An enraged mob made of up women threw stones at and attempted to break into the house of Indian Member of Parliament (MP) Rajkumar Ranjan Singh in northern Manipur on Monday, the latest incident of violence in an out-of-control religious conflict New Delhi has largely ignored.
Manipur, near the border with Myanmar, is home to a large number of indigenous tribes, the largest and most powerful being the Meitei, who are majority Hindu and control the fertile Imphal valley. The smaller tribes, among which the largest is the Kuki-Zo, are majority Christian and live in the hillsides. The Meitei began petitioning the federal government this year for status as a Scheduled Tribe, a designation meant for marginalized indigenous groups, prompting thousands of non-Meitei Christians to protest in May.
A member of the Assam Pradesh Youth Congress is shouting slogans with red ink on her clothes during a protest against violence in Manipur in Guwahati, Assam, India on July 21, 2023. (David Talukdar/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
In response, Meitei mobs burned down Christian churches and destroyed large swathes of Christian communities, displacing as many as 60,000 people in the past two months. The Kukis have repeatedly accused the federal government, led by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), of neglect as Hindus commit atrocities against Manipur’s Christians, adding to mounting complaints nationwide of Hindu mob violence against Christians, Muslims, and other religious communities.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi did not comment on the situation whatsoever for over a month. In June, during a press conference in Washington, DC, alongside President Joe Biden, Modi denied the existence of any religious discrimination anywhere in India.
The remains of a burnt church are seen in Langching village some 45 km from Imphal on May 31, 2023, during ongoing ethnic violence in India’s northeastern Manipur state. (-/AFP via Getty Images)
“Whoever deserves those benefits is available to everybody. And that is why, in India’s democratic values, there’s absolutely no discrimination neither on basis of caste, creed, or age, or any kind of geographic location,” Modi said, claiming he was “surprised” by the widespread, documented reports of Hindu violence.
Modi refused to address the situation until last week, when a video surfaced, allegedly recorded on May 4, of Meitei mobs dragging two Kuki women through the street naked, molesting and beating them along the way. Indian media later confirmed at least one of the women was gang-raped during the incident and the mob murdered the men of the family during the attack. The family was reportedly displaced by the mob violence and fled into the forest, where the mob found them.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi, India, on July 20, 2023. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)
The video has renewed national outrage regarding the situation in Manipur and inspired a group of Meitei women known as the “Meira Paibis,” or the Mothers of Manipur, to protest, demanding New Delhi intervene to protect all of the state’s women.
The Meira Paibis took responsibility last week for burning down the homes of two of the men believed to have engaged in the gang rape documented in the viral video. Multiple reports on Monday, including the local Northeast Live TV and the Economic Times, identified the group as responsible for the attack on the home of Ranjan Singh, the MP, who belongs to the ruling BJP.
The reports claimed the women “tried to barge into the residence” and began throwing stones at it before police intervened. Video of the scene — in Imphal, the capital of Manipur — showed dozens of women surrounding the home, chanting demands and raising their fists.
The women demanded that Singh bring up the Manipur conflict in Parliament, where the BJP has all but ignored the issue and the opposition Indian National Congress (INC) has failed to make any substantive moves to address it. INC leader Rahul Gandhi attempted to visit Manipur in June, but local police blocked him from entering the state.
The women also demanded the local government stop blocking access to the internet, which has been intermittently obstructed since May. The government’s jamming of internet access is believed to be the reason the video of the gang rape victims emerged so many weeks after the event occurred. International Christian aid groups working in India documented the sharing of videos of mob attacks by mob participants early on in the riots in May — a sign the participants did not fear police would use the videos to bring them to justice.
“We demand that the minister speak in Parliament about the situation in the state. We want internet services back. We want to tell people what is happening to us,” a woman outside Singh’s home told the Press Trust of India (PTI).
Reports from Imphal stated that the home was unharmed as police acted quickly to disperse the women and no one was home. It was the second attack on Singh’s house since the riots began. In June, a separate mob burned the lawmaker’s home, leaving it partially damaged.
“I do not know what the reason behind it … I’m still working for [the] peace process and I don’t know why some groups of people do not like this peace process,” Singh said in an interview with News18 at the time.
The attack signals growing frustration with local police, who the Kuki-Zo have been accusing of siding with the Meitei mobs for months. One of the women paraded nude in the viral video told reporters last week that the incident occurred with police present.
“The police were there with the mob which was attacking our village. The police picked us up from near home and took us a little away from the village and left us on the road with the mob. We were given to them by police,” the youngest victim said.
“We, the peace-loving Kuki Zo tribe were forced to protect our lives when we were attacked by the armed Meitei mob, who were tacitly supported by the state government machinery,” a joint statement from the United People’s Front (UPF) and Kuki National Organisation (KNO) published last month read.
Reports prior to the emergence of last week’s viral video indicated that the Meira Paibis had initially sided with their Meitei tribe. The Indian outlet The Quint reported as recently as last week that Kuki survivors of Meitei mobs had witnessed Meira Paibis members taking an “active role” in encouraging Meitei men to burn down Christian churches and villages, often blocking Christians fleeing into the neighboring forest from hiding from the mob.
The video appeared to change the perspective of the group. Immediately following police reporting that they had arrested two men suspected of participating in the gang rape attack, Meira Paibis members burned their homes down.
“We condemn the violence against the women and that is why we want capital punishment,” a Meira Paibis member identified as Sumati told the Agence France-Presse (AFP). “The accused and their family will not be able to live in their village. That is why we destroyed the house.”
The women’s mob also burned down the home of the mother of one of the alleged mob attackers.
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