in the valley region. Kukis state that they do not want to come to the valley but they have to since there are no roads, schools or hospitals in the hills.
Tribal groups have complained that the government spending is unduly concentrated in the Meitei-dominated Imphal Valley.
Scheduled Tribe status for Meitei
The Scheduled Tribe Demand Committee of Manipur (STDCM) began demanding Scheduled Tribe (ST) status for the Meitei people in 2012. The STDCM claims the status will restore the harmonious relationship between the valley and the hills peoples before the Manipur's merger with India in 1949. On the other hand, the hills people view this demand as an attempt to reduce the effectiveness of the Naga and Kuki demands, and enable the Meitei to make inroads into the hill regions.
It was reported later that the Union government and the state government had considered the issue of ST status for Meitei twice, once in 1982 and a second time in 2001, and rejected it both times. This fact was not publicised at the beginning of the conflict.
The consolidation of BJP power in Manipur dramatically altered the political atmosphere in the state. It empowered Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) networks to embed themselves within Meitei civil society and promote a majoritarian, Hindutva-inflected politics directed against religious minorities. This manifested in a proliferation of Meitei nationalist organisations, a sharp increase in vigilantism and cultural policing directed at minorities, and the systematic use of anti-minority rhetoric in state political discourse.
Chief Minister Biren Singh himself played a central role in this process of radicalisation. In public statements, media addresses, and government policy, Singh repeatedly vilified the Kuki communities. He accused them wholesale of poppy cultivation, forest encroachment, drug smuggling, and harbouring illegal immigrants from Myanmar. Independent scholars and human rights monitors have described these characterisations as manufactured, racially coded, and deliberately designed to dehumanise an entire ethnic group in preparation for, or in concert with, organised violence against them. Investigative journalists at The Caravan documented how Singh's war on drugs was in practice a targeted campaign against Kuki villages rather than any systematic counter-narcotics operation. Evictions and demolitions were concentrated exclusively in tribal hill areas, while large Meitei stakeholders in the narcotics economy faced no state action whatsoever.
Singh also directly patronisedArambai Tenggol and Meitei Leepun, two armed Meitei nationalist organisations that would go on to lead mob violence against Kuki communities after 3 May 2023. Arambai Tenggol's Facebook page publicly displayed photographs of its members meeting with Singh, and the organisation enjoyed the joint patronage of the Chief Minister and Rajya Sabha MP Leishemba Sanajaoba, the state's titular king. Human rights monitors described these organisations as having injected militancy into Meitei civil society, a militancy that state leadership chose to encourage rather than restrain.
Refugees from Myanmar
The renewed civil war in Myanmar following the 2021 military coup generated a significant influx of Chin refugees into Manipur and Mizoram, as fighting in the Chin theatre displaced large numbers of civilians. As of May 2023, the state government acknowledged approximately 2,000 Myanmar nationals in state-run shelters, though other estimates placed the figure between 5,000 and 10,000.
The Biren Singh government and the BJP at the centre instrumentalised this refugee crisis by conflating the Chin refugees, who are ethnically related to the Kuki-Zo peoples, with the entire long-settled Kuki community, branding Indian citizens wholesale as illegal immigrants. This conflation, which deliberately blurred the distinction between long-settled Indian citizens and recently arrived refugees, served as a political tool to delegitimise Kuki land and citizenship claims that are constitutionally unambiguous. Angshuman Choudhury of the Centre for Policy Research described the government narrative as scapegoating the tribal peoples rather than addressing the actual humanitarian situation. Home Affairs Minister Amit Shah's claim that the refugee influx had created insecurities that triggered the violence effectively legitimised mob attacks on Indian citizens by attributing communal fears to an external cause that state policy itself had manufactured.
International factors
On 15 August 2023, Manipur Chief Minister N. Biren Singh attributed the violence in part to foreign conspiracies and the actions of vested interests seeking to destabilise the state. The National Investigation Agency also stated that it was examining the possibility of foreign involvement.
Antecedents
On 7 November 2022, the Government of Manipur passed an order setting aside previous orders from the 1970s and 1980s that excluded villages from proposed Churachandpur-Khoupum protected forest, which automatically placed 38 ancestral villages in Churachandpur in the encroaching category. In February 2023, the BJP state government began an eviction drive in districts of Churachandpur, Kangpokpi and Tengnoupal, declaring the forest dwellers as encroachers—a move seen as anti-tribal.
In March, the Manipur Cabinet decided to withdraw from the Suspension of Operation agreements with three Kuki militant groups, including the Kuki National Army and the Zomi Revolutionary Army, though the central government did not support such a withdrawal. Several Manipuri organisations also demonstrated in New Delhi to press for a National Register of Citizens (NRC) to be created with 1951 as the base year, complaining of abnormal population growth in hill areas. The first violence broke out as five people were injured in a clash in the Kangpokpi district, where protesters gathered to hold a rally against "encroachment of tribal land in the name of reserved forests, protected forests and wildlife sanctuary". While, the state cabinet stated that the government will not compromise on "steps taken to protect the state government's forest resources and for eradicating poppy cultivation". Social scientists, such as Dhanabir Laishram, have argued that targeting those poor Kuki cultivators alone would be futile. A rich section of the Meitei community is blamed to be one of the major funders. On 11 April, three churches in Imphal's Tribal Colony locality were razed for being illegal constructions on government land.
On 20 April 2023, a judge of the Manipur High Court directed the state government to "consider request of the Meitei community to be included in the Scheduled Tribes (ST) list." The Kukis feared that the ST status would allow the Meiteis purchase land in the prohibited hilly areas.
The Indigenous Tribal Leaders' Forum (ITLF) called for a total shut down on 28 April in protest of the state government actions, a day that also happened to have been scheduled for the chief minister N. Biren Singh to visit Churachandpur for the inauguration of an open air gym. The day before the visit, a mob set fire to the gym and vandalised it. The ITLF claimed that it started the agitation as the state government was not addressing the plight of the people. Section 144 was invoked on 28 April as well as a five-day Internet shutdown. The protesters clashed with the police and tear gas shells were used to disperse the mobs.
What has been said, openly, including by Chief Minister Biren Singh, is that too many “foreign” (Myanmar Kukis) are involved, there is foreign (Chinese, he insinuated) hand, and that the Kuki tribals are forest encroachers, illicit poppy growers, drug smugglers and terrorists. “Terrorist” is an expression he has used for them more than once and it has been widely reported in the national broadsheets.
Overview
Initial riots
On 3 May 2023, i.e. Day 1 of the Manipur Violence, the tribal organisation All Tribal Student Union Manipur (ATSUM), opposing the Meitei demand for ST status, conducted a "Tribal Solidarity March". Tens of thousands of protesters participated in the march across all hill districts of Manipur. According to the Union Home Ministry, the call for the march also generated a "counter response" by the Meiteis, and protests and rallies were called at various locations in the Imphal Valley. Reports were received of a counter-blockade at Torbung near the Bishnupur–Churachandpur district border, and a counter-agitation in the surrounding valley areas (such as the Kangvai village), where houses were attacked by Meitei mobs.
Two dead bodies were discovered in the Kangvai village and tyres were burnt at the base of the Anglo-Kuki War Memorial gate at Leisang as an apparent provocation.