A video is being shared on social media claiming it is the visuals of Meitei community people stealing the houses belonging to the Kuki community people in Manipur’s Imphal. The video shows the collapse of an empty roof-sheeted house as a group of men attempt to transport the house along a road. Let’s verify the claim made in the post.
Claim: Video of Meitei men stealing the houses belonging to the Kuki community people in Imphal, Manipur.
Fact: The video shared in the post is from Indonesia. The video is not from Manipur’s Imphal and has nothing to do with the Meitei and Kuki communities. Hence, the claim made in the post is False.
On reverse image search of the screenshots of the video, the same video was found published by a YouTube channel on 12 August 2023. This YouTube channel described it as a video from Indonesia. Many Indonesia-based news sites, Facebook and Instagram handles shared the video mentioning that the visuals show people following an old tradition of moving houses.
On observing the video carefully, one could see Indonesian national flags hoisted on either side of the road on which the group of men attempted to transport the house.
The Bugis Sulawesi tribe, along with several other tribes in Indonesia, have a longstanding custom of collaboratively relocating houses, known as “Mappalette Bola.” Old videos of indigenous people in Indonesia relocating their houses can be seen here, here, and here. From all these pieces of evidence, it can be concluded that the video shared in the post is from Indonesia, not from Imphal in Manipur.
To sum it up, a video from Indonesia is shared as the visuals of Meitei men stealing the empty houses of the Kuki community people in Manipur’s Imphal.
