Colonial Encounter and the Hill-Valley Relation in Manipur: A Critical Analysis

Manipur was a historic kingdom in the India-Burma border, possessing a long history of triumphs and challenges. Historically, Imphal Valley was the seat of Meitei Kings, with its surrounding hills inhabited by tribals broadly categorised as Nagas in the north and Kukis in the south. Monarchy was in vogue in the Imphal Valley, but the hills remained autonomous under traditional tribal chiefs, and their relations were rather hostile. The British colonial conquest of Manipur in the 19th century ruptured the pre-existing relation between hill tribes and Meitei Kings. While recent works on Manipur attributed the hill-valley dichotomy to colonial “divide and rule” policy, this paper contends that the hills and valley historically had always been different with their relation marked by persistent contestation and negotiations and it was only the colonial state which brought them together under some semblance of administrative unity resulting from the encounter and negotiation between colonial state, Meitei Kingdom and hill tribes.