Farzand Ahmed
When I rushed from flood-ravaged Bihar to cover the mayhem and destruction in Orissa's Kandhamal district last week, the history and geography of the region overwhelmed my thoughts.
I joined my colleague Maneesh Agnihotri, the youthful and inquisitive photographer, in the Bhubaneswar-bound Rajdhani Express at Gaya. He appeared a bit restless and excited. He wanted to know everything with the speed of Rajdhani about Bodhgaya, where Lord Buddha had attained enlightenment, about Magadha Empire, Emperor Ashoka and this region's links to Kalinga Valley that is just 48 kilometers off Phulbani, the headquarters of Kandhamal district engulfed by religious fanaticism and hatred following the slaying of a highly revered Hindu saint and VHP ideologue Swami Lakhshamanda Saraswati.
The war in 261BC to annex Kalinga, a tiny feudal estate, was all about Ashoka's ruthless expansionist design that led to the slaying of over 1, 00,000 people. At the end of the war that turned the river red with blood, the emperor was shaken and he embraced Buddhism and adopted Buddha's philosophy of ahimsa (non-violence). Distant past was linked to the present Kandhamal's gory tale.
Followers of Swami, having deep-rooted suspicion about Dalit-converts, had gone on rampage, indulging in senseless violence against the Christians and the churches, forcing 30,000 men, women and children to become refugees of their own neighbors' hatred. Officially 18 people had perished in the fire of hatred. The region otherwise, too, had been through tough periods in history: Mughals, Marathas and British forces had passed through the highways to Bengal and when invaders move they don't bring bouquets for the people.
History also says that the first conversion had begun in 1850s here. One missionary, Rev Goadby, had rescued thousands of young men and girls kept as Meria (for sacrifice) and brought them to an orphanage. The youth who were saved from being sacrificed embraced Christianity. Again during the great famine of 1866 all outcastes were denied food in the kitchens that were run for public. They became Christians. And in 1914 the first Middle English School was set up in G Udaigiri by OJ Millman.
'Love' is missing in the lush green jungles that cover most parts of the district. The borders were sealed and one police officer advised us not to enter the district at night. In the refugee camps people who had seen their houses torched, their relatives burnt alive by frenzied mob, pleaded they, the Christians, were innocent.
'Why should anyone of us gun down Swamiji? From where we would get weapons called AK-47?" But in the Ashram at Jalespatta, 120 kilometers from Phulbani, Swamiji's followers claimed Christians had killed him because he was against forced conversion, against beef-eating and against cow-slaughter.
Before moving into Kandhamal I met some seasoned, descent Bajrang Dal and BJP leaders like Suresh Pujari and Subhash Chauhan who, too, were angry and loudly thought that Christians were behind the slaying.
'Church through forced conversion of the innocent was causing demographic upheaval and since Swamiji was a forceful voice against this he was targeted'. Such a fear had led to the burning of Australian missionary Graham Stains and his sons in January 1999.
But what about the claims of the Maoists that they had finished 'this rabid communalist' who was persecuting the Dalit-converts and was responsible for destruction of over 400 churches? No one was ready to believe this.
Only eight months ago on Christmas Day the same area had witnessed a clash between Christians and 'Hindu nationalists'. On the other hand police was convinced that Maoists had a hand in the killing.
When I spoke to Special Secretary (Homes) Amrit Mohan Prasad he said Maoists have made their 'motive' clear and their 'modus operandi' confirmed it.
But no one was listening. People who know the development say Kandhamal has a Maoists arsenal. In January - a month after the Christmas Day attack - Maoist guerillas had raided and looted the police armory in Nayagarh (the Armed Police Training Center is located here) close to Kandhamal and dumped the looted weapons and explosives in the dense Gasma forest in Kandhamal.
The state government used AP's Greyhound, Special Operation Group and CRPF to launch a massive hunt but no one was arrested. Not a single weapon was recovered. If these weapons fell in the hands of the poor Dalits a new and deadly war against saffron brigade and the state would begin. Clearly the pear-shaped coastal state is slipping into a danger zone while the government is sleeping.
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