Meitei people
ethnic group of South Asia
The Meitei people, also known as Meetei people, are a Tibeto-Burman ethnic group native to the Indian State of Manipur. They form the largest and dominant ethnic group of Manipur in Northeast India. They speak the Meitei language (officially called Manipuri), one of the 22 official languages of the Republic of India and the sole official language of government of Manipur. The Meiteis primarily settle in the Imphal Valley region of modern-day Manipur, though a sizeable population has settled in the other Indian states of Assam, Tripura, Nagaland, Meghalaya, and Mizoram. There is also a notable presence of Meiteis in the neighbouring countries of Myanmar and Bangladesh. The Meiteis represent about 53% of Manipur's population, according to the 2011 census.
Endonyms and exonyms
The Meitei are known by a number of endonyms, Meitei, Meetei, Meithei (Meitei), and as well as by numerous exonyms, such as Meckley, Manipuri, and Kathaeh or Kathay (Burmese: ကသည်း). The term Manipuri is widely used, but problematic because of its ambiguous scope: next to being a synonym for Meitei/Meetei, it can also refer in a wider sense to the native ethnic groups in the hills of Manipur.
Geographical distribution
India
As per the 2011 census, there 1,761,079 Meitei language-speakers in India.
The vast majority of them (1,522,132 people, 86 percent of the total) are in the state of Manipur, which is also their place of origin.
The public source identifies “Meitei people” as ethnic group of South Asia. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Meitei, people and ethnic.
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A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Meitei people”, the useful work is to connect “ethnic group of South Asia” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.
The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 15, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q930821. The Library of Congress control number is sh85083350. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2011.
The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “Meitei people” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.