Carnage in Manipur showcases the tragedy unfolding around India’s anti-Christian ‘conversion laws’.

Two Christian women from the Kuki tribe, allegedly raped by Hindu extremists, are an example of how reluctant Western and Indian authorities are to call it persecution.

Both women, one middle-aged and the other in her 20s, were marched naked down a street towards a field before authorities claim they were gang-raped by ‘dozens’ of men in early May.

The mob also allegedly murdered the father and brother of the youngest victim, after the men attempted to intervene in the sexual assault.

Sky News, referring to the Hindu mob as ‘the majority community’, explained three more women were made to strip at gunpoint.

Alongside this, men hunting Kuki women allegedly murdered two Kuki girls, both in their 20s.

After seeking refuge under a ‘bed at their car wash shop’, co-workers said they heard the girls ‘screaming and pleading with seven men who’d locked themselves in the room’.

‘The girls were later found dead, their blood and hair splattered all over the room’ as reported by Indian news organisation, the Print.

The May 3 attackers apparently justified their actions as ‘revenge’.

Reacting to a viral photo of Aayushi Chaudhary, a Delhi nursing student murdered by her parents in 2022, Hindu violence spread after social media users falsely claimed the photo was of a murdered Meitei woman, killed by Kuki men.

The Print said police failed to stop the outbreak of violence, even after busting the ‘fake news’ photo within 48 hours of it going viral.

While the majority of victims in the recent unrest are from the Kuki tribe, there’s a culture of silence about sexual violence on both sides.

‘Amid widespread lynchings, burning, looting, and ethnic fault lines that have divided Manipur into partitioned villages, cities, streets, and neighbourhoods’ women are silenced, stopping them from speaking out about the horrific crimes committed against them.

Despite official statements, confirming ‘no rape of Meitei women had occurred in that area’, The Print claimed police were sadly unable to stop the ‘social media frenzy from instigating the mob’.

India’s Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, stopped short of acknowledging that Manipur had turned into a mess, perhaps because of his party’s Hindu Nationalist policies or maybe to avoid raising tensions further.

The brutality did, however, force the Prime Minister to ‘break his silence on Manipur’ stating, ‘The law with all its might will take one step after another. I assure the countrymen that not even a single culprit will be spared.’

Modi also described the carnage as a ‘shameful incident for any civilized society’.

To this, he added, ‘The entire country is shamed.’

The Hindu persecution of Christians has intensified since 2021, after India’s updated ‘anti-conversion laws’ helped drive what the New York Times has called ‘anti-Christian hysteria’.

Churches are being ‘stormed, Christian literature burned, schools attacked, and churchgoers assaulted’.

‘To many Hindu extremists, the attacks are justified – a means of preventing [Christian] conversions,’ the New York Times clarified.

Empowered by India’s anti-conversion laws, the ranks of ‘anti-Christian forces’ include ‘a white-collar army of lawyers and clerks who file legal complaints against Christian organisations’.

‘They also devise devastating social boycotts against isolated Christians in remote villages, block Christians from community wells, bar them from visiting Hindu homes, and ostracise villagers for believing in Jesus.’

‘In one town, they stopped people from gathering on Christmas,’ the New York Times article added.

Among the rank and file exists at least one top police official who, the New York Times said, had ordered his underlings in Chhattisgarh, ‘to keep a constant vigil on the activities of Christian missionaries’.

2.3 per cent, or 30 million+ Indians are Christian.

An assessment from Open Doors rated Manipur as being on the verge of civil war, with tensions being stoked by ‘Hindu Nationalist governments, giving Hindu-majority Meitei people land and benefits privileges, while they evict Christian Kukis from their ancestral lands’.

Violence in Manipur has displaced 36,655 people from their homes.

Speaking out, one Anglican Bishop wrote:

‘Indian authorities can no longer deny the reality that this is a religious attack, and also a barbaric ethnic cleansing of a people group.’

‘Whether it’s a Muslim, Christian, Hindu, or Dalit woman that is raped and killed, all of India must speak out as one if pure, unadulterated justice is the goal,’ he concluded.

Divisions in India are not the result of too much religious freedom.

They’re the consequence of politicians playing parlay with bad policies dressed up to look like good ones.

Get 10 issues for just $10

Subscribe to The Spectator Australia today for the next 10 magazine issues, plus full online access, for just $10.

SUBSCRIBE 10 issues for $10 REGISTER 3 articles a month

Already a subscriber? Log in