Ethnic Fault Lines

On February 17, 2026, the National Socialist Council of Nagaland–Isak-Muivah (NSCN-IM), a major Naga militant group seeking a “Greater Nagaland” (Nagalim) to unite all Naga-inhabited areas, alleged that the ongoing clash between the Meiteis and the Kukis in Manipur; the construction of the German Road/Tiger Road in Naga areas; the burning and destruction of Naga houses in Ukhrul district; and unprovoked attacks on Nagas in Nagaland are a pure and simple pretext to legitimise the creation of a territorial entity — Kuki State/Kuki homeland. The NSCN-IM also claimed that Indian-backed Kuki militants trained under the Suspension of Operations (SoO) agreement are being weaponised in a proxy war to fragment “Nagalim”. It further alleged that Kuki cadres are being exported to Myanmar as fighters for the People’s Defence Force (PDF). The outfit described Kukis as pawns in a broader strategy to divide Naga territory.

The statement, issued by the External Publicity Wing (EPW) of the NSCN, accused the Indian government of using the Kukis as part of a master plan to become a major player in the international arena. Quoting Nicholas John Spykman (1942), who postulated that “who controls the Rimland rules Eurasia; who rules Eurasia controls the destinies of the world”, the statement further stated that, to achieve this dream, India must increase its influence in the Indo-Pacific “Rimland”. The Rimland is the maritime fringe of Eurasia, encompassing Western Europe, the Middle East, South Asia, and East Asia. Spykman viewed these areas as an “amphibious buffer zone” between land powers and sea powers.

The German or Tiger Road mentioned in the NSCN (IM) statement is a network of roads linking Manipur’s hill districts that emerged after the 2023 Kuki-Meitei violence in Manipur, which made key highways such as the Moreh–Imphal route unsafe. Kuki Inpi Manipur (KIM), the apex traditional and socio-political body of the Kuki tribes in Manipur, described the proposed corridor as the “lifeline of the Hill Areas”. While Kuki leaders maintain they were built to restore mobility, investigations and seizures since last year indicate the routes have become preferred channels for heroin, opium, and other contraband entering from Myanmar. The issue escalated further when the Foothill Naga Coordination Committee (FNCC), citing rampant smuggling and territorial encroachment, enforced an indefinite blockade on Kuki movement through Naga-inhabited foothill areas.

Significantly, the NSCN (IM) statement, issued on February 17, coincided with the farewell speech of Mohammad Yunus, the former Chief Adviser of the Interim Government of Bangladesh, who, in his televised address to the nation a day before stepping down, outlined his economic vision linking India’s “Seven Sisters” with Nepal and Bhutan. It may be recalled that Yunus first raised the issue of the seven north-eastern states during his visit to China in 2025, when he said, “They (those seven states) have no way to reach the ocean. We are the guardian of the ocean (Bay of Bengal),” while inviting China to send goods through it across the world.

Naga–Kuki–Meitei conflicts

The Kukis, one of the larger hill tribes of the region, are spread across the North East and even parts of Myanmar and the Chittagong Hill Tracts in Bangladesh. In September 2018, thousands of Kukis poured into Churachandpur in Manipur to mourn 25 years of what the tribe calls a “black day”, or Sahnit-Ni, in its history. On September 13, 1993, Naga militants allegedly belonging to the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (Isak-Muivah) massacred around 115 Kuki civilians in the hills of Manipur. The Kukis refer to the killings as the Joupi massacre, after the village that saw the highest number of casualties. Though hostility between the Nagas and the Kukis dates back to colonial times, the conflict of the 1990s was primarily over land: large swathes of what the Kukis claim to be their “homeland” in the Manipur hills overlapped with Greater Nagaland, or Nagalim, envisioned by the NSCN (IM) as a sovereign Naga homeland. The proposed map of Nagalim consists of Nagaland and “all contiguous Naga-inhabited areas” of Assam, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh and, across the international border, Myanmar.

The Meiteis are the dominant group living in Manipur. There is a sizeable number of Meiteis in Myanmar. As per the last census conducted in 2011, they constitute 43 per cent of the valley population. They live alongside the indigenous Pangan (Muslims), Naga, Nepali, and migrants from other parts of India. The hill areas of Manipur are home to 41.20 per cent of the tribal population. The Kuki-Zo group (16 per cent) occupies the foothills in the districts of Kangpokpi, Churachandpur (Lamka), and Tengnoupal. The Naga tribes (20 per cent) live in the higher, rugged ranges in the districts of Tamenglong, Senapati, and Ukhrul. In Manipur, there are a few other smaller tribes as well.

In the current conflict, which started in May 2023 between the Meitei and the Kuki-Zo groups, the NSCN (IM) has remained neutral so far, as it is pursuing its own agenda, pressing for the implementation of a controversial accord it signed with the BJP-led Union government in 2015 that seeks a separate “Nagalim”, a move fiercely opposed by the Meiteis.

Recent peace initiatives

On February 5, the Union government signed a tripartite agreement with the Nagaland government and the Eastern Nagaland Peoples’ Organisation (ENPO) for the formation of the Frontier Nagaland Territorial Authority (FNTA), a long-standing demand for a new administrative body within the state, aimed at addressing the demands of eastern Nagaland. The ENPO, the apex body representing eight tribes across six eastern districts of the state, has been demanding a separate state since 2010, alleging decades of neglect.

Plagued by chronic underdevelopment and a nagging sense of being perennially ignored by the Nagaland government based in Kohima, ENPO continued to demand a greater degree of self-rule through the years. This primarily meant independence not from the Indian Union, but from Kohima. The ENPO agreement created an autonomous arrangement — FNTA — that is constitutionally unique. Neither does it fall under the Sixth Schedule, which allows for the creation of autonomous councils in tribal-majority districts, nor does it create a distinct constitutional sub-provision within Article 371A, which gives special status to Nagaland. Defence analysts observe that FNTA has created a “buffer zone” between Myanmar, Arunachal Pradesh, and western Nagaland (certain areas of which host operational bases and logistical routes of other insurgent groups). Moreover, FNTA has the potential to play a constructive role in building trans-border connectivity with Myanmar.

Rising demand for the Kuki homeland

The newly formed Manipur government has initiated a peace agreement with the Kuki-Zo-Hmar groups, structured along the lines of the Frontier Nagaland Territorial Authority (FNTA) agreement. The assurance of a similar arrangement for Manipur’s hill districts was among the key factors that persuaded three Kuki MLAs, including Deputy Chief Minister Nemcha Kipgen, to join the new Manipur government led by Chief Minister Yumnan Khemchand Singh. Negotiations are reportedly focused on strengthening autonomy for Manipur’s hill districts under Article 371C of the Constitution, which governs hill councils in the state. This mirrors the FNTA framework in Nagaland, which was carved out under Article 371A. However, experts claim that Article 371C offers significantly fewer protections than Article 371A. While Nagaland enjoys safeguards over customary law, land, and resources, Manipur’s hill councils have largely remained advisory bodies. According to the Ministry of Home Affairs, poor devolution of powers and inadequate funding have rendered many Autonomous District Councils (ADCs) ineffective over the decades. At present, there are six ADCs in Manipur. These councils manage local affairs such as education, health, agriculture, and public works. Unlike the ten ADCs in Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram, and Tripura, which operate under the Sixth Schedule of the Indian Constitution, Manipur’s ADCs are constituted under a 1971 State Act.

In Manipur, the Kuki-Meitei divide has widened over the years. The Indigenous Tribal Leaders’ Forum (ITLF) prohibits Meiteis from entering Kuki-inhabited areas until the demand for a political solution is granted. This exclusionary edict has been repeated through press releases and public statements ever since the violence peaked in May 2023, and it was reaffirmed as recently as February 2026. In practice, it enforces invisible security zones and institutionalises ethnic segregation right inside the state.

The term “Kuki” is an exonym of unknown origin first found in British records in the 18th century. Similarly, “Chin” is an exonym used for every hill tribe in the western frontier of Myanmar. These people called themselves some form of “Zo”. In “Mizo”, “Mi” means people and “Zo” means hill — “people of the hills”. The Chin-Kuki-Mizo people are an ethnic group in the areas of India, Myanmar, and the Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh. They speak the Chin-Kuki-Mizo languages, a group of 50 or so languages of common origin from the Tibeto-Burman language family. The origin of these people is from somewhere in southern China and northern Burma. They are believed to have entered Burma from the Chindwin Valley and arrived in the Chin Hills by 1300–1400. The earliest of these people reached the Jampui Hills of Tripura by 1600 AD and in Manipur by about 1500 AD.

Recent reports reveal that several members of the Chin, Kuki, and Zo ethnic tribes strongly believe in their biblical “lost tribe” lineage. The Bnei Menashe are believed to be descendants of the Massaneh, a biblical “lost tribe” purportedly exiled in 722 BC by rulers of the Assyrian Empire, a city-state in the Mesopotamian civilisation. The Bnei Menashe see themselves as part of a group of “Lost Tribes” separate from the Israeli state. Last year, the Israeli Cabinet approved the immigration of all 5,800 Bnei Menashe residing in the North East region of India. The process of moving all 5,800 Bnei Menashe is due to take about five years, with 1,200 people migrating to Israel by the end of 2026.

CNN-News18 has reported that the Kukis have sought foreign help in carving out a separate state for them. A memorandum was issued to the UN, UK, and Israel in June 2023 by the World Kuki-Zo Intellectual Council for special interventions to meet their demands for a separate state. They claimed this as their right to self-governance under the Indian Constitution. The Kukis have made a special demand for integrating all Kuki-Chin territories of Chin State (Myanmar), Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT), Bangladesh, Mizoram (India), and the Kuki Hills in outer Manipur into one separate country, Zalengam (land of freedom). It may be recalled that in 2024, the former Prime Minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina, made a shocking claim that a plot was being hatched to carve out “a Christian state like East Timor” from parts of Bangladesh and Myanmar.

The Zo peoples — comprising the Mizo, Kuki, Chin, and related tribes — share an unbroken ethnic, linguistic, and cultural heritage. But their contiguous highland homeland was arbitrarily dissected by the colonial Radcliffe Line and the India–Myanmar border. Today, they exist as marginalised minorities in four separate political arenas. H.S. Benjamin Mate, Chairman of the Kuki Organisation for Human Rights Trust, strongly advocates a transformative and proactive strategy to the Indian government for the creation of a unified, autonomous Kuki-Chin-Mizo (Zo) supra-state. The NSCN (IM), in its statement, refers to this supra-state as “the creation of a territorial entity — Kuki State/Kuki homeland” by the Indian government. The fight among the Naga, Meitei, and Kuki tribes over the proposed Kuki land is likely to intensify in the coming months.