Torbung Bangla (or Bangla) is a village in the geographical precincts of Churachandpur district in Manipur, India. It is populated mostly by Meitei people who regard themselves as being part of Bishnupur district. The village was originally called Boljang, with an educational sericulture farm established here. At present, the village is a site of contestation between the majority Kuki-Zo people of the Churachandpur district and the Meitei people that dominate the state of Manipur. During the 2023–2024 Manipur violence, the village was almost entirely burnt down by Kuki mobs.
Geography The (Torbung) Bangla village, originally called Boljang, is on the Tedim Road between Torbung and Churachandpur, in the Khuga River valley (also called "Lamka plain"). To its south is the village of Kaprang, a census village. Snuggled between the two is another small village called Waikhurok. Waikhurok and Bangla are populated by Meitei people, whereas Kaprang is populated by Kuki-Zo people. More recently, a new Kuki-Zo settlement called Haolai Khopi has been founded around the year 2020, immediately to the south of the sericulture farm at the Boljang/Bangla village.INAUGURAL CEREMONY OF HAOLAI KHOPI - 2020 || Khosatpa: Kamsei Haolai, Ahsi Media, via YouTube, 11 December 2020.
These villages are watered by streams diverted from the Loklai river as soon as it enters the plains, from near the Pengjang village.Schemes of NEC Projects, Ministry of Development of Northeastern Region, retrieved 23 December 2024. See item 433.
History The village is marked as "Boljang" in the Survey of India data, indicating its original name.See for example Bhuvan 3D, Indian Geo-Platform of ISRO, retrieved 29 February 2024. The villages along the Tedim Road are, from north to south, "Phugakchau", "Kangvai", "Torbung", "Kotlian", "Boljang", "Kaprang" and "Leisang". It was listed as "Bolzang" among the list of villages in Churachandpur Subvidision in 1956, along with the village "Kapprang". These villages likely date back to the times before Indian independence. In 1959–1960, Boljang was noted to have a private lower primary school, one of 149 such schools in the tribal areas recognised by the Government of Manipur. In 1964–1965, an experimental sericulture farm was established in the village by the Government of Manipur to popularise non-Mulberry silkworm rearing. In 1969, oak tasar silk was introduced by the Central Tasar Research & Training Institute of Ranchi. The sericulture farm still exists, and it is still mentioned as being in the Boljang village.Churachandpur seed distribution centres, Sericulture Information Linkages And Knowledge System (SILKS), Central Silk Board, Ministry of Textiles, retrieved 29 February 2024.
From 2000 onwards, the village of Boljang began to be overtaken by the newer village of Torbung Bangla. (The actual name of the village is "Bangla". The prefix "Torbung" indicates that it has associated itself with the Torbung gram panchayat.) In 2005, a resident of the village submitted testimony to the AFSPA review committee.Report of the Committee to Review the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958, Government of India, Ministry of Home Affairs, 2005, page 97. In 2009, a driver from the village was abducted by armed miscreants, and the villagers claimed that the abductors were security forces themselves.2009 - most violent year in Manipur's recent history, The Assam Tribune, 2 January 2010. In 2013, a bomb placed in a roadside culvert killed a security personnel of Gorkha Rifles and injured two others. The security forces suspected the hand of the People's Liberation Army of Manipur (PLA), a Meitei insurgent group, whose members were believed to be taking shelter in the village.Bomb attack leaves one army man dead, The Sangai Express, via e-pao.net, 26 February 2013.RPF says security forces targeting people, Imphal Free Press, 2 March 2013. India Timeline - Year 2013, South Asia Terrorism Portal, 2014. Another bomb blast occurred in January 2015 near the 27 Sector Assam Rifles camp. The bomb blast, for which PLA claimed credit, was said to have been part of the "bycott" against the celebration of India's Republic Day.RPF claims hand in series of bomb blasts, Imphal Free Press, 28 January 2015. In May 2016, another IED was discovered near a post of the Border Security Force (BSF), which was safely detonated by the bomb disposal squad.Bomb safely disposed, Imphal Free Press, 28 May 2016.
Hills–Valley divide Scholar Rohlua Puia notes that the hills–valley distinction in Manipur is political rather than geographical. The hill districts and the valley areas have different administrative systems. The Kuki-majority areas in particular have villages headed by chiefs, as per their traditional custom. The land of the village is owned by the chief and the residents pay only house tax. In contrast, the valley areas have private land-ownership and the owners pay land revenue. A village like Torbung Bangla, where the valley population resides in a hill district (Churachandpur) produces an anomaly. The villagers of Torbung Bangla, despite living in the geographical precincts of a hill district, desire to be treated as belonging to a valley district (Bishnupur). Their land revenue records are maintained in the valley district, while the remainder of administration lies in the hill district.
However, at least since 2012, the Torbung Bangla and Waikhurok villages voted for the gram panchayat (village council) of Torbung. There may be an effort to enlarge the boundaries of the valley district to encompass such villages, noticed by the Registrar General of India and the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes.Vijaita Singh, Several hill villages in Manipur wrongly included in valley districts: ST panel, The Hindu, 11 September 2023. "A report by the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes (NCST) has observed that several hill villages in Manipur were wrongly included in the valley districts during the Census 2011 exercise." These efforts caused resentment among the hill populations.Vijaita Singh, Several hill villages in Manipur wrongly included in valley districts: ST panel, The Hindu, 11 September 2023. "[ATSUM] noted that about 144 hill villages had been placed under the jurisdiction of police stations in valley districts “in the name of convenient administration”, calling it a “systematic way of encroaching into hill areas”. The ATSUM had also added that several hill villages had their land records in the custody of adjacent valley districts."
2023–2025 Manipur violence On 3 May 2023, serious ethnic violence broke out between the Meitei and Kuki-Zo people, in which Torbung Bangla was a key location. On that day, a protest march was held in the Churachandpur town to protest the Meitei demand for a Scheduled Tribe status. Meitei groups organised a counter-agitation in the neighbouring areas of Bishnupur district against the protest march.Special Leave Petition (Civil) Diary No 19206 of 2023: Dinganglung Gangmei vs. Mutum Churamani Meetei & Others, The Supreme Court of India, August 2023. "... large-scale violence broke out in the State of Manipur on 03.05.2023 after a Tribal Solidarity March undertaken by All Tribal Students Union Manipur (ATSUM) in opposition to the demand for inclusion of the Meitei community in the list of Scheduled Tribes. The call for this march led to a counter response by Meiteis. Thereafter large-scale violence broke out in the State of Manipur...". The Kangvai village (a Kuki village to the north of Torbung) appears to have been attacked and houses ransacked, causing the death of two people. At the same time a fire was started at the base of the Anglo-Kuki War Memorial Gate in the Leisang village (to the south of Bangla and Kaprang).Lien Chongloi, Dispelling Some Misleading Claims About the Violence in Manipur, The Wire, 27 May 2023. "On May 3, while a peaceful protest was underway at the Kuki-majority Churachandpur town, news had reached the hill areas that the Anglo-Kuki Centenary Gate at Leisang-Monglenphai was set on fire by unidentified Meitei miscreants. According to eyewitness accounts, many Meitei volunteers who were held up at Kakwa [Kwakta] areas started moving towards Torbung and Kangvai areas and began torching Kuki houses. The first victim of that mob attack was Haopu Kipgen from Torbung Village; he was bludgeoned to death. The first casualty with torching of houses, therefore, was a Kuki." The people that started the fire were described as "unknown miscreants travelling in a white Bolero [van]", who fled the scene after being discovered.Tribal Solidarity March takes ugly turn; houses, offices, vehicles burnt, The Sangai Express, 4 May 2023. Churachandpur section.Kham Khan Suan Hausing, Manipur riots: The chilling methods in the madness, The Indian Express, 5 May 2023. . "The immediate spark for the violence was provided by the retaliatory destruction of the Anglo-Kuki War Memorial Gate in Leisang and razing of Vaiphei houses in Kangvai village by Meitei mobs following the beating up of a Meitei driver whose tripper truck hit a bike and ran over a stock of water bottles kept for use by peaceful tribal protestors in Lamka on the same day." Kuki mobs from Churachandpur rushed to the border areas.Tribal Solidarity March takes ugly turn; houses, offices, vehicles burnt, The Sangai Express, 4 May 2023. "Later, a large number of people from Churachandpur side stormed towards Bangla and Torbung along Tiddim Road and destroyed several shops." As the Kuki fighters passed through Torbung Bangla around 3:30 pm, some with advanced weapons, a video of them got circulated on social media, which caused considerable alarm among the Meitei community.Rajkumar Bobichand, The Violent Conflict Between Kuki-Zomi And Meitei Erupted On May 3 in Manipur's Churachandpur District Was Not Spontaneous or Without Early Warnings, Imphal Review of Arts and Politics, 22 July 2023. "Video clips of Kuki mobs and Kuki militants wielding sophisticated guns at S Bualjang and Torbung [Bangla] were circulated through social media at about 3:32 pm."Manipur: Protestors seen with AK-47 weapons amid violence-hit Churachandpur district, India Today NE, 4 May 2023. "The social media handles have been flooded with visuals of alleged civilians carrying sophisticated weapons such as AK-47s amid tribal groups' protest over a court order on Scheduled Tribe status at Churachandpur."
The two sides clashed at the Torbung and Kangvai villages, injuring 30 people. Properties and vehicles are said to have been torched.Yudhajit Shankar Das, Manipur violence: State is burning, but what is the decades-old fuel behind the fire, India Today, 8 May 2023. '"They only moved back only after Kukis from neighbouring villages and towns came to confront them. The initial violence was in Kangvai village. Police and commandos remained mute spectators and sided with them as they went about ransacking and destroying houses. Over 30 people have been injured," says [Kelvin Neihsial of All Manipur Tribal Union].'