BharatSangraha

Imphal Valley · Northeast Hill Massif

Freedom fighters

Manipur's resistance is not a province's protest against a distant government but a state's war against another state, followed by fifty years of agitation inside an administered princely state. The 1891 war was fought by a standing army with artillery and a command structure, which is why it ended in public executions for waging war rather than in prosecutions for sedition. The two Nupi Lan — the women's wars of 1904 and 1939 — are the other half of the record, and they are unusual anywhere in India: mass actions initiated, led and sustained by women out of a market they had run for generations, with no party behind them at the start and specific, winnable demands about labour and about rice.

Risings and revolts

The Anglo-Manipur War1891

Following the palace coup of 21 September 1890, Chief Commissioner Quinton came to Imphal in March 1891 with an escort to settle the succession and arrest Tikendrajit. The attempt failed, Quinton and several officers were killed on 24 March, and three British columns converged on the valley. The main Manipuri stand was at Khongjom on 25 April.

Outcome: Imphal was occupied on 27 April 1891. Tikendrajit and Thangal General were publicly hanged on 13 August; others were transported. A minor, Churachand Singh, was installed and Manipur was administered as a princely state under British paramountcy.

The first Nupi Lan1904

An order requiring Manipuri men to go to the Kabaw valley to fetch timber for rebuilding a British officer's residence, reviving the lallup compulsory labour obligation, was refused. Several thousand women of Imphal took the protest into the streets.

Outcome: The order was withdrawn after about a week.

The second Nupi Lan12 December 1939 – 1940

Women of the Khwairamband market moved against the export of rice from the valley during a season of shortage, blockading the mills and confronting the state durbar. Troops and police were used against unarmed crowds on 15 December; the agitation continued through the destruction of the durbar building on 25 December, action at the Sawungbung tax office on 16 January 1940 and a market boycott from February.

Outcome: Rice export was restricted and the agitation broadened into a wider demand for reform of the Manipur administration before the war overtook it. Many of the women were imprisoned for six or seven months.

People

NameYearsMovementKnown for
Bir Tikendrajit SinghImphal 1856–1891 The Anglo-Manipur War, 1891 Senapati and Jubraj; commander of the Manipuri forces in the war of 1891.Tried for waging war and publicly hanged at Imphal on 13 August 1891.
Thangal GeneralImphal died 13 August 1891 The Anglo-Manipur War, 1891 Long-serving soldier and minister of the Manipur court, tried alongside Tikendrajit.Hanged at Imphal on 13 August 1891.
Paona BrajabasiKhongjom died 25 April 1891 The Anglo-Manipur War, 1891 Commanded the Manipuri position at Khongjom, the last set-piece stand of the war, against a much larger and better-armed column.Killed in the action at Khongjom on 25 April 1891, which Manipur marks as Khongjom Day.
Kulachandra SinghImphal reigned 1890–1891 The Anglo-Manipur War, 1891 Maharaja during the war, installed by the coup of September 1890.Tried after the war and transported to the Andamans.
Kangjam ongbi SanajaobiImphal 1906–1939 The second Nupi Lan, 1939 One of the women in the front of the crowd on 12 December 1939 and again in the confrontation at the police station on 15 December, in which she was injured, and later at the telegraph office.Died in 1939, aged thirty-three.
Laishom Leibaklei DeviImphal born 30 January 1905 The second Nupi Lan, 1939 In the front line of the demonstration of 12 December 1939 and injured when the crowd was dispersed.Imprisoned, initially for two months and then under a six-month sentence.
Kabui Chanu ApambiImphal 1876–1978 The second Nupi Lan, 1939 A Kabui woman among the leaders of the action against the rice godowns and of the move on the Sawungbung tax office in January 1940 — evidence that the agitation drew women from the hill communities settled in the valley as well as Meitei women.
Hijam IrabotImphal 1896–1951 Nikhil Manipuri Mahasabha and the reform agitation of 1939–40 Vice-president of the Nikhil Manipuri Mahasabha and the leading figure in turning the demands raised by the women's agitation of December 1939 into a wider programme for reform of the Manipur state administration.Arrested in 1940 and held in Sylhet jail; released on 20 March 1943 but barred from Manipur; detained again on 15 September 1944 at Silchar and released on 10 January 1945.

People from Imphal Valley who resisted colonial rule, and the regional risings and revolts that shaped that resistance. (11)