Ethnic Territorialization, Infrastructure Erasure, and the Governance Failure vis-à-vis Internally Displaced Persons in Manipur.

3rd May 2023 marked the beginning of the most devastating ethnic conflict between the Meitei community and the Kuki-Zo tribe of Manipur. It was triggered by the Manipur High Court Order on the recommendation of ST Status for the Meitei community. The clash took more than 260 lives and led to the displacement of around 60,000 people who were forced to leave their homes. Using qualitative content and narrative analyses of secondary data, this paper examines, under various sub-headings, how ethnic conflict and internal displacement in Manipur function as a mechanism of ethnic territorialization. The conflict saw not just displacement but also the forced removal of entire communities from the land that they had once called home for generations. It further argues that the violence has resulted in the collapse of essential infrastructure and human displacement, and those who remain are unable to return to their original places. The destruction of built infrastructure is interpreted as a process of erasing the social, cultural, and territorial presence of ethnic communities that have inhabited these areas for generations. The study points out that the conflict erupted from the long-standing unresolved issues over unequal distribution of resources among the communities and the failure of the governance system since the colonial era.

Ethnic Conflict, Infrastructure, Internal Displacement

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