The coming Delimitation in 2027 is not a routine administrative exercise for Manipur. For the Naga people, it is a matter of historical correction and existential survival. Unless the deep historical and present mess is understood with in-depth clarity, any delimitation conducted on a flawed foundation will not be delimitation — it will be the legalization of an injustice and the institutionalization of a demographic invasion.
The historical flaw
The truth that must be spoken in Delhi and Imphal is this:
Delimitation in Manipur today is still governed by the Delimitation Act, 1972, which was based on the 1971 Census and conducted in 1973. That exercise created 60 constituencies — 19 reserved for Scheduled Tribes and 41 General.
That structure continues till today in 2026. It is more than five decades old. It is outdated, technically flawed, and democratically unjust.
In the rest of the Indian Union, delimitation was carried out subsequently based on later censuses. In Manipur, it was frozen.
Why was it frozen?
Because the Delimitation Notification of 2001 based on 2001 Census was deferred and was never brought into force for Manipur. By an order dated 8th February 2008, under Section 10A of the Delimitation Act, 2002, the Government of India deferred delimitation in Manipur by citing security reasons and law and order situation.
The intention of Section 10A was a temporary deferment to restore normalcy. But what was meant to be temporary became permanent. What was meant to be a security measure became a shield for perpetuating a flawed system.
For 19 years after 2008, no correction was made. The result is catastrophic: Manipur is the only federal state of India where the political representation in 2026 is still determined by the population of 1971. How can 2027 constituencies be carved on the basis of 1971 demography when the ground reality has completely changed? It is legally arbitrary, logically absurd, and constitutionally discriminatory for the people of Manipur, unlike other federal states of India.
Therefore, Delimitation 2027 must not be a mere adjustment of boundaries. It must be a historical correction. It must not be based on a deferred 2001 Census or an outdated 1971 Census. It must be based on a corrected, cleansed, and accurate census.
The present mess
Fortunately or unfortunately, Manipur is now damaged. Since 3rd May 2023, Manipur has been burning. The state has been engulfed in an unprecedented ethnic crisis between Meitei and Kuki-Zo groups.
In this fire, the Naga is victimized and entangled. The Naga did not start this war. The Naga is not a party to this war. But the Naga is paying the price for this war. Our villages in Noney, Tamenglong, Kangpokpi, and Churachandpur frontier are caught in the crossfire. Our people are displaced, our lands are claimed, our existence is questioned.
And in the midst of this crisis, a rapid and unabated political demand has emerged — the demand for a Union Territory or Separate Administration by Kuki groups, and that demand is being mapped directly on Naga ancestral territory.
This cannot be ignored. This should not be ignored as the top concern for the Naga people and other indigenous people of Manipur as a matter of strategic engagement. Naga territory is not a wasteland to be carved out for a settlement of a crisis that Nagas did not create. Naga territory is not negotiable compensation for a conflict between two other communities.
Any demand for UT that includes Naga ancestral villages, Naga foothills, Naga forests, and Naga history is an act of territorial aggression against the Naga people. It is an existential threat.
The root of the flaw
How did this existential threat emerge? How did a population grow so rapidly, so unabatedly, in areas that were historically sparse?
The answer lies in a bitter truth that has been deliberately ignored for decades: A huge population has been illegally enlisted in the electoral list in Manipur.
Unabated illegal immigration from across the porous border, unnatural population growth in certain hill constituencies, and the mushrooming of villages without any legal recognition have completely distorted the electoral demography. A constituency that had 15,000 voters in 1972 now has 70,000. Another constituency that had 20,000 still has 25,000. This is not natural growth. This is engineered demographic change.
And because delimitation is based on population, if delimitation is conducted on a fraudulent electoral roll and a fraudulent census, it will reward illegal enlistment with more political power. It will punish the indigenous people who have remained stable with less representation.
This is why NRC — National Register of Citizens — with a cut-off year as baseline to be citizens is fundamentally crucial in the case of Manipur for accurate Census, delimitation, and recognition of villages.
NRC is not an anti-people exercise. It is a pro-indigenous exercise. It is the only mechanism to distinguish between citizen and non-citizen, between original inhabitant and illegal entrant, between recognized village and encroached settlement.
Without NRC, there can be no accurate census. Without accurate census, there can be no just delimitation. Without just delimitation, there can be no recognition of genuine villages. It should have been addressed many decades ago but failed for many reasons — vote bank politics, security lapses, and lack of political will. Now the failure has become a catastrophe.
The Naga strategic imperative
The crisis is no longer just about law and order. It is about survival. The rapid growth, the demand for UT on Naga territory, and the activities of armed groups operating on Naga territory with sophisticated weapons pose a direct threat to Naga collective security.
Bullets cannot answer this threat alone. Guns will only deepen fratricide and entanglement. What is urgently needed is what the Nagas have neglected for too long.
Urgently, Naga needs to build unified intellectual capacity and other capabilities collectively.
1. Legal and Constitutional Capability: A team of Naga legal scholars, historians, and constitutional experts must file comprehensive objections to Delimitation 2027, demanding implementation of Section 10A correction only after NRC and a fresh, biometric census in Manipur. 1972 delimitation must be declared constitutionally obsolete.
2. Documentary and Cartographic Capability: Every inch of Naga territory must be mapped with customary law, oral history, British maps, and satellite data. We must prove, with evidence, that the land claimed for UT is Naga land. We cannot fight a territorial claim with emotion; we must fight it with documents.
3. Demographic and Electoral Capability: An independent study on abnormal electoral growth, unrecognized villages, and illegal enlistment must be prepared and submitted to the Election Commission of India and the Delimitation Commission. Facts must expose fiction.
4. Unified Political Voice: All Naga CSOs, tribal bodies, student bodies, and political groups, despite their differences, must adopt one common resolution: No inch of Naga territory shall be included in any separate administration or Union Territory. No delimitation without NRC and without cleansing of electoral rolls.
The Biblical principle is clear in Nehemiah 4:14 — “Fight for your families, your sons and your daughters, your wives and your homes.” We are not fighting for hatred against any community. We are fighting for our families, our homes, and our God-given boundaries.
Conclusion
Delimitation 2027 will decide the next 30 years of Manipur. If it is conducted on the flawed foundation of 1971 population and 2023 fraudulent rolls, it will permanently disempower the indigenous Naga people and other indigenous peoples and reward demographic engineering.
Therefore, the Naga position must be assertive, asserting, logical, lawful, and powerful:
First, historical correction of the 52-year-old delimitation flaw under Section 10A of 2002 Act must be done.
Second, NRC with a proper cut-off year — 1951 as base year as in Assam or 1961 as the year Manipur became a Union Territory — must be implemented before census and delimitation.
Third, recognition of villages must be based on NRC-cleansed census, not on politically motivated enlistment.
Fourth, any demand for UT or separate administration on Naga ancestral territory must be categorically rejected as an existential threat.
The Naga is not an aggressor. The Naga is the most victimized — entangled in a war not of his making, threatened on his own land, and silenced by an outdated delimitation.
But victimhood is not destiny. If Naga builds unified intellectual capacity, stands collectively on law, history, and truth, and speaks in one voice, no force can erase Naga from his own map.
Let 2027 be not just delimitation. Let it be deliverance — of historical justice, of electoral truth, and of Naga territorial security.
Kuknalim.
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Michael Meiphami Shaiza is Co-incharge of BJP Manipur State Political Programmes and Meetings and President of Ukhrul-based NGO Ecological Rehabilitators’ Association (ERA).
(Views expressed are writers’ own and do not, in whatsoever manner, reflect that of Ukhrul Now)
