evidence: After a long lineage of rulers and losing the Anglo-Manipur war, multiple factors forced the British to hand over the sovereignty of Manipur to Maharaja Budhachandra Singh on August 28, 1947. After nearly two years of administration with elections and legislative assembly in place, Maharaja officially signed the Merger Agreement with India on September 21, 1949. Without giving due regard to the existing socio-political and governance matrix of the state, Manipur was made a ‘Part – C’ state, almost a present-day equivalent to a Union Territory. In 1953, Jawaharlal Nehru ceded Kabaw Valley, a disputed border territory to erstwhile Burma, without consulting the Manipuri people or the royal family. Cumulatively regarding these episodes as an insult to the proud historical and cultural identity of Manipur, demand for statehood surged. Succumbing to the demands, the erstwhile central government granted statehood to Manipur in 1972, nine years after granting statehood to Nagaland, another insurgency-impacted state neighbouring Manipur. This relative delay along with the ‘Part – C state’ categorisation added fuel to the existing anger and discontent amongst the people in Manipur.