Manipur Fact of the Day

One of the correspondents of The Economist travels to Manipur, India;

"Manipuris live 3,000km from Delhi, having migrated long ago from even further east. To look at, they could be Vietnamese. Most of them, of the valley-dwelling Meitei group, speak a language related to Tibetan.

They are unusually nice-looking too, and almost uniformly athletic. At India’s national games last month, tiny Manipur, with 2.5m people, won 51 gold medals, trouncing every other state. A diet of fish, vegetables and no booze, which they have banned, explains this; as does their enthusiasm for organised sports, especially football, which Manipuris play at every roadside...

There are 23 insurgent groups, it is estimated, not counting the warring factions within them...”