Keeping the record straight : Not a religious clash
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: July 15, 2023 -

The record should be clear. The ongoing clash between the Meiteis and the Kukis-qualified by the term narco terrorists/alien forces-is not a religious clash.

It is not, and The Sangai Express repeats, a case of the Hindus taking on a minority group of people who profess a different religion, Christianity.

Nothing can be more erroneous than to add the suffix majority to the term Hindu in so far as the context of Manipur goes.

It is also not a clash between the tribals and non-tribals and there should be no two ways about it.

The Kuki Inpi Manipur (KIM), the Indigenous Tribal Leaders’ Forum (ITLF) and the Committee on Tribal Unity (CoTU) may be credited for having sold the doctored Hindu-Minority (Christian) clash to the outside world, for spin doctors they all are and in spinning the victim story, they conveniently forgot to mention that the first place of worship to be desecrated/destroyed/burnt was the Eputhou Pakhangba site at Churachandpur on May 3, the day the Tribal Solidarity March was staged.

In the first two days of the violence, about 249 Churches were destroyed or burnt, with the figure coming from an Archbishop in Manipur.

The figure could have increased in the days that followed while correspondingly 31 religious sites of the indigenous religion of the Meiteis have been demolished/desecrated.

Here too the figure of religious places of the Meiteis being desecrated could have gone up.

The figures quoted here should reflect the degree of madness in Manipur and this is where it becomes important to take cognizance of both sides of the story before jumping to any hasty conclusion or striking a holier than thou attitude.

The absolute number of 249 against 31 however does not present the true tale and to get a better picture of the story one would need to study Manipur to understand its geo-political reality.

The Meiteis do not identify anyone along religious divide and everyone is free to set up their place of worship where the Meiteis settle.

Imphal is home to not only Churches but also to Mosques and Gurudwaras and here it should be understood that more than 80 percent of the Churches vandalised belonged to the Kukis.

There is nothing rational in targeting places of worship, but KIM and other Kuki bodies too should not forget that it was the Kukis who first targeted a place of worship of the Meiteis at Churachandpur, which in turn invited a backlash in the valley area.

No Meitei would feel free to construct places of worship at places where they are not allowed to own land and this should more than explain the relatively lower number of religious places of the Meiteis being desecrated.

Important to note too that no Church belonging to the Nagas was touched.

The biggest Church (by membership) in Manipur, the Manipur Baptist Convention (MBC) Church continues to stand majestically in the heart of Imphal city and so too does the towering Tangkhul Church bang opposite the MBC Church.

Likewise the Tangkhul Church at Lamphel continues to dispense its service to the faithfuls.

This fact should not blow over the heads of anyone who try to fiddle with the reality and dub the ongoing clash along religious line.

The lie of the Kuki organisations cannot get more brazen than this and it is with a sense of sympathy that The Sangai Express observe the conduct of some ‘self appointed Manipur experts’.

It is also profoundly wrong to tag the term majority to the Hindus in Manipur for Hindus (mostly Meiteis) account for 41.39 percent while Christians (Mostly Kukis and Nagas and some Meitei Christians taken together) account for 41.29 percent of the total population of the State.

This is as per the data available with the Indian Census. Net.

The present clash is not along religious divide, it is not one between tribals and non-tribals and it certainly does not stem from the demand raised that the Meiteis be included in the Scheduled Tribe list of the Constitution of India.

Just go back to May 3 and see who first sowed the seeds of the clash at Torbung by torching houses of the Meiteis.

And why has no one taken the trouble of tabling the number of religious sites of the Meiteis which have been desecrated ? Anyone listening ?