IN EARLY JUNE, the home department of Manipur, the conflict-stricken state in India’s Northeast, released data revealing that more than 700 people had died over the past three years in relief camps and prefabricated houses serving as temporary shelters. These individuals were among the thousands who had been internally displaced by the ethnic violence that has plagued the state – constantly simmering and periodically flaring up – since May 2023. Two months earlier, the Manipur government had disclosed an official tally of 217 deaths linked directly to the violence over this period – a toll it had calculated based on the number of ex-gratia payments made in compensation for the deaths.
The state government only released the data in response to queries under the Right to Information Act by Hareshwar Goswami – a writer and political activist, and the vice-president of the Manipur Pradesh Congress Committee. This is the state unit of the Indian National Congress, the main opposition to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which controls both the Manipur government and India’s central government in New Delhi.
For a long time, almost each new day in Manipur has brought news of fresh deaths, killings, kidnappings and protests. There is a lull in reported incidents at the moment, but tensions are still high and violence can break out again at any time. The ethnic conflict that started between the Meitei and the Kuki-Zo communities in May 2023 has grown to involve other groups, particularly the Nagas, since February this year.
In early June, groups of Naga women protested against the paramilitary Assam Rifles setting up an outpost in New Haven village, in Manipur’s Ukhrul district. The outpost was supposed to control the inter-ethnic killings in the area between the Kuki and Nagas. Naga groups called the outpost “unauthorised” and said that it violated the village administration’s authority, which is enshrined in state law. Naga communities have raised questions about prejudice by soldiers of the Assam Rifles, who they perceive as being close to the Kukis, and they have alleged that the paramilitary force is sometimes being lenient in the face of Kuki attacks and even outright helping the Kukis. The standoff resulted in a clash between Naga women and the Assam Rifles in which 22 women were injured.