Video of two naked women being harassed draws attention to tribal conflict in India’s Manipur News

A video showing two naked women being assaulted by a mob of men in Manipur, in northeastern India, has shocked the nation and brought renewed attention to a deadly tribal conflict. It has also prompted Prime Minister Modi to make a statement on the violence that is tearing Manipur apart. According to our Observer, the video is a stark reminder of how women’s bodies have been used as a “site of conflict” since martial law was imposed on the state in the 1970s

Photo of two naked women being harassed draws attention to tribal conflict in India’s Manipur News

The 26-second video, which emerged on social media July 19, shows the two women, members of the state’s minority Kuki community, being assaulted by men of the majority Meitei ethnicity. The distraught women are pushed around and groped by their attackers, and then escorted towards an empty field. According to a police complaint, one of the women, a 21-year-old, was “brutally gang-raped in broad daylight”, while the other one managed to escape.

We have decided not to include the viral video in this article due to its shocking nature.

The Meitei make up 53% of the population in Manipur, a multi-ethnic state on India’s border with China and Myanmar that has 34 different tribal communities. Under martial law since the 1970s because of frequent ethnic violence, the state is currently governed by India’s ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

The incident happened on May 4, the day after deadly ethnic riots broke out between the Meitei who are mostly Hindus, and the predominantly Christian Kuki. The violence was sparked by a controversy over affirmative action: the Kukis, who already have “scheduled tribe” status guaranteeing them quotas for government jobs and university places, were protesting against a proposal to extend the same status to the majority Meiteis. 

At least 140 people have since been killed and more than 60,000 people have been forced from their homes. Meanwhile, police armouries have been looted, hundreds of Kuki churches attacked, and more than a dozen Meitei temples ruined, and villages destroyed. 

After months of silence, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi finally spoke out about the violence in Manipur on July 20. He responsed to the video by saying: “My heart is filled with grief and anger. The incident in Manipur is shameful for any civil society.”

On the same day, police opened a gang-rape case, arrested four men, and said they would be making more arrests soon.

'Women’s bodies in Manipur have been used as a site of war since the 1970s'

Our Observer, Binalakshmi Nepram, who founded the Northeast India Women Initiative for Peace, has criticised authorities for taking so long to act, despite a police complaint having been lodged just days after the incident. She told us the video serves as a stark reminder of how women’s bodies in the northeastern state are being weaponised in the conflict.

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