The Inpui Naga tribe dominantly inhabits the Haochong area in the eastern part of Tamenglong district bordering Senapati district of Manipur, India. The Inpui tribe is officially recognised by the Government of india as Kabui (which was referred to by various writers as Kabui Proper, Real Kabui, Kapui, Kaupui, Kowpoi etc). But in course of time, the Rongmei tribe incidentally had come to be also recognised as Kabui. Various theories may be attributed to this. But the nearest truth, according to my finding, is the slow and gradual influence of the bigger population of the Rongmeis. The Inpuis inhabit the foothills surrounding the western side of the Imphal valley and they had close relations and transactions with the Meiteis and their rulers of the Manipur valley. In course of time, the Inpuis started to migrate to Imphal valley areas and took permanent settlement there.
Further, at later courses of time the Rongmeis who inhabit further west of Manipur also started to migrate to Imphal in much larger number and at a much faster rate. Thus the Inpuis were reduced to small minority. They established very close relationship due to the very close affinity of customs and culture; and still became closer with intermarriages. Thus the Manipur rulers and the British administrators saw them identical and recognised them under the same nomenclature of Kabui. No doubt, even the Liangmais and Zemes were also identified under Kabui to some extent. But the identity of the later two became prominent with their recognition under the nomenclature of "Kacha Naga".
The Inpuis in the Imphal valley gradually gave up the Inpui dialect. Many of the early Inpui settlers in Imphal Valley like in Majorkhul, Keishamthong, Kakhulong, Muchi, Ragailong (Pandon) villages etc. gradually gave up the Inpui dialect and had adopted the Rongmei dialect. Many of them are descendants of Haochong village. Now, although they identify themselves as Inpui and descendants of Haochong village, since they stopped using the Inpui dialect the social gap has been created between the two and they had adopted the the Rongmei identity. Now the identity of the Inpui Naga villages in the Imphal valley remain in tact only in the case of three villages - Changangei, Tamphagei and Yurembam; and one will see that even in Tamphagei village, only few elderly people can speak Inpui dialect.
However, there is no denying the fact that the Zeme, Liangmai, Rongmei and Inpui are descendants of the same old family although exact time and place of their departure cannot be ascertained. Therefore, it has been attempted to have a common nomenclature for theses kindred tribes. Thus in 1947 the nomenclature of Zeliangrong was formed. This is an acronym of Zeme, Liangmai and Rongmei formed by taking the prefixes of the three terms i.e., Ze + Liang + Rong. The Inpuis also attended the meeting in which Zeliangrong was formed. But neither the prefix nor the suffix was added to the new nomenclature. There are two probable reasons for non inclusion of Inpui in the new nomenclature. First, it is learnt that the Inpui leaders who attended the meeting raised the issue but was ignored by majority. Second, the Inpuis and Rongmeis in the Imphal valley had become almost one entity due to the assimilation of Inpui into Rongmei. Since then the Inpuis also formed a part of the Zeliangrong organisation without any hesitation. But with the passage of time and with the increase of awareness among the Inpui people, pressure was exerted on the Zeliangrong authority to include Inpui in the common nomenclature. After all possible efforts failed, the Inpui formally separated from the Zeliangrong in 1995 and began to pursue recogntion of Inpui tribe separately. In the meantime, the Zeme Naga Council, the Liangmai Naga Council and the Rongmei Naga Council also joined the struggle for separate recognition of each kindred tribe. Finally, the four tribes namely Inpui, Rongmei, Liangmai and Zeme came out successful with the passing of the Constitution (Scheduled Tribes) Order (Amendment) Act, 2011 in the parliament in December 2011.