Mount Manipur:
The Union government rechristened Mount Harriet, a historical tourist spot in the Andaman and Nicobar islands, as ‘Mount Manipur’.
- The announcement was made during Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s visit to Port Blair, where he referred to the “significant contribution” the North-eastern state had made in resisting the British, especially during the historic 1891 Anglo-Manipur war.
- After the Anglo-Manipur War of 1891, several Manipuris who had fought the British in the war, including Maharaja Kulachandra Dhwaja Singh, were exiled to the British penal colony in the Andaman Islands.
- Since the cellular jail (Kalapani) was yet to be built, Kulachandra and the prisoners were kept on Mount Harriet, a hillock in what is now the Ferragunj tehsil of South Andaman district.
- 23 men, including King Kulachandra and his brothers, were “transported for life” to the Andamans.
- The 23 are considered war heroes in Manipur. That is why Mount Harriet is an important symbol of the Anglo-Manipur War of 1891
