Women of Manipur, India, stage a hunger strike. There has been violence between ethnic groups in the region, exacerbated by a ruling to recognize one group, the Meiteis Scheduled Tribe (ST) status in 2023, which sparked violence. The status has since been withdrawn. Credit: Kumkum Chadha/IPS
By Kumkum Chadha
NEW DELHI, Mar 18 2025 – For Kikim*, it was the ides of May, instead of March, that was, in one sense, her undoing. She was looking forward to welcoming her baby, her first. But life took an unexpected turn, and things changed within a split second.
That evening she was cooking soup when she saw hordes of men approach the village—some brandishing swords, others holding bottles of petrol and diesel. Kikim also smelled smoke.
Alarmed, she fled from the back door only to find her neighbors trying to escape. They helped her jump onto a truck that was heading out. Kikim did not know where, and she did not care. Her immediate concern—safety.
As the truck moved, she counted hours that seemed never-ending. The one question that stared everyone in the face was: Will we make it alive?
What added to the uncertainty was the arduous journey through a dense forest.
By way of food, there was very little. The women huddled in the truck and gave Kikim a portion of what they had managed to bring along. “You need it more than we do,” they told her.
Kikim feared that she might deliver in the middle of a forest with no medical help.
She actually did in the early hours of the morning. The men were told to move away; the truck was converted into a makeshift delivery ward, and pieces torn from the wraparound women were made into a curtain of sorts for Kikim. When she heard the first cry of her newborn, she heaved a sigh of relief.
Little did she know, that the women around her faced another challenge: there was not enough water except for a one-liter bottle. Their only option was to wipe the newborn, sprinkling a few drops all over the frail body.
Kikim’s is one of the many cases that have unfolded during the Manipur crisis that has engulfed the northeastern state of India for some two years.
The state has witnessed violent clashes between two communities, the Meiteis and the Kukis.
The present crisis stems from a recommendation from the state High Court to grant Scheduled Tribe, or ST, status, to the Meiteis. The controversial clause has since been modified. On February 24, 2025, the Manipur High Court changed the March 27, 2023 order. It ordered the removal of a paragraph that had instructed the Manipur government to consider the inclusion of Meiteis in the list of Scheduled Tribes. It was the March 23, 2023 direction that is believed to have triggered the ongoing ethnic conflict between the Meiteis and the tribal Kuki-Zo communities in the State.
The Kukis protested because they felt that the direction would give the Meiteis heft over the hilly areas.
“They would use money power to take away our land and grab our jobs too,” says Thangso (name changed). Since the conflict, he carries a shotgun for protection.
The Kuki-Zo tribes are protected under the ST status. It is through this mechanism that the Indian government recognizes historically marginalized tribal communities.
Roughly translated as “land of gems,” Manipur is largely isolated from the rest of India.
The majority population, the Meiteis, are Hindus. They live in Imphal, the state capital.
The Kukis and Nagas are in a minority. Mainly Christians, they live in the hills.
The Indian Constitution reserves land in Manipur’s hill districts. This special provision prohibits the Meiteis from purchasing land in the hills and also restricts the migration of Meiteis and other groups into the hill districts.
Meiteis feel that their exclusion from the ST status is unfair.
They also rue the influx of illegal migrants, especially from across the border in Myanmar.
Manipur has a porous international border. Since civil war broke out in Myanmar, its nationals fled to Manipur. The military seized power in that country on February 1, 2021.
There are reports of Kukis providing a safe haven to illegal Chin migrants.
In Myanmar, Kukis are known as Chins.
If the Meiteis are apprehensive about the “shifting demography,” the Kukis charge them with pushing a “majoritarian agenda.”
The fault lines are deep and the mistrust complete.
It would be incorrect to presume that the clashes between the two are a one-off. Far from it.
Since the 1960s, militant groups have fanned the grievances of the Kukis and the Nagas, who are fighting for a separate homeland. Pitch the fight against the Meiteis, who are determined to defend the state’s territorial integrity.
Had it not been for a graphic video of two tribal women being stripped naked, events in Manipur may have gone unnoticed. The video went viral, sparking outrage not only across India but also abroad.
Mary Beth Sanate of the Rural Women Upliftment Society, told IPS, “Women are being charred, treated like objects, mob-lynched, and sexually assaulted. There is a complete breakdown of the system, and what we are seeing is a mockery of their human rights.”
According to a document, “Crimes against Kuki-Zo Women by Meites,” there are harrowing accounts of violence against women.
The document catalogues instances of Meitei extremists targeting Kuki-Zo women: “Kill her, rape her, burn her. Do to her what her people did to our women” is what Meitei women reportedly told a mob who had barged into a nursing hostel in Imphal, soon after the pogrom began two years ago.
It would, therefore, not be incorrect to see this crisis as one where women have played multiple roles: both as victims and perpetrators of violence.
Consequently, what started as women helping women soon transformed into a women-versus-women kind of situation.
To elaborate on this, if women were saviors in the case of Kikim and helped her deliver, there are enough instances where community allegiance overtook gender affiliation.
“From women protecting women, it soon turned into women targeting women. The love for one’s community overtook gender. Instead of protecting each other, women became perpetrators of violence,” said Nonibala from WinG, or Women in Governance.
A teacher turned activist, Nonibala’s switch from academics to the social sector was in 2005. When she saw Irom Chanu Sharmila on an indefinite fast, a guilt pang seized her: “I can’t stay hungry even for a day,” she said. Her penance: “Empower women.” Since then, there has been no looking back.
The present conflict, she told IPS, has taken its toll on women.
Vacillating between charges of being a protector and instigator, women in Manipur are central to the theme of sexual violence and attacks.
There are allegations and counter-allegations, accusations and denials, but a constant is the widespread fear and trauma.
In the eye of a storm are the Meira Paibis.
Roughly translated as torchbearers, Meira Paibis are an ethnic women-led social movement, that rose to prominence during the protest against the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, or AFSPA, that grants the military unparalleled power.
If the Kukis version is anything to go by, Meira Paibis are instigating some of the rapes of women of the minority community.
A member of the Kuki Women Organization for Human Rights, who requested anonymity for fear of being targeted, said she knew a dozen women were raped after Meira Paibis handed them over to menfolk. “Women abetting public rape and urging men to rape women, is a nightmare,” she told IPS.
This was substantiated by Momoi (name changed), who confirmed that one of the women in the mob watched her being beaten up by Meitei men.
On their part, Meira Paibis members refute this, claiming that women’s organizations do not differentiate between a Kuki or a Meitei. “I have handed over four abandoned children, all Kukis, to the Police in Imphal,” Sujata Devi told IPS, adding that the “first offensive” is always from “the people in the hills,” meaning the Kukis.
Popular as “voluntary mothers,” Devi’s organization, IMAGI MEIRA, has been at the forefront since the crisis.
She has had several run-ins with the police, including being under house arrest.
Caught in the crossfire are the likes of Thoibi and Memcha, who have lost friends. “All our friends suddenly see us as a Meitei. They have stopped talking to us.”
This “transition” is a disturbing narrative that throws up the inherent tensions in the state. Worse still, women pitched against women as participants and perpetrators of violence is chilling.
Now, peace is a distant dream and the divide a reality.
Is there a way forward? Will the wounds be balmed? Will they ever heal? Or will they continue to fester?
There are no easy answers or obvious solutions. At least as of now.
*Names changed to protect the safety of the women IPS spoke to.
IPS UN Bureau Report
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IPS UN Bureau, IPS UN Bureau Report, India