Last updated on July 17th, 2023 at 04:24 pm
“Greetings to the people of Manipur on their Statehood Day from Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi”.
On the 21st of January Prime Minister Modi greets the people of Manipur on Statehood Day. He said, “During the last few years, the state has been making progress on many fronts. I pray that the aspirations of the people of this state are fulfilled and Manipur continues to strengthen India’s growth trajectory”.
The city of Imphal is the capital of the state of Manipur in Northeast India. The Indian states of Nagaland, Mizoram, and Assam bound it to the north, south, and west. It borders the Sagaing Region of Myanmar to the east and Chin State to the south.
The state has a total area of 22,327 square kilometers (8,621 sq mi). More than 2,500 years ago, Manipur was at the crossroads of Asian economic and cultural exchange. It connects the Indian subcontinent and Central Asia to Southeast Asia, East Asia, Siberia, regions in the Arctic, Micronesia, and Polynesia; enabling the migration of people, cultures, and religions.
The Kingdom of Manipur was one of the princely states during the days of the British Indian Empire. Between 1917 and 1939, some people of Manipur urged the princely rulers to adopt democracy.
The princely state of Manipur negotiated with the British administration in the late 1930s to continue being part of the Indian Empire, rather than part of Burma, which was being separated from India.
The outbreak of World War II in 1939 cut these negotiations short. Maharaja Budhachandra joined India on 11 August 1947 by signing an Instrument of Accession. He signed a Merger Agreement on 21 September 1949, which led to the kingdom merging into India and becoming a Part C State.
Groups in Manipur disputed the merger, claiming it was completed without consensus and under duress. As a result of the dispute and differing visions for the future, there has been a 50-year insurgency in the state for independence from India, as well as repeated episodes of violence among ethnic groups in the state. Over 1000 people were killed in the conflict from 2009 through 2018.
