Armed militia continue to terrorize Christian tribals in India’s northeastern state of Manipur with the tacit cooperation of the nation’s Hindu-supremacist government and the state government, local sources have told The Stream.
The vigilante groups, Arambai Tenggol and Meitei Leepun, are modeled after India’s notorious paramilitary Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a Hindu paramilitary outfit whose founding was inspired by Adolf Hitler and Nazism.
The Meitei militia seeking to ethnically cleanse the indigenous Christian tribals and take possession of their lands are made up of Hindus and Sanamahis (followers of another polytheistic religion).
Bishops Meet Modi
Sources on the ground said the militia have also escalated its persecution against the growing number of Meitei Christians, a factor entirely ignored by the media, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI), the Vatican, and human rights groups.
A CBCI delegation met India’s Hindu-supremacist Prime Minister Narendra Modi on July 12 to raise concerns about Manipur’s beleaguered Christians. “In solidarity with the people of Manipur, we urge you to intervene earnestly to bring peace and harmony in that state,” the bishops urged. According to Thazhath, Modi told the bishops that the violence in Manipur was the result of “an ethnic conflict” and “it does not have a communal color.”
“This is a tribal conflict,” Cardinal Oswald Gracias, archbishop of Bombay, asserted in a video statement in August 2023. “It is given a religious twist, but it is not a religious conflict between two religions. It is between two tribes.”
This story was originally published in stream.org. Read the full story here.