Manipur The Real India Lives On

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 Here is some news from India. I do keep track of the hypes, hoops, whoops and what not that goes on around that part of the world as well. Pakistan may be on the brink of another military coup.  Bangladesh is a one item on the menu economy - garment manufacturing.
India broke up in 1947 and saw the worst racial and religious strife. The situation has never really changed much. In India people can get casually lynched, raped and murdered in the street not by "criminal murderers" but just by mobs who happen to be standing by. 

About two years back a couple of Indians from the northeast (where the people look like Chinese or Myanmars) visited Delhi as tourists. They were promptly set upon by a mob and killed. The mob just did not like them. Maybe because they were wearing watches, wearing shoes or had mobile phones.  In another case a group of people from a higher caste attacked and injured a wedding party from a lower caste because the lower caste people had rented a car and cameraman to videotape the wedding. These things are still daily occurences in India. If you read the Indian media these types of stories happen everyday.

Since early this year, there has been some terrible racial and religious genocide going on in the northeast state of Manipur. Here are some past headlines: 



The "official" numbers say 140 people have been killed. But the snapshot headlines above already add up to about 50 killed. 
The fight is between the Kuki people who are indigenous to the area (and they are also majority Christian) and the Meiti people who are now beginning to outnumber the Kukis. The Meitis are Hindu. The fight started when the BJP party that rules Manipur state extended "bumiputra" rights to the hindu Meiti people - at par with the christian Kuki folks. The Hindu Meitis can buy land freely, get university quotas and get government jobs which were previously "reserved" for the Christian Kukis. The Kukis protested, the protests turned violent and 140 people have been killed so far (official numbers).

A few weeks back I received a shocking video that showed a young girl in Manipur (dressed just like any other young girl around the world - she was wearing a regular dress, sandals possibly carried a mobile phone etc) who was cornered by a group of other youngsters (boys and girls) who also looked and were dressed more or less like her. They beat her up quite mercilessly on the street, with motorists and people just going on by without stopping. Then they tied her wrists, made her kneel and one young fellow shot her a few times in the head with an expensive looking rifle (it had a magazine with multiple rounds). The girls skull just shattered into pieces. 
Somehow that video was not enough to rouse public outcry in India. Instead here is another video that has gone super viral in India. Two Kuki women (they were not murdered) but they were stripped naked by a mob, paraded in the street and gang raped by the mob.  This actually happened over two months ago but only now the video has gone viral.   



  
What can we learn from this?
1. Firstly watch the video. It is all young people. In other words these young people are obviously infused with terrible hatreds for human beings by their own parents. The older generation is behind these hatreds. The older generations keep the hatreds going. They pass on their sickness to the younger generation. 
2. This is the year 2023. The 21st century. The age of artificial intelligence, the Internet, 'woke' in the West, robots, electric vehicles and a really borderless world. Yet people can still behave like crazed barbarians from the Stone Age or some other lawless age.
3. There is no law and order in India. There may be written laws but they exist on paper, kept safely in thick law books. On the ground level the people have little or no appreciation for the law. The law does not play a role in their lives. 

4. Education is no guarantee of civilised behaviour. The German Nazis were among the most highly educated people in the world when they committed all their atrocities. But today's Germans have overcome that lapse (hopefully). Today Germany takes in millions of refugees from Africa and the Middle East. Feeds them, clothes them and then sees the refugees burn their cars and rape German girls. (Yes that is happening now).

5. Once again religion is the main culprit in India (like anywhere else). The human race  is diseased by this cancer called religion. We seriously need a cure for this cancer. The cure is yet more scientific education. More scientific progress. Wherever you see religion you see hatred and just stupidity.

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.
By Syed Akbar Ali 

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