India's Bubbling Civil War In Manipur

I've seen a few articles and videos of the past several months discussing conflicts between certain Hindus and Christians but did not know much more about it. But apparently there is low-grade civil war between two tribal groups in the Indian state of Manipur.

    Earlier this week, as this BBC article relates, video of two Christian women being paraded naked (before being gang raped) by a group of Hindu men went viral sparking outrage throughout India. (This video indicates that one of women's husband and brothers were also murdered). The BBC, being what it is, doesn't mention the respective religions involved, but does provide more detail of the May 4 incident:

    Deadly violence has plunged Manipur, a scenic Indian state bordering Myanmar, into turmoil for more than two months.

    Clashes between members of the majority Meitei [who are Hindu] and the Kuki [who are Christian] tribal communities have resulted in their complete segregation. At least 130 people have died and 60,000 have been displaced.

    The two women, who are Kukis, were assaulted by men of the Meitei group.

The article also explains: 

    "The gang rape of the women happened after the village was burnt down and two men - one middle-aged and another a teenager - were beaten to death by the mob," the ITLF said.

    But the police complaint filed by a relative of one of the women said only one of them was gang raped. It added that a third woman had been forced to strip but she is not seen in the video.

    Police said that the incident took place on 4 May and that a case of abduction and gang rape and murder had been registered in Thoubal district.

In any event, once the video went viral, it caused a political firestorm, including focusing attention on the national government's failure to control violence in the region.

    Looking into the issue of more general violence, however, led me to this article, also from the BBC from a few weeks ago: "Manipur: Fears grow over Indian state on brink of civil war". From the article:

    Nearly two months after it was convulsed by ethnic violence, Manipur is teetering on what many believe is the brink of a civil war. Clashes between the majority Meitei and Kuki communities have left more than 100 dead and over 400 wounded.

    Nearly 60,000 people have been displaced and taken shelter in some 350 camps. Some 40,000 security forces - army soldiers, paramilitaries, police - are struggling to quell the violence. Only a quarter of the more than 4,000 weapons looted by mobs from police armouries have been voluntarily returned since the violence began.

    The level of mistrust between the warring communities has sharpened, with both accusing security forces of being partisan. More than 200 churches and 17 temples have been destroyed or damaged by mobs. Homes of local ministers and legislators have been attacked and set on fire.

    Normal life has been strangled: a night curfew continues in most of the 16 districts; schools are shut and internet services have been suspended. A main highway for ferrying supplies has been blocked by protesters. There are sporadic killings and arson. The federal government's proposal for a peace panel to broker a truce has received a tepid response.

    "This is the darkest moment in Manipur's history," says Binalakshmi Nepram of Northeast India Women Initiative for Peace. "In two days [when the violence began], homes were burnt and people were lynched, burnt and tortured. Manipur has not seen this kind and type of violence in its modern history."

The article also explains:

    The majority Meiteis make up more than half of Manipur's estimated 3.3 million people. Some 43% of the people are Kukis and Nagas, the two predominant tribal communities, who live in the rolling hills. Most Meiteis follow the Hindu faith, while most Kukis adhere to Christianity.

    Previous ethnic - and religious - clashes in Manipur have claimed hundreds of lives. "This time, the conflict is strictly rooted in ethnicity, not religion," says Dhiren A Sadokpam, editor of The Frontier Manipur.

    May's large-scale violence was sparked by a controversy over affirmative action: Kukis protested against the demand seeking tribal status for the Meiteis. But this does not entirely explain the explosive ethnic violence that has engulfed Manipur.

    The underlying tensions in the region stem from a complex interplay of various factors, including a long-standing insurgency, a controversial recent war on drugs, illegal migration from troubled Myanmar through porous borders, pressure on land, and a lack of employment opportunities, which make the young vulnerable to recruitment by rebel groups.

    Adding to the volatility, say experts, is the alleged complicity of politicians in the drug trade over decades and the nexus between politicians and militancy. 

The article goes on to explain that, adding to tensions, the state has threatened to destroy poppy crops being grown mostly on Kuki land, and the Metei group is upset that it cannot buy land in the more open hill country in which the Kuki live. 

    See also:

• "Manipur violence: What is happening and why"--BBC.
• "‘Foreigners on our own land’: ethnic clashes threaten to push India’s Manipur state into civil war"--The Guardian. 
• "Armed mobs rampage through villages and push remote Indian region to the brink of civil war"--AP.
• "The Indian State of Manipur Is on the Verge of Civil War. Modi Hasn't Said a Word About It"--Time.
• "Armed gangs and a partisan state: How Manipur slipped into civil war"--Scroll.in.
• "Why Manipur’s civil war is being linked to the narcotics trade"--Scroll.in.

    Another factor in the violence, however, is the roll of organized "mobs". The first Scroll.in article cited above relates:

    The violence has reflected the state’s sharp geographical divide.

    In the hills, where Kukis outnumber Meiteis, people like Irom fled Kuki mobs. But in the valley where Imphal is located, and where political and economic power is concentrated, mobs from the dominant Meitei community targeted Kuki neighbourhoods.

    Take, for instance, Haokip Veng, a Kuki neighbourhood in the heart of Imphal. Violent mobs battered it three times in 24 hours, before burning it down on May 4, according to Hapou Haokip, a daily-wage labourer who lived there and lost his house.

    Each time the size of the mob varied, Haokip recalled, but one thing was constant: the presence of men wearing black T-shirts in the mob.

    This appears to be part of a pattern. Across the valley, Kuki survivors identified their attackers as the “boys in black shirts” – a reference to the uniforms of Arambai Tenggol, a shadowy Meitei group that was barely known in the state until it rose to prominence during the clashes last month. Kuki groups and the Opposition have alleged that the group enjoys the patronage of Meitei politicians from the state’s Bharatiya Janata Party government, all the way up to Chief Minister N Biren Singh.

    On the other hand, Meitei groups have charged the Centre and the Assam Rifles, which helms counter-insurgency operations in the state, of going soft on Kuki militant groups. Their claim is that armed cadres, officially restricted to designated camps under a Suspension of Operations agreement with the Central government, are out terrorising Meiteis in the foothills.

The article also goes into details concerning allegations that local police forces aided and abetted Meiteis in attacking Kuki protestors. And it notes that there is a strong religious sentiment (Hindu versus Christian) underlying Meitei violence against the Kuki.  The second article from Scroll.in discusses the drug trade implications and, since the majority of the poppy production is on Kuki land and Meitei controlled state government wants to destroy those crops, begs the question of whether drug cartels are involved in some of the violence. 

    Obviously, at 3 million people, the region is but a drop in the bucket compared to the overall size of India's population. And the conflict sounds more like what we saw between Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland than an open civil war. But it illustrates the type of problems that come in a multicultural society when the rule of law breaks down, and the multiplicity of groups and organizations, as well as motives, behind the violence. It is not a simple black and white, "A versus B" situation. 

    A couple other notable points in reviewing the articles is the fact that police armories were raided for weapons (we heard of the same in Eastern Europe when some of the former Warsaw Pact governments fell) and the photos show a wide array of weapons being used--even by police--including what appear to be old Lee-Enfield rifles.