Land, Identity and Constitutional Anxiety: The Politics of Scheduled Tribe Recognition in Manipur, Northeast India

The 2023 ethnic violence in Manipur constitutes one of the most severe episodes of ethnic conflict in contemporary India, producing mass displacement, territorial segregation and a prolonged breakdown of civic life. This article examines how the Meitei demand for Scheduled Tribe (ST) status transformed a constitutional controversy into large-scale ethnic confrontation. The study argues that the conflict emerged from historically entrenched tensions over land, political representation, indigeneity and state power. For the Kuki and other tribal communities, the proposed inclusion of the Meiteis within the ST category was perceived as a threat to constitutional safeguards protecting tribal territories and access to resources. The growth of exclusive Meitei majoritarian nationalism intensified social polarization and legitimized exclusionary politics. The article further analyses how weak governance, allegations of institutional bias and the militarization of civilian society accelerated the escalation of violence after May 2023. Rather than functioning as a mechanism of accommodation, constitutional recognition became a site of competing ethnic anxieties and political contestation. The Manipur crisis therefore reveals the fragility of pluralism in deeply divided societies where constitutional categories intersect with unequal power relations, territorial insecurities and competing claims of belonging.