Manipur

Manipur is a small north-eastern state — about 22,300 sq km — with its capital at Imphal. It consists of a central valley surrounded by hill ranges that run to the Myanmar border. The valley is narrow, densely settled and almost entirely enclosed by hills.

The valley’s population is predominantly Meitei, while the surrounding hills are home to Naga and Kuki-Zomi communities. This split structures nearly all of the state’s politics. The economy is largely agrarian — rice in the valley, shifting cultivation in the hills — with handloom and handicrafts, particularly the distinctive textiles the state is known for. Loktak Lake, the largest freshwater lake in the north-east, is famous for its floating mats of vegetation and the Keibul Lamjao national park that sits on them.

Since May 2023 the state has been gripped by sustained ethnic conflict between Meitei and Kuki-Zomi communities, which has killed several hundred people and displaced tens of thousands. The immediate trigger was a dispute over land rights and the extension of Scheduled Tribe status, but the underlying contest over land, administrative control and the hill–valley divide is older. The violence has been severe enough to require repeated central intervention and has reshaped the state’s politics.