Drawing on the ‘Continuum’ and the ‘Spectacular’: A Study of Conflict-related Sexual Violence in Manipur

Abstract

In this article, I use the concepts of ‘continuum’ and ‘spectacular’ to represent two distinct ways of understanding gender violence in Manipur. While ‘spectacular’ acts of violence are the subject of mainstream discourses, I propose a framework to understand conflict-induced sexual violence alongside persistent structures that make them possible. I ask: How is feminism ‘defined’/‘redefined’ in everyday and during spectacular violence? How do we understand the interconnectedness of ‘sexual violence’ with women’s position? Women’s collectives, constrained by ethnonationalism, exhibit selective outrage to gendered violence, limiting intersectional politics. They become the site for asserting ethnic differences, and thus, for retribution, expulsion and disciplining the other. Customary laws curtail women’s sexuality, marking community ownership over women’s bodies. Kuki-Zo women participated as ‘frontline protestors’ seeking justice for victims of ‘sexual violence’ while questioning customary norms and patriarchal–political structures which limit women’s inclusion in leadership, silence victims and politicise such violence.