New Delhi, April 23 -- The renewed violence in Manipur, in India's Northeast, is not a breakdown of peace. It is the exposure of a peace that never truly existed. The recent killings, triggered by the use of rocket-type weapons and high-intensity explosives, have shattered the narrative of normalcy that Indian authorities sought to project. What is unfolding is not a sudden crisis, but the predictable return of a conflict in the securitised border state left unresolved at its core.

For months, the state relied on administrative containment through curfews, communication blackouts, and heavy security deployments to maintain an appearance of stability. Such measures do not resolve conflict. They merely postpone it. The underlying drivers, ...