Earlier this year a shocking video of two young women being paraded naked by a mob in India’s northeast state of Manipur surfaced online. One of them was still a teenager. At the end of the video the two are pushed into a field by the group of men. This is where they were allegedly sexually assaulted.
The incident was reported in May, at the peak of deadly ethnic clashes in Manipur, between members of the majority Meitei community and the Kuki-Zo. At least 152 people are reported to have died.1 The state saw widespread protest sparked by a government plan to give ‘scheduled tribe’ status to the Meitei, a largely Hindu group which makes up over 50 per cent of Manipur’s population. Kuki-Zo groups fear that this official status – which includes access to reserved government jobs, college places and elected seats – may give the already politically dominant Meitei an unfair advantage.
