The Nagas: Hill Peoples of Northeast India by J.H. Hutton and others — The ethnographic literature on Northeast India's hill peoples is uneven, but the foundational accounts from British administrators and anthropologists who spent years in these hills remain useful. Hutton's work on the Nagas, and similar accounts of the Kuki-Chin peoples, provide a grounding in the social organisation, clan structures, and ritual life that still shape communities around Churachandpur. Dry in places, but nothing else gives this depth.
Looking East to Look West: Mizo Academy of Letters and the Mizo Cultural Renaissance by Lal Dena — The Mizo and Kuki peoples share deep cultural and historical connections across the hills of Northeast India and Myanmar. This study of the Mizo literary and cultural revival gives context to the way Baptist Christianity, traditional oral culture, and modern identity have been negotiated in communities much like those around Churachandpur. Academic in tone but illuminating.
The Stranger in the Forest by Eric Hansen — Hansen's account of walking across Borneo — alone, on foot, through jungle, relying entirely on the goodwill of Dayak communities — is not about Northeast India. But the experience of moving through forested hill terrain as a genuine outsider, dependent on local knowledge and hospitality, resonates precisely with what travel in this part of Manipur feels like. A good book to read before stepping into unfamiliar forest country.