As they saw the smoke rising up from torched houses nearby, Nancy Chingthianniang and her family knew they urgently needed to escape. It was early May and all around them, Manipur – a state in the north-east of India – had begun to burn, as members of the dominant Meitei ethnic group violently clashed with the minority Kukis in some of the region’s worst ethnic conflict in living memory.
As a minority Kuki living in the state capital of Imphal, where the Meitei tribe dominate in number and political power, 29-year-old Chingthianniang feared for her life; news had already reached them of relatives and neighbours being targeted by Meitei gangs. Late that night, five members of the family piled into a car and headed for a Kuki-controlled area of the state.
