SUMMARY
The KCP (Kangleipak Communist Party) was a Communist separatist rebel group fighting an intrastate armed conflict over territory against the Government of India in Manipur since the 1980s (see India: Manipur). Northeast India, sometimes referred to as the “Seven Sisters” after the seven states that comprise the region, has since independence been a patchwork of ethnic, linguistic and religious groups. These relatively small and sparsely populated (by Indian standards) states have experienced a turbulent history, stoked by ethnic tensions and insurgencies. One particularly prominent part of the social and political milieu in the region has been the demographic stress and conflict brought by the immigration from the rest of India and Bangladesh. The “indigenous” population of India’s seven northeastern states has commonly been referred to as the “tribal populations”. Many of these tribes, but not all, has received special protected status in the Constitution of India; the protected tribes are referred to as the “Scheduled Tribes”. The immigrant population of Northeast India is commonly called the “non-tribal” population, and is comprised of, for example, Bengalis and other ethnic or religious groups found in India proper. Among the tribal populations, there has often been a perception of discrimination, particularly compared to the “immigrant” non-tribal communities, but also between different tribal groups. It was in this context that KCP emerged in Manipur state.
The primary goal of the KCP was to achieve an independent Manipur, and to install an egalitarian society free from Indian rule. The group claimed to represent Manipur’s Meitei population, which was an ethnic minority group that was not classified as a Scheduled Tribe by the Indian Constitution. In general, many Meitei armed groups, including KCP, utilized the popular grievances generated by the perceived “forced merger” of the Kingdom of Manipur and India in 1949. The KCP’s ideology was a mix of Meitei revivalism and communism.
Y. Ibohanbi created the KPC on 13 April 1980; the group was originally a splinter group of the PREPAK, or according to some sources, the PREPAK – Maipak Sharma faction. The surrender of key leadership figures and several members in 1983 drastically reduced the activity of the group, before it became active again during the 1990s. After Ibohanbi was killed by Indian security forces in 1995, the group split into several smaller factions with their own leaders. The two major factions were said to be the “President” and “Secretary General” factions, led by K. K. Mangang (“Leibabkmacha Singh”) and Laba (“Nayan”) respectively. Other factions included KCP-City Meitei and KCP-Prithvi. In 2006, the various KCP factions convened a “central committee meeting” where they allegedly decided to merge under the leadership of President Senggoi Meetei and General Secretary K. K. Nganba. However, as of 2011 it appears as if the KCP was divided into twelve different factions again.
Given the fractionalized nature of the group, it is not possible to account for any details on its organizational structure here. It was estimated that the KPC had a cadre strength of 100 by the 2000s; however, it was not disclosed whether this included all existing factions, or referred to the strength of one specific splinter group.
The KCP was mainly active in Manipur’s “valley districts” of Imphal, Thoubal and Bishenpur, and sometimes in hill districts like Churchandpur. The primary source of funds for the KCP was various forms of extortion of the local population and businessmen.
KCP has maintained close “working” ties to other rebel groups active in the valley districts of Manipur, such as the UNLF, PLA), PREPAK, and the Kanglei Yawol Kanna Lup (KYKL). The group also had close connections to the extremist (NSCN-IM). However, the various KCP factions naturally had different relationships to these groups, and both UNLF and KYKL “banned” certain factions of the KCP.
The Government of India has accused Pakistan of providing secondary support to the rebel groups in Manipur through ISI (Inter-Services Intelligence) officials stationed in Bangladesh; the Government of Pakistan has refuted these allegations. However, allegations of ISI-involvement with Indian militant groups should always be considered carefully, given the contentious relationship between India and Pakistan.
In 2015, the KCP merged with several other armed groups from India’s northeast to form the UNLFW, fighting for the independence of what it referred to as "Western South East Asia". This territory incorporates the areas previously claimed separately by its constituent groups. With that, KCP ceased to be a unique actor in UCDP data.
