Imphal: The Scheduled Tribe Demand Committee of Manipur (STDCM) has once again pressed for the inclusion of the Meitei/Meetei community in the Scheduled Tribe (ST) list of India, describing it as vital for their survival in Manipur’s multi-ethnic landscape.
In a press release, the STDCM urged Governor Ajay Kumar Bhalla to prioritize the issue and called on both the State and Central Governments to take urgent steps to address the long-standing demand.
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The committee emphasized that the appeal for ST status is not intended to infringe on the rights or privileges of the other 33 officially recognized tribes in Manipur, which together comprise approximately 41% of the state’s population. The Meitei community, meanwhile, makes up about 53% of the population.
The STDCM has been leading this campaign for over a decade, continuously urging successive state governments to forward the necessary recommendation to the Centre, as required by the Ministry of Tribal Affairs.
The committee underlined that despite the Meiteis being the majority, their share in the population has declined from 60.32% in 1901 to around 53% today — a drop of 15.42% over the past 110 years.
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Citing historical documents, the STDCM noted that colonial-era records had previously recognized the Meitei/Meetei as a hill or forest tribe. Specifically, the committee referred to the General Report of the Census of India, 1891 by J.A. Baines, and the Census of India, 1891 (Assam) by E.A. Gait, both of which described the Meeteis as Hindu-practising hill tribes. Baines also reiterated this classification in his 1912 publication, Ethnography (Castes and Tribes).
Manipur, which was a princely state under British rule from 1891 until 1947, merged with the Indian Union in 1948. However, the Meitei community was subsequently excluded from the Scheduled Tribe list when the Constitution of India was implemented in 1951.