What is happening in Manipur since the last three months is a deadly blow on insaniyat.
In 2002 the deadly blow on insaniyat was dealt in Ahmedabad.
A group of us six women are its eye witnesses.
Twenty one years later, the same tragedy has unfolded. Again.
On May 3, 2023, three women from Erup Kangpopki village ran from their burning homes. They were young and middle aged. Their story is pieced together from random accounts – new details emerge every day. But one thread runs through them all. Stripped naked, then raped, raped, raped, while a crowd of “900-1,000” men watch. Do they shout? Are they silent? Do they turn away in shame? Will we ever know?
The nation is convulsed with disgust, anger and shame. Helmsman of the state, chief minister N. Biren Singh makes a few feeble noises. Helmsman of the country silently boarded a flight to distant lands, away from the smoke of burnt houses, stench of burnt flesh and sight of torn female organs.
Manipur, the land where in November 2004 I was part of a scene I will never forget.
I saw all communities, Meiteis, Kukis, Nagas, Pangals, celebrate the government’s gift to Manipur. The historic Kangla Fort. PM Manmohan Singh stood on the dais, having ordered Assam Rifles to vacate the Fort and return it to the people. Tears of joy amidst laughter and bonhomie. Tricoloured flags wafting in the breeze. One song rose above the joyful sounds, the national anthem of India.
An entrance to the Kangla Fort. Photo: Mongyamba, (CC BY-SA 3.0) via Wikimedia Commons
Nineteen years later all of this lay in dirt and rubble.
Busy officers moving in corridors of power were busy designing power games for their masters. Split, polarise, poison the two major communities, one Christian one Hindu, people who had lived beside each other for decades. Temples and churches had dotted the entire landscape. People moved freely.
The ordinance had to do with land which belonged to the Kuki-Zos and other tribes. These lands had to be allocated for palm oil plantation. Majority contracts would be awarded to Adani Group, one of the key players in the cooking oil market, among others.
So, could there have been a way where lawlessness helped create mayhem and ‘clean up the area’ make land easily available for corporates? We will never know, but the question haunts me.
The tragedy unfolded; more killings, more arson, more rapes. Meiteis displaced from nearby Mizoram for fear of reprisals. The Young Mizo Association (YMA) urged them to stay on in Aizawl but fear had struck the settlers. Camps everywhere, food supply negligible, medicines being blocked from reaching the camps. Kuki boys in fatigues in Manipur shouting unspeakable anti-Meitei slogans. Meitei miscreants screaming for blood of the Kukis. We read, we watch, our glazed eyes are as good as shut, but can we?
A photo, purportedly of an IED blast site in Manipur’s Bishnupur, circulating on Twitter.
The nation has risen; protests, marches, statements, petitions pour in from all corners of the country, even places where Manipur was barely known.
Some world bodies woke up and indictments began pouring in from USA and Europe. Some nations urged India to stop this horror. Demurely we said to Christian nations, ‘Violence in Manipur is not religious. In any event it’s our internal matter so mind your own’. In the meanwhile, in Egypt and France our PM (Pratham Sevak) was conferred The Order of the Nile and French Legion of Honour; joyfully given, joyfully received.
In the beleaguered state of Manipur some rioters were issued warrants and hauled to prisons. Who were they? What sections were slapped? We don’t know.
Also read: Egypt’s Paeans to Narendra Modi Cannot Erase the Past or Present in India
As a nation I feel we must demand ‘command responsibility.’ This concept is used in the International Court of Justice. Responsibility lies with the highest authority.
Giving life sentences, even hanging a few is relatively easy. They are the rogue perpetrators. But their strings are held by those at the pinnacle. By shouting “khoon ka badla khoon“ from the rooftops we, the masses cannot be lulled; we are alive and awake.
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Manipur is the land which gave birth to Polo, Sagol Kangjei, in ancient days. In 1799 to it birthed Rasleela. I remember watching a breathtaking performance in the then chief minister’s home.
The state was referred to as the ‘Jewel of India,’ encircled by nine hills with an oval shaped valley in the centre. I walked on the streets of Manipur at the time of Kangla festivities as well as the time when Thangjam Manorma was gang raped and killed and the Meira Paibis stripped before the garrison of Assam Rifles in protest.
Meira Paibis protesting against Afspa in Imphal in 2004. Photo: Reuters/Files
I brought a delegation of six Meira Paibis to meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in the evening after he had dedicated Kangla. The Assam chief minister’s comment reported in the media about ‘tremendous healing in Manipur since 2014’ with a snide comment about Prime Minister Manmohan Singh reflects his ignorance of even recent history.
In the book which I co-authored with Gunjan Veda, we wrote of the Manipur we saw when Singh was PM. ‘That evening for the first time we saw a smiling Manipur, a joyous Manipur. As the ecstatic crowds swept us out of the Kangla premises, we realized that we had seen history in the making’.
For Manipur let the ordinary women and men of India demand ‘command responsibility.’
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These days some of us are commemorating Moharrum, among the most profound tragedies in recorded history, which happened in Karbala 1,343 years ago. What has happened in Manipur and is spreading in Mizoram, Assam and Meghalaya felt like another Karbala to me.
As healers and mourners, we want to place our loving hands on the wounds inflicted on our Manipur sisters and brothers. Imphal, Bishnupur, Churachandpur, Thoubal, Senapati; where to date there have been at least 150 deaths, 1,000 injured and 50,000 homeless.
We, the people of India have just one goal and an arduous path to tread.
In the words of Faiz Ahmed Faiz:
Kat-te bhi chalo badhte bhi chalo
Baazu bhi bahaut hain sar bhi bahaut
Chalte bhi chalo ke ab derey
Manzil pe hi daale jayeinge
(Keep proceeding, keep falling
There are many arms many heads
Keep moving for tents will be pitched
Now only at the destination)
Syeda Hameed is a writer and the founder chair of the Muslim Women’s Forum.
