The Bilkis Banos of Manipur

On July 15 2004 a group of Manipuri women assembled in front of Imphalrsquos Kangla Fort the Assam Rifles headquarters took off their clothes and held aloft a banner that declared ldquoIndian Army Rape Usrdquo These Meitei women were protesting against the Assam Rifles soldiers accused of raping and killing 32yearold Manorama Thangjam Images of their protest became iconic representations of resistance against uniformed men violating women in conflict zonesIn sharp contrast to the 2004 protest at the Kangla Fort Meitei women have not only been part of mobs hunting and killing Kukis but they have also reportedly egged on men to rape Kuki women caught in the bloody maelstrom of Manipurrsquos ethnicreligious conflictTake Hahat a resident of B Phainom village Kangpokpi district whose account to the Kuki Womenrsquos Forum a civil society group makes for a chilling read On May 4 the village repulsed the raid by a Meitei mob comprising men and women The Meiteis regrouped and attacked again With their defence crumbling the residents including Hahat fled to the hills Once at a safe distance Hahat watched the horror unfold her brother and his son were executed Her niece and the village chiefrsquos wife were disrobed paraded around naked and rapedHahatrsquos account echoes the experience of Bilkis Bano during the 2002 Gujarat riots Then 21 years old and pregnant Bilkis and her extended family fled Radhikpur village in Dahod district at the outbreak of violence across Gujarat The fleeing villagers were waylaid by a group of men armed with swords and sickles Bano her mother and three other women were gangraped Eight were killed another six went missing Bano survived and went on to courageously wage her struggle for justiceIt is a cruel twist of history that the land of Meira Paibis or Women Torch Bearers who led the iconic 2004 Kangla Fort protest has spawned its own Bilkis Banos vulnerable women raped assaulted and left to dieThere seems to have been a demonic strategy to incite Meiteis to rape Kuki women and justify these barbaric actions as retaliatory in nature a strategy laid bare by Hoineilhing Sitlhou assistant professor at the University of Hyderabad in a piece she wrote for NewsClick Fake news about Kukis raping Meitei women was first spread via social media and word of mouth The sexual assaults on Kukis were then projected as retributionHere are some instances of fake news that Sitlhou cited in her piece It was claimed that Kukis in their stronghold of Churachandpur district had raped Meitei women Manipurrsquos Director General of Police denied it forthwith It was bandied around that a Meitei nurse in Churachandpur had been raped her father went to a local TV channel to deny it Imphalrsquos Shija Hospital scotched rumours that the bodies of 37 Meitei rape victims were in its morgueYet just about every rape survivor or eyewitness to the violence against women told Sitlhou that the Meitei assailants spoke of the violation of their women even as they proceeded to sexually assault Kukis The survivors also testified to the participation of Meitei women in the violence against their Kuki counterpartsFor instance employees at a carwash company in Imphal hid two Kuki girls as a Meitei mob of men and women came searching for them Under duress an employee revealed their hideout The two girls were gagged and dragged to another room where they were mercilessly beaten and tortured Their fathers in their testament to the Kuki Womenrsquos Forum said ldquoShockingly women were among the perpetratorsrdquo The two girls are dead their bodies lying in a government hospitalrsquos morgue A doctor there told a family member of one of the two girls that ldquomayberdquo they were rapedKim name changed 18 was abducted from Checkon in Imphal and ferreted away to a Meitei locality where a group of men and yes women battered her with rifle butts Her hair was snipped off to break her resistance to the menrsquos sexual advances The Meitei women did not intervene Kim courageously and miraculously escaped from her captors Her medical report confirmed she had been rapedBilkis Bano not only symbolises the vulnerability of women during spells of social chaos but also the resolve of the weak to secure justice The first step to justice requires an impartial investigation into the reports of rape discussed above As Tracy Mate of the Kuki Womenrsquos Forum says ldquoJustice is not served until the voices of rape victims are heard their pain acknowledged and their rights protectedrdquo For the Forumrsquos Daisy Mate Munluo though justice has quite another meaning ldquoAssociating with Meiteis only leads to our oppression For me justice means Kukis must have their separate administration Families of survivors deserve separation from their tormentorsrdquoGujaratrsquos Bilkis Bano suffered during the rule of the Bharatiya Janata Party which is the ruling party in Manipur where its Bilkis Bano and the families of those who did not survive the ordeal of rape struggle to find closure to their suffering It is for the readers to figure out whether the BJP factor common to the social breakdown in Gujarat and Manipur is merely a coincidenceThe writer is a senior journalistSend your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper