A GROUP OF women in India have set fire to the house of a man accused of parading two women naked in the northeastern state of Manipur where months of ethnic violence have left at least 120 dead.

A clip on Wednesday showed two women said to be from the Kuki tribal group walking naked along a street, being jeered at and harassed by a mob reportedly from the Meitei community.

The Chief Minister of Manipur has said that “strict action” will be taken against perpetrators of the incident, including the possibility of the death penalty. 

Violence erupted between the mainly Christian Kuki and the predominantly Hindu Meitei in May over job quotas and land rights, and intermittent clashes have continued since.

The footage of the event, which reportedly happened in May, triggered outrage across the country, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi saying it had “shamed India”.

Police arrested four suspects yesterday. The same day, a group of women activists threw stacks of hay into the house of one of the men in Imphal and set it on fire.

As the fire raged, the women — members of the Meitei community, like the accused — broke down the walls and roof of the house with sticks.

India is generally traditionalist, conservative and patriarchal, but the Meitei have a history of women’s activism, with women having a more prominent role in society than elsewhere.

The video sparked protests across India today with demonstrators calling for the state’s chief minister to step down over the delay in taking action.

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi said yesterday that the country has been “shamed” by the video.

Speaking publically about the Manipur clashes for the first time since they erupted in May, Modi said his “heart is filled with pain and anger”.

“The Manipur incident is shameful for any civilised society,” Modi told reporters. “It has shamed the whole nation.”

India’s Supreme Court warned Modi’s government yesterday that if it does not act, “we will”.

Authorities in Manipur, led by the ruling Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), said police had taken action as soon as the video surfaced on social media.

A “thorough investigation” was under way, the state’s chief minister N. Biren Singh tweeted yesterday.

“We will ensure strict action is taken against all the perpetrators, including considering the possibility of capital punishment,” he added.

The Manipur violence came after the Kuki community protested Meitei demands for reserved public job quotas and college admissions as a form of affirmative action, stoking long-held fears that they might also be allowed to acquire land in areas currently reserved for tribal groups.

Homes and churches were torched, with tens of thousands of people fleeing to government-run camps.

D. Y. Chandrachud, chief justice of India’s Supreme Court, said the abuse of the women seen in the video was “simply unacceptable”.

Legal newsite Bar and Bench quoted Chandrachud as saying that if the government “does not act, we will”.

© Agence France-Presse