The story so far: The Manipur Cabinet headed by Chief Minister Nongthombam Biren Singh on September 20 decided to lift the prohibition partially for generating at least ₹600 crore in annual revenue. The decision did not go down well with organisations such as the Coalition Against Drugs and Alcohol (CADA) and Meira Paibi, a social movement meaning ‘women torchbearers’, in a State used to the extremist-dictated ban on liquor since 1991.
How did prohibition come about?
Manipur is geographically and psychologically divided between the Imphal Valley and the hills around it. Valley-based extremist groups, primarily the People’s Liberation Army, hijacked a mass movement against liquor and imposed a total ban. This led to the Manipur People’s Party government headed by R.K. Ranbir Singh enforcing prohibition in the State on April 1, 1991. The sale, brewing and consumption of liquor were subsequently banned for all residents excluding people from the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe communities who have been brewing it traditionally but not commercially. Total prohibition has been in place in two other north-eastern States flanking Manipur — Nagaland since 1989 and Mizoram, which reimposed total prohibition in 2019 after partially lifting a 1997 ban for four years from 2015. The church played a key role in imposing prohibition in these two Christian-majority States. There is no prohibition in the other five States of the northeast.
