An open letter to the folks of Manipur : On places of worship
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: July 07, 2023 -

An open letter which seeks to reach out to the innate goodness of mankind and an appeal which tries to touch the sane part of every individual called human beings.

Not anything that comes close to asserting one’s stand but an appeal that should set all thinking, a process which is absolutely lacking, blinded as everyone is in the mad race to come second and not the first in the number of body count and number of houses torched.

It is amid this madness that The Sangai Express received an open letter to the people of Manipur from the general secretary of the Council of Nagalim Churches and it was with a misplaced sense of trepidation that the said letter was published as the lead article in the July 6, 2023 edition of the English edition of this newspaper.

Trepidation in the sense that this was the first open letter addressed to the people of Manipur, correction Meiteis, that talked about the torching of Churches in the ongoing ethnic clash.

Not surprisingly, a sort of a reply to the said open letter has been received at the office of The Sangai Express and this will be carried once a soft copy of the said reply is received, but it is significant to note that someone has deemed it fit to pen down a thought on the burning of Churches, including Churches that belong to the Meitei community.

Not a clash between two groups of people professing two different religions, is a line that has repeatedly been stressed here for it is not.

It is also not a clash between the tribals and the non-tribals and this is another point that has also been repeatedly stressed here.

This is where it becomes extremely important for all concerned to take extra care to ensure that nothing is interpreted along religious divide for doing that would amount to playing into the hands of the side which has been going all the way out to portray the clash as a confrontation between the majority Hindus and the minority Christians.

As former Lt General Konsam Himalay Singh pointed out in an article carried in The Sangai Express under the double decker caption, ‘An eye for an eye makes everybody blind; Way towards conflict resolution’ on July 6, it is not a clash along religious line, for quite a large number of Meiteis too follow Christianity.

The reasoning in the line put up by the former Army officer is on track, and this is where one would need to raise the question of why quite a large number of Kuki Churches located in the valley area have been razed to the ground.

Burning places of worship is against all that humanity stands for and the Meiteis are known to respect all religious beliefs, living cheek by jowl with people of different religious affiliations.

The biggest (by membership) Church in Manipur, the Manipur Baptist Convention (MBC) continues to stand tall and all Meitei leaders are known to have close ties with the said Church.

Many Meiteis are also members of this Church. Imphal is also home to the majestic Tangkhul Church, which stands opposite to the Manipur Baptist Convention Church.

However in the madness that has enveloped Manipur since the evening of May 3, a number of Kuki Churches have been razed to the ground, but this is where everyone, including the Council of Nagalim Churches, should note that the attacks on the Kuki Churches followed the demolition of Meitei places of worship at Churachandpur, which went viral on the social media on May 3 evening.

The Ima Kondong Lairembi shrine, one of the holiest places for the Meiteis at Moreh, was also reduced to rubbles in the attack, an attack on any place associated with the Meitei community.

The voice of sanity echoed by the Council of Nagalim Churches is appreciated and one hopes that the sincere appeal from the Reverend of the said Council sinks into the consciousness of everyone concerned.

The sacredness of a place of worship should be respected by all, for God is for everyone.

This is the characteristic which has been the hallmark of the Meitei people and it would be a tragedy for the Meiteis themselves to besmirch this image.