Mass conversions spark violence in India, but rival tribes’ quest for state funds also at play
September 22, 2008
SONYA FATAH
The Toronto Star
KANDHAMAL, India–Rabindranath Pradhan grabbed his wife and son and took shelter amid the lentil stalks of a nearby field.
Cowering in fear, Pradhan, 45, who had left his paralyzed brother inside the house, watched as 200 right-wing Hindu youngsters entered his brother’s bedroom, poured gasoline over his body, and burned him alive.
“I could hear him screaming for me to save him, but I was unable to move,” said Pradhan, recounting the horror of his brother’s suffering on Aug. 24. Unarmed and outnumbered, Pradhan and his neighbours could only watch as his brother’s shrieks faded and their homes and church were burnt to the ground.
Afterwards, the area’s 37 Christian families took refuge in the nearby hills. While torching their homes, the crowd had chanted “Jai Bajrang Dal!” revealing themselves as members of the youth brigade of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), a right-wing group that aims to cleanse the Hindu soul of mother India and end the slaughter of cows and conversions to Islam and Christianity across the country.
Increasing conversions to Christianity in Kandhamal, one of India’s most “backward” regions, have triggered a reaction among India’s right-wing Hindu organizations.
Foreign and local missionary groups of varying denominations have been proselytizing in the area for decades, but now they’re facing a staunch Hindu right that’s determined to counter Christian missionary zeal with a bit of their own.
What’s happening in Kandhamal, however, is also a struggle between two dominant tribal groups over acceptance into India’s complex affirmative action system, which gives communities defined as “backward” better access to education and jobs.
The targeting of Christians, their homes and places of worship began after the murder of VHP leader Swami Laxmiananada Saraswati on Aug. 23. Although the government blamed Maoists, VHP leaders and the Bajrang Dal blamed militant Christians and set about taking revenge. Since Aug. 24, at least 20 people have been killed, countless houses burnt and at latest count 20,000 people had taken shelter in relief camps under the protection of regular police deployments, paramilitary squads and riot police.
Kandhamal, in India’s eastern state of Orissa, is an unlikely place for a religious confrontation. Lush green valleys dotted with small fields of rice paddies and lentil plantations are flanked by forested hills. On the face of it, its villages demonstrate religious harmony; their short commercial stretches boasting both churches and temples. Beneath the surface, however, tension has been building.
Many in Orissa’s political establishment trace the problem to Christian missionary work.
“So much money comes into the state for missionary efforts,” said MP Tathagata Sathpathy, a member of the ruling Biju Janata Dal party. “These guys offered Dalits better chances by offering them jobs, free education and other benefits … That’s one reason why there have been mass conversions to Christianity.”
Kandhamal’s people rely mostly on subsistence farming to survive. Some 650,000 people live in the area, according to the 2001 census. Members of the Kandha tribe are predominantly Hindu. The Panos, who were Dalits, the lowest in the Hindu caste hierarchy, have over the years embraced Christianity.
Orissa is 95 per cent Hindu. Christians only make up 2.5 per cent of the population. But in Kandhamal district, Christians make up roughly 25 per cent of the population.
Since Saraswati’s death, they’ve been hounded, killed and made to retreat from the areas that have been their homes for centuries.
“It’s not simply a religious issue,” said a district official in Kandhamal. “Religion is being used for this purpose, but essentially the Kandhas and the Panos are fighting for access to (job) reservations.”
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