Manipur & Pakistan: Uncovering Forgotten Historical Threads and Enduring Complex Relations

Long before modern borders carved through South Asia, the region spanning Manipur and Pakistan bore witness to deep historical currents that shaped cultures, politics, and identities across centuries. Though geographically distant today, Manipur—landlocked in northeast India—and Pakistan, with its vast expanse from Punjab to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, share a layered past marked by trade, conflict, cultural exchange, and geopolitical shifts. While their direct historical ties may not be widely documented in mainstream narratives, cross-referencing regional chronicles reveals a nuanced story of shared ancient roots, indirect interactions, and evolving diplomatic patterns that reflect broader South Asian dynamics.

Manipur’s early history reveals traces of trans-regional connectivity through trade and diplomacy. Situated along ancient routes linking the Indian subcontinent’s eastern corridors with central Asia, Manipur—historically known as “Kangleipak”—emerged as a crossroads for merchants and scholars. At the heart of this were the Ahom, Meitei, and Pdo polities whose interactions extended indirectly to Central Asian networks, some of which eventually linked via Persian and Silk Road conduits to the regions near present-day Pakistan.

Though direct links remain debated, archaeological evidence—such as early Buddhist artifacts and linguistic parallels—suggests cultural permeation from both eastern and western civilizations.

Ancient Crossroads: Cultural and Religious Interchanges

Despite Manipur’s eastward orientation, cultural and religious influences from broader Asia seeped through intermediaries connected to northern corridors approaching Pakistan. Buddhism, which flourished in Manipur from at least the 6th century CE, traveled along routes that, while primarily southward toward Southeast Asia, coexisted with northern networks passing near Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa—regions historically tied to Gandhara’s Hellenistic-Buddhist synthesis. These indirect channels facilitated the exchange of religious ideas, art, and philosophies.

The presence of Bodhisattva statues in Manipuri temples mirrors Gandharan styles, suggesting a shared artistic and spiritual vocabulary mediated through central and western Asia.

Trade played a pivotal role in shaping informal ties long before formal diplomacy. Manipur’s rich optically vibrant textiles, ardhanagari sarees, and blackpearl jewelry were exchanged via regional caravan routes. Merchants moving between Punjab’s Sikh trade hubs and Manipur’s courts often traversed pathways reaching Karachi and beyond—connections that, while commercial, fostered subtle cultural osmosis.

Descriptions from 16th-century Persian chronicles reference Manipuri emissaries and traders reaching the Indus basin, underscoring an early awareness of distant neighbors—a proto-diplomatic engagement rooted in commerce and mutual interest.

Colonial Encounters and the Sedimentation of Geopolitical Fractures

The 19th century marked a turning point, as British colonial expansion intertwined the fates of Manipur and what later became Pakistan. Manipur, a princely state under increasing British influence, faced external pressures from Afghan дрожии (tribal movements) and Sikh forces, notably during the Anglo-Burmese Wars and the First Anglo-Bengal War (1817–1826). While Pakistan did not exist, the British reshaped regional power structures, formalizing borders that ignored historical fluidity.

The 1875 Punjab Frontier Accord and the 1947 Partition disrupted centuries-old patterns of movement and kinship across the Himalayan foothills and Punjab plains.

Though Manipur never became part of Pakistan, parallels in colonial adaptation are instructive. Like northern regions absorbing Mughal and post-Mughal realities, Manipur navigated a complex transition from independent monarchy to Indian statehood in 1949. Pakistan, shaped by the Two-Nation Theory and a Cold War-aligned foreign policy, developed distinct relations with South Asia’s regional players—yet both nations shared the experience of state-building amid partition’s chaos.

This shared post-colonial struggle fostered a quiet, institutionalized diplomacy, even as Manipur remained geographically insular from Pakistan’s western corridor.

Diplomatic Realities and Modern Engagement

Official diplomatic relations between India and Pakistan, established in 1951, broadly frame each country’s foreign policy. However, Manipur—a politically sensitive state with deep ethnic identities, some cross-border kinship with Chittagong Hill Tracts and Afghanistan-linked groups—has long existed in the diplomatic periphery. Pakistan’s emphasis on North-South strategic corridors, including China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), touches indirectly Manipur’s economic landscape through regional connectivity debates.

While not directly linked, infrastructure and trade initiatives envisioning northern connectivity occasionally reference Manipur’s location as a potential link between South Asia’s northeast and Pakistan’s western trade routes—a vision rooted in historical trade realities revived by contemporary geopolitics.

The Limits and Possibilities of Historical Remembrance

ForManipur and Pakistan, historical narratives remain unevenly documented and selectively digitized. Official archives in both countries contain scattered records—diplomatic cables, trade logs, missionary reports—hinting at under-explored exchanges. Local scholars emphasize that formal history books rarely connect Manipur’s Reang refugees to Punjab’s Afghan-displaced communities across the Durand Line, or trace Manipuri folk traditions to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Pushto heritage.

Cultural historians argue that revitalizing such links—through joint exhibitions, academic exchanges, or oral history projects—could enrich regional understanding, moving beyond political binaries toward shared South Asian roots.

Despite its insular geography, Manipur’s historical entanglement with broader Asian networks, including those indirectly connected to Pakistan’s northern zones, underscores how regional identities are never isolated. From ancient trade routes to colonial disruptions, and now post-colonial diplomacy, the tale of Manipur and Pakistan reveals the layered complexity of South Asian relations—where exclusion often masks deep, unbroken currents beneath political borders. Recognizing these submerged ties does not erase current tensions, but it illuminates the context in which they unfold: a continent shaped by millennia of movement, exchange, and quiet connection.

Understanding Manipur’s subtle historical brush with Pakistan and the wider region invites a reimagining of boundaries—not as rigid divides, but as fluid interfaces where culture, commerce, and conflict intertwine.

As both societies navigate modernity, revisiting these layered pasts offers not just academic curiosity, but a pathway to deeper mutual awareness.