Between 1981 and 1991, the Meitei population in Manipur surged by an unprecedented 40.91%, from 7,79,102 to 10,97,870 far exceeding India’s national growth rate of 23.87%. This anomaly has raised serious questions, with allegations of large-scale migration from Bangladesh’s Sylhet region and Myanmar, particularly during the 1988 Myanmar uprising, when thousands crossed Manipur’s porous borders. Ironically, while the Meitei aggressively push for the National Register of Citizens (NRC) to target hill tribes, this very process could expose their own demographic expansion, if indeed fueled by cross-border influxes from Sylhet and Burma.
The Meitei’s NRC demand is deeply tied to their opposition to delimitation, fearing that redrawing constituencies based on updated population data would increase representation for hill districts and weaken their dominance in Manipur’s 60-seat assembly. By insisting on NRC first, they seek to disenfranchise tribal communities before delimitation alters the political balance. However, if their 1981–1991 surge results from undocumented migration, the NRC could backfire, disproportionately affecting Meitei families.
~ Kukiland India
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