For over a year now, the bodies of nine young men have been awaiting burial in Churachandpur in Manipur. The nine died in police action on August 31, 2015, while protesting three controversial bills passed by the state assembly earlier in the day. For a state that saw a rare form of protest that used the body as its tool – when 12 women disrobed in front of Kangla Fort in 2004 to protest the killing of a young woman, Th. Manorama, Assam Rifles soldiers – this is yet another instance of the corporeal being deployed as an instrument of protest. A team from The Wire visited Manipur for the first anniversary of the August 31 incident in order to report on the tribal movement in the hill areas of the state and the parallel but separate protest of the Meiteis in the valley.
The Wire reported on the issue earlier this month. For more details, read this report.