Drawing on scholars like Scott and Suan, it can be argued that a ‘hills–valley divide’ has prevailed in Manipur from the colonial period. The Kuki tribes who inhabit Manipur's hilly regions are underdeveloped compared to the politically and economically powerful Meiteis who inhabit its valleys. The postcolonial central and state government policies have failed to respond to local problems, which have created a regional imbalance and have sharpened the hills–valley divide. The Kukis have undergone many resulting economic hardships and have become further alienated and marginalized. To highlight uneven development and Kuki tribal minority marginalization, we refer to key ‘development’ indicators – administration, employment, poverty, health, and infrastructure – and analyse the Kuki quest for tribal identity and demand for an ethnic homeland in postcolonial India, by tracing the genealogy of their identity formation from archives, extant historiography, and ethnographic fieldwork.

中文翻译：

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印度民族边境上的“有争议的国家工艺”：“丘陵谷地分水岭”和曼尼普尔库基民族主义的谱系

借鉴 Scott 和 Suan 等学者的观点，可以说曼尼普尔从殖民时期开始就普遍存在“山-谷分水岭”。与居住在其山谷的政治和经济上强大的梅特人相比，居住在曼尼普尔丘陵地区的库基部落并不发达。后殖民时期的中央和州政府政策未能解决地方问题，造成地区失衡，加剧了丘陵与山谷的鸿沟。Kukis 经历了许多由此产生的经济困难，并变得更加疏远和边缘化。为了突出发展不平衡和 Kuki 部落少数民族边缘化，我们参考了关键的“发展”指标——行政、就业、贫困、健康、