Summary
In an Indian Express op-ed, Anshuman Behera of the University of Hyderabad argues that Manipur's ethnic violence persists because the state is managed as a security problem without a political process. The Meitei-Kuki-Zo conflict since May 2023 has claimed about 300 lives and displaced close to 60,000 people.
At least nine more were killed in Kuki-Zo-Naga clashes in the hill districts from the night of 9 October 2026. Behera points to the failure to disarm militias even during President's Rule, the collapse of the 2023 Peace Committee and the absence of elections to Manipur's six Autonomous District Councils since 2015.
He argues that restoring these councils is essential to reconnecting hill communities with the state.
WHY IT MATTERS FOR UPSC & STATE PCS
Following fresh Kuki-Zo-Naga clashes that killed at least nine people in Manipur's hill districts on 9-10 October 2026, an Indian Express op-ed on 19 October argued that the state's failure to hold overdue Autonomous District Council elections has left a political vacuum.
Standard News
Manipur Is Being Policed, Not Governed
TAN's position is plain: Manipur's ethnic conflict will not end through security operations alone and the most important missing institution is an elected voice for the hills. Elections to the state's six Autonomous District Councils, unheld since 2015, should be restored as a priority, alongside disarmament rather than after it.
Why the
councils matter Manipur's hill districts are home mainly to Kuki-Zo and Naga communities, while the Imphal Valley is predominantly Meitei. To give the hills a measure of self-government, the state created six Autonomous District Councils under the Manipur (Hill Areas) District Councils Act, 1971.
Unlike councils in Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram or Tripura, these are statutory bodies, not Sixth Schedule councils. Their constitutional anchor is Article 371C, which provides a Hill Areas Committee of MLAs elected from the hills.
The councils' last elections were held in 2015 and their term ended in 2020. For six years, the hills have had no elected local body to carry grievances to the state, mediate between communities or administer development.
Anshuman Behera argues that militancy and violence declined between 2010 and 2020, while the councils functioned, though he acknowledges peace agreements also played a part. Their collapse, in his view, cut the link between hill communities and the state and that gap filled with ethnic mobilisation.
The security-only approach has not worked:
- Since May 2023 the Meitei-Kuki-Zo conflict has claimed about 300 lives and displaced close to 60,000.
- A year of President's Rule (February 2025 to February 2026) did not disarm the militias; of more than 6,000 weapons looted in 2023, only around 1,200 had been recovered in recent drives.
- In October 2026, the old Naga-Kuki-Zo fault line reopened, with at least nine killed in Kamjong, Kangpokpi and Ukhrul.
The strongest objection This platform itself argued on 15 October that Manipur must disarm before it can talk.
Meitei groups such as COCOMI warn that empowering hill councils deepens the valley-hill divide and threatens the state's integrity. They argue the priority should be border fencing, ending the Free Movement Regime with Myanmar and restoring the state's monopoly on force. Elections in an armed landscape, they add, could hand power to whichever group has the most guns. That is a serious argument, not a straw man.
Why the
position still holds Disarmament is not something a state can simply impose on communities that do not trust it - the recovery figures prove that. Weapons are surrendered through negotiation and negotiation needs partners with a mandate.
An elected council can bargain for community-level surrender in a way no committee of appointees can. Nor do council elections fragment Manipur. They take place under the state's own 1971 law, inside its constitutional framework.
Holding them reconnects the hills to Imphal rather than separating them from it. Disarmament and elections are not a sequence; they are partners. Without the second, the first keeps failing.
Quick Facts
Key numbers & takeaways — revise these first
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The Meitei-Kuki-Zo conflict in Manipur began in May 2023.
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It has claimed around 300 lives and displaced close to 60,000 people.
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At least nine people were killed in Kuki-Zo-Naga clashes across Kamjong, Kangpokpi and Ukhrul districts from the night of 9 October 2026.
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President's Rule was in force in Manipur from 13 February 2025 to 4 February 2026.
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A 51-member Peace Committee chaired by the Governor was announced in June 2023 but never functioned.
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Manipur has six Autonomous District Councils: Chandel, Churachandpur, Kangpokpi (Sadar Hills), Senapati, Tamenglong and Ukhrul.
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They are statutory bodies under the Manipur (Hill Areas) District Councils Act, 1971 - not Sixth Schedule councils.
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Article 371C provides for a Hill Areas Committee of MLAs elected from the hill areas.
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The councils last held elections in 2015 and their term ended in 2020.
Connect the dots for your UPSC preparation.
Standard news covers the event. Log in to read our comprehensive analysis and uncover the hidden constitutional, structural, and ethical dimensions of this topic:
The full constitutional distinction between Manipur's statutory councils under the 1971 Act and Article 371C and Sixth Schedule councils elsewhere in the Northeast.
The strongest version of the disarm-first argument, including COCOMI's integrity concerns and our own 15 October editorial.
Why the collapse of the 2023 Peace Committee and a year of President's Rule both point to the same missing piece.
A practical sequence for holding hill council elections alongside disarmament and the evidence that would change TAN's position.
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