ABSTRACT
This chapter explains the historic rise of Kuki ethnic nationalism in Northeast India, particularly in Manipur, and the emergent demand for an exclusive Kuki homeland. It focuses on key events both in history and in the contemporary period, especially the ethnic violence of the 1990s, which have challenged the pace of democratic development in the state. The chapter highlights the role of chiefs and Kuki political elite and their organisations in mobilising support for their ethnically specific cause. It analyses complexity of the Kuki quest for identity and homeland and, in doing so, factor in Naga nationalism and the demand for Greater Nagaland. The chapter briefly mentions the historic understanding of the Kuki group in colonial ethnography and administrative classification. Ethnically, there are contiguities and affinities and also perceptible differences between the Naga and Kuki groups. Ethnic identity gets politicised when political coalitions are organised along ethnic lines or when access to political or economic benefits depends on their recognition.
