Ethnic Violence in Manipur, India.

Revd Shirley Murphy has spoken to people from the Kuki-Zo tribe in Manipur who want to remain anonymous. This is their story.

On May 3rd 2023, violence erupted in Manipur, a north-eastern state in India comprising 53% Meitei population. Violence against the Kuki Zo minority started after the All Tribals Students Union marched to protest the demand by the Meitei population to be included in the Scheduled Tribe list.

As per definitions adopted in the 1931 Census, indigenous ethnic communities in India are distinguished by their primitiveness, geographical isolation, shyness and social, educational and economic backwardness as Scheduled Tribes. This is an affirmative measure for upliftment and preservation of indigenous tribes in India.

Violence against Kuki Zo tribals spiralled out of control with the desecration of the Anglo-Kuki war memorial by Meitei’s. The Anglo-Kuki war took place from 1917-1919. Kuki Zo villages are still being attacked.

The Kuki Zo people are Christians. State-sponsored ethnic cleansing has resulted in the displacement of 41,425 Kuki Zo people and the destruction of more than 360 churches and synagogues.

For seven years, concerted efforts had been made by the current Chief Minister to vilify minority Kuki Zo people in his social media accounts accusing them of being illegal immigrants whereas, in fact, they are indigenous tribes . These false allegations influenced his majority Meitei community against Kuki Zo tribals. Therefore, the Meitei community began to expel Kuki-Zo people from the Imphal valley as well as from the hills.

A door-to-door survey was carried out and houses of Kuki-Zo people were marked with paint or given a number on the pretext of detecting so-called illegal immigrants. Attempts were also made to allocate unique property identification numbers for each Kuki-Zo property across the state. While gun licences of Kuki-Zo people were cancelled in February 2023, 4000 licences were issued to the Meitei community in an attempt to disarm Kuki-Zo tribal people while heavily arming Meitei people. In February 2023, K. Songjang, a 200-year-old village, was evicted by the state government.

Internet services were shut down in the state in May 2023. Despite this, a video of two Kuki-Zo women, who were paraded naked and gang raped, leaked out and went viral. 158 innocent Kuki-Zo people were brutally killed in Imphal, the capital city. More than 7,000 Kuki-Zo homes were torched, more than 200 villages of Kuki- Zo people have been destroyed. The primary purpose of these brutal killings is to grab ancestral land belonging to minority Kuki Zo people by majority Meitei’s.

Please pray for these people, their families and their nation.