Written by: Anshuman Behera4 min readOct 19, 2026 06:18 AM IST First published on: Oct 19, 2026 at 06:18 AM ISTThe ethnic strife in Manipur has now moved deep into the hill districts, pitting the Kuki-Zo and the Naga communities against each other. There has been very little respite from the violent conflict between the Meiteis and the Kuki-Zo communities that erupted in May 2023, claimed around 300 lives, and displaced close to 60,000 people. Against this backdrop, the old fault line between the Nagas and the Kuki-Zos, which led to violent clashes in the 1990s, has resurfaced. At least nine people were killed in the latest outbreak of violence across the hill districts over a 24-hour period beginning on the night of October 9.Over the past three and a half years, despite the political and administrative changes in the form of the imposition of President’s Rule, a change of chief minister, and the (re)emergence of stakeholders in the conflict, two things have remained constant: The persistence of violent conflict and the inability of both the state and the Union governments to deal effectively with the violence (despite the heavy deployment of security forces across Manipur) and the underlying tensions among the ethnic communities.AdvertisementThe problem is twofold: Limited capacity of the state and the negligence of the Union government. The failure to foresee the outbreak of violence, initially between the Kuki-Zos and the Meiteis and now between the Nagas and the Kuki-Zos, raises serious questions about the state’s governance and law-enforcement apparatus and its understanding of the underlying ethnic tensions.Moreover, the inadequacy of the state’s response to the continuing violence is also evident from its failure to disarm militant groups and ethnic militias. The period of President’s Rule (February 13, 2025, to February 4, 2026) offered a good opportunity to recover weapons looted during the ethnic violence that began in 2023. Yet, the failure of the state has allowed militias to remain influential stakeholders in the ongoing violence, including the recent clashes between the Kuki-Zo and the Naga communities.Furthermore, the complete failure to operationalise a 51-member Peace Committee, announced following Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s visit in June 2023 and intended to bring the warring groups to peace talks with the state governor, further underlines the absence of meaningful and sustained political engagement.AdvertisementOne can be equally troubled by the continued non-functioning of the six Autonomous District Councils (ADCs) of Manipur. The last election for the ADCs was held in 2015, and the ADCs completed their term in 2020. As a result, the next elections are now six years overdue. Arguably, the ADCs could serve as institutional channels for engaging with the state and articulating local grievances. It cannot be a coincidence that between 2010 and 2020, when the ADCs were functional (other factors, like various peace agreements, no doubt, contributed as well), Manipur witnessed a drop in militant activity and violence. The prolonged dysfunction of the ADCs has weakened the vital link between local communities and the government, a breakdown that has arguably found expression in ethnic mobilisation and violence.you may likeFinally, the sharp erosion of social cohesion has contributed to political failure and the state’s response has failed to heal fractured inter-community relations. Both the state and the Union governments must act immediately to contain violence, disarm the militants, and restore public faith in the state. Any further delay will squander the hard-won gains in curbing militancy.The writer is with the Department of Political Science, University of Hyderabad