Manipur IDPs Attempt Return to Churachandpur Homeland

The image conveys solidarity, strength, and a peaceful demand for justice.

The quiet desperation of displacement erupted into open confrontation last week when hundreds of internally displaced persons from Manipur's Meitei community attempted to march home to Churachandpur district, where they had lived peacefully until ethnic violence shattered their lives more than two years ago. The events of November 21 and 22 have brought renewed attention to a humanitarian crisis that continues to fester despite claims of returning normalcy in the northeastern state. 

Security forces blocked the displaced families at multiple locations along the Bishnupur-Churachandpur border, deploying barricades, barbed wire, and heavy vehicles to prevent their onward march. At Phugakchao Ikhai on Friday evening, a confrontation between IDPs and security personnel escalated, forcing authorities to fire tear gas shells to disperse the crowd. Similar scenes unfolded the following day at Kwakta, approximately eleven kilometers from the Churachandpur border, where demonstrators were once again halted by a heavy security deployment.

The timing of these attempted returns was deliberate. Displaced families argued that if the state administration felt secure enough to inaugurate the annual Sangai Festival, a major tourism and cultural event running from November 21 to 30, then conditions should be safe enough for them to reclaim their homes. One protester at Phugakchao Ikhai captured the sentiment succinctly, saying they were desperate to see homes they had abandoned more than two and a half years earlier, questioning why a festival celebrating normalcy could proceed while their displacement continued.

The backdrop to these protests is a humanitarian crisis of staggering proportions. When ethnic clashes erupted on May 3, 2023, between the predominantly Hindu Meitei community residing in Manipur's Imphal Valley and the largely Christian Kuki-Zo tribal groups inhabiting the surrounding hills, it triggered violence that has claimed over 260 lives and displaced approximately 60,000 people. The conflict stemmed from tensions over a Manipur High Court order that appeared to recommend Scheduled Tribe status for the Meitei community, which the Kuki-Zo groups viewed as a threat to their own affirmative action benefits.

For the Meitei families who once called Churachandpur home, the intervening years have been marked by profound loss. Their houses were burned, their businesses destroyed, and entire neighborhoods ethnically cleansed. Those who fled have been living in cramped relief camps scattered across Bishnupur district, surviving on government aid in facilities that lack adequate sanitation, healthcare, and privacy. The Kwakta Relief Camp, where many of the Saturday protesters reside, has become emblematic of these dire conditions, with families crowded into makeshift quarters that offer little dignity or hope for the future.

Manipur has been under President's Rule since February 13, 2025, following the resignation of Chief Minister N Biren Singh, whose handling of the ethnic violence drew widespread criticism. Governor Ajay Kumar Bhalla now oversees the state's administration, inheriting a deeply fractured landscape where Meitei and Kuki-Zo communities live in near-complete segregation, separated by heavily patrolled buffer zones. The governor's decision to proceed with the Sangai Festival despite objections from civil society organizations and IDPs has intensified criticism that authorities are prioritizing optics over substantive conflict resolution.

The Coordinating Committee on Manipur Integrity, a prominent Meitei civil society body known as COCOMI, has led protests against the festival, calling for a boycott and organizing demonstrations across the Imphal Valley. They argue that hosting a tourism celebration while thousands languish in camps sends a callous message about the administration's priorities. The festival's opening day witnessed minimal public attendance, with most visitors appearing to be government officials and security personnel rather than ordinary citizens. Many food court vendors and craft exhibitors chose not to participate, their empty stalls serving as silent testimony to the deep public unease.

From the Kuki-Zo perspective, the attempted marches toward Churachandpur represent a provocation rather than a legitimate return movement. The Kuki-Zo Council expressed concern over what it characterized as a recurring pattern of intimidation, arguing that such incidents demonstrate why Manipur cannot achieve genuine normalcy when one community attempts to force its way into areas controlled by another. The council has reiterated its demand for a separate Union Territory to guarantee long-term safety for Kuki-Zo communities.
The geographical reality reinforces this division. Churachandpur district, located in the hills south of the Imphal Valley, has remained out of bounds for Meiteis since May 2023, just as valley areas have become inaccessible to Kuki-Zos. The Torbung-Kangvai buffer zone along National Highway 2, where security forces stopped the recent marches, marks one of the most sensitive flashpoints in the entire conflict. It was near the mutual border of Churachandpur and Bishnupur districts that the initial violence erupted, quickly spreading to engulf the entire region.

For displaced families like those at Phugakchao Ikhai and Kwakta, the path home remains blocked not just by security barricades but by a more fundamental absence of trust and reconciliation. Many lost everything in the violence, their documented lands and rebuilt lives now existing only in memory and bureaucratic records. Government promises of resettlement assistance, prefabricated temporary housing, and compensation remain largely unfulfilled nearly thirty months after the crisis began. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, during his first visit to Manipur since the violence started, announced plans for 7,000 new homes in appropriate locations, but critics note the vague language fails to address whether displaced persons will actually return to their original villages.

The protests have announced plans for more sustained action, with IDPs threatening to launch increasingly powerful and widespread demonstrations if authorities do not facilitate safe return to their homes. They argue that their prolonged displacement represents a fundamental failure of governance, a denial of their basic rights as citizens to live with dignity in the places they have always called home. As one demonstrator asked during the Kwakta protest, channeling the frustration of thousands, if the government believes peace has returned enough to celebrate with festivals, why can they not go home.

The situation remains volatile, with security forces struggling to maintain the buffer line while managing growing anger among displaced communities. Governor Bhalla, in his inaugural address at the Sangai Festival, acknowledged that the wellbeing of IDPs remains a paramount state responsibility, a statement welcomed by observers but accompanied by questions about when words will translate into meaningful action. Until displaced families can safely return to their ancestral homes, sleep in their own beds, and rebuild their shattered lives, claims of normalcy in Manipur will ring hollow, drowned out by the voices of those still waiting, still hoping, still demanding justice.