Meitei Community

May 2, 2023

Context:

The Meitei community in Manipur seeks Scheduled Tribe (ST) status, but the Hill Areas Committee (HAC) of the Manipur Assembly passed a resolution against their demand.

Some community members plan to file contempt proceedings against HAC.

Underlying Issue:

Recently the Manipur High Court ordered the State government to recommend the inclusion of the Meitei community in the Scheduled Tribes list.
The Hill Areas Committee (HAC) of the Manipur Assembly, passed a resolution opposing the High Court’s order and called for the Centre and the State government to appeal it.

About Meitei Community:

They are the dominant community of Manipur.
They are divided into clans, the members of which do not intermarry.
Currently categorised as OBCs or SCs, the Meitei people dominate in more than half the State’s Assembly constituencies.
A majority of them identify as Hindu, while about 8% are Muslim.
The community, through the Scheduled Tribe Demand Committee, Manipur, has been demanding ST status for decades now.
They argue they had been listed as one of the tribes of Manipur before it merged with India in 1949 but they lost this tag when the Constitution (Scheduled Tribes) Order, 1950, was drafted.