Leaders in Manipur in Northeast India say religious extremism is fueling the extreme aggression against Christian minorities.

Newsroom (06/05/2023 08:05, Gaudium Press)  Rioting mobs have taken the lives of at least six people and destroyed or burned down 25 churches in the northeastern Indian state of Manipur. Since May 3, thousands of victims, mostly Christians, have fled as their homes and businesses have gone up in flames.

The Manipur state government issued a shoot-on-sight order, it imposed a curfew on May 4 following the deaths in unrest across the state. Soldiers were deployed in large numbers to enforce the curfew to bring the flare-up between tribal and non-tribal groups under control in Manipur, which borders Myanmar.

While tensions over property rights and economic interests have existed between the state’s ethnic groups for decades, local leaders indicated that church burnings are the result of the growth of Hindu nationalism among the dominant Meite community.

The violence started after the state’s top court asked the state government on April 19 to recommend to the federal government within four weeks to allow the demand of Meitei community to list them among Scheduled Tribes.

The Meitei people, a majority in the state, have been demanding this special status to help them enjoy rights to farm on forest land, low-cost bank loans and government jobs under India’s affirmative action plan called the reservation quota

Tribal people say the Meitei community is quite well-off and more privileges would be unfair.

The Meiteis are mostly Hindus, while rival groups comprise indigenous people, and most of them are Christians who mainly live in hill districts. Tribal people make up 40 per cent of the state population of 3.5 million and Christians account for more than 41.29 per cent of them. In recent years, these tensions have been exacerbated by the political influence of the Hindu nationalist organizations Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which have sought to promote Hinduism as the dominant religion in India and have used the Meitei community to advance their political agenda in the state.

The chief minister of Manipur, N. Biren Singh, described the situation as a “prevailing misunderstanding between two communities” and said that his government was committed to protecting “the lives and property of all our people.” “We should not allow the culture of communal harmony in the state to be disturbed by vested interests,” Singh said, adding that he also intended to address the community’s “long-term grievances.”

Archbishop Peter Machado of Bangalore in a statement expressed concern over the targeting of Christians in the state.

“It is with deep concern that we note the resurgence of persecution of Christians in Manipur,” Archbishop Machado said on May 5. The archbishop has already filed a petition in India’s top court, seeking action over violence against Christians in the country.  The Supreme Court is currently hearing the case.

• Raju Hasmukh with files from UCAN and Christianity Today