The violence that engulfed Manipur on May 3, 2023, still shows no signs of receding. Many Kuki and Meitei people have been displaced and forced to leave the houses they called their home for decades. The death toll has crossed 100 and yet, the state and the central governments are unable to devise solutions that could contain violence in the short and/or long term. Demands for separate administration of the Kuki and Zomi-inhabited areas have sprung up and the state machinery has broken down.
News reports of the violence have emphasised the scale of destruction and deaths in significant parts of Manipur. However, for many displaced people, the violence has also meant a loss of trust, friendships, and familial bonds, the loss of which is a much tougher pill to swallow.
