ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the ontology of roads and how the very act of building roads breeds injustice. It traces the budgetary allocation of funds for road development from 1947 to 2014 and its outcome. Combining empirical evidence and secondary data, the chapter vividly captures road disparities in the state and examines the concept of roads from Poumai Naga tribal narratives and lived experiences. It describes how roads have become political highways that are frequently the target of blockades used to intensify protest movements that draw attention to local issues. In contemporary Manipur, road development refracts the ideology of progress, growth and peoples’ aspirations. Road infrastructure is highly politicised, unevenly distributed across the state, foregrounding the spatio-temporality of infrastructure. Extractive rent, blockades, counter-blockade and bandh, amongst others, have become hallmarks of the highly contested space called highways in Manipur. They have indeed become political highways.
