Christian groups in the strife-torn Manipur state in northeast India have jointly appealed to Indian President Droupadi Murmu to stop the violence against a tiny group of Christians who live among native Hindu Meitei people.
An estimated 35,000 Meitei Christians face “total cleansing and obliteration" in all the valley districts of the hilly state, according to their memorandum submitted to Murmu on June 26.
The All Manipur Christian Organization (AMCO), a forum of all Christian groups in the state cutting across denominational differences, said Meitei Christians are facing violence from people of their ethnicity.
The Meitei people make up 53 percent of Manipur's 3.2 million population. They are mostly Hindus, but some have followed various Christian denominations for decades.
However, they became the target of Meitei violence after a riot broke out 14 months ago between Meitei people and predominantly Christian Kuki tribal people, the Church leader told UCA News.
“Since the mayhem and violence started, more than 360 Christian churches have either been razed to the ground, demolished or vandalized, out of which 249 churches belong to the Meitei minority Christian community,” said the memorandum.
“What is extremely saddening and heart-wrenching is the fact that all the displaced Meitei Christians are still not allowed to practice Christianity as their faith,” it said.
“The Meitei Christians, who are being threatened and harassed, are not allowed to practice their faith,” the memorandum said. It stressed that freedom of religion is “a guaranteed fundamental right of each citizen of our secular nation.”
The Meitei Christians should be given “the necessary protection and assurance by the government of India and state government that they would no longer be disturbed from any angle in practicing the faith they choose,” it said.
The memorandum also appealed to Murmu to take immediate action to “rebuild the places of worship, fostering healing and restoring the fabric of unity among the people. It said that the reconstruction of these churches will serve as a symbol of resilience and reaffirm our commitment to diversity and harmony.
According to the local Church leader, the "plight of our Meitei Christians is so pathetic that they are sandwiched between Hindu Meiteis and the Christian Kukis. While one group attacks them for their ethnicity, the other attacks them for their faith,” said a local Church leader.“They are running from one place to another to rebuild their lives. They are tortured in their own areas dominated by the Hindu Meiteis,” he said.
They are not accepted as Hindu Meiteis nor as part of Christian Kukis, “leaving them in a very horrible state of affairs,” he said and added they are unlike other tribal Christians who live in a community as a large group.
“Unless the government gives them special attention, they will not be able to practice their faith and lead a normal life,” the Church leader, who did not want to be named, told UCA News on June 26.
The memorandum is delivered to the concerned authorities through one of the newly elected parliamentarians from the state.
Manipur has two representatives in the lower house of the Indian Parliament.
Copies of the memorandum have also been marked for Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Federal Minister for Home Affairs Amit Shah, and the opposition leader Rahul Gandhi.
When UCA News contacted Simon Raomai, the president of the ecumenical body, he said he had “nothing to say to the media as we have informed the government what we needed to.”
The unprecedented violence in Manipur began on May 3, 2023, when Kuki tribal people protested the government enlisting the Meitei people as tribal, making them eligible for socioeconomic benefits meant for tribal people.
The violence claimed over 220 lives and displaced more than 50,000 people, primarily Christian tribal people.
As sporadic violence continued 14 months after it began, critics accused the federal and state governments of failing to restore peace.
The state government, just like the federal government, is run by the pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party, which is accused of following a Hindu-first policy in its effort to turn India into a nation of Hindu hegemony.
