As the curtains fall on the Sangai Tourism Festival 2025, the Government of Manipur must confront a difficult reality: what exactly was this festival meant to celebrate? For nine tense days, state authorities orchestrated a show of “normalcy” — vibrant stalls, cultural performances, and tourist-friendly branding — while thousands of internally displaced persons (IDPs) protested outside, demanding little more than the right to return home. The festival that concluded today was not a manifestation of the cultural vivacity of Manipur but reflected the wide moral and administrative chasm that separated the state from its people.
Once a flagship event for Northeast tourism, this year the festival drew only 8,000 to 9,000 visitors over nine days, a drastic drop from 2.19 lakh visitors in 2022. Empty seats and deserted stalls reflected a truth the government seemed unwilling to acknowledge: Manipur is not ready for celebrations because it is still a wounded state.
Throughout the festival, IDPs, especially from Churachandpur and the outskirts of Imphal East, demonstrated daily. Their message was clear: normalcy has not returned, and no celebration can erase their suffering. Over 260 lives have been lost since May 2023, and thousands remain displaced, unable or unwilling to return home. As violence continues sporadically, a tourism festival amid such turmoil would be insensitive, but above all, it’s a stark attempt at manufacturing an illusion.
The protesters asked the government repeatedly: if Manipur is stable enough to host a grand festival, why can’t the displaced families go back home? The state gave no answer, but responded with riot shields, tear gas, and barricades. IDPs were forcibly pushed back at Yaingangpokpi, Pukhao Terapur, Phougakchao Ikhai, and other places in Imphal East and Bishnupur, injuring more than ten. A state that celebrates while its displaced are tear-gassed is on morally fragile ground.
The festival venue at Hapta Kangjeibung looked more like a staged event than a celebration. Many stalls remained closed and those which opened found no customers. Operators of stalls admitted that the only customers were officials and security personnel. According to food stall operator Thai Gangmei, “The functioning stalls had hardly any customers. Many of us struggled to earn anything.” Even organizers had to admit that only a musical performance by the British band Blue drew a sizeable crowd; everything else fell flat. How could genuine enthusiasm be expected when the atmosphere outside was charged with anger, pain and unresolved conflict?
The festival was inaugurated by Governor Ajay Kumar Bhalla as a platform for “cultural unity.” But unity cannot be staged, nor declared with press releases and floodlit performances while riot-displaced families chant for justice outside. Unity demands healing, and healing demands truth. Truth cannot emerge if the state chooses cosmetic events over confronting the reality of a fractured Manipur.
By pushing the festival through despite opposition, the government delivered a worrying message: tourism matters more than trauma, and optics matter more than people. For IDPs who have been living for more than two years in cramped relief camps, the festival was a painful reminder of how their suffering remains invisible to the authorities. While they continued to wait for rehabilitation, reconstruction, and a roadmap for return, the state seemed more interested in projecting an image of normalcy to outsiders than it was in tackling pressing humanitarian needs.
The social fabric of Manipur remains fragile. Trust between communities is weak. Families are scattered between relief camps and hostile surroundings. At such a moment, the government should have prioritized a clear rehabilitation policy, a transparent return roadmap, intercommunity dialogue, security guarantees, and mechanisms for healing and reconciliation. Instead, it offered fireworks and food stalls.
Tourism festivals are meant to depict harmony, diversity, and pride. On all these counts, this year’s Sangai Festival was a failure. It showed a government disconnected from its people, insensitive to their wounds, and in an avid rush to camouflage its failures with concerts and foreign performers. What Manipur needed was compassion, leadership, and honesty, not a festival. The government allowed its preoccupation with these to rob a once-celebrated event of its sheen and turn it into a symbol of alienation.
The Sangai Festival 2025 drew to a close without applause. It closed with questions hanging in the air, a state still in search of peace, and a grim reminder that jubilation cannot mask suffering.