Litan is a village cluster in Ukhrul district, Manipur, India, consisting of three closely-knit villages, Litan, Mongkot Chepu and Litan Sareikhong. It extends on both banks of Thoubal River, along the Imphal–Ukhrul Road (NH-202), about from Imphal and southwest of Ukhrul. Litan is the site of a strategic bridge on the Thoubal River, where the highway moves from its right bank to the left bank while going to Ukhrul. The village was a site of skirmishes during World War II and presently a site of a hot dispute between the Kuki and Naga communities during the Manipur conflict.
Geography
Litan is said to mean "cane bridge" in the Meitei language. This is evidently a reference to a bridge over the Thoubal River that might have existed at this location prior to a modern bridge being constructed during World War II.
The location of the bridge is at entrenched meander of the Thoubal River at the bottom of Leingangching, one of the sloping ridges of the Mapithel Range. The Imphal–Ukhrul Road, which traverses the right bank (west bank or north bank) of Thoubal up to this point, crosses into the lobe of the meander via the Litan bridge, and follows the left bank (east bank or south bank) of Thoubal afterwards. The village of Litan Sareikhong is located on the meander lobe, extending up to the Leingangching ridge. The villages of Mongkot Chepu (or Chepu Mongkot) and Litan are on the right bank of Thoubal, immediately to the west of the Litan bridge.
To the north of Litan is a hill called Bungpi Ching (6119 ft), which is at the southern end of a long mountain range that goes up to Huime. The Chepu village used to be halfway up the hill of Bungpi Ching, which was also the site of some action during World War II. After the war, the village appears to have moved down to the Thoubal River valley where it assumed the name Mongkot Chepu.
All the three villages are on the southern part of Ukhrul district on the border with the Kamjong district. The latter contains the immediate neighbours of Litan such as Sikibung and Thawai Kuki.
History British Raj In the 19th century, the Thoubal River was apparently crossed by fording, as it was only four inches deep. The left bank (south bank) of Thoubal had a camping ground to accommodate 400 men with all necessities. The Gazetteer of Manipur makes no mention of a bridge at Litan.
In 1942, there was a motorable earth road up to Litan, beyond which only animal transport was possible to Ukhrul. The Sareikhong village which came right after the river crossing was also referred to as the "hamlet of Litan". In preparation for World War II, the Indian Army constructed a motorable bridge at Litan, as well as a rough road to Ukhrul. The first jeep trip to Ukhrul was made in December 1942. The road was still undeveloped even after the war. Frank Kingdon-Ward, travelling up the road in the early 1950s, describes it as "deep and sticky in the shadow of dripping cliffs", where the truck came to a halt several times.
The village of Sareikhong is evidently named after a stream of the same name (but spelt Sarai Khong) which flows east of the Leingangching ridge.Map No. G46W1, Survey of India, 2011. A mention of the village appears in 1935, when J. C. Higgins (a political agent of Manipur) recorded having heard the Chinese francolin (called kabo urenbi in Meiteilon) in its vicinity. Historical records of World War II also make mentions of the village. Woodburn Kirby's account of the war identifies Litan with Sareikhong. News reports in July 1944 mention British forces retaking Sareikhong on their way to Ukhrul.
Independent period In the 1947 Hill People's Regulation, Sareikhong was listed as a "Kuki village" in Ukhrul Circle No. 2. It had 22 households and a chief called Shoyam Baite. In the 1956 Manipur Gazette, the village was listed as "Litan". Chepu Mongkot was listed in 1947 in Ukhrul Circle No. 1 with 63 households. In the 1961 census, "Litan Shepumongkot and Sareikhong" was listed as a combined village with 95 households and a population of 530 people. This suggests that Sareikhong had grown towards the Litan bridge and effectively merged with Chepu Mongkot. This configuration also had the consequence of moving the entire Litan cluster of villages to Ukhrul Circle No. 1 (corresponding to the modern Ukhrul district). In 1963, Sareikhong was referred to as "Litan Sareikhong".
In the 1971 census, three villages were listed separately: Sareikhong with 52 households, Mongkot Chepu, 100 households, and a new village called "Litan" with only 1 household. Later information reveals the new "Litan" to be a Tangkhul village, established by a certain Deepak Vashum (also called V. S. Deepak).NH-202 LAND ACQUISITION CRISIS: Freezed out of compensation, Ukhrul’s Litan village pleads for justice, Ukhrul Times, 4 July 2021. "Presenting grievances before the officials during the survey, Litan village Chief Deepak Vashum questioned the rationale behind excluding his village in the compensation process even as a large area of lands measuring 400 meters in his village have been acquired for the ongoing road works."
As the village sought official recognition of its status as "Litan Sareikhong" in the 1970s, the effort seems to have been blocked by the neighbouring Tangkhul villages, the new Litan village of Deepak Vashum as well as the Sikibung Tangkhul village to its west.Ningthoujam Nilachandra, The Chieftaindom of Kukis, a customary practice that has ruined Manipur, The Sangai Express, 5 September 2023. It was not until 1991 that the name "Litan Sareikhong" was recognised in the census.Primary Census Abstract (Rural) - Manipur - 1991, Census Digital Library, 27 June 2022.
Despite being under the control of a Kuki village chief, Litan Sareikhong is a mixed-ethnicity village with Kukis, Tangkhuls, Meiteis and Nepalis living together. In 2011, Ram Muivah, then a state-level administrative officer, called it a "model village" for the whole state where multiple communities lived together in perfect harmony. He pointed out that there was never any instance of conflict or tension among the different communities.Litan a model village for Manipur: Ram, The Sangai Express, via e-pao.net, 12 September 2010. This was however a deceptively rosy picture. There was a raging land dispute with the neighbouring Sikibung Tangkhul village even then.
Relations with Sikibung About 3 km west of Sarai Khong lies another stream called Habu Lok, also a left tributary of the Thoubal River. The village of Sikibung (or Sagabung), on its bank, was also a "Kuki village" prior to Indian independence. The original location was on the hill slope, about 200–300 m above Thoubal valley floor. In the 1947 Hill People's Regulation listing, it was listed in Ukhrul Circle No. 2 (corresponding to the modern Kamjong district) with 21 households and a village chief named Hemshei. But the Tangkhuls of Sikibung were in the process of splitting off from the parent village, which was listed separately in 1947 with 7 households. By 1956, the two villages were called "Sikibung Kuki" and "Sikibung Tangkhul" respectively. While Sikibung Kuki stayed at the original location, Sikibung Tangkhul moved down to the Thoubal River valley. Soon after its formation, Sikibung Tangkhul seems to have campaigned for its territorial demarcation. The Court of the Subdivisional Officer of Ukhrul determined in 1947–48 that the boundary between Sikibung and Sareikhong was at the Khoirulok stream.Shri Wungreikhan Kasar vs State Of Manipur, Manipur High Court, 25 March 2021.
As the Sareikhong village sought official recognition of its status as "Litan Sareikhong" in the 1970s, the Sikibung Tangkhul village objected to it claiming that the Litan Bazar area (on the meander lobe of Litan) was its own territory. It also claimed that chief of Litan Sareikhong was a "Burmese Kuki". A former Manipur government official posted in the region says that the case dragged on for 20 years.
In recent times, the Sikibung Tangkhul village has claimed that there was "1973 settlement agreement", by which Sareikhong was required to pay Rs. 20,000 for control of the area, but paid only half of it, leaving the remainder unpaid. Hence it claims that the agreement was aborted and Litan Bazar reverted to its own territory.Lian Naulak, Amit Kumar, Litan and the fragile edges of Manipur’s ethnic divide, EastMojo, 17 February 2026.Sharkaphung Headman Stands Firm on Land Claim Amidst Tension, Ekhon, 15 February 2026. Sikibung Tangkhul's claims are backed by Tangkhul Naga Long, the apex body of the Tangkhul community,Litan Bazar in the eye of storm, Tangkhul Naga Long threatens eviction, Imphal Free Press, 12 October 2024. and the parallel government run by the insurgent group NSCN (IM).WTR declares Litan Bazar as ancestral land of Sikibung village, warns against illegal settlements, Imphal Times, 11 October 2024.
Leingangching Unlike Sikibung, Sareikhong did not separate into Kuki and Tangkhul portions, but scholar Urvashi Butalia points out that, after the Kuki–Naga clashes of the 1990s, the two groups "usually live at some distance from each other, the boundaries not necessarily demarcated but nonetheless clearly maintained". An essential split between the Kukis and Nagas seems to have developed in Litan Sareikhong too, with the Kukis moving down to the settlement near the Litan bridge and the Tangkhuls remaining on a hill location. The hill subvillage, called Leingangching or S. Laho, is said to have had its "constitution" (Riyan) enacted by Sikibung (which now calls itself "Sharkaphung").Marchers protest burial denial, Imphal Free Press, 18 August 2017. This seems to indicate that Leingangching had been turned into a subvillage of Sikibung, even though it was originally part of Sareikhong.
Demographics As per the 2011 census, the Litan Sareikhong has a population of 1000 people living in 158 households and Mongkot Chepu a population of 676 people living in 132 villages. The new Litan village has a population of 127 people living in 27 households. This gives the village cluster an average decadal growth rate of 27.74% during 1961–2011, which is lower than the decadal growth rate of 37.24% for the hill districts of Manipur.
Litan Sareikhong has 85.2% of its population belonging to Scheduled Tribes, whereas the other two villages are almost entirely made up of Scheduled Tribes. Litan Sareikhong has a literacy rate of 83%, Litan 87%, and Mongkot Chepu 58%.PCA TV: Primary census abstract at town, village and ward level, Manipur - District Ukhrul - 2011, Census of India, 2011.
Recent developments The land dispute between Litan and Sikibung spiralled in 2020 with the government proposing to widen the Imphal–Ukhrul Road (NH-202) to a double-lane road. Sikibung, having claimed the land of Litan Bazar for several years, insisted that it should be compensated for the land lost to the road-widening project instead of Litan Sareikhong. In December 2020, a resident of Litan was said to have been "detained" by villagers of Sikibung owing to the dispute. The people of Litan blocked the Imphal–Ukhrul Road in protest, and the villager was released. The next morning, as the headman of Sikibung went to Litan along with his village authority members, he was attacked by a mob. He escaped to safety in the Litan police station, but tensions flared anyway.Mungchuan Zimik