History

IMPHAL EAST DISTRICT came into being with effect from the 30th August, 1996 vide Govt. of Manipur order No.6/1/73-R(VIII), by bifurcating the erstwhile Imphal district into two district namely Imphal East District and Imphal West District occupying the eastern part of the Imphal District with its Head Quarter at Porompat.

The history of Imphal East forms an inseparable part of the history of Manipur. Imphal including part of the Imphal East, is not only the present capital city of Manipur, it also happened to be the capital of long lineage of kings and rulers. Situated in the mist of hills, this fertile valley always attracted a number of immigrants and invaders and in their ventures for control and supremacy, there arose many wars, conflicts and rebellions between the invaders and the defenders and among the progeny of the rulers. There is no historical record how the name Imphal is given to the latest capital city of the state. It seems there were congregations or plenty of houses or gathering of houses or beautiful houses in the present Imphal, the name Imphal is perhaps derived from compounding two words namely, “Yum” and “Phal” where yum means house and phal means plenty or beautiful. In old Manipuri language, yum is spelt as “im” or ‘yum’, and sometimes as ‘yom’. Even to this date Imphal is occasionally pronounced as ‘yum-phal’. Although many historians have made innumerable attempts to unearth the early history of Manipur, there has not yet been any unanimity of opinion on the subject.

Manipur formally became a part of the Indian Union on October 15,1949 as a single district part ‘C’ State, administered by the Central overnment, through a Chief Commissioner. The district (i.e. the State) was divided into 10 administrative sub-divisions, 6 in the hills and 4 in the valley. They were Imphal West, Imphal East, Bishenpur, Thoubal, Ukhrul, Mao and Sadar Hills, Tamenglong,  Jiribam, Churachandpur and Tengnoupal.In November, 1969, the state was bifurcated into 5 districts. Manipur Central District remained the most thickly populated area of the whole state and thus for administrative convenience by another Government notification in May 1983, it was further divided into three districts i.e. Imphal District, Thoubal District and Bishenpur District. Later in January 1988, Imphal East subdivision was further bifurcated into Imphal East-I and Imphal East-II sub-divisions and Imphal West sub-division into Imphal West-I and Imphal West-II sub-divisions.  The present set up of Imphal West and Imphal East Districts came into existence as a result of bifurcation of the earlier Imphal District, under the Government of Manipur Order No.6/1/73-R(VIII), dated 30th August, 1996 and Jiribam Sub-Division was included in Imphal East District. Recently, Jiribam District was bifurcated from the erstwhile Imphal East District vide Notification No. 16/20/2016-R dated 8th December, 2016 of Govt. of Manipur.