Manipur
(2001 est. pop. 2.4 million). Bordering Myanmar (Burma), Manipur is a small state in northeastern India. The state is a rough rectangle with an area of 22,327 square kilometers. One-third of the people, living in the rugged hills, belong to twenty-nine tribes, which are part of either the Kukis or the Nagas ethnic groups. The other two-thirds of the population, in the valley, are primarily Meitei. In the 1700s Bengali influence led to the adoption of Vaishnavism by the elite. British conquest in 1891 increased the social distance between the elite and the masses. Efforts to revive Meitei culture and religious rituals and to replace Bengali with Manipuri script strongly challenged the national government and the Vaishnavite Brahmans. Resistance in the hills was violent, with a 1917 rebellion against the British and a union of Naga groups into the anti-Christian Zeliangrong movement in Nagaland (1927–1932).
During World War II Manipur was occupied by the Japanese, with 250,000 British and Indian troops trapped under siege. Since 1972 violent self-rule campaigns and a war between the Kukis and Nagas have disturbed the state. Agriculture and forestry predominate; small-scale industries produce cotton and silk textiles, milled rice, crude sugar, and wooden wares. More than 200,000 hand looms yield designed cloth in demand throughout India.
Further Reading
Gangle, Thangkhomany S. (1993) The Kukis of Manipur. New Delhi: Gyan Publishing House.
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