As of right now, Manipur is experiencing the most violence in the country as a result of ethnic tensions converting into violence against women, due to conflicts and hostilities between the Meitei, Kuki, and Naga militias.
Since the ethnic conflict erupted in Manipur on May 3, when a “Tribal Solidarity March” was organized in the hill regions to oppose the Meitei community’s desire for Scheduled Tribe (ST) designation, more than 150 people have died and numerous more have been injured.
Manipur is a patchwork of distinct communities with a long history of mistrust against one another, much like the majority of the rest of the northeast.
The Meiteis make up somewhat over fifty percent of the population, while the Kukis and Nagas make up roughly 40% together, 25% Kukis, and 15% Nagas respectively.
As a tribe, the Kukis reside several areas of the North-East in India, including regions such as Manipur, Assam, Tripura, Meghalaya, Mizoram, and Nagaland. In India, Bangladesh, and Myanmar, there are a number of hill tribes, including the Kuki.
The majority ethnic tribe in the Indian state of Manipur is the Meiteis, commonly known as Meetei. Although a sizable population has moved to the other Indian states of Assam, Tripura, Nagaland, Meghalaya, and Mizoram, Meiteis are mostly concentrated in the Imphal Valley region of present-day Manipur.
The conflict is around the Meitei community’s quest for Scheduled Tribe status and other tribal groups who are in opposition towards it. The chaos that has recently broken out across the lovely state actually started on May 3 when a sizable crowd assembled in Torbung, Churachandpur, for the Tribal Solidarity March sponsored by the All Tribal Students Union of Manipur (ATSUM), in outrage at the addition of Meiteis in the ST category.
How did the ethnic violence lead to violence against women?
Several cases of sexual assault are coming forth since a horrifying video from May 4 of two women from the Kuki group being carried around naked and assaulted by an angry crowd in Manipur’s Kangpokpi got widespread last week.
The video, according to Geeta Pandey of the BBC in Delhi, is the most recent instance of rape and sexual assault being used as weapons of rivalry, which frequently worsens into a vicious cycle of retaliation assaults.
In the video clip, two bare skin women are seen being carried by a horde of males brandishing knives and weapons as they cross a road and enter an agricultural field. Some of the men are seen sexually grabbing the victims as they go.
This entire incident reveals how women are treated as pawns and are perceived as nothing more than targets who are vulnerable to being harmed whenever there is rivalry.
While the entire country pretends to respect women, every day we hear or see an instance that reveals the truth of how women are treated when no welfare groups are around. This is not an eye-opener, yet it serves as another example of how a woman’s dignity comes under attack whenever there is a societal conflict.
