Some Kuki-Zo families displaced by violence in Manipur, India, built new homes with CSI’s support. csi
The unrest began after a directive by the Manipur High Court suggested that the Meitei community, the mostly-Hindu majority group in the state, could be granted Scheduled Tribe status: official legal recognition as indigenous peoples, with corresponding rights and protections. This would give them land rights in the hill areas traditionally inhabited by Christian Kuki-Zo tribes, triggering fears of dispossession.
The Kuki-Zo protests that followed were met with large-scale violence, which in turn displaced more than 60,000 Kuki-Zo people and led to the destruction of 200 of their villages and 360 churches and synagogues. The unrest continued until February 2025, when the federal government imposed President’s Rule, a law permitting federal takeover due to apparent breach of constitutional responsibility.
Around 15,000 Kuki-Zo people remain displaced, living in about 50 relief camps. These relief camps are run by local residents, churches and community organisations despite severe logistical challenges. The government announced in July 2025 that all temporary relief camps must close by December. Tensions are rising again, as Kuki-Zo communities report they cannot return to their destroyed homes under the continued threat of violence.
Lack of access to capital city impedes ordinary life
It is not only the displaced who remain in limbo. Ordinary life has stalled for nearly all Kuki-Zo people. Churachandpur, an underdeveloped district in Manipur where most Kuki-Zo live, lies just 60 kilometers from the state’s Meitei-dominated capital, Imphal, and is connected by good roads. Yet it has remained cut off from the district since May 2023. With the ongoing security concerns, tensions remain so severe that no Kuki-Zo individual, whether a police officer, senior official or politician, enters Meitei areas, and vice versa.
Churachandpur has seen little government aid or transport access. As a result, most essential goods and medical supplies have had to be brought in from Aizawl, the capital of Manipur’s neighbouring state Mizoram. Aizawl sits about 350 kilometers away from Churachandpur, along hilly and often dangerous roads.
Anyone from the Kuki-Zo community who falls seriously ill and requires surgery must be taken to Aizawl by ambulance, a journey that is both dangerous and prohibitively expensive. Students taking entrance exams must first travel to Aizawl by road and then take a flight from there, making the process financially out of reach for many families. Kuki-Zo individuals working in other states can only return home for holidays by routing through Aizawl.
National authorities responsible to protect and assist the displaced
The primary duty to protect and assist internally displaced persons lies with national authorities, according to the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement, to which India is bound. The absence of state-led resettlement plans, durable housing, education access and healthcare for displaced tribal Christians points to systemic neglect and ongoing rights violations under the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR). In particular, Articles 11 and 12 of the ICESCR guarantee the rights to housing, food and health.
The effective blockade and lack of access to state services, like the airport in Imphal, affecting Kuki-Zo groups also raise concerns under Article 7 of the ICESCR, which requires states to ensure equitable access to public goods and services, including in remote and marginalized areas.
Is lack of justice derelict oversight or direct oppression?
The Meitei vigilante groups that were allegedly involved in attacks against the tribal communities, including Arambai Tenggol and Meitei Leepun, have not faced prosecution. The attacks included murders and gang rape, yet no Kuki-Zo family that lost a loved one can say they have received justice.
Such prolonged inaction appears to amount to a violation of India’s obligations under Article 2 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which requires states to ensure effective remedies for violations of protected rights, including those committed by private actors when the state fails to act with due diligence.
But the state’s failures may be more than just inaction. In August 2024, the Indian media outlet The Wire released an audio recording that allegedly captures Manipur’s sitting Chief Minister at the time, Mr. N. Biren Singh, admitting to the use of heavy bombs and looted arms against areas inhabited by the Kuki-Zo community. The Supreme Court is examining the recording’s authenticity through a public interest litigation. The government’s lawyers told the court in early November that the poor quality of the recording makes verification impossible. Kuki-Zo groups, however, alleged that only a partial recording was sent to the government forensic lab that issued the findings. The case is still ongoing.
Singh was asked to resign by his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in February 2025 – not because of the tapes, but to avoid political embarrassment ahead of a no-confidence motion in the state assembly. Soon afterward India’s President Murmu imposed President’s Rule, the direct rule by the nation’s central government through the state governor’s office and dissolution of the state legislature.
But the governor has announced no plan to deliver justice to families who lost loved ones or to other victims of the violence. Meanwhile, the general lull in violence, aside from occasional flare-ups, has created a false sense of peace.
The UN Basic Principles and Guidelines on the Right to a Remedy and Reparation designate victims’ rights to truth, justice, restitution, and guarantees of non-repetition. Following the guidelines could include establishing a reparations program, publishing the findings of any inquiry, or pursuing a prosecutorial process. So far, the Indian government has not acted to meet these obligations.
