Ram Puniyani
Today, nearly a decade later when we are remember
with pain the horrific violence of Kandhmal in 2008, many issues related to
the state of affairs of communal violence, state of minorities, the state of
justice delivery system come to one’s mind.
The incident
Just to recall, Orissa witnessed unprecedented
violence against the Christian minority in August 2008. On August 23, 2008,
Swami Laxmananand along with his four followers was killed, probably by a
group of Maoists. Immediately, anti-Christian violence began on a big scale.
The way it began it seemed as if preparations for it were well afoot. It was
systematic and widespread. It sounded as if preparation was already there
just the pretext was being awaited.[i]
Christians in India
Christians are a tiny minority in India. Contrary to
the perception that British brought Christianity to India, it is one of the
oldest religions of India. Its spread has been slow. Not much was heard
against this minority till the decade of 1990s, when suddenly it started
being asserted that Christian missionaries are converting. Anti-Christian
violence has been occurring more in the remote-interior places and is
accompanied by another phenomenon, that of Ghar Vapasi (return home), which
is the conversions of Adivasis into the fold of Hinduism, by Vishwa Hindu
Parishad-Vanavasi Kalyan Ashram.[ii]
It is from 1996, that this phenomenon of
conversion-anti Christian violence has captured the attention of all of us.
Suddenly, as if from nowhere has descended the ‘threat of conversion to
Christianity’ by force or fraud. Simultaneously, attacks on priests and nuns
increased in distant interior places. It has been a peculiar phenomenon that
while these attacks in remote places were being undertaken, the Christian
institutions in cities – schools, colleges and hospitals – were hard pressed
to cope with the demands on their services related to education and health.
The selective targeting of Christian missionaries in distant places was a
matter of serious attention, concern and introspection.
Social Common Sense
As the ‘social common sense’ started accepting,
‘yes, they are converting’, ‘they have been converting’, a sort of silent
approval of layers of society and state officials did accompany these attacks
on the missionaries. One was used to hearing about attacks on Muslim
minorities so far. How come a new minority came to be perceived as the
‘source of trouble’ and hence started being targeted?[iii]
Anti Christian violence did begin with isolated
incidents like the attack on the Catholic Health Centre of India near Latur
(1996), burning of Bibles and attacks on the Christian congregations. But
most shocking was the burning alive of Pastor Graham Steward Stains (1999,
January) along with his two sons, Philip and Timothy, aged 9 and 7 years, who
were sleeping in a jeep after a village festival. Gradually the pattern of
these attacks started emerging. In the remote places where Vanvasi Kalyan
Ashrams (Society for Welfare of Forest Dwellers), an outfit of RSS, have been
active and doing the propaganda work along with starting of Ekal schools and
have been Hinduising Adivasis, the incidents were more pronounced and
intense.
Anti Christian Violence: Characteristics
The violence against Christian missionaries has by
now become a matter of routine. Unlike the anti Muslim pogroms-violence, it
has been scattered and generally low key, occurring at sporadic intervals.
Barring few dastardly acts like Pastor Stains’ burning and Rani Maria’s being
hacked to death the incidents were medium in intensity and did not take the shape
of carnage or pogrom against the community till the one in Orissa (December
2007 and later August 2008). The occurrence of these incidents was mostly in
places that are having rampant poverty and illiteracy. The apathy in
highlighting these core issues, deprivations, by a section of media was
appalling. At the same time, by word of mouth the propaganda against
Christian Missionaries was intensified.
The message has been spread that Christian
missionaries working in remote places are soft targets and one can get away
without much reprisals. Also the anti-Christian mobilization of Adivasi youth
through cultural manipulation was the groundwork on which the anti-Christian
violence could sustain. In the atmosphere created by the activities of RSS
progeny, local communal groups have felt emboldened to pick up any small
issue and to make a violent incident out of it. Its’ frightening effect on
the victims is tremendous. It also begins to polarize the local communities
into Christian and non-Christian camps amongst whom the seeds of tension are
sown.
Cultural: Agenda
The physical violence has been accompanied by
cultural manipulation in these areas. The silent work to Hinduise Adivasis
through religio-cultural mechanisms has been stepped up from last three
decades. People like Swami Aseemanand (Dangs), Swami Laxmanand (Kandhmal,
Orissa), followers of Asaram Bapu (Jhabua, MP) began their work in popularizing
Hindu gods and Goddesses in the region. The choice of Gods/Goddesses from the
vast pantheon of Hindu religion was a clever one. Here Shabri (Symbol of
poverty and deprivation) was the main goddess, the idol for Adivasis. Temples
in her names were started and regular Kumbhs (mass religious congregation of
Hindus) were organized in her name. Kumbhs have been a tradition in Hinduism
on fixed interval of time on the banks of Holy rivers; Ganges in particular.
Modifying that tradition, these Kumbhs were organized in Adivasis areas. Here
the work of conversion to Hinduism, the spread of ‘Hate against’ foreigners’,
particularly Christians, was spread. In addition an atmosphere of terror was
created against those who do not toe the line of Vanavasi Kalyan Ashram.[iv]
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| A Christian girl who was burned during religious violence in Odisha in 2008 [Courtesy: Wikipedia] |
Similarly the God Hanuman, the foremost devotee of
Lord Ram was also made popular, by spreading his lockets and through
different stories around him, in the Ekal Schools and Sarswati Shishu
Mandirs. It created an atmosphere of divide in the Adivasi areas; Adivasis
turned Hindus, the Hindu dalits and upper caste versus the Christians. It is
this atmosphere of divisiveness, which has been at the root of the violence
in these areas.
Political Agenda
This has been a part of the different activities undertaken
by RSS combine to promote the agenda of Hindu nation. While RSS has floated
many a organizations to communalize different sections of society, BJP, VHP,
Bajrang Dal, etc. it has also unleashed a set of cultural activities, set of
educational institutions along with infiltration in media, bureaucracy,
police and military. They are gradually imposing the idea of Hindu nation and
accompanying culture and ideas. The culmination of this has been the violence
against minorities, polarization of communities along religious lines and
ghettoization of minorities. While all this is going on the violence against
minorities’ is the most visible part of this phenomenon.
The role of state agencies has been no different in
these incidents than what it has been in the anti Muslim violence. In most
cases, the administration has looked the other way when communal goons were
on the rampage. The administration most often provided enough leeway for them
to wreck havoc, indulge in intimidation, violence and to get away with that.
The Adivasi areas, which were so far peaceful, started witnessing communal
tensions. The area of violence in Adivasi regions is synonymous with the map
of spread of Vanvasi Kalyan Ashrams and Vishwa Hindu Parishads in an indirect
way.
RSS had been floating different organizations for
different sections of society; Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram, to Hinduise Adivasis
was founded in 1952 and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad founded in 1964 was to play
an important role in the anti Christian tirade in times to come. Another RSS
progeny which, directly supported violence against Christians, Bajrang Dal,
was founded by RSS in 1984. After the intimidation and browbeating of Muslim
minorities, especially after the post Babri demolition Mumbai riots, they
stepped up their social dominance and needed another community to target
their trishuls for further expansion of their social and electoral base, and
that was done by the bogey of forced conversions and accompanying anti
Christian violence, which started coming to the fore from 1996 onwards. The
targeting of minorities has played an important role in polarizing the
communities, in consolidation of the majoritarian politics in various ways.[v]
The burning of Pastor Stains, in that sense was a
turning point for Human rights groups, who so far were trying to grapple and
respond to the anti Muslim violence. With this many concerned groups took up
the investigations of the violence against Christians in the right earnest.
As such, the first major cover up had to be undertaken by the BJP led NDA
Government itself, in the aftermath of Stains murder. Initially, as a fire
fighting measure, the functionaries of the NDA government tried to give a
clean chit to the RSS combine. After the murder, the then home minister Lal
Krishna Advani stated that he knows Bajrang Dal very well and this act could
not have been done by that organization. To put a veil on the episode, the
three cabinet ministers, George Fernandez, Murli Manohar Joshi and Navin
Patnaik rushed to the site and proclaimed that the murder of Pastor is an
international conspiracy to destabilize the BJP Government. This way they
tried to bypass the real issue, i.e. involvement of Dara Singh, an activist
of Bajrang Dal.[vi]
Struggle for Justice: People’s Tribunals
The case of Orissa was specifically investigated by
India Peoples Tribunal, led by Justice K.K.Usha (retired) of Kerala High
court in 2006.[vii]
This tribunal forewarns about the shape of things to
come. This tribunal assessed the spread of communal organizations
in Orissa, which has been accompanied by a series of small and large events
and some riots…such violations are utilized to generate the threat and
reality of greater violence, and build and infrastructure of fear and
intimidation. It further noted that minorities are being grossly ill treated;
there is gross inaction of the state Government to take action. The report
also describes in considerable detail how the cadre of majoritarian communal
organizations are indoctrinated in hatred and violence against other
communities it holds to be inherently inferior. If such communalization is
undertaken in Orissa, it is indicative of the future of the nation… the signs
are truly ominous for India's democratic future.
It is in this backdrop that when the Kandhamal
carnage took place, the offense of RSS affiliates, the lapses and partisan
behaviour of state machinery, the lack of rehabilitation and deliverance of
justice came as a big jolt to the victims and became the matter of concern
for human rights groups. The lack of proper investigation and other actions
on the part of state were the key for getting justice for the victims. While
many a sincere, scattered efforts to help the afflicted were undertaken by
different groups. These efforts were effective but inadequate in their reach.
The tribunal organized for Orissa violence under Justice A. P.Shah (Retd)
brought out the truth of the carnage. The hope was that the victims will be
suitably rehabiliatated and get justice.[viii]
This tribunal observed, (excerpts)
“The appalling feature of the
Kandhamal violence, where rescue and relief work by non-profit, charitable
and humanitarian organizations was prohibited through a government
notification, indicates the impunity with which the state government acted,
and its scant respect for rule of law and human rights of the
victim-survivors of the violence.”...
“The dismal conditions in the
government-run relief camps are clearly indicative of the indifference
of the state government to the plight of victim-survivors.”...”The
testimonies of victim-survivors as well as the reports presented to the
Tribunal indicate that victim-survivors were forcibly sent back to their
villages, or abandoned near their villages, with total disregard to their
safety.”...“Peace-building Initiatives: The fact that many
victim-survivors are unable to return to their villages due to threats and
intimidation by perpetrators, and many of those who have returned continue to
live in constant fear and security, lead us to conclude that the state government’s
peace initiatives have been a dismal failure and nothing more than an
eyewash.”
It also made lot of recommendations
about relief, rehaibilation, compensation and justice. This excerpt is very
telling “Implementation of State’s Duty Towards Peace-building, Voluntary
Return and Reintegration: The State should recognize the Internally
Displaced Persons’ right to return to their homes and create all possible
enabling conditions to facilitate such safe return in accordance with the
above standards. The state ought to discharge its duty of creating a
conducive, safe and peaceful environment that can sustain return or
re-integration of victim-survivors through access to public services, legal
and personal documentation, and to livelihoods and income-generating
opportunities without any form of discrimination.”
As usual the recommendations of the
tribunal remain in the limbo. The heartening feature of struggle for justice
in Kandhamal is the dogged determination of the victims and human rights
activists to get the justice. This is also the time to understand that
justice is a long term goal also which requires a programmatic alliance
between the struggling sections of society, be it dalits, Adivasis, women,
workers or struggling sections of society. In the light of growing
intolerance in society, in the light of the growing stifling of the democracy
society the need to build social alliances to preserve democracy and human
rights is all the more crucial at this juncture.
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