An Abandoned Sangai Festival

Manipur’s Sangai Festival, the state’s biggest cultural event, opened in Imphal on Friday the 21st November 2025. The ten-day festival, which will run till 30 November, is named after the rare Sangai deer. The festival showcases Manipur’s traditions, handloom, food, indigenous sports, and local crafts. Every year, it brings together more than 35 tribes and communities. This annual festival, which celebrates the region’s culture, traditions, and natural beauty, has been held after a two-year hiatus due to the ongoing conflict between the Kuki-Zos and Meitei’s that erupted in May 2023. While the festival aims to showcase Manipur’s rich cultural heritage to the world, its inauguration on November 21, 2025, came amidst protests by internally displaced persons (IDPs) and various organizations against the event’s continuation under the current circumstances
This year’s edition includes events across multiple venues under the theme “Where blossoms breathe harmony.” Officials said the aim is to highlight Manipur’s cultural identity and support local livelihoods. Manipur governor Ajay Kumar Bhalla inaugurated the 10-day festival at the Bhagya Chandra Open Air Theatre in Imphal. Addressing the gathering, he said the Sangai Festival represents resilience and social harmony. He added that the expanded format this year reflects the state’s efforts to revive the economy and support artisans, youth, and small businesses. He said the festival celebrates the idea of a “Festival of oneness” by bringing together cultural performances, crafts, indigenous dance, and traditional sports from across the hills and the valley.
The Sangai Festival is not only an event that showcases the vibrant cultural traditions of Manipur, but also plays a crucial role in the state’s tourism economy. With its unique blend of traditional performances, handicrafts, cuisines, and eco-tourism experiences, the festival serves as a prime attraction for both domestic and international tourists. For Manipur, some state rich in biodiversity, indigenous arts, and a strategic location in India’s north-eastern frontier, the Sangai Festival is vital for re-establishing the region as a hub for cultural tourism. Over the years, the festival has drawn significant numbers of visitors, helping to revitalize the local economy by bringing in tourists who spend on accommodations, transport, food, and local crafts. The event has provided a platform for local artists, dancers, musicians, and craftsmen to showcase their work to a wider audience, benefiting their livelihoods. Manipur’s unique attractions—such as the rare Sangai Deer, located in the Keibul Lamjao National Park, and its spectacular landscapes, continue to make the state an increasingly popular destination for travellers seeking authentic experiences.
However, the return of the festival after two years has sparked mixed emotions among local communities. Many of the displaced individuals who fled the violent conflict that tore through the region are currently living in camps, unable to return home due to ongoing tensions. These IDPs argue that their immediate needs, such as resettlement, rehabilitation, and a return to safety, should take precedence over celebrations. The protests against the festival reflect broader frustrations among the local population about the government’s handling of the conflict and the slow pace of recovery.The ongoing protests surrounding the Sangai Festival offer a unique perspective on how tourism can play a complex role in post-conflict recovery. On one hand, the festival is a symbol of cultural resilience and an opportunity to showcase Manipur’s diversity to the world. On the other hand, it also raises the question of whether tourism events should proceed when large segments of the population are still grappling with displacement, loss, and trauma.In such a climate, the idea of celebrating a festival appears grotesquely disconnected from reality. The contrast between the glowing stages, bright lights, cultural showcases, and food stalls on the one hand, and the grim living conditions of those who lost everything on the other, creates a moral chasm. Yet, in this climate of displacement, uncertainty, and unresolved trauma, the Manipur Government – under the Governor’s Rule administration popularly known as President’s Rule – has chosen to proceed with the twelfth edition of the Manipur Sangai Festival.
There are times when celebration becomes not just inappropriate but profoundly immoral. Manipur in late 2025 is undeniably one of those moments. The state has been living through the longest and most devastating violent conflict in its recent history. What began on May 3, 2023, with Kuki-Zomi militants’ coordinated attacks across multiple districts, spiralled into full-scale violent conflict involving ethnic groups belonging to Kuki-Zomi and Meiteis. Thousands were driven from their homes, hundreds killed, entire neighbourhoods burnt, and communities segregated behind walls of mistrust, fear, and military-enforced buffer zones. Two and a half years later, the wounds remain open.
Normalcy cannot be created through cultural spectacle. It must emerge from justice, reconciliation, rehabilitation, and honest governance. Until then, a festival is nothing more than a stage-managed performance, a Festival staged on a Wounded Land. Manipur today resembles a frozen conflict. “Ethnic territories” have hardened into segregated enclaves. Buffer zones divide communities. Kuki-Zomi militant groups continue to operate in their spheres. There is no meaningful interaction or cooperation across major ethnic lines. Tourism depends on openness, mobility, and social hospitality. It cannot flourish in regions where inter-community travel is dangerous, where foreigners require restricted permits, where transportation infrastructure is unreliable, and where armed violence remains a threat. Under these circumstances, the Sangai Festival cannot revive tourism because the preconditions for tourism do not exist.
The Sangai Festival was once a celebration of Manipur’s multicultural identity. It showcased tribal dances from the hills, weavers from remote villages, musicians from the valley, artisans from border towns, and culinary traditions that represented the entire state. This diversity gave the festival meaning. It demonstrated unity through culture. This year, that unity is impossible. All the communities from the Manipur Hills cannot participate. Valley communities refuse to participate. Displaced persons are protesting. Many performers have lost homes, instruments, or family members. The festival has become a one-dimensional, few-select-only event stripped of the very diversity it claims to celebrate. A cultural festival without the participation of its people becomes a hollow shell. It represents not unity but division, not celebration but absence.
Even the symbol of the Sangai deer, once a representation of Manipur’s uniqueness and fragile beauty, takes on a tragic irony. The animal’s graceful prance becomes a disturbing metaphor for a government that insists on dancing while its people grieve. Restore the State First and Celebrate Festivals. Given the humanitarian catastrophe, political instability, and economic collapse facing Manipur, holding the Sangai Festival in 2025 serves no public interest. It brings no tourism, generates no revenue, and offers no healing. Instead, it wastes Crores, deepens mistrust, heightens anger, and divides society further. Manipur does not need a festival at the moment. It needs restoration of rights and mobility. It needs the safe return of displaced families. It needs peace, security, and justice. It needs governance that listens to its people rather than suppresses them. Only when the displaced return home, when buffer zones dissolve, when highways open, when communities interact again, and when voices of dissent are respected, can Manipur reclaim its festivals with meaning. Only then will the Sangai dance again – not as a show for outsiders, but as a symbol of a healed and united people.
Writer can be reached at: Sjugeshwor7@gmail.com.