The Season of Celebration How festivals and the courage of community leaders are writing Manipur's peace story

Chongboi Haokip
From the valley to the hills, the festivals are playing — and a divided State is beginning, slowly, to dance together. Something is happening in Manipur that has not always made the news for a few years. It happens in dance and music, in the smell of shared food and the sound of drums that belong to someone else’s tradition but have somehow begun to feel familiar. It happens when community leaders from the hills and the valley sit down together - not because a Government directive told them to, but because they have chosen, against the weight of recent history, to see each other as “Manipuri first”.
Manipur most needs to tell a different story now -  not of division, but of the quiet efforts to build lasting peace through shared community celebrations and human connection.
A Homecoming for Hun-Thadou Cultural Festival to the Capital of Manipur
For those who are not aware - The Thadou tribe is a distinct ethnic community, officially recognised since the 1881 census and as a Scheduled Tribe since 1956, with their own language, traditions, and history. They identify as a distinct tribal community - as per Thadou Convention 2024- and their culture forms an important part of Manipur’s diverse heritage. The Thadou - Hun Cultural Festival is a purely cultural and apolitical celebration dedicated exclusively to the distinct Thadou ethnic identity, customs, traditions, language, songs, and dances, and of course, highlighting their agricultural heritage.
The Thadou Hun Cultural Festival is the much-anticipated event for Thadous worldwide. What pleasant news –The Organising Committee for the 8th State Level Hun-Thadou Cultural Festival 2026 has announced that it will be celebrated at the State level in Imphal on 7 April 2026 ! The festival holds State restricted holiday status in Manipur and reflects Thadou agrarian tradition, unity, and cultural continuity. With cherished memories, the event marks the return of the annual celebration to Manipur after a two-year gap. It was a meaningful lifetime experience for the me to serve my Thadou tribe as the convenor of the 2025 celebration in Guwahati. Being fully aware of the 2024 celebration in Delhi, I can testify that Hun-Thadou commemorates the Hun season - a time of thanksgiving for seed germination and prayers for a fruitful harvest - while also reflecting our personal faith in Christ.
Thadou leaders describe the return to Imphal as a sign of renewed hope and affirmation of Thadou distinct identity. The 2026 festival carries the theme “My Culture, My Identity” with the sub-theme “Upholding Our Identity, Shaping Our Destiny.” An organising committee led by Pu Nehkholal Thadou, with Pu Jamkholun Thadou as Vice - Chairman and Pu Michael Lamjathang Thadou as Secretary and Treasurer, will oversee preparations while inviting support from all indigenous communities in Manipur.
The committee further encourages Thadou individuals, families, and organisations to observe the festival wherever Thadou people reside, as grassroots expressions of cultural pride and unity, in line with Declaration No. 7 of the Thadou Conclave, Delhi, 2015.
Hun-Thadou in Imphal, A Shared Step Toward Unity and Lasting Peace
If Yaoshang highlighted Manipur's recent strides toward peace, the upcoming Thadou Hun festival in Imphal in April 2026 marks an even more extraordinary and significant step in that ongoing story.
That it will now be held in Imphal — in the heart of the Manipur valley, is an act of extraordinary cultural confidence. It is an invitation, extended by the Thadou community leadership to all of Manipur, to come and celebrate together. To celebrate this living tradition with fellow Manipuris, whose heritage belongs not only to themselves but to the larger family of communities that make this State what it is.
For the people of Imphal and the valley, the April 2026 Thadou Hun is an opportunity that must not be missed. To attend with open curiosity is to deposit in the account of mutual understanding that sustainable peace requires. To welcome the Thadou - Hun into the capital city is to make a statement - that Manipur belongs to all its people, and that the culture of every community is a gift to the whole.
Yaoshang: The Valley Celebrates, and the Valley Opens Its Doors
The recently concluded Yaoshang festival swept through the Manipur valley in its usual blaze of colour, music, and exuberant life. Rooted in the Meitei tradition, Yaoshang is among the most beloved and recognisable festivals in the State — five days of song, dance, Thabal Chongba moonlight gatherings, and the kind of collective joy that spills out of homes and into streets and makes strangers feel, briefly, like family and so on.
This year’s Yaoshang held special meaning as people celebrated after years of tension in Manipur. The celebrations brought visible joy to communities and helped restore normal social life.  Such moments of shared festivity support trust and improve the overall social atmosphere. Each festival strengthens bonds and fosters mutual understanding, creating a foundation for lasting harmony in Manipur.
The Leaders Who Made It Possible – Kudos to them !!
Festivals require effort from dedicated leaders. In Manipur, community leaders from Meitei and Thadou (Thadou Inpi Manipur) chose to share space and joy, a decision with profound significance for unity and cooperation. Amid recent violence and mistrust, commu- nity leaders in Manipur chose dialogue. They prioritised human relationships, listening and collaborating to build a shared future with their neighbours.
The significance of Meitei and Thadou leaders coming together around the question of the Hun festival — working to bring a hill community's celebration into the valley capital — is not simply symbolic. It is a demonstration, in practice, that what peace scholars /advocates call the "superordinate identity" of being Manipuri can be made real.
To many of us, this kind of leadership is sincere — is rare and deserves recognition for its genuine effort in peacebuilding. And because in a State that has sometimes felt as though it was defined entirely by the forces pulling it apart, these leaders represent proof that other forces are also at work.
Manipur’s Diversity as Strength - Celebrating Culture to Build Connection
Manipur is a State of extraordinary diversity - home to more than thirty distinct ethnic communities with rich cultural diversity, though in recent years this diversity has often been seen as a source of tension and division, though it can be something beautiful if viewed through a different lens. The vision being pursued by community leaders, civil society, and ordinary citizens who choose celebration over separation is a different one : that Manipur's diversity is not its wound but its wealth.
A State that can celebrate Yaoshang and the Thadou Hun, that can fill Imphal's streets — that State has something that no amount of security infrastructure can provide: a population that, at the level of lived experience, has begun to know and value each other.
What would you say - recent celebrations such as Lui-Ngai-Ni and Zomi-Nam-Ni in the State are inspiring? As someone who advocates for peace, I love seeing more of these celebrations in the State.
Reflection - Festivals as Bridges: Building Unity and Shared Joy in Manipur
The April 2026 Thadou Hun festival in Imphal is a milestone on this road. It will not, by itself, resolve the deep and complicated grievances that years of conflict have generated. No festival can do that.  In the past, Thadou Hun festival was very much enjoyed by other ethnic communities too, and why not this year as well ? Yes, of course, it will create a shared moment of joy if other ethnic communities join along the Thadous in the State capital, come together to celebrate and discover connections beyond their differences.
This is the peace roadmap Manipur needs - not written in policy documents alone, but in dance, song and interactions!  In the dignity of the Thadou Hun arriving in Imphal in April, in the courage of the leaders — from the valley and the hills — who looked at a divided State and decided that their job was to make it whole.
No doubt, that work is already underway and the festivals are playing. Manipur is beginning, slowly and not without difficulty, to dance together!
How lovely - this journey echoes the timeless wisdom of Scripture: “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God” (Matthew 5:9 NIV) - for those of us who believe in forgiveness, faith and reconciliation! Absolutely, in a land longing for healing, every step toward understanding, every shared celebration, and every act of courage in building peace reflects that sacred calling!! God bless all.

Statement: I do not support illicit poppy cultivation. I support sustainable alternatives that strengthen society and help affected farmers in Manipur. I stand firmly behind the Manipur Government's  "War on Drugs" campaign. As a strong, united community, we must work alongside government agencies that are helping farmers abandon illegal poppy farming. We, the people of Manipur, can eliminate unlawful poppy cultivation through collective effort. I call upon the entire Manipur community to unite as one team in this fight against illegal cultivation of poppy, working together to create sustainable livelihoods and a healthier future for all.
Chongboi Haokip, MCIHort, is an international development consultant specialising in agriculture, horticulture, trade facilitation and sustainable development. Join me on X @ChongboiUK and on Instagram @chongboiuk.