TinderBox of HATRED

With Hindutva forces unleashing organised violence, the tribal regions of Orissa are ready to explode

Bibhuti Pati Kandhamal

After the latest round of violence, Kandhamal district, with its mix of tribal, Dalit, Hindu, Christian, rich and poor communities, stands on a volcanic threshold that can explode anytime yet again. Despite the Centre's ‘advisory' to the BJD-BJP-led government and Supreme Court's strict directions, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik seems unconcerned, even while attacks on Christians increase by the day. The social and religious divides have sharpened while thousands have been rendered homeless and without hope or sustenance. There seems to be a bigger political conspiracy behind this organised and violent campaign.

Meanwhile, the land lies ravaged. "Kandhamal is a tribal dominated district with more than 60 per cent of the population depending solely on forest produce. Valuable forests have been depleted. Streams are polluted. The availability of minor forest produces are on the decline," said Himanshu Satpathy, a retired forest ranger.

In the first phase of attacks, which continues, victims of the violence spent their nights in dense jungles. For them, mobs baying for blood, inspired by the RSS-VHP-Bajrang Dal, are more dangerous than wild animals. "We start going into the forests around 4 pm every day and return in the morning. We have forgotten how to sleep and are surviving on whatever food is available," said Ramesh Digal of Kasinipadar village. Their experience is not new.

Eight months ago, a similar communal eruption had thrown life out of gear in this backward region, "At that time, we had to spend the wintry nights in the open. The only good thing this time is that nights are not chilly," Ramesh added. That is hardly a consolation, with the violence already accounting for several lives, demolishing dozens of village churches, three temples and hundreds of dwellings.

The administration's fake measures notwithstanding, it is people like John Digal and George Digal of Dimiriguda village, Laxmidhar Nayak, a gram panchayat extension officer at Phiringia, Laba Digal of Kasinipadar and Pratap Nayak of Kekringia village and hundreds of others for whom return of peace cannot restore normalcy. John and George's pucca houses have become unlivable; Laxmidhar's savings to marry two of his four daughters have turned into ashes; Laba has lost his house, bicycle shop and chicken farm, and Pratap's dwelling has been gutted.

Villagers at Phiringia in Kandhamal are yet to come to terms with the killing of Gayadhar Digal. Why him? A villager whispered, "He practiced Christianity for sometime. But of late, he was back in the Hindu fold. Maybe those in the mob, who we believe were from nearby areas, did not know that." "The situation in Kandhamal is such that Christians have started claiming to be Hindus to escape the frenzy. It is difficult to ascertain the religious affiliation of many people. Besides, even after embracing Christianity, many chose to continue as Hindus in official records to get SC or ST benefits," said a police inspector.       

"I am a Dalit Hindu but the Kandh tribals destroyed my house because I was doing well in business," said Laba Digal of Kasinipadar. Angry mobs ransacked the house of Kusa and Lalu Digal at the same village, even though they say they were temple-goers. There seems to be a lot of confusion over religious identity. In Kandhamal, one has to wear one's religion on one's sleeves. Kailash
Mandhata said, "The main theme of the violence was conversion and reconversion. Call it induced conversion or freedom of religion - the fact remains that the Christian population has seen an upsurge. The origin of the violence lies in poor socio-economic parameters."

Since Pana Christians speak the Kui language like tribal Kandhs, they demand ST status since various affirmative action facilities that STs get are not available to converts. Most are landless marginal farmers and over 80 per cent live below the poverty line. Abdication of responsibility by the government in providing education and health care, basic subsistence and employment, even while Christian missionaries did sustained philanthropic work in difficult and remote interiors, propelled the Hindutva fanatics to react. However, Laxmanananda Saraswati's death was totally preventable. He had been attacked as early as 1971, then in 1995 and more recently in 2007.

As a large number of villages in Kandhamal district wear a deserted look, violence has shifted to the jungles. With scattered reports of bodies found in different areas, including inside forests, the number of dead could be much higher than the official toll of 13. Said a senior police officer, "The number could well cross 45."

Police are clueless about the killers of Saraswati and four of his associates. The government maintains that the attack on the Jalespeta Ashram was the handiwork of Maoists; but the BJP-RSS-VHP refuses to buy its own government's version. Neither do the police.

BJP and its Hindutva fronts have blamed "Christian militants" who "were intolerant of the Swami's relentless battle against conversion and his years of efforts to educate poor tribals".  Sources say even the police is baffled over the manner in which the attack took place and the weapons used. The post-mortem report says the Swami was riddled with bullets from AK-47 assault rifles and 9mm pistols. "The attacking team had more than 40 people, all young. They had about four AK-47s, and some carried countrymade guns," said a senior officer of the Crime Branch. "It was not a spur-of-the-moment hit. They came fully prepared."

The government seized on the AK-47 bullets to point a finger at the Maoists for whom Kandhamal is an emerging hotbed. The Maoists use the dense forests and hilly, uninviting terrain to hold training camps and recruit locals. Even in the massive Nayagarh attack in February, in which truckloads of arms from police were looted and 15 people were murdered, the Maoists had used Kandhamal as their base before launching the offensive, sources say.

The police top brass is not willing to believe the government's theory. "Any killing by Maoists is decided by its 39-member central committee and they normally issue statements, taking the high moral ground to justify their action. Saraswati was not a class enemy for them - a terminology they often use against oppressors and exploiters. The Swami had spent his entire life educating tribals and fighting against conversion," the officer said.

"We are certain that it was not the Naxalites," said crime branch police inspector MB Dash, who was earlier posted in Maoist-affected Deogarh district. "It does not fit their modus operandi. For starters, Maoists supported the Swamiji's activities till recently. They hailed him as pro-poor and a messiah of the down-trodden. Why would they suddenly turn against him?"

The attack did not appear as a typical Maoist operation. The Maoists normally don't kill ordinary civilians. There were no Maoists slogans after the operation and no propaganda leaflets were left at the scene. Did they loan their weapons to some other splinter group? However, the Maoists owned the killings later, accusing the Swami of relentlessly and violently attacking Christians in the past.

For many in riot-torn Kandhamal district, tragedy has struck twice in eight months. Hundreds of people in this district had started their lives from scratch after last December's communal frenzy. Now, it has happened again.

"I had begun picking up the threads of my life, but as fate would have it, the mobs did not spare me once again", said Annapurna Digal of Barakhama village. After suffering serious losses, many villagers had shown exemplary resilience, and with support from the administration and other quarters, had taken the road to resurrection. But violent groups seeking "revenge" for the assassination of Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati have forced them down the road to despair once again.

Gopabandhu Behera of Nandini village said, "I don't think my family will ever recover. Last time I was a victim, but the administration refused to give me any assistance. I was somehow attempting to recover from the damages. But once again I have fallen prey. I can never revive." Behera, is now at a relief camp in Bhubaneswar.

In December, around 650 houses and over two dozen religious institutions were fully or partly damaged when Hindutva fanatics went berserk during Christmas, following an attack on Saraswati at Dasingbadi village. This time, the massacre proved to be the trigger. And the magnitude of the violence has been high. At last count in the third week of September, the number of houses damaged stood at 2,797 while the number of churches/prayer halls affected was 124, officials said.

The worst hit seem to be those who have got a "double dose" of communal medication in no less than eight months. "Where and why will we go?" said Braja Digal, when asked whether he wanted to return to his village. Along with 400 others, he has moved out of his home district to a relief camp in Bhubaneswar.

Motilal Pradhan, who serves in the armed forces and whose disabled younger brother Rasananda was killed at Roopagaon in Chakapada, said, "How can we think of staying in our villages when the government has failed to give us protection?" Motilal was posted on the Suleiman border in Punjab when he got news about the happenings back home. "I rushed even before my leave application was processed. If my family is not safe, how can I serve on the border?" he asked.

How long can a relief camp sustain them? "If we are driven out of here, we will fend for ourselves. We will work or beg. But without proper security, we cannot return," said Jubati Digal of Roopagaon, where 30 house were torched on August 27. "The only way out is to embrace Hinduism, something that we will not do," she added.

Like most other tribal-dominated districts, this scenic southern Orissa district of Kandhamal grapples with acute poverty, deprivation, illiteracy and malnutrition. But what is most perturbing is the ever increasing ethnic and communal schism that has turned it into a tinderbox. Political one-
upmanship and the entry of Maoists have only complicated matters.

Simmering for long, the communal violence - both in August this year and December last year - hardly took anybody by surprise. At its genesis lies the divide between the tribal Kandhs and the Scheduled Caste community of Dalit Panas. What was more a competition for economic resources, especially land, between them over a century ago, has with time assumed religious dimensions, thanks to Christian missionaries and Hindutva fronts. Over the years, a large number of Panas have embraced Christianity, while a significant mass of Kandhs have entered the Hindu fold. And taking advantage of this religious polarisation, the missionaries and the Sangh Parivar have in the last few decades been playing, overtly and covertly, the politics of proselytisation and ‘ghar wapasi' - homecoming of the tribals (Hindu reconversion).

While Kandhamal, (formerly Phulbani district) has been split along ethnic lines since decades, the problem took a turn for the worse in the early 1990s. "The Scheduled Tribe central list was amended with the enlistment of at least three more groups, Kul, Kuvl, Kuee, as ST in addition to the original Kandhs," pointed out a researcher. "A lot of Panas also speak the Kuee language and they too started demanding ST status." This was not acceptable to the Kandhs, who apprehended that the Panas would corner all benefits. Kandhs have for long been accusing the Panas of fraudulently taking away their land and exploiting them.

Matters became ugly when delimitation of constituencies changed Khandamal Assembly seat's reserved status from SC to ST. And the Panas resumed their demand for the tribal tag, which would ensure quota facilities even if they change religion. This provided vested interest groups with the perfect ammunition to ignite a communal fire.

The stakes for both hardline Christians and Hindus constitute a big chunk of population in Kandhamal. At least a quarter of the 6.5 lakh population in the district are Christian, forcing missionaries to work overtime to protect "their interests". Hindutva supporters see Kandhamal as a major centre for the "homecoming of tribals". As a result, there is constant conflict and conversion and reconversion, with the administration choosing to remain blissfully unconcerned.

"The aggressive drive for illegal conversion by Christian missionaries is the root cause of all tension in Kandhamal. Voluntary change of faith in compliance with provisions of the Orissa Freedom of Religion Act, 1867, is not objectionable. But change of faith through fraud, inducement, threat and allurement cannot be tolerated," alleged state VHP general secretary GP Rath.

President, All India Christian Council, Orissa Chapter, Rev PR Paricha, repudiated the charges: "The Sangh Parivar has an agenda to establish a Hindu nation, hence making baseless allegations. Do they have a single proof of any conversion through allurement? Preachings of the Gospel are done in tune with the Constitution. Nobody can deny that missionary institutions have done a lot
of good in Kandhamal. I fail to understand why they are so afraid of Christians, who comprise a
tiny minority."

The advent of the Maoists, as evidenced from the attack on Brahmanigaon police station at the height of communal violence last December, is a significant factor in the region. The Hindutva brigade accuses "Christian militants" of roping in the ultras, something the latter vehemently deny. However, the state government's claim that Red rebels killed the swami has indicated that the Maoists might have taken a liking to fuel the religious feud.

When the communal flare-up started in Brahmanigaon in Daringbadi block in December 2007, the fire spread to Barakhama. This time, too, when religious passions shot up in the aftermath of the swami's assassination at Jalespeta on August 23, immediate tremors were felt at Barakhama. In the ensuing violence, deaths followed.

Barakhama is perhaps among the few places in this region where the ongoing tussle between Hindu and Christian communities is not one-sided, like most parts of the tribal-dominated district where the Christians have been attacked violently and brutally en masse by the RSS-VHP-Bajrang Dal forces backed by the BJP high command in Bhubaneswar.

From a few dozen worshippers some decades back, today, around 370 of the 750 families are Christian. There are at least seven churches and 25 pastors. And this is something the local Hindutva brigade has not taken kindly to.

"We are being attacked for no fault of ours. The Hindus are jealous of our improved socio-economic condition. Hence, they threaten us and want us to go away," Kamal Digal, a singer, said. "Earlier Kandhs were kings and Panas their subjects. The situation has now reversed. "We were Hindus, but converted to Christianity because we were discriminated against in the caste system," said Ashok Digal, a tailor, whose father Biswanath continues to be a Hindu.

The Hindus have their version. "Panas always cheat us. Most of them get pecuniary support from missionaries and, in the process, wield economic clout. They have taken away our land through deceit," contended Sushant Sahu.

Incidentally, it was a 30 acre patch of tribal land allegedly encroached by three dozen Pana households that provoked the clashes last Christmas. "We have moved out of the land," informed Thadias Digal, a pastor, "They continue to blame us. We are scared because Barakhama is surrounded on all sides by Hindu-dominated areas. On August 26, they encircled us and went on a rampage," he said.