On 15 July 2004, 12 Manipuri women stripped naked in front of the iconic Kangla Fort in Manipur's capital Imphal and held a banner that read, 'Indian Army Rape Us'.
These women were protesting against the brutal rape and murder of a 32-year-old woman, allegedly by the 17th Assam Rifles.
The images from the 2004 nude protest by 'Mothers of Manipur' or 'Meira Paibi' (women torchbearers) forced the Assam Rifles to vacate the historic Kangla Fort. Even the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) was lifted from seven Assembly segments in Imphal on 12 August 2004.
Cut to almost 20 years later when the state is again in turmoil, and women have again become the mainstay of protests that has been raging on since 6 May between the Meiteis, who are the majority of the population, and the Kukis.
But then women taking the lead is not something entirely new to the state. So how have women over the years been a face of defiance and protest? And what exactly has been their role in the present violence? The Quint explains.
The iconic image of 12 women protesting in Manipur in 2004.
(Photo Courtesy: Twitter)
How Women are Challenging Security Forces?
On 6 May some Kuki women in Churachandpur took it upon themselves to protect the majority Meiteis from mobs while boarding army trucks. According to The Economic Times, they formed a human chain around the Meiteis when they were being evacuated from the area.
On 18 June, as per news agency PTI, hudreds of Meitei women with fire torches formed human chains on the streets of Imphal West, Imphal East, Thoubal and Kakching districts to condemn the violence in the state.
And on 30 June, as word got around that Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh might tender his resignation, women supporters gathered at Nupi Lal Complex, some 100 metres from the CM's secretariat and Raj Bhavan, and urged him not to do so.
Then in an act that was caught on camera, some of them proceeded to tear Singh's resignation letter. The incident firmly entrenched the narrative of women being the face of protests and defiance in the violence-torn state.
On 25 June, security forces conducted an operation to nab 12 members of the Manipur-based Meitei separatist group Kanglei Yawol Kanna Lup (KYKL) only to hand the men back to local leaders after a mob of 1,200-1,500 led by women said they would not allow anyone to take them away, according to information shared by the official Twitter account of the Spear Corps, Indian Army.
Then on 26 June, the Spear Corps' Twitter account claimed that women protesters in Manipur have been accompanying and abetting “armed rioters” and interfering in the operations of security forces in the state.
Additionally, the Spear Corps claimed that it was not only “unlawful but also detrimental to their efforts towards restoring law and order”.
The Spear Corps of the Indian Army posted a video showing several incidents of women activists “deliberately” interfering in the operations of the security forces, ranging from “blocking” their route to “accompanying armed rioters”.
Women protesters from both Kuki and Meitei groups have blocked roads in several parts, disrupting delivery of essential items, vehicular movement and combing operations, according to Hindustan Times.
Security officials, who spoke to the newspaper on condition of anonymity, said that while Kuki women groups have blocked parts of National Highway 2, most Meitei groups have blocked the entry points to south Manipur, and especially parts of Chandel, Churachandpur, and Tengnoupal.
The road blockades, officials said, are leading to hoarding and artificial scarcity.
Professor Bhagat Oinam, chairperson, Special Centre for the Study of North East India, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), explained that the Meitei women protestors are blocking roads and stopping forces for two reasons. First, they see Meitei insurgent groups as the ones who will protect them from Kuki extremists. Second, they are of the opinion that forces are not conducting enough combing operations in the Kuki-dominated areas.
Ngaineikim, president of the Kuki Women Organisation for Human Rights, however, has denied that Kuki women groups are protesting. "Rather, they are conducting dharnas and are gathering to offer condolences to the people who died in the clashes," Ngaineikim told The Quint.
Manorama Thockhom, who hails from Imphal, is from the Meitei community and took part in a protest to condemn the violence in the state last month in Imphal East. She dismissed the Indian army's claims that Meitei women groups have been helping Meitei armed rebels escape.
"The army has not always shared a cordial relationship with our people and has a history of staged encounters. The 2004 case of the 32-year-old woman being raped and killed is one such instance. There is a collective loss of trust in them, " she told The Quint.
A Meitei police officer told Hindustan Times that most Meitei women groups feel that Kuki groups are shielding armed rebels.
Kukis, however, feel differently. A member of the Kuki community told the newspaper that the Meiteis are the dominant community in Manipur and hence control the bulk of the state machinery "which leaves us in a heavily disadvantaged position in any case."
Women At the Forefront of Leading Campaigns
Though Manipuri society is not a matrilineal one, women in the state have been at the forefront of leading campaigns on political or social issues.
In Meitei society, women have always held a central place. The most significant and historically important role played by women in Manipur was during the two Nupi Lan (Women’s Wars) of 1904 and 1939.
The First Nupi Lan was a revolt led by women in the Imphal West district of Manipur and was a result of a system put in place by Lt Col Henry St Patrick Maxwell, the British agent of Manipur, in July 1904, which required men to perform 10 days of free labour after every 30 days (called the Lallup system).
Thousands of women marched to Maxwell’s official residence protesting against the Lallup system. The Britishers had to rescind it. This whole event is known as the first Nupi Lan (women's war).
The second Nupi Lan took place in 1939 and was against the export of rice in large quantities outside Manipur which led to local shortages and affected the local economy.
On 12 December 1939, thousands of women marched to the royal durbar office in Imphal and demanded a ban on rice exports.
The Maharaja ultimately relented the next day and sent a message to put a stop to the export of rice.
The Nisha Bandhi Women and Meira Paibis
"Women are seen as a strong collective that can lead movements. Local-level mahila samitis (women organisations) are common in Manipur and women collectively raise their voice for a lot of things," said Manipur-based journalist Ninglun Hanghal.
In the '70s, the Nisha Bandhi women's movement -- against alcoholism -- took form. As Sophia Arambam, an assistant professor at Manipur University, in her paper Women's Empowerment in Manipur highlighted, "The Nisha Bandhi women's movement developed in the late '70s in the aftermath of increasing phenomenon of alcoholism and its adverse effects on society in the years after attaining statehood on 21 January 1972."
The actions of the Nisha Bandhi movement led to the introduction of prohibition laws in the state.
The Nisha Bandhi movement, as Arambam, noted "was later transformed into the Meira Paibi movement in response to the changing socio-political and economic situation of the state".
"When conflict intensified in Manipur in the '80s and the '90s with the fight between the state forces and the underground insurgent groups, the state forces captured, arrested and subsequently tortured and even killed men picked up from their residences. At this juncture, women rose up transforming from the earlier collective Nisha Bandhi Movement to the Meira Paibi (women with torches) movement," Arambam noted.
The catalyst for the movement was the actions carried out by the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) in April 1980 in Langjing near Imphal West. In retaliation to an attack by insurgents, CRPF personnel went on a rampage, torturing villagers and even raping and killing women.
Protests were organised by women against such violations but they hardly had any effect. So, women started patrolling the streets at night with flaming torches in their hands to guard their neighbourhoods against any surprise search operations by the security forces.
Every colony now in Imphal City has a group of Meira Paibi. So does every Meitei village.
The Meira Paibi women were the active support base of Irom Chanu Sharmila, the activist who was on a 16-year-long hunger strike to protest against the AFSPA.
“Meira Paibi are like the Resident Welfare Associations in the cities. They are everywhere and step up whenever the community wants their voices to be heard. Meira Paibi are very influential because they are there in almost every village... ,” a former journalist who is also a representative of a Civil Society Organisation, told Hindustan Times.
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