Churachandpur

Churachandpur (IPA: /tʃʊRVːˌtʃaːnɗpʊr/), locally known as Lamka, is the second largest town in the Indian state of Manipur and the district headquarters of the Churachandpur District. The name "Churachandpur" was transferred from the earlier headquarters of the district at Songpi to the present location, and honours Churachand Singh, former maharaja of the Manipur princely state. The local people reject the name as a colonial imposition and use the native name "Lamka".

Churachandpur is not a statutory town and does not have a municipality. It is governed by the Autonomous District Council of the Churachandpur district.

Geography
The Churachandpur town is in the valley of Khuga River (called "Lamka plain"), which flows north from the southern border of the state towards the Imphal Valley. The town is at the intersection of two roads: the Tedim Road, which runs from the Manipur state capital Imphal to the Tedim Town in the Chin State of Myanmar, and the Tipaimukh road that goes to Tipaimukh in the southwest corner of the state and continues on to Mizoram. The junction of the two roads is called "Lamka" in Kuki-Chiin languages. At present, the northern portion of the Tedim Road and the Tipaimukh Road make up the National Highway 2, connecting the states of Assam, Nagaland, Manipur and Mizoram. In addition to these roads, the road to Sugnu via the Tuineng valley also leaves from the Churachandpur town.

Churachandpur is a sprawling urban agglomeration, said to be the second largest town in Manipur. However it is not a statutory town and does not have a municipality. The region is divided into multiple villages and towns, under the supervision of the Autonomous District Council of the Churachandpur District. Notable among the towns are Hiangtam Lamka, west of Tedim Road, Zenhang Lamka, east of Tedim Road, and Rengkai to the southeast.

Songpi
The name "Chura Chandpur" was originally given to the village of Songpi (24.3344°N, 93.6525°W) on the road to Tipaimukh (present day NH2) around the year 1920. The name was coined in honour of Churachand Singh, the reigning maharaja of the Manipur princely state at that time. The Khuga river valley, the present site of Churachandpur was forested and mostly uninhabited at that time.

During the Kuki Rebellion of 1917-1919, the chief of Songpi, Semthong Haokip, refrained from taking part in the rebellion and was regarded as a "friendly" chief by the British. Songpi was also at a strategic height overlooking the valley leading to the Thangjing Hill, and used as the location of an Assam Rifles post. After the rebellion, the British Raj decided to set up four subdivisions for the hill areas, one of which, the South-West Subdivision, was headquartered at Songpi. B. C. Gasper was appointed as the subvidivisional officer. In 1921, Gasper organised a feast to welcome back the labour corps workers that returned from World War I, to which Maharaja Churachand Singh was invited. It was decided on that occasion to give the name "Churachandpur" to the Songpi village. In due course, the subdivision headquartered here also came to be known as the "Churachandpur Subdivision". In 1930, the Sub-Divisional Officers (S.D.O.'s) were withdrawn due to dearth of staff and the subdivision was administered directly from Imphal. The Songpi/Churachandpur office fell into disuse.

Lamka
The Khuga River Valley, the location of the present-day Churachandpur Town, was forested and mostly uninhabited at the time of the Kuki Rebellion. However, it was used for grazing mithuns (also called metna), of which the chief of Ukha, was the largest owner in the area. Prior to the Kuki Rebellion, the British had also allowed some number of Nepali ex-servicemen to settle in the valley and use it for grazing cattle. The destruction caused by the cattle to the crops of the Kuki people in the surrounding areas was considered a significant grievance causing antipathy towards the British administration. The Nepalis were however loyal to the British, paid regular taxes, and also supplied ghee to the British troops. One of the first events of the Kuki Rebellion was to raid the Nepali graziers of the Khuga Valley on 28 December 2017, whcih was carried out by Thadous and Zous jointly.

Also during the rebellion, the British constructed a road to Hiangtam in the southern part of the subdivision, which branched off the Tipaimukh road at a location that came to be called "Lamka". ("Lamka" means junction in Kuki-Chin languages.) The original location was called "Hiangtam Lamka" and became the site of a new village. Another village called "Zenhang Lamka" was established to the east of the Hiangtam Road and the two villages together were referred to as "Lamka". Eventually the whole plain in the Khuga River valley acquired the name "Lamka plain".

During the World War II, the British constructed a motorable "Tedim Road" between Imphal and Tedim, extending the former Hiangtam Road. Seven decisive battles were fought along this road between the British 17 Indian Division and the Japanese 33 Division. The Japanese reached the Lamka area on 8 April 1944, and four battles were fought to the north of it, within Manipur, including one at Torbung. Eventually the Japanese were defeated at Imphal and withdrew from Manipur with heavy losses.

Independent period
In 1947, on the eve of Indian independence, the British reinstated the administrative powers of the Maharaja of Manipur, who promulgated a constitution establishing a legislative assembly and a ministry. The new administration decided to form circles for local administration, designating two of them as Churachandpur Circle and Thanlon Circle respectively. Finding that the old offices at Songpi had been reused for other purposes, in 1949, the Manipur administration decided to construct a new town of "Churachandpur" to serve as the headquarters. The town was referred to as "New Churachandpur" for a few years. After Manipur's merger with India, the subdivision structure was reinstated, including a Churachandpur Subdivision based at New Churachandpur. In 1969, the subdivision was converted into a district, first under the name "Manipur South" and later in 1983, as the "Churachandpur district".

The Churachandpur town, which was the third biggest town in Manipur in 1971, was "denotified" in 1988 upon the recommendation of the Hill Areas Committee, and its area was placed under the Churachandpur Autonomous District Council. The 1991 census listed it as a Census Town in 1991, but the practice has since been discontinued. The whole area is considered "rural" for administrative purposes despite having clear urban characteristics. The 2011 census lists three census towns in the region, viz., Rengkai, Zenhang Lamka, and Hill Town (Hiangtam Lamka).

The local people are said to have always used the name "Lamka" for the town in preference to "Churachandpur". With the rise of ethnic tensions during the 2023 Manipur violence, the Kuki-Zo people have increasingly spurned the name "Churachandpur".

Demographics
The population of the Churachandpur Town is approximately 120,000 people. The majority of the population consists of Kuki-Zo people, with the dominant segment being the Paite tribe. The Paite language is considered the lingua franca of the town.

The town also contains 18 villages (neighbourhoods) with Meitei populations, totalling approximately 8,350 people. Almost all the Meitei were internally displaced during the 2023–2024 Manipur violence.