Nepalis in Manipur: Making Their Mark in Electoral Politics

Abstract

From the early colonial time onwards, the British had brought outsiders to the state of Manipur to meet their needs and services as labourers, servants, cooks, coolie, helpers, etc. Later, the migrants brought their families and started settling down with permission granted by the Manipur State Durbar and British Political Agents from time to time. The British were very much satisfied and attracted by these migrant communities because of their courage, hard work, trustworthiness, honesty, sincerity, and valour, and the British realized their importance both during the war and peacetime as soldiers and peasants, respectively. This migrant community is none other than the Nepalis/Gorkhas. Their coming and movement had been seen from the time of the British setting up of the Political Agency in Imphal in 1835, which even today inherits this legacy during the post-colonial time through the Indo-Nepal Treaty of 1950. As the population influx occurred in the state in the 1960s and 1970s, the Nepali broadly expanded their settlement throughout the once Gorkha Reserve- Kanglatongbi-Kangpokpi belts and made the Kangpokpi AC 50-50 with the local tribes, which even led to being elected as representative from it after converted into a general seat. This legacy of fighting elections continues even today, even though they lost it by a margin after the 1980s. Besides, they have also participated in panchayat and ADC elections with elected members and cast their votes in the valley and hill constituencies other than Kangpokpi.