![]() ![]() Only a thin land corridor, roughly 21km at its narrowest, links it with the rest of India. Most of its borders are international ones – with China, Bhutan, Myanmar and Bangladesh. Geographically, it is bounded by the Tibetan plateau and the eastern Himalayas to the north, the Patkai ranges of hills bordering Myanmar to the southeast, and the plains of Bangladesh to the south. This is despite India’s membership of both the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (with Russia, China and Iran, among others) and the Quad grouping (with the US, Japan and Australia).ĭelhi has long viewed the country’s northeast, where Manipur is located, as a troubled periphery. ![]() Western countries including the US have been wooing India, which they see as a vibrant market for their companies and a democratic counterweight to China and Russia. In July, Prime Minister Narendra Modi accepted President Emmanuel Macron’s invitation to visit Paris on Bastille Day ( 2). Sections of the Indian media reported that the Indian government had hired the services of the firm of Alber & Geiger, which describes itself as a ‘political lobbying powerhouse’, to assist with managing perceptions in Europe. It added that ‘accounts of partisan involvement by security forces in the killings have increased distrust in the authorities’ and urged the Indian authorities to ‘make the utmost effort to promptly halt the ongoing ethnic and religious violence, to protect all religious minorities, such as Manipur’s Christian community, and to pre-empt any further escalation’.Īrindam Bagchi, India’s ministry of external affairs spokesman, responded that ‘such interference in India’s internal affairs is unacceptable and reflects a colonial mindset.’ The EU adopted a resolution on 12 July, noting that intolerance towards ‘religious and belief minorities, including Christians, contributes to the violence’ and voicing ‘concerns about politically motivated, divisive policies promoting Hindu majoritarianism, and about an increase in activity by militant groups’. But in early May, that changed when violent clashes between the Meitei and Kuki ethnic communities in the state of Manipur caused at least 180 deaths, displaced 60,000, and destroyed more than 3,400 houses, over 250 churches and several temples and schools ( 1). Northeast India rarely makes headlines, even within India.
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