Moreh, Manipur: The Market That Ignores the Line
The stalls at Moreh's daily market sell Myanmarese thanaka paste three rows from Indian turmeric, and the sellers switch between Meitei, Burmese, and a stitched-together pidgin depending on who is standing in front of them. The border crossing here is a gate, technically, but the town does not behave like a place that believes in gates. Families live on one side and farm on the other. Children go to school in India and eat dinner in Myanmar. The Kuki and Chin peoples who populate both sides of this frontier share clan names, funeral rites, and a deep suspicion of the idea that a line drawn in the mid-twentieth century has anything to do with who they are. When you walk through Moreh, you are not watching two cultures meet. You are watching one culture that was cut in half try to keep talking to itself.
