Weekly Blog - 17 July 2023 - Manipur Violence
Manipur violence
Tensions are high across the Indian state of Manipur, and in its capital Imphal, after a horrific video went viral this week showing two women being forced to walk naked through a crowd of men who groped them, in a village in the state. The women were reportedly afterwards taken to a field and gang raped. The women are from the minority Christian Kuki ethnic group, and their attackers from the majority Hindu Meitei community. This tragic incident reportedly took place in B Phainom village in Kangpokpi district of Manipur on 4 May, but only this week came to light.
Long-standing tensions between the communities broke out into brutal violence against the Kuki community in the state on 3 May, after thousands of Kuki students demonstrated against the majority Meitei community receiving special status as a scheduled tribe. This national programme has usually been used in India to protect minority tribal communities who have often been marginalised and had weaker rights. This is especially the case in remote regions like Manipur, which is in the far north east of India on the other side of Bangladesh, along the border with Myanmar. However, in this case the Kuki believe the status will give the Meitei, who already form the majority in the state, special rights and privileges which will allow them to dispossess and further marginalise minority hill communities like the Kuki.
Over 120 people have been killed and tens of thousands displaced in appalling violence since May. Hundreds of churches, shops and homes have been destroyed. The ruling party in the state (as well as at the national level), the extreme Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), has failed to deal effectively with the violence. Rumours are widespread that state authorities and police are supporting the majority Hindu Meitei community. Police only made arrests in relation to this shocking incident of sexual assault this week after the footage came out and public pressure across India and beyond forced action. Four men have been arrested so far and dozens more interrogated. The video also forced India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi to publicly condemn the violence for the first time.[1] Prime Minister Modi’s Hindu nationalist BJP party has for decades been accused of stirring up violence against Christians and other minority religious groups in hundreds of incidents across India, and of multiple examples of basic human rights and freedoms being restricted.
How should Christians respond?
As Christians we know that God hates all violence and persecution against any community, anywhere. We should do all we can to stand in solidarity with those who suffer from such violence. As the prophet Isaiah says “Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? … If you do away with the yoke of oppression, with the pointing finger and malicious talk, and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday.” (Isa 58: 6 – 10) We might outwork this through supporting brilliant human rights organisations like Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch or International Justice Mission, who help in situations like Manipur.
In addition to this wider support for the rights of all, as Christians we should also stand in particular solidarity with fellow Christians, where they are persecuted. We should support them in every possible way as our family. Thus, speaking of the church Paul says “If one part suffers, every part suffers with it” (1 Cor 12: 26) and the Hebrews are commended because “Sometimes you were publicly exposed to insult and persecution; at other times you stood side by side with those who were so treated. You suffered along with those in prison” (Hebs 10: 33 – 34). We might outwork this through supporting amazing Christian organisations like Barnabas Fund, Christian Solidarity Worldwide, Open Doors and Release International who help communities like the persecuted Christians of Manipur. Christians are called both to radically love all who suffer from injustice, and to have a particular care for Christian brothers and sisters who suffer in this way, just as we should act with radical love and justice for all people, but also have a particular obligation to our immediate family of spouse, children, siblings, parents etc. The two commitments don’t contradict, they reinforce and strengthen each other.
What can be done?
Outworking this dual Biblical calling means action needs to be taken in two key areas to address the long-term root cause of the tragic violence in Manipur. Firstly, there must be a process of peace and reconciliation to bring together the Meitei and Kuki communities in Manipur and end the long-running tensions and violence between them. Secondly, there needs to be significant reform of the ruling government at both the state and national level in India so it better acts with neutrality, justice and equality, and protects the rights of all its citizens from every different ethnic and religious background equally. One of the things that a major piece of research from Arise, the Arise Manifesto, looks at in detail is what the Bible says, and all the lessons from the best research indicates ,works best to achieve these two aims of ending civil conflicts and reforming ruling regimes.
Peace and reconciliation
Looking first at peace and reconciliation, both sides should be brought to the negotiating table to discuss their grievances and agree a peaceful way forward. Third party neutral mediation could be offered to help with this. Both communities should be given a clear and protected role helping to run the state, with representatives from both working together in local authorities. The legitimate demands of minority groups in the state for fair treatment and respect for their traditions, providing they do no harm to others, should be granted. Hardliners and extremists should be marginalised. Those who have had to flee their homes should be allowed to return and their communities rebuilt. There should also be a process of truth telling and reconciliation, similar to other such processes that have been successful in countries like South Africa and Rwanda. This means telling the truth about the violence that has been committed; confessing that it was wrong; asking for forgiveness; turning away and rejecting the use of violence in the future; and receiving forgiveness and amnesty from prosecution for those crimes. As well as running this at a state-wide level, this process of peace and reconciliation should also be carried out at every local level in every affected village and community. Public information campaigns and corresponding programmes should be taught in schools to stress respect for all communities, and unity between them to further help current and future generations to come together. These and other similar approaches have been shown to work over and over again in rebuilding communities and nations around the world that have been shattered by inter-communal violence. They should be pursued in Manipur (Arise Manifesto, pg 89 – 90, 129 – 136).
Reform
When it comes to improving democracy, human rights and good governance at both the state and national government level in India, bottom-up popular peaceful reform movements have again and again proved to be the most successful method of doing this. We have seen such movements work successfully in Serbia, Madagascar, Georgia, Ukraine, Lebanon, Nepal, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, East Germany, Slovenia, Mali, Bolivia, the Philippines, Zambia, South Korea, Chile, Argentina, Haiti, Brazil, Uruguay, Malawi, Thailand, Bulgaria, Hungary, Nigeria, and many other countries in recent decades.
Such peaceful bottom-up reform movements avoid playing into the hands of regimes by confronting them in the area of physical force, where the regime is strong. Instead they peacefully refuse to cooperate with the regime, and continually expand the numbers involved, increasingly isolating the regime until it is forced to concede. Where such reform movements have been successful, they have seized the initiative with a clear strategy and tactics that continually evolve, to keep the regime off balance and reactive. They have built ever larger coalitions and attracted mass numbers of people who have demonstrated peacefully in visible city centres. They have also used non-violent direct action like strikes, sit ins and occupying areas. Where governments have responded with force, they have turned that against them, using the outrage it sparks to gather ever greater support. Successful reform movements have made good use of inspirational leaders, and used social media and other communications routes well, to get their message out. They have captured the sympathy of the international community, the media, and more and more sectors of society, increasingly isolating the regime, until the regime is forced to concede and reform (Arise Manifesto, pg 86 – 88, 108 – 119).
Of course such movements also require great courage and perseverance from those involved. They are not guaranteed to succeed every time. But overwhelmingly the power of ordinary people peacefully refusing to submit is remarkable, and has continually proved the most successful way to improve democracy, human rights and good governance in nations around the world. Christians and churches have played a hugely important central role in such reform movements in nations all around the world (Arise Manifesto, pg 283 – 303). They have worked well alongside journalists, academics, activists, students, trades unions and others in the movement. Supporting such bottom-up Reform Movements in countries around the world (and the Christians that are so often at the heart of them) is one of three key focus campaigns for Arise.
Conclusion
Ultimately of course, it is the people of Manipur, and of India more widely, who will find the solutions to this horrific communal violence, and transition this region of India to justice and lasting peace. But there is much we can do to pray for them and support them in that, from speaking out for all those who suffer abuses in the current conflict, standing in particular solidarity with fellow Christians, calling for lasting peace and reconciliation between communities, and supporting those in India who are campaigning for reform and better democracy, human rights and justice in their nation. The whole world should stand together with communities in Manipur at this time.
Find out more
Find out more about how God is at work in the world, and the role we all have to play in that work, in the Arise Manifesto. This report is Arise’s big picture, researched, Biblical, holistic and practical vision for a better world. It looks at what the Bible says, and what we can learn from the best data and the world’s leading experts on the five major areas of evangelism, discipleship, social justice, development and the environment. It then draws these lessons together into a practical road map for the changes we need to see in our world, which the Arise movement campaigns to achieve.
Found this blog online, or sent it by a friend? Sign up to receive weekly blogs from Arise directly.
[1] Shocking video emerges of sexual assault in India’s Manipur state amid ethnic violence, CNN, (21 Jul 2023), https://edition.cnn.com/2023/07/20/asia/india-manipur-sexual-violence-video-intl/index.html