During the Vietnam War, a horrifying photo of a naked young girl amid the napalm bombing seared the American conscience concerning immoral activity throughout the war. Now, a viral video of abused Christian Kuki women — paraded naked in public, groped, gang-raped — has seared the Indian and even the global conscience.
Barely 24 hours after the video went viral, the chief justice of India expressed the serious concern of the Supreme Court and asked the central government to act, or else the court would take matters into its own hands.
The central and the state government in Manipur have failed to deal with the ethnic strife and carnage there, which has left the minority Christian Kuki population victims of heinous violence.
This has occurred with the complicity of the police and is indeed the state of affairs wherever Christians have been attacked in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and other states. Local police throughout India allow Hindu extremist mobs to attack Christians without consequences.
These particular incidents, which happened in May, have only now been revealed to the general public. This is due to Manipur finding itself under an internet blackout for 80 days.
Now that footage has gone viral, it has caused severe anguish among Hindus, Muslims, Christians and others who have not subscribed to the majoritarian Hindutva ideology sweeping across India.
As the actor and member of the Indian Parliament Jaya Bachchan put it, “It’s very frustrating. Every day something is happening with women. … Such humiliation. It’s very saddening.”
As the news of this violence emerges, the Christian identity of the Kuki population in Manipur fails to make the headlines. But Indian authorities can no longer deny the reality that this is a religious attack as well as a barbaric ethnic cleansing.
When the vice president of the neighboring state of Mizoram resigned, he stated that his own Bharatiya Janata Party has become an anti-Christian party. This has brought clearer awareness throughout India and the world that the rapes and murders of numerous women, and the burning of homes and churches, are targeted attacks against Kuki Christians.
At this point, it is obvious that these Christians are under full-scale attack by radicalized Hindu groups and that the police are ignoring this injustice.
This is not to say that Meitei Christians haven’t suffered from ethnic violence as well. But there is no denying the destruction of hundreds of churches, the massive number of displaced Kuki Christians, and the brutal rape of their women.
In the wake of the outrage, Prime Minister Narendra Modi broke his silence on the breakdown of law and order. He condemned the violence against these innocent Kuki women. Yet his statement veered into politics by also mentioning violence against women in Rajasthan and Chattisgarh, which is ruled by the opposition party.
The human rights issue has tragically been politicized here in India, as it often is throughout the world. It’s not only within the BJP. Other parties have also succumbed to this.
The India we knew is fast disappearing. This violent assault in Manipur points to the possible India of the future if we fail to awaken the Indian conscience across religious and caste lines.
Whether it’s a Muslim, Christian, Hindu or Dalit woman who is raped and killed, all of India must speak out as one if pure, unadulterated justice is the goal. All Indians must reject any form of religious, caste or ethnic polarization that stands in the way of equal treatment under the law and any form of politics as it pertains to these issues.
Violence and sexual assault against any Indian woman is a travesty, no matter the background of the victim or the perpetrator. Yet if hatred and bigotry continue to rule the day, as we’ve witnessed in Manipur, India will descend further into chaos for women nationwide.
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