National Socialist Council of Nagaland (Khaplang) ban for an additional 5 years

The Government of India, through the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), has declared the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (Khaplang), commonly known as NSCN(K), as an "unlawful association." The ban was formally extended in September 2025 for an additional five years.

1. The Official Notification

ATSUM as the Primary Political Voice of Hill Tribes

 This article analyses the political evolution of the All Tribal Students’ Union of Manipur (ATSUM) from a student advocacy group into a central constitutional actor in Northeast India’s federal conflicts. Using archival memorandums, constitutional texts, and conflict jurisprudence, the study maps ATSUM’s legal mobilisation against structural marginalisation.

ATSUM memorandum history forms a crucial empirical foundation within Manipur’s broader political evolution. The student-led movement demonstrates how constitutional grievances transitioned from administrative marginalisation in the 1980s to internationalised human rights claims after 2023. The increasing juridification of ATSUM’s demands reveals the maturation of tribal political consciousness within India’s federal system.

Naga and Kuki Political Demands: Feasibility and Obstacles

The political demands of the Naga and Kuki communities in Northeast India are centred on self-determination, territory, and identity, with the government of India seeking a solution within the constitutional framework. The feasibility of these demands is heavily obstructed by competing claims over territory and the reluctance of the Centre to concede on issues of sovereignty.

⛰️ Naga Political Demands and Feasibility

The Naga issue is India's longest-running insurgency, with peace negotiations ongoing for decades, notably since the 1997 ceasefire with the National Socialist Council of Nagalim (Isak-Muivah) or NSCN-IM.

Meitei–Kuki–Naga Relations Before and After Indian Independence

History, Colonial Transformations, Post-Colonial State Formation, and Contemporary Conflict

Abstract

The relationship among the Meitei, Kuki, and Naga communities in Manipur is shaped by pre-colonial political economy, colonial ethnic classification, and post-independence state restructuring. Prior to British intervention, relations were characterised by fluctuating patterns of trade, warfare, tribute, and political subordination between valley-based Meitei kings and surrounding hill tribes. Colonial policies restructured land, identity, and administration, crystallising ethnic boundaries. After India’s independence and Manipur’s merger in 1949, democratic politics, constitutional safeguards, insurgent nationalism, and competing territorial claims transformed earlier socio-political interactions into rigid ethnic contestations. This paper traces these transformations through archival records, colonial ethnography, and post-independence political developments, demonstrating how historical state formation, identity institutionalisation, and development asymmetries culminated in protracted ethnic conflict, including the large-scale violence from 2023 onward.

The Kuki-Zo Political Movement: An Overview

The Kuki–Zo political movement refers to the collective political, cultural, and socio-ethnic aspirations of the Kuki, Zo, Zomi, and related tribes spread across India (Manipur, Mizoram, Assam, Tripura, Nagaland), Myanmar (Chin State, Sagaing), and Bangladesh (Chittagong Hill Tracts).

The movement is rooted in identity, autonomy, security, ethnic rights, and homeland aspirations.

1. Historical Background

a. Pre-colonial & Colonial Period

• Kuki–Zo tribes lived in clan-based chieftainship systems across the Indo–Burma frontier.
• They were never fully under the control of any single kingdom before the British.
• The Anglo-Kuki/Zou War (1917–1919) was a major anti-colonial uprising resisting British rule.
• Colonial administrative boundaries split related tribes across India, Myanmar, and Bangladesh—creating long-term geopolitical and ethnic issues.