"They burnt our cars. I ran with my old mom and sister who has down syndrome"

Sometime in the late 50s, when inter-community marriages were almost unheard of in Manipur, one young man stood out for daring to marry the love of his life. Vungkham Hangzo married Madhumati khwairakpam, a mild-mannered Meitei whom he met at work in Bishenpur PHC. The endogamous Zomi Paite group strongly disapproved of one of their members marrying outside the community and so for a while Hangzo and his wife were treated as outcasts. Eventually, of course, the two families reconciled to the idea and the couple went on to have ten children. Perhaps, following in late Vungkham’s footsteps, his eldest and youngest sons married Meiteis. In a sprawling compound in Imphal’s Paite Veng, Kwakeithel, stands late Vungkhan’s home – there are four bungalows where his children live with their respective families. The first of these bungalows stands on Teddim Road, off the national highway that connects Manipur with Myanmar.

On the evening of May 3, this house was the second to be attacked by frenzied mobs that swarmed in like locusts. Manchin, Vungkham’s eldest daughter, was busy winding up her day, secure in the cozy confines of her home. This, after all, had  always been “home”. She didn’t know of any other. “My mother is a Meitei and two of my sisters-in-law are Meiteis so even when I reflect on what happened on that day, I just don’t understand why we were attacked. I am hurt beyond words,” says a sobbing Manchin. “I had no reason to believe I was ever unsafe. Why would I,” says Manchin still traumatized after she and her family had to flee from their house in the dark of the night.

The mob first threw stones that shattered the window panes one by one. Then, as if to terrorize the family that had huddled together in one room, they started hurling threats and insults.  The raging mob pushed one of the five cars parked in the family compound on to Teddim Road and set it on fire. When the stoning stopped, Manchin - carrying her mother who could barely walk and holding her younger sister who has Down Syndrome and unwell by her hand -  used her backyard to flee to her neighbour’s house. This  house was also eventually sacked and burned. Manchin’s brothers, sisters-in-law, nephews and their minor children managed to flee as well leaving behind all that they owned. After hiding in various parts of the colony in the dark, the family was finally rescued and taken to a relief camp in the heart of Imphal.

It’s now been over a month but the shock and pain is still raw. Manchin says she recognised two of the men who came to torch her house. “One was someone who owns a hardware store on Teddim Road right outside my house. The other was someone who sells pre-owned garments, also on Teddim Road,” she says. So the shock  that Manchin  feels is not just from the violence and destruction that she had to witness, but also the blind hatred that she saw in the eyes of people she had known for a long time and lived alongside.

Her father was very broadminded and ahead of his times. The family had always enjoyed all the festivals that her Meitei mother had celebrated. “We always took part in every festivals of the Meiteis. Our relatives from my mother’s side would come and give us treats during special occasions and we would reciprocate.” Her youngest brother, who died few years ago, was married to a Meitei, Renu Takhellebam. But none of that helped when Manchin and her family were attacked. Even the fact that her eldest brother’s wife Romabati Heikrujam (Hangzo) is a Meitei, didn’t guarantee their safety. “I am shocked. I am pained. This is an attack on my personhood. It is humiliating. It is unacceptable,” she says. 

Manchin had a busy and productive life in Imphal, where she spent over three decades in the developmental sector. She had just completed a three-year stint as Member of the Scheduled Tribe Commission prior to being appointed as the acting chair for the same. “I had a busy schedule being consulted on issues relating to the tribes or attending official functions as a chief guest,” says Manchin.

Also Read: "I cried as we saw our homes getting burnt. Where do I go now?"

Now going back to Imphal is no longer an option. “We trusted our neighbours, but they let us down. If they can do this to us unashamedly, they are capable of repeating this. We cannot go back. We will never feel secure again,” she says.

Like Manchin, her mother has been inconsolable about losing her home. “My mother said she wants to be home and die there. We long to go home, to its comfort, its warmth, the little corners that are very personal and intimate. But this is about our safety. We no longer will feel safe there.”

As her family’s mainstay, Manchin now needs to think ahead. She has to re-establish herself in a new place all over again. She will need to leverage all her experience and connections to start earning a living and building a new life. She knows this is a tough proposition. But she hasn’t given up. “We will rise from the ashes like the phoenix.”

(Next series will be a Meitei victim)