Senapati district

Senapati district (Meitei pronunciation: /se.na.pə.ti/) is one of the 16 districts of the Indian state of Manipur. The present Senapati district was formed in December 2016, after spawning off the Sadar Hills region in the south into a separate Kangpokpi district. The district headquarter is located in the town of Senapati, also known as Tahamzam.

The Senapati district began as the Mao Subdivision of the Manipur State after its merger with the Republic of India. By 1961, it was enlarged into the "Mao and Sadar Hills" subdivision, by combining the sadar hills (central hills) adjoining the Imphal region.

In 1969, Manipur was divided into five districts, with Mao and Sadar Hills becoming one of them. It was also called the "Manipur North" district, with a headquarters at Karong. It had three subdivisions: Mao West, Mao East and Sadar Hills.

During the late 1950s and 1960s, the Kuki tribes living in the northern hills of Manipur faced large-scale displacement, as a result of the activism of the Naga National Council attempting to homogenise the population in those areas. The displaced Kuki tribes moved inwards into the state and occupied regions in the Sadar Hills subdivision. This gave the Sadar Hills subdivision a distinct character.

The Sadar Hills Kuki Chiefs' Zonal Council resolved in 1970 to demand a separate district for Sadar Hills, and submitted a memorandum to the Union Home Minister K. C. Pant. In 1971, shortly before Manipur became a full-fledged state, the Government of India enacted the Manipur (Hill Areas) District Council Act, 1971, granting autonomous district councils (ADCs) for the hill regions. Two separate ADCs, for Sadar Hills and Manipur North, were established in 1972. However, due to opposition from the Nagas, Sadar Hills was not made into a separate district, and continued as part of Manipur North.

In 1976, the district headquarters was shifted to the town of Senapati. In 1981, there were three subdivisions in Manipur North: Mao-Maram, based at Tadubi, Sadar Hills West, based at Kangpokpi and Sadar Hills East, based at Saikul. Efforts made by successive governments of Manipur to separate the Sadar Hills subdivisions into an independent district failed. During the Kuki–Naga clashes of the 1990s, further displacement of Kukis occurred into the Sadar Hills region and perhaps also displacement of Nagas out of the region.

Finally, in 2016, the Okram Ibobi Singh government, in one of its last acts before the election, formed seven new districts by bifurcating existing districts, with Sadar Hills being one of them. It was named the Kangpokpi district with a headquarters at Kangpokpi. The United Naga Council conducted a five-month blockade in the Naga districts of Manipur to protest the creation of the new districts and continues its opposition as of 2024.

The remaining Naga-dominated district continues under the name Senapati district.