[65][66] On 9 February 2025, after 21 months of intermittent violence, Chief minister N. Biren Singh resigned, facing the threat of a no confidence motion in the impending Manipur Legislative Assembly session.

The Imphal Valley constitutes about 10% of the geographical area of the state with 57% of the population,[71] predominantly Meitei, who are majority Hindus, with minorities of Muslims and native Sanamahism followers.

[72] The surrounding hills constitute 90% of the geographical area of the state with 43% of the population belonging to 34 tribal groups broadly categorised as Nagas, Kukis and Zomis who follow Christianity.

Rumours have circulated that Chin refugees are receiving assistance from Kuki-Zomi villagers and are helping to enhance the "political clout" of the Kukis due to their similar ethnicity & religion.

[94] Such fears of a potential demographic change (mainly caused by infiltration of Bengali Muslims from Bangladesh) are widely circulated within the political atmosphere of Northeast India, especially by the BJP as a part of its Hindu nationalist narrative.

China perceives that India's Act East Policy, and closer relations with Southeast Asian nations pose a serious threat to its ambition to establish its hegemony in the region.

[102] In February 2023, the BJP state government began an eviction drive in districts of Churachandpur, Kangpokpi and Tengnoupal, declaring the forest dwellers as encroachers—a move seen as anti-tribal.

[104][105][a] Several Manipuri organisations also demonstrated in New Delhi to press for a National Register of Citizens (NRC) to be created with 1951 as the base year, complaining of abnormal population growth in hill areas.

[105] On 20 April 2023, a judge of the Manipur High Court directed the state government to "consider request of the Meitei community to be included in the Scheduled Tribes (ST) list.

[106] The Indigenous Tribal Leaders' Forum (ITLF) called for a total shut down on 28 April in protest of the state government actions, a day that also happened to have been scheduled for the chief minister N. Biren Singh to visit Churachandpur for the inauguration of an open air gym.

[113] Reports were received of a counter-blockade at Torbung near the Bishnupur–Churachandpur district border,[114][115][116] and a counter-agitation in the surrounding valley areas (such as the Kangvai village), where houses were attacked by Meitei mobs.

[117][118][119] Two dead bodies were discovered in the Kangvai village and tyres were burnt at the base of the Anglo-Kuki War (Zo Gaal) Memorial gate at Leisang as an apparent provocation.

[128] Violence was observed in Churachandpur, Kakching, Canchipur, Soibam Leikai, Tengnoupal, Langol, Kangpokpi and Moreh while mostly being concentrated in the Imphal Valley during which several houses, places of worship and other properties were burnt and destroyed.

[145][146] Nevertheless, the Home Ministry appointed a security advisor to the Manipur chief minister, Kuldip Singh, who previously headed the CRPF, and an overall commander for the law and order situation, Ashutosh Sinha.

[147] The situation was described as "relatively peaceful" on 10 May, with the curfew being relaxed in places,[148] though unknown militants fired on Indian troops in an incident in Manipur's Imphal East district, injuring one.

[141] On 19 July, a video went viral showing two Kuki women, one aged in her forties and another in her twenties, being stripped, paraded naked on the streets, slapped, sexually assaulted and gang-raped by presumably Meitei men.

[178][179] On 20 July, Manipur Chief Minister Biren Singh defended his decision to curtail Internet access in the state, citing hundreds of similar incidents occurring in the past.

The court also expressed shock after learning that it took 14 days for the police to register even a zero FIR[clarification needed] in the case of two women being paraded naked by a mob and were assaulted sexually in public.

[196] Peter Machado, the Metropolitan Archbishop of Bangalore, expressed concern that the Christian community is being made to feel insecure, adding that "seventeen churches are either vandalised, desecrated or defiled.

[198] The Union Government Minister of Home Affairs Amit Shah cancelled his campaign programs for the Karnataka election and held meetings with Biren Singh monitoring the situation in Manipur.

[200][201][202] On 12 May 2023, all 10 Kuki-Zomi-Hmar MLAs, including eight from the Bharatiya Janata Party, issued a statement demanding a separate body be created to administer their community under the constitution of India in the wake of the violent ethnic clashes.

[204] The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said in a statement that the violence in Manipur "revealed the underlying tensions between different ethnic and indigenous groups".

He urged the authorities to "respond to the situation quickly, including by investigating and addressing root causes of the violence in line with their international human rights obligations".

[205] On 29 May, hundreds of women from Kuki, Mizo, and Zomi tribes staged a protest at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi, demanding intervention by the central government to end communal tensions in Manipur.

The women waved national flags and held posters declaring themselves as Indians, not immigrants, while criticising the state government stirring tensions by evicting of Kuki villagers from reserve forest land.

[209] On 20 July 2023, Modi broke his months-long silence after a video of two women being paraded naked and subjected to blatant acts of sexual assault by a group of men went viral.

[210] Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been criticised for being silent on the violence for almost three months, for not visiting the state and for avoiding the broader situation in his statement after a video showing two women being paraded naked went viral.

[214] The parliamentary opposition under the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) tabled a no confidence motion about the crisis on 10 August in order to make Modi address the situation in more detail to parliament.

The motion failed as expected due to the overwhelming BJP majority, with it being seen more as a way to force Modi to speak about the matter and showcase the unity and power of the INDIA grouping.

[217][218] Mainstream television channels from India ignored the Manipur conflict for a while due to the nexus between the media & BJP, and covered it only after a viral video surfaced showing two naked women being paraded by a mob.