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By Angana Chatterji
December 25 2007: Seven churches, Catholic, Protestant, Pentacostal, Independent ... burned in Barakhama village, Kandhamal district, central Orissa.
December 23, 2007: Hindutva (Hindu supremacist ideology) affiliated Adivasi (tribal) organisations organised a march, rallying, "Stop Christianity. Kill Christians."
A Dalit (formerly "untouchable" groups) Christian leader testified, "We went to the local police and informed them of the situation. They assured us that things would be under control. On December 24, in the daytime, we heard voices of Bajrang Dal, Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), Shiv Sena people, chanting, ‘Hindu, Hindu, Bhai, Bhai’; ‘RSS Zindabad’; ‘Lakshmanananda Zindabad.’ They shut down shops. That night they felled trees to block roads, severed power and phone lines. On the 25th, we went to the inspector-in-charge of police again. On the 25th, at 2.30, about 200 of us sat down to Christmas prayer at our church, and around 4 p.m. we heard the mob approach."
The mob, about 4,000 persons, many bearing symbolic tilaks (religious mark on forehead), belonged to various Sangh Parivar (Hindu nationalist, militant) groups, named above, inciting local Hindus into rioting. Estimates state 20 per cent of the mob comprised people from Barkahama, 80 per cent from surrounding Baliguda, Raikia, Phulbani, as far away as Beherampur. "They broke the door to our church. We ran. We fell and kept running." Women and men were intimidated and assaulted. Cries rent the air. "Christians must become Hindu or die. Kill them. Kill them. Kill them. Gita not Bible. Destroy their faith."
The crowd carried rods, trishuls, swords. They used guns, a first in Orissa. Predominantly middle class caste Hindus participated in looting, destroying and torching property. Handmade bombs started the fires. Breakage was systematic. Women and men hid for days in forests, later seeking shelter in Baliguda town relief camp, returning to decimated Barakhama on January 2. Engulfed in soot and sorrow, people attempted to function amid charred remnants. A woman said, "Everything burns down and we are left with nothing. How little our lives are made (of). How alone we are, so far away from everything."
In Baliguda, in one church, furniture was dragged out, lit into a grotesque sculpture. The private violated in public, made spectacle. A Catholic church burnt, opposite the street the fire station witnessed the incident, but did not intervene. A cow, dragged from a shed, set afire, was beaten to death, identified as "Christian."
Targeted: Bammunigaon, Bodagan, Daringbari, Goborkutty, Jhinjirguda, Kamapada, Kulpakia, Mandipanka, Nuagaon, Phulbani, Pobingia, Sindrigaon, Ulipadaro villages. Convents, presbytery, hostels, a minor seminary, vocational training centre. Organisational offices, as that of World Vision. Two churches in Chakapad. Christian religious services were not permitted in Phulbani. A Hindutva mob surrounded Tikabali police station, two jeeps were torched.
Independent investigators charge that the violence was planned, that the police had prior knowledge of Hindutva groups’ intent to riot. The pertinent district collector and superintendent of police have been transferred, not discharged. A Judicial Review Commission (JRC) chaired by a former (not sitting) judge has been appointed by the government of Orissa to investigate the riots. Its power or legitimacy is in question. The Central government did not appoint an inquiry by the Central Bureau of Investigation, even as it is apparent that the very administration that failed to contain the riots and delayed deploying adequate forces, and whose officials at the district level may have been involved in its execution, cannot administer justice.
Hindutva activists have lobbied the JRC to organise its terms of reference premised on the claim that an attack on Lakshmanananda Saraswati, a Hindu proselytiser, by Christians in Bammunigaon started the riots. This timeline is falsified.
Sources state Hindutva groups planned Christmas day strikes, organised vandalism of Christmas symbols, and incited rioting. Christians in one area responded with reciprocal, not proportionate, violence. Dominant rationale reduces this to majority vs minority communalism.
Rather than focus on systematic targeting of Christians, their overwhelmingly peaceful submission to Hindutva’s violence, and vast structural injustices and differences in relations of power between majority and minority, the scrutiny appears to be focused on the failure of all Christian groups to simply submit to dominance.
The Kandhamal riots were not unexpected. Saraswati has been overseeing Hinduisation there since 1969. Adivasis, Dalits, Christians, Muslims are targeted through social and economic boycotts, forced conversions to Hinduism, and other violences. The Orissa Prevention of Cow Slaughter Act, 1960, deployed against Muslims; Orissa Freedom of Religion Act, 1967, against Christians. In 1999, Mayurbhanj Catholic priest Arul Das was murdered, followed by destruction of Kandhamal churches. In 2004, Raikia Catholic Church was vandalised, eight Christian homes burnt. In 2005, converting 200 Adivasi Christians to Hinduism in Malkangiri, Saraswati stated, "How will we ... make India a completely Hindu country? This is our aim and this is what we want to do." In 2006, celebrating RSS architect Madhav Sadashiv Golwalkar’s centenary, presided by Saraswati, seven yagnas (sacrifices) were held, culminating at Chakapad in Kandhamal, attended by 30,000 Adivasis. Between July-December 2007, Hindutva rallies across Kandhamal raised anti-Christian sentiments.
Hindutva leaders rumour, "Phulbani-Kandhamal is a most important Christian area in Orissa with rampant and forced conversions." The Christian population in Kandhamal district is 117,950, Hindus number 527,757. Sangh leaders claim, "By VHP data there are 927 churches in Phulbani district built on illegally taken land." Church leaders respond there are 521 churches. Orissa Christians number 897,861, 2.4 percent of the state’s population. Constitutionally authorised, the Hindu Right inflates conversions to Christianity. This circulates in retaliatory capacity even among progressive communities, who fixate on conversions as contributing to the communalisation of society, debilitating to the majority status of Hindus. Muslims are seen as "infiltrating" from Bangladesh, looting livelihood opportunities, dislocating the "Oriya/Indian nation," non-Hinduised Adivasis and Dalits as "unruly."
Hindutva legitimates violence as patriotic response. The Sangh uses local militarism (Kandhamal) as consort to state controlled militarization (Kashipur, Kalinganagar). Hindu cultural dominance organises Hindu nationalism. Orissa amalgamated as a Hindu state between 1866-1936. The absence of structural reforms and assertion of Hindu elites define post-colonial governance. The Sangh has proliferated into 10,000-14,000 villages, operating 35-40 major organisations, with a massive base of a few million. A Balasore district Shiv Sena unit formed the first Hindu "suicide squad." The Hindu nationalist BJP-BJD coalition yields power. The Hindu Suraksha Samiti organises against Muslims. Revolting slogans, "Mussalman ka ek hi sthan, Pakistan ya kabristan (For Muslims there is one place, Pakistan or the grave)," perforate neighbourhoods.
In Kandhamal, Hindu militant groups, neighbours, police, chief minister, Central government acted with egregious impunity. People remain missing, death counts inaccurate. The police refuses Christians seeking to file first information reports. The Baliguda relief camp is skeletal. Despite continuing tensions, police presence has abated. Confidence building steps are absent. Relief, compensation, reparation are incommensurate with the extent of social, psychological, and economic losses of communities. Political parties, focused on politicking the issue, fail to respond to immediate and long-term needs of people.
Angana Chatterji is associate professor of Social and Cultural Anthropology at California Institute of Integral Studies
Orissa: Fear haunts villagers
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Sampad Mahapatra, Sabyasachi Panigrahi
Saturday, January 5, 2008 (Barkhama)
They may have lost everything they had less than two weeks ago but they are determined to stand their ground. Their home or whatever remains of it will still be their home.
On Christmas day, a violent Hindu mob descended on Barkhama village and every Christian house was destroyed.
62-year-old Rameswar Digal and his wife were the first to be attacked. Not only were they injured and their house destroyed, the mob also stole their valuables and set fire to the paddy crop Rameshwar had just harvested.
Rameswar Digal, a villager from Barkhama said, ''Everybody ran away to the forest but we could not. They slapped me and hit my abdomen with a stick. Then they set my house on fire.''
''My husband has been ailing and we have been struggling to stay alive. I am scared we will be attacked again but we won't leave this place,'' said Digal's wife.
''The mob did distinguish between the Hindu homes and the Christian homes. For instance, to my immediate left the paddy stock was set on fire because it belonged to a Christian but the other one at a distance was spared because it belonged to a Hindu.''
The attack has left a deep scar and for Christians in this village, it's a nightmare that is best forgotten. But its not going to be easy, the memories still haunt them.
Sumita Digal said, ''They were all armed with lethal weapons and chasing the men and boys. But they spared women and children. I saw the mob chasing an old resident that was finally killed. Blood was dripping from their swords and spears and it was very scary.''
Over 3500 houses belonging to both Hindus and Christians were destroyed during the 10-day long carnage across Kandhmal. Most houses belonged to ordinary people, who have little to do with the battle over religion but their loss was the greatest.
Even if they rebuild their homes with the nominal cash compensation they have been given peace of mind is something that is not going to come to this area easily.
Sampad Mahapatra, Sabyasachi Panigrahi
Saturday, January 5, 2008 (Barkhama)
They may have lost everything they had less than two weeks ago but they are determined to stand their ground. Their home or whatever remains of it will still be their home.
On Christmas day, a violent Hindu mob descended on Barkhama village and every Christian house was destroyed.
62-year-old Rameswar Digal and his wife were the first to be attacked. Not only were they injured and their house destroyed, the mob also stole their valuables and set fire to the paddy crop Rameshwar had just harvested.
Rameswar Digal, a villager from Barkhama said, ''Everybody ran away to the forest but we could not. They slapped me and hit my abdomen with a stick. Then they set my house on fire.''
''My husband has been ailing and we have been struggling to stay alive. I am scared we will be attacked again but we won't leave this place,'' said Digal's wife.
''The mob did distinguish between the Hindu homes and the Christian homes. For instance, to my immediate left the paddy stock was set on fire because it belonged to a Christian but the other one at a distance was spared because it belonged to a Hindu.''
The attack has left a deep scar and for Christians in this village, it's a nightmare that is best forgotten. But its not going to be easy, the memories still haunt them.
Sumita Digal said, ''They were all armed with lethal weapons and chasing the men and boys. But they spared women and children. I saw the mob chasing an old resident that was finally killed. Blood was dripping from their swords and spears and it was very scary.''
Over 3500 houses belonging to both Hindus and Christians were destroyed during the 10-day long carnage across Kandhmal. Most houses belonged to ordinary people, who have little to do with the battle over religion but their loss was the greatest.
Even if they rebuild their homes with the nominal cash compensation they have been given peace of mind is something that is not going to come to this area easily.
Orissa: Panel slams govt, demands probe
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NDTV Correspondent
Sunday, January 6, 2008 (Bhubaneswar)
A three-member fact finding committee on the recent communal violence in Orissa's Kandhamal district has strongly criticised the ruling BJD-BJP government in the state, saying that it had shown callous indifference to a tragedy that was waiting to happen.
The committee, led by Dr John Dayal, member of the National Integration Council and Secretary General of the All India Christian Council, released a White Paper on the Kandhamal in the Orissa capital Bhubaneswar.
The committee condemned all forms of fundamentalism, whether Hindu or Christian and demanded a judicial probe by a sitting judge of the High court or the Supreme Court.
''We need to put an end to fundamentalism which has penetrated all walks of life, the rural areas, among the poor, judges, police, everywhere. The crisis in India is not one of religion but development and we cannot afford to shift our focus away from development,'' said Dr John Dayal.
NDTV Correspondent
Sunday, January 6, 2008 (Bhubaneswar)
A three-member fact finding committee on the recent communal violence in Orissa's Kandhamal district has strongly criticised the ruling BJD-BJP government in the state, saying that it had shown callous indifference to a tragedy that was waiting to happen.
The committee, led by Dr John Dayal, member of the National Integration Council and Secretary General of the All India Christian Council, released a White Paper on the Kandhamal in the Orissa capital Bhubaneswar.
The committee condemned all forms of fundamentalism, whether Hindu or Christian and demanded a judicial probe by a sitting judge of the High court or the Supreme Court.
''We need to put an end to fundamentalism which has penetrated all walks of life, the rural areas, among the poor, judges, police, everywhere. The crisis in India is not one of religion but development and we cannot afford to shift our focus away from development,'' said Dr John Dayal.
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