Hindu Mobs Destroy 300 Churches as Indian Govt Fueling 'Serious Religious Persecution'
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Summary
India's north-eastern state of Manipur is making headlines. Some argue the northeast Indian state is in a state of civil war, with news of burnings and beheadings. Religious and ethnic clashes between the Hindu majority and the Christian minority over land and influence in the state has left at least 180 dead and over 500 injured.
Transcript
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India's north-eastern state of Manipur is making headlines.
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Outside the capital, armed guards protect Akuki village.
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They're volunteers who are on the lookout for Meite attackers.
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But the state, affectionately known as the Switzerland of India for its natural beauty
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and remoteness, looks more like a war zone today.
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Some argue the northeast Indian state is in a state of civil war, with news of burnings
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Religious and ethnic clashes between the Hindu-majority Métis community and the tribal Christian
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Kuki minority over land and influence in the state has left at least 180 people dead and
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And just imagine that if one, two, five, ten were destroyed.
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But we're talking about 300 churches destroyed.
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The European Parliament accuses India's Hindu-led BJP government and its Prime Minister Narendra
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Modi are fueling the violence by pursuing, quote, politically motivated, divisive policies
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Modi, whose party controls Manipur's state government, faced a no-confidence motion in
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Parliament last week for his silence on the escalating violence.
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The underlying issue here is that the central government, the BJP party led by Prime Minister
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He's been forced to make one comment, but even that was setting a context for why the
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violence was happening that ignored the violence against Christians.
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In Manipur's capital city, Hindu women creating roadblocks like this one to check cars for Christians.
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In May, a Hindu mob paraded naked two Christian women.
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Several videos on social media showed mobs also burning down churches.
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The perpetrators themselves are posting videos of mob attacks on churches.
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They're showing the churches being burned down.
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They literally show the police stepping aside to allow the mob to attack these Christian churches.
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As a result, Christians have lost complete trust in the Manipur police.
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This video showing dozens of Christian women kneeling, crying and begging Indian soldiers
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to stay in their village, fearful of more Hindu attacks.
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Fighting erupted in early May, when the state government extended land, jobs and other benefits
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typically reserved for the minority Christians to the Hindus.
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The decision led to some of the worst fighting between the two biggest tribes in the state.
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Human rights and religious freedom experts accused Modi's government of pushing a radical ideology
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that believes India is for Hindus only, despite its pluralistic and diverse society.
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This political movement is essentially saying India is your homeland, but it must also be your holy land.
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And it's putting a religious umbrella over everything that happens.
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And it's allowing them to force other minority faces out.
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The violence in Manipur has displaced more than 60,000 people internally.
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The New Delhi-based United Christian Forum says there have been more than 400 incidents against Christians
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in 22 other Indian states in the first six months of this year.
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India, with 1.4 billion people, is the world's largest democracy.
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However, Modi's critics argue democracy has been in retreat since he took power in 2014.