People displaced by the ethnic conflict in Manipur at a relief camp in Imphal. Even though the BJP is in power in much of the Indian Northeast, it may not have fully understood the region’s complex ethnic and linguistic dynamics, as the conflict in Manipur has shown. Photo: IMAGO/Zuma Wire
People displaced by the ethnic conflict in Manipur at a relief camp in Imphal. Even though the BJP is in power in much of the Indian Northeast, it may not have fully understood the region’s complex ethnic and linguistic dynamics, as the conflict in Manipur has shown. Photo: IMAGO/Zuma Wire
Politics

Under Modi, the Northeast is more united with India, but more divided within

India’s ruling BJP claims to have overcome the “tyranny of distance” that has plagued the Northeast but its politics have created greater division within the region, as the Manipur crisis shows
Makepeace Sitlhou

Makepeace Sitlhou is an independent journalist and researcher with a special interest in the Indian Northeast, reporting on politics, gender, governance, conflict, society, culture and development.

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This story is part of ‘Modi’s India from the Edges’, a special Himal series presenting Southasian regional perspectives on Narendra Modi’s decade in power and possible return as prime minister in the 2024 Indian election. To read the series and support Himal’s work on it, click here. 

In March, India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, said at an election rally in Arunachal Pradesh that previous governments had not cared for states that sent only two representatives to the country’s parliament, as Arunachal and several others in the Indian Northeast do. Modi failed to see the irony of his claim given that he has not visited Manipur, which has only two representatives in parliament, since the outbreak of an armed ethnic conflict that has raged on for nearly a year. The toll from the violence stands at more than 200 lives lost, and many thousands displaced.

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India
Narendra Modi
assam
Manipur
BJP
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Northeast India
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