India’s Cardinal Gracias: Manipur violence is not religious conflict
July 31, 2023
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CWN Editor's Note: Cardinal Oswald Gracias of Mumbai has said that killings in the northeastern state of Manipur are not religious motivated—thereby contradicting statements from other Church leaders.
In a call for inter-religious harmony, Cardinal Gracias said that the violence in Manipur “have been given a religious twist, but this is not a religious conflict between two religions. It is a tribal conflict.”
Archbishop Joseph Pamplany of Tellicherry has described the bloodshed in Manipur as “ethnic cleansing of Christians.” Archbishop Dominic Lumn of Imphal, at the scene of the slaughter, also pointed to the religious dimension, and recalled other recent campaigns of violence by Hindus against Christians in India. But Cardinal Gracias said that the conflict simply involved “two tribes that have historically been very hostile to each other.”
“We must not now do anything what will worsen the situation,” the cardinal said.
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