Mumbai: Activists and organisations came together in Mumbai to document the violence in the state of Manipur and released a book of fact checking reports compiled with interviews from different parts of Manipur. Individuals and activists from across the city joined to discuss the ‘Indian polity with the prism of Manipur’.
On Thursday, Bombay Catholic Sabha (BCS), Centre for Study of Society and Secularism (CSSS)and Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP) jointly organised the release of the book ‘A Compendium on the Continuing Manipur Conflict and Crisis', which is a collection of reports about the ethnic conflict in Manipur. This book comprises reports from the violence ridden Manipur, which was compiled by activist and educationist Dr. Syeda Hameed and advocate Clifton D' Rozario.
Four different teams from CSSS had visited Manipur over a period of time after the violence broke out last year and prepared reports about the causes and results of the conflict. These reports shed light on the state of women in the conflict, the root of ethnic clashes and the situation of victims belonging from all the three communities of Manipur. It also includes fact checking of misinformation that spread across the nation amid internet ban in the state.
Neha Dabhade, executive director of CSSS said, “The compendium has brought back the memory of our visits to Manipur and there has been no change after almost a year. The internet ban has done more disservice to Manipur than anything else as no credible information was coming out of the state. We look at Manipur as a litmus test of what is going to happen in India.”
At the book release event held at Mumbai Press Club, secretary of CJP Teesta Setalvad shared statistics of the devastation caused due to the violence which has engulfed the state since last year.
“In the last one year, there have been 170 deaths, over 200 villages burnt, 7,000 homes burnt, more than 360 churches burnt and 41,425 people displaced due to the violence. This violence is much like the Gujarat riots but the only difference is the arms that are being used in the violence. The state seems to be actually promoting the conflict,” she said.
Father Frazer Mascarenhas, activist and former principal of St. Xavier’s College, who also attended the book release, said, “There is a strong suspicion that all the violence was engineered with initiation from the state. Total culture of violence and unaccountability has taken over Manipur and now the violence is waiting to spread across the nation. The only time is now of the elections that we can take some steps against this violence.”
