Economic and Political Weekly, Vol - XLIX No. 35, August 30, 2014
Editorial
Indulging the Hate-mongers
The victims of the anti-Christian Kandhamal riots still await justice and rehabilitation.
The kind of communal violence that rocked Kandhamal in Odisha in August 2008 rarely takes place without a long build-up. This was done by right-wing organisations and forces that used their own brand of nationalism as a facade to demonise the Christians and Christian missionaries and took advantage of the historical divide between the dalit Panas and the adivasi Kandhas. The Naveen Patnaik-led government then had the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as its coalition partner and turned a blind eye to the trouble that was brewing. Since then till date, justice has bypassed the victims of the riots; an unremarkable fact even if it is now something to be expected in every instance of organised killing and violence against the weak and the vulnerable. It was in this context that adivasi and human rights organisations as well as Christian groups observed 25 August as Kandhamal Day nationwide, drawing attention to the plight of those displaced by the riots, inadequate rehabilitative measures and the tardy pace of the legal process.
A similar build-up is now taking place in the Bastar region of Chhattisgarh, where three gram panchayats passed a resolution in June this year “banning” the entry of Christians (the local media says 50 villages have passed such a resolution). That these gram panchayats feel emboldened to pass such “official” resolutions is indicative of how conducive the atmosphere is to unleashing hate campaigns and demonising a minuscule religious minority.
Like most other tribal areas, Kandhamal was (and continues to be) an impoverished area receiving scant attention from the government. Vested interests have for long tried to deepen the historical differences between the Kandhas and the Panas. The Hindutva organisations, led by Vishva Hindu Parishad leader Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati, started a series of welfare programmes and began “reconverting” the tribals, thus “Hinduising” an inherently tribal culture that was neither Christian nor Hindu to begin with. As those who have studied the trends in the area have observed, this is a site of competing religiosity that uses welfare, education and health services to push definite agendas. The violent expression of the simmering communal hostility against the Christians began in December 2007. It was the murder of Swami Laxmanananda in 2008 that led to the brutal attacks against the Christians resulting in the rape of a nun, arson against nearly 300 Christian places of worship, displacement of around 54,000 people and an estimated 100 deaths (the state government puts the figure at 38). By all accounts, the Christians bore the brunt of the brutal violence and continue to live in fear and insecurity. The third element in this mix are the Maoists who publicly admitted to killing Laxmanananda. However, the Hindutva forces and media sympathetic to them insist that there is a church-Maoist nexus and seek to justify the violence against Christians thus.
Against this background, the role of the state and the opposition parties does not stand up to scrutiny. Implementation of the poverty alleviation programmes has been tardy and the government failed to address one of the main areas of conflict: land rights. Preservation of adivasi language and culture is a far cry in such circumstances. Breaking the Shackled Silence: Unheard Voices of Women from Kandhamal by Saumya Uma painstakingly points to the unfinished tasks of the state government. Its responsibilities towards the women victim-survivors of the violence have been neglected.
Meanwhile, the public discourse (what little there is) on the Kandhamal communal frenzy continues to centre on the “conversion” by Christian missionaries and the foreign funding they receive while remaining silent on the “reconversion” activities of the Hindutva organisations and the funding they get. In the long run, the focus must be on the protection of adivasi culture and languages. In the short term, however, the state government must ensure that the cases filed for the 2007 violence (only a small number of charge sheets have been filed) are backed by strong police investigation. The police in Kandhamal have been quoted by the media as saying that since the Christians are frightened to depose they have no choice but to close many of the cases. The irony of their statement does not strike them. More importantly, the government must not use ethnic divides to hide the vicious and deliberate communal polarisation being pushed by Hindutva forces. It must also ensure that rehabilitation measures are stepped up. The district administration in Bastar where the gram panchayats have announced a boycott of Christians has attempted to set up peace committees. This is hardly the kind of response that is expected from the state over an infringement of constitutional and human rights. If a Kandhamal is not to be repeated in Bastar, the Government of Chhattisgarh too must deal with communal mobilisation with decisive authority.
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