"I was feeding my daughter when I saw five houses set ablaze. We ran."

Her great-grandfather was somewhat like a nomad. He was footloose and fancy-free. As a young lad, he lived in Mayang Imphal in the Thoubal district of Manipur. He often wandered in the open spaces of Moirang, about 17 km away, many times to hunt for food to feed the family. It was the wanderings of this hunter and explorer that brought him to Lamka town in Churachandpur. 

Lured by the peaceful hills, he and his brothers were the first few settlers here, who were then followed by other Meiteis from the valley to form a neighbourhood in the heart of Lamka (Churachandpur district), near New Bazaar, which was eventually named Kumujamba Leikai. Life was no short of blissful in the locality where he also met his wife, a Meitei lady who lived in Moirang.

 

The first batch of settlers lived in five to ten houses. "They were hunters who would often roam around as their main job was to provide for the family," says Hanglem Robina Chanu, who was born there in 1989 and lived there until 2007 when an ethnic feud between the Kuki and Paite tribes broke out. As their village was sandwiched between the Kukis and the Paites, the family was quite literally caught in the midst of the conflict. They did not feel safe in their ‘kutcha’ (temporary) house so the family was compelled to relocate to Moirang for their safety, where they lived for three months. During this time, Hanglem Robina's mother sent her to Imphal for her education and then to Pune for higher studies. 

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Now settled outside Manipur, Hanglem Robina had returned home earlier this year with her husband and three-year-old daughter to visit her family. While her husband left in April itself, she stayed on with her daughter.

She was out shopping on May 2nd with her sister-in-law to buy gifts for all her cousins and the children in the family when she noticed that people were in a rush to pull their shutters early in preparation for the peace rally being organised by All Tribal Students’ Union Manipur the next day.

On May 3rd, by 5 pm, the situation seemed unsettled, and whoever could, had gathered together in a concrete house in the locality. "I was feeding my daughter when suddenly I saw five houses near mine set ablaze. I witnessed it from my window. There was a commotion. Leaving everything behind, we ran and hid in a house, which was sturdier and also the largest house in the locality. By morning, we were about 1000 people taking shelter in that house. There was no food, so we hadn’t eaten since we arrived. 
We were told over the phone that we should walk till the Police Station, which was far away, and that the army would meet us at the junction. By then, there were about 4000 people but only two army trucks. Who would go first became an issue. Some people threw stones at us, so we had to run back. The army personnel said it was not safe and that we should go back to the temple and lock the gates while the army surrounds the premises. The people of the leikai then came out, and we decided to leave in our own cars. When we reached Tuibuong, we were attacked but the army somehow managed to let us proceed. I arrived at Kwakta, and then moved to a relief camp at Moirang with my sister. However, my two younger brothers, seven-month-pregnant cousin sister, five-year-old niece, one cousin brother, and a few other relatives were stuck for five days until they were able to find a safe passage to Imphal.”

Chanu recalls what she loved most about her house in the colony where she grew up and which is now burnt to the ground. “The Leikei is special to me. I spent my childhood walking, running, and playing there. A framed photograph of my late father (who passed away in 2013) with a mala around it hung inside the house. That was the only memory I had of him. I wished I had clicked a photograph of my late father in that frame,” she says.

During her time at AG school in Rengkai Road, Chanu was the sole Meitei student amidst a group of Zomi-Kuki friends. She fondly recalls Lalrammawi, her best friend who now teaches at Young Learners School and another friend, Nemboi, with whom she shared a room when she went to study in Pune. When they spoke over the phone recently, both were overcome with tears and a sense of helplessness.

The Leikei held a sense of community for Chanu – it was where she could visit any home and share meals. She would go walking to school on Rengkai Road with her best friends from the Kuki-Zomi community, whom she was closer to than anyone else. “I shared everything with them. They would come home and eat with us, and I would do the same,” she said.

Eventually, Chanu ventured out and settled elsewhere. Her younger sister married a Kuki and settled in Assam. She even converted to Christianity. One of her brothers who pursued his studies in Delhi returned during the COVID-19 pandemic to start a business of his own along with another brother. Her mother, a fiercely independent woman, is happy selling vegetables in Bishempur. “My mom believes in earning her own money,” Chanu affirms.

Today, far away from what they called “home,” the family yearns to go back. “My grandmother insists she will spend her last days in our leikei only. And deep down, if I am true to myself, I also hope to go back home. Today, even if the government gives me a new home in Imphal, I wouldn’t be truly happy. We are so accustomed to the village life we had. My grandparents still long to go back,” Chanu shares.
 
(Next series will have a victim from the Hills)