Hollywood Street

This bylane in Manipur's Churchandpur town is a microcosm of a state reeling from decades of violence and economic crisis.

 

Jawaharlal Nehru once called Manipur the 'jewel of India'. That jewel is now covered in blood and tears, doused with heroin and almost completely neglected, even as large parts of mainland India are said to be marching towards shining glory. Manipur has seen insurgencies since its accession to the Republic of India in 1949, though it was only in 1964 that the United National Liberation Front (UNLF) started the secessionist movement for an independent Manipur. In 1980, the entire Imphal Valley was declared a 'disturbed region' under the Armed Forces Special Power Act, which led directly to the 1988 birth of political and militant wings representing the ethnic Kuki community – the Kuki National Organisation (KNO) and Kuki National Army, respectively. This was a fallout of the conflict between the Naga and Kuki communities, itself resulting from the mass resettlement of Kuki in Churchandpur, which is considered ancestral lands by the Kuki. Feeling under threat, the Naga joined hands with a fellow tribal group, the Paite, in 1997, and proceeded to step up the conflict with the Kuki, resulting in thousands of deaths and displacements.

 

Today, the entire state suffers constant civil unrest, and the town of Churchandpur is under the control of warring factions of Kuki and Paite organisations – the KNO and the United People's Front (UPF), respectively. The people of Churchandpur, meanwhile, are too scared on a daily basis to cross the town's boundaries, as demarcated by the insurgent groups. The KNO, for instance, controls the area of East Lamka (Tuibong), while the UPF controls the centre of town. When the sun sets, everything shuts down due to insurgent diktat, though even during the daytime bandhs and curfews are routine. Corruption runs deep at all levels of government, while even free services such as consultations at state-run hospitals cost money. Extortion is widespread, with businesses and families forced to pay 'taxes' to whichever insurgent group controls the area. The insurgents decide who wins local elections, with significant pressure to vote for candidates whom they support, wherever one happens to live.

 

Hollywood Street is a narrow stretch in Churchandpur that is particularly known for its drug dealers and prostitutes. As can be seen in the accompanying photographs, it is also a snapshot of the human catastrophe that has been caused by the state's ongoing inter-community conflicts. The street is in the middle of the town's market area, and right next to the central bus station. Locals and commuters thus come to Hollywood Street to buy and sell vegetables, smuggled household products from Burma, meat, contraband alcohol, heroin and sex.

 

The latter two are indicative of the dire straits in which the state finds itself today. A single hit of Burmese heroin can be purchased for as little as 50 rupees. A kilo of chicken costs more than twice that – about the same as sex workers typically charge clients, half of which goes to a pimp, with the rest often used to purchase heroin. Women from conflict-displaced families in Manipur have for years taken up prostitution in order to escape grinding poverty – and heroin is what helps many to go on.

 

Indeed, the conflict has not only led to decades of death and displacement, but also brought in the cheap heroin. Once a recreational drug only among the wealthy in Imphal, heroin became freely available as the conflict has dragged on, quietly imported through the porous border with Burma. The related needle use has also been a key factor in the HIV/AIDS crisis that is currently raging in Manipur – today, the state has the highest rate of HIV in India. This, however, is just one more ramification of the inability of all sides to bring a halt to the grinding violence in this, one of Southasia's most restive areas.