From a warning alarm to Noise.
Today, 23 October 2026, something very unusual happened across almost every district of Manipur’s Imphal Valley.
It started at Kangla, the old palace, which is tied to Manipur’s history and holds deep religious importance. Many maibas and maibis perform rituals inside Kangla. Today, they announced that the war drum should be sounded. The message was ritualistic, religious and prophetic: Manipur might face war, and people must be prepared. After years of ethnic conflict, many Meiteis have suffered, and prophecies like this are taken seriously. The message spread through microphones and by ringing the electric poles, which carried it quickly from one locality to another.
Ringing the electric pole is a familiar signal among the Meiteis. It is used as an alarm whenever something important is about to happen, such as a meeting. But what happened today had never been seen before. Around 7 pm, people began ringing the poles. Instead of stopping after a few strokes, the sound kept going and going. At first it looked like children playing, making alarm sounds for fun. Then older people joined. They brought out their own utensils and anything else that could make a sound when struck, and the noise did not stop. Within a few hours, it was happening all over the valley and continued until about 9 pm. Many people came outside and turned it into a large public event.
At first, all of this seemed funny. But when we look at it from a deeper perspective, it can be seen as an SOS from the Meitei people to the leaders who always silence their voices.
Since 3 May 2023, the Meiteis have been suffering, some directly and some indirectly, from the ethnic conflict. Many have left their homes and live as displaced people inside their own state, in bad conditions, for a very long time. News of IDPs dying by suicide has increased in the last few months. Those who are not directly faced with the conflict are also suffering in different ways.
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People have frequently demanded normalcy from the government, but both the state and the central government have silenced their voices. They do not do constructive work to solve the problems. They do not make the IDPs return to their safe homes. They lathi-charge the protesters, make false promises, and keep lying to the faces of their own people. So people have realised that democratic protest cannot help them much.
But taking the chance of today’s war-drum call, people made the alarm sound as a parody, to let it be heard in all places. This can be seen from different perspectives:
- Taking the chance to turn old tension and fear into something enjoyable.
- Showing that the warning of coming war does not really make us afraid, and making it a fun event instead.
- Most importantly, making it a way to protest in a less destructive and less forceful way, as passive resistance. Simple acts like these, done by thousands of people, become a message to the authorities.
It lets the voices that have been unheard for many years be heard, not through human voices but through the noise. It brings back the attention that was diverted from the people.
But whatever it was, today was also a sign of the people’s buried fear, terror and uncertainty coming alive in real time as one big collective noise. Something inside the Manipuri Meiteis is crying for attention, and it must not be ignored.
