- Thadou tribe leader Michael Thadou lived in Imphal for a month and said it was peaceful
- His ancestral home in Churachandpur was set on fire by mobs in 2024, his Imphal home was burned in 2023
- Thadou tribe leader rejects being labelled part of Kuki tribes and campaigns for distinct identity
A young leader of the Thadou tribe has been living in Manipur's Imphal valley for the last one month and sharing updates from the city to demolish what he called a deliberate narrative of fear-mongering, over two years after the Meitei-Kuki ethnic clashes broke out.
Imphal resident Michael Lamjathang Thadou, whose ancestral house in Churachandpur district was set on fire twice by mobs in 2024, said he wants people to see for themselves that there is peace in Manipur among the common people.
His house in Imphal valley, too, was set on fire by mobs when ethnic violence began in May 2023.
He told reporters in Imphal that some communal groups and armed organisations are keeping a narrative of hate to feed their ambitions, and forcefully stopping and threatening internally displaced people from returning homes.
He said many people were affected by the ethnic clashes over two years ago simply due to misidentification of their community.
"I am not Kuki, and I am safe in Imphal. Peace on the horizon. Yes to Manipur, no to anti-Manipur," the Thadou tribe leader said in a post on X with a photo taken at what appeared to be a market in Imphal valley.
The Meitei community is dominant in central Manipur's areas categorised as "valley" region. The other areas are categorised as "hill" region, which includes small valleys between hills. The Kuki tribes are settled in the hills of southern Manipur and some areas north of Imphal.
Michael Thadou said he has been raising awareness about his tribe, Thadou, being inaccurately referred to as part of the Kuki tribes. This drew retaliation from people who did not accept the Thadou tribe's distinct identity, he said.
Those who subscribe to the Kuki nomenclature reject Michael Thadou's campaign for his tribe as a politically motivated strategy because he is also one of the spokesperson of the BJP in Manipur.
Michael Thadou said he no longer uses the surname 'Haokip', and those who subscribe to the Thadou tribe's distinct identity have also started the process to replace their surnames en masse with 'Thadou'. The formal process will take some time, he added.
On Ningol Chakkouba - a festival important for the Meitei community and celebrated after Diwali, with brothers welcoming sisters from their matrimonial homes for a grand feast - Michael Thadou posted visuals from a programme where a local club welcomed him.
"The programme beautifully reflected the idea of Manipur, inclusivity and unity that leaves no community behind... During the gathering, I also shared a few thoughts on the current challenges and the situation of internally displaced persons belonging to our indigenous ethnic communities in the state," Michael Thadou said.
"I emphasised that separatism of any kind, including 'Kuki' ideology, stands against the very idea of Manipur, an idea built on coexistence, cultural integrity, and shared destiny. Every community has its own distinct identity and history that must be preserved and understood in its true form. It is important that no community be misrepresented or wrongly labeled," he said.
"As a member of the Thadou community, I firmly believe in protecting our cultural identity while working hand in hand with all who believe in peace and unity. Let us reaffirm our collective resolve to defend the integrity of Manipur and strengthen the bonds that make us one people," he added.
In August, a leader of the Thadou tribe from Assam who attended a peace meeting in Manipur the same month was kidnapped, tortured and killed by Kuki militants. Nehkam Jomhao, 59, chairman of the Thadou Literature Society, was tortured and killed at his house in Manja in Assam's Karbi Anglong district, Thadou civil society organisations said in statements.
In multiple statements, Thadou organisations alleged "Kuki militants and supremacists" do not want the Thadou tribe to assert their distinct status as not under the Kuki umbrella, and at any cost do not want peace to return in neighbouring Manipur.
The Kuki Revolutionary Army (KRA) in Assam said five of its insurgents were involved in the murder, but they acted on their own without the knowledge of the organisation. The KRA Assam agreed to help in the police investigation.
Sources said the investigation has found a link with a village in Manipur from where one of the arrested accused came, indicating interstate coordination among Kuki insurgents in planning the murder. Details of the investigation will be given to an Assam court next month, sources said.
There are many villages of the Kuki tribes in the hills surrounding the Meitei-dominated valley. The clashes have killed over 250 people and internally displaced nearly 50,000.
