As we go forth into the New Year, the news that on average every day two Christians have faced attacks is a reality India is confronted with. India’s Christian community, a significant part of the nation’s diverse religious fabric, has been faced with a torrent of hate speech and discrimination by members of radical extremist Hindutva groups.

Amidst the rich tapestry of cultural coexistence and historical contribution, instances of discrimination, attacks and violence against Christians rings a bell of alarm for the community and the nation at large. In this year-ender, we delve into the intricacies of these challenges, examining the slurs while centring the voices within the community itself.

CJP spoke to Nancy, name changed, who is from Tamil Nadu. She works for a national faith based development organisation and is based in Northern India. Reflecting on the past decade, she stated that, “In the last eight years things have changed drastically in the country. Hate is regularly spread against minorities which is bad for democracy. I haven’t experienced any prejudices or instances personally directly but there is growing suspicion among colleagues and friends who were once close. They now support the current regime which is both sad and very scary. Also, many Christian organisations have lost their FCRA this year which has made me sad. I feel that despite harbouring good intentions of helping the needy and uplifting the nation, the commitments of the Christian community are eyed with suspicion. Though some Christian groups do engage in conversion (which is a fundamental right – though I am not for conversion) every organisation and individuals are perceived through the same lens.”

Accusations of foreign funding and conversion activities which are often fuelled by conspiracy theories by Hindutva organisations seem to have run amok this year. Amidst the many tropes that constitute anti-Christian sentiment, the salient amongst them is the idea that Christians missionaries are conniving to forcefully and coercively convert Indians to Christianity. Hindutva leaders have made allegations of Christian missionaries receiving financial support from companies such as Tide and Rin to convert people forcefully and incentivise people through monetary means.

Reflecting on the arrival of Christmas this year, Nancy highlights how everyday life of the Christian community is being affected adversely by the current, dominant political dispensation, “This would be a sad Christmas for many Christians as many have lost their jobs. Mass loss of employment will push many to poverty and the rural poor who depend on the development sectors will be further affected. The right wing in India and around the globe is taking control. The Palestine situation has made this Christmas even more sober and darker with the US, a Christian country, aiding the violence, which makes it even more deplorable. Violence and capitalism has destroyed the world which is also supported by Christian nations who are friends with our right-wing government. Closer home, we can see how Manipur has faced unspeakable violence which still continues: more than 50,000 Christians are in refugee camps. A sad Christmas for all and it’s painful.” She states that there is no government support in the wake of these incidents and what makes it even worse for the community.

There is also an attempt to create hateful rhetoric surrounding certain individuals and figures, such as Mother Teresa, which adds another layer to the discourse. The figure of Mother Theresa, revered globally for her humanitarian efforts, has been portrayed by some as a threat to India due to allegations of mass conversions. Furthermore, the accusation that Christians, as a community, have broken temples and destroyed statues further fuels tensions and add to the fire as an attempt to distort history.

“The landscape is definitely changing as we hear each day pastors are attacked and put in jail.” Expressing her apprehension, she states that she is worried how India will be home for the minorities in the years ahead and “if at all our children will have any future here.” “However,: she adds,” I feel the Muslim minorities are attacked even more whereas the Christian leaders are cosying up with the ruling party due to the large amount of property and other priorities instead of saving the country from hate violence and destruction.”

Dennis, name changed, highlighted a growing trend of derogatory language online, often involving terms like “rice bag” converts. In recent years, proponents of Hindutva hard-line ideologies have persistently asserted that Dalits who have embraced Christianity have converted as they were “lured” by financial incentives. The approach involves not only showcasing and stigmatising conversions to Christianity and Islam but also perpetuating casteist attitudes toward Dalits and other marginalised converts.

He further continues, “I think the rise of online hatred might be an effect of Islamophobia, especially because it has become more common online to see people use derogatory slurs. You can also see people online and offline praise Hinduism as compared to Abrahamic religions, so there seems to be a pronounced bias and superiority of Hinduism that is upheld by certain factions.”

Dennis further describes his experience in public, “I have a thick beard, I have been called ‘Osama’ by kids in the metro.” Sharing further, he reveals the apprehensions about displaying religion in public, “I don’t wear any overtly religious stuff in public” Dennis’ statements reveal that violence and persecution against religious minorities, whether it is Christians or Muslims, is an interlinked phenomena, and that fear remains ever present.

Hindutva organisations seek to justify violence and communal sentiments against Christians by saying that they “kill” cows and eat their meat. In many of their hate speeches, Christian and Muslim both feature as “foreign enemies” that seek to wage conspiracy against Indians and Hinduism. Such narratives, though largely contested, range through and foment communal sentiments in the country and continue to shape perceptions and contribute to an environment of suspicion and mistrust and violence against Christians.

Sangeeta, name changed, a working professional in northern India narrates that she converted to Christianity while completing her studies. She kept her religion a secret for several years, with only close friends, knowing about it. “I began reading about Christianity when I was going to college. I also attended the Church and found the atmosphere very warm and welcoming, which is what led me to adopt the faith. However, I was very apprehensive about the reaction that would come from my loved ones and family if I were to share with them news of my change in religion.” Talking about the growing rise of hatred, she says, “Yes, of course, it is a source of fear and increased my apprehension even though I was never concerned about it before I changed my faith. I am apprehensive of talking about my faith publicly on social media.”

Fear is a common thread found in all these personal accounts. This is not without reason. 2023 has seen wide and far instances of violence against Christians. In Chhattisgarh alone, a state until this month ruled by the opposition Congress party, Christians form a minority and mainly belong to tribal communities. Both of these aspects make the new converts as well as existing Christians on the land greatly vulnerable to violence by Hindutva groups. About two percent of Chhattisgarh’s Christian population primarily resides in the southern Bastar region. On January 2, 2023, an act of vandalism targeted a church in Narayanpur, Chhattisgarh which was fuelled by accusations of the Church engaging in “conversions.” Prior to this, between December 9 and 18, 2022 approximately 1,000 Adivasi Christians had found themselves persecuted, and it led to a mass displacement from their homes.

Manipur too is a state that has witnessed constant conflict since May 2023. According to news reports, around 120 churches have been vandalised in the state. The ethnic conflict between the majority Meiteis and the minority Kuki tribe has led to over 180 casualties and the displacement of about 60,000 people.

CJP spoke to Julianne, named changed, from Manipur who similarly talks about how Churches are routinely attacked to break the morale of the Christian community in Manipur. Julianne, a student from Manipur, says “These days’ things have gotten worse.” Talking about how Christians are targeted in Manipur, she narrates about how the government has publicly decried the building of churches in the hill regions of Manipur, “In the valley, several churches are routinely attacked on the basis of religion. They pick on our religion particularly because they know that attacking churches is what is going to hurt us. So Churches are routinely destroyed in Manipur, several were destroyed this year, too, in Manipur. People back home started reading the Bible’s book on Revelation, as it talks about times where people face persecution.”

“Overnight we became terrorists, overnight we were declared illegal immigrants. We did not have any idea that this is what would happen in our own homes. Sometimes I look out of my window, and I feel like I can see my old home in Manipur. I have hear that it was not burnt; but our belongings have been stolen.” Julianne continues with a calm, steady voice, revealing a steely resolve, “I need to start accepting that home is not a place. While what happened and is happening in Manipur should never happen to anyone, I feel there is much to learn from what has happened, God is always trying for us to learn something.” Talking about how the conflict has affected her, she says, “I used to not feel comfortable talking about my faith earlier. I used to feel, not exactly ashamed, but that it was uncool to talk about my faith in public. But now I feel like I am closer to God.”

The people of Manipur have faced harrowing times. Students like Julianne, and many belonging to the Kuki-Zo community have reportedly faced severe discrimination in the state. About 27 students from the community were reportedly prevented from taking their exams due to their identity. Violence against Meiteis has also erupted, leaving a people with severe fissures and suspicions and a state and central government disinclined, hostile even, to furthering dialogue and peace. Christians in Manipur, across the ethnic divide are a peculiar and specific target.

Related:

Hindutva’s “rice bag converts” controversy

Anti-Christian violence: Opening of a church resisted, police raids aid the rightwing

Alarming rise in violence against Christians in India as G20 Summit takes centre stage

Bible College in Imphal was burned down

The post Amidst festive cheer, India’s Christian community confronts prejudice and intolerance appeared first on SabrangIndia.

The current violence in Manipur, which has continued for more than two months and resulted in the destruction of multiple churches and priceless lives, has drawn particular attention, according to the Christian body.

Number of incidents reported State-wise:

The state of Uttar Pradesh remained at the forefront for being the most unsafe for the minority community of Christians, with 155 incidents having been reported from the state. UP was followed by Chhattisgarh with 84 incidents, Jharkhand with 35 incidents, Haryana with 32 incidents, Madhya Pradesh with 21 incidents, Punjab with 12 incidents, Karnataka with 10 incidents, Bihar with 9 incidents, Jammu & Kashmir with 8 incidents, and Gujarat with 7 incidents. Uttarakhand, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Himachal Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Delhi, Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Chandigarh, and Goa have also reported varying numbers of incidents in the 6 months.

State with the highest number of incidents:

In Uttar Pradesh, six districts have reported incidents of violence against Christians, with Jaunpur topping the list at 13 incidents, followed by 11 incidents each in Rae Bareilly and Sitapur. Kanpur reported 10 incidents, while Azamgarh and Kushinagar districts witnessed nine incidents each. However, the highest number of incidents occurred in Bastar, Chhattisgarh, with 31 recorded cases, as stated in the press release.

Highest number of incidents reported in the month of June, 2023:

In the year 2023, with 88 reported cases, the month of June stood out as the month with the highest number of incidents against Christians, averaging almost three incidents per day. This was followed by 66 incidents in March, 63 in February, 62 in January, 50 in May, and 47 in April.

Comparatively, during the same period of six months in the year of 2022, January had the highest number of incidents, which had totalled to 121, having averaged to almost four incidents per day. May 2022 had 40 incidents, while February, April, March, and June recorded 31, 29, 28, and 25 incidents, respectively.

Consistent rise in reported incident against Christians since the last 9 years:

Shockingly and jarringly, the UCF report has observed that since 2014, there has been an increase in the number of violent incidents against Christians. The following number of incidents have been noted:

• 2014- 147 reported incidents
• 2015- 177 reported incidents
• 2016- 208 reported incidents
• 2017- 240 reported incidents
• 2018- 292 reported incidents
• 2019- 328 reported incidents
• 3030- 279 reported incidents
• 2021- 505 reported incidents
• 2022- 599 reported incidents,

The situation has worsened this much now that 400 incidents have been reported in the first 190 days of the year 2023.

Police failing the victim, no prosecution for the perpetrators:

The UCF also drew attention to a worrisome pattern whereby Christians, regardless of being the victims of these atrocities of violent and non-secular nature, are facing more First Information Reports (FIRs) than those who committed them. The organisation emphasises on the fact that authorities frequently fall short in their efforts to thoroughly investigate and holding accountable those responsible for mob violence, and rather book the individuals from the minority community. As per the data provided in the report, 63 FIRs, a perturbing number, had been filed against Christians as a result of fabricated conversion claims made under the Freedom of Religion Act. Furthermore, 35 pastors are still incarcerated behind bars, having their bail requests being denied multiple times. The report also shed light upon the ones who do obtain bail, and yet are still in prison due to administrative snags in the release procedure. The President, Prime Minister, and Home Minister have all been addressed repeatedly by leaders of the Christian community, but the UCF reported that none of them had responded.

Union’s indifference to the plight of the Christians- Ongoing case on violence against Christians in the Supreme Court

Submissions made by the petitioners during various hearings:

On July 10, 2023, during the hearing in the matter of Most Rev. Dr. Peter Machado and ors. v Union of India and Ors., senior advocate Colin Gonsalves had submitted before the Supreme Court that groups/parties aligned to the Central government were attacking the Christian Community across the country. Advocate Gonsalves had made the aforementioned submission while arguing on behalf of the petitioners in a plea seeking directions from the Top Court to stop violence against Christians in the country.

“Please look at the names of the attackers and those who have filed FIRs, these are all parties/groups aligned to the central government that are attacking us”, Gonsalves had said.

The senior counsel further told court that an IA had been filed seeking interim reliefs, such as formulation of an independent Special Investigation Team (SIT) of officials from outside the state, protection for prayer meetings, appointment of Nodal officers as per Tehseen Poonawalla judgment and, National Legal Service Authorities (NALSA) to provide legal aid to the victims.

On the other hand, SG Tushar Mehta told the bench comprising CJI DY Chandrachud and Justice PS Narasimha that action had been taken against hate crimes.

Prior to this, in the month of May, the petitioners had also alleged that the “attacks” on Christians and registration of cases against members of the religious minority “coincided” with the coming of anti-conversion laws in several States. Their petitions had alleged that attacks against Christians saw an “exponential rise” post 2022. They had listed alleged incidents of violence against Christians in Bihar, Haryana, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Odisha, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh.

Submissions made on behalf of the union during various hearings:

Last year, in August 2022, the union government had filed their counter affidavit in the said case stating that on a preliminary ascertainment of the truthfulness of the assertions as alleged in the petition it had found that the petitioner resorted to falsehood and some selective self-serving documents.

The petitioners have claimed to base the petition on information gathered through sources like press reports (the Wire, the Scroll, the Hindustan Times, Dainik Bhaskar, etc.), “independent” online databases and from findings of various non-profit organisations, but enquiries revealed that majority of the incidents alleged as Christian persecution in these reports were either false or wrongfully projected, Centre had further told the court.

Furthermore, the union had even stated in their affidavits submitted to the Supreme Court that there have been no targeted attacks on Christians in the country, and had suggested that there is a “hidden oblique motive” behind the a filing of the said Public Interest Litigation (PIL) by Christian organisations and individuals demanding an independent probe into them.

Claims made by the petitioners in the rejoinder to affidavit:

Pursuant to the submissions made by the union in its affidavit, the petitioners had filed their rejoinder to the government affidavit, and stated that the affidavit of the Centre “discloses” the “political identity” of the people, whose complaints against the Christian community members, are registered by the police as FIRs.

“In over 90% of the incidents, a prayer meeting would be taking place in a private residence or a church premises. As if on cue, a large group of persons from a well-known communal organisation force entry into the premises, disrupt the prayer meeting, assault the congregation, including women, destroy property, drag the pastor and others to the police station, register FIRs against the victim community and in many cases put the pastor in jail. In many instances the assailants are accompanied by the local police and this gives the assailants’ confidence that they can resort to violence,” the rejoinder had alleged.

The petitioners had said the “assaults were not spontaneous and unconnected but rather part of the overall well-planned strategy”.

They had further claimed that there was not a single instance of an assailant being booked by the police. “In a few cases these assailants were picked up by the police and released,” their rejoinder had said. 

Union’s indifference to the plight of the Christians- Ongoing Manipur violence case in the Supreme Court

On July 10, the Supreme Court had ordered the Manipur state administration to provide the Court an “updated status report” outlining its progress on rehabilitation, recovering weapons, and enhancing the state’s law and order situation. This comes as the state of Manipur remains engulfed in the arms of fire and violence since May 3, 2023.

During the said hearing, at the outset, senior advocate Colin Gonsalves, appearing for the Manipur Tribal Forum, told the bench that situation in Manipur has worsened. The senior counsel provided that a number of militant organisations have even openly advocated for the eradication of indigenous people, particularly the tribal Kukis, the bulk of whom are Christians who reside in the mountainous regions. It is essential to note there that the Christian leaders of the region have been claiming that Hindu extremist organisations turned the unrest into a planned assault on the Kuki people, who are mostly Christians.

Responding to this, the Solicitor General of India Tushar Mehta, appearing for the State, however, told the apex court that the “situation is improving, though slowly in view of the deployment of sufficient numbers of armed forces and setting up of relief camps.” In turn, the SG requested advocate Gonsalves to refrain from giving any communal angle to the said violence, and making it about Christians, stating that real human beings are being dealt with here.

It is pertinent to highlight here that as per many media reports, and the articles published by the Union of Catholic Asian News, the violent crowds in Manipur have “destroyed Church-run schools, social centres, presbyteries, and other institutions in a targeted attack to erase the existence of Christianity in the hilly state.” Additionally, it has been claimed that over 250 Christian Kuki churches have been burned down since the start of the conflict, and over 45,000 people are now residing in makeshift relief camps. Roughly 120 people have died as a result of the violence.

Furthermore, it has been alleged that government forces are “mute spectators” as Christians are killed and their institutions are destroyed.

Conclusion

The report released by the UCF clarifies any doubts that might have existed regarding the violence being subjected to the Christian community of India, The attacks on Christians, who make up about 2% of the population of India, is a part of the broader shift in the ideologies of the majority community of India, being fuelled by the intolerance and indifference shown by the current government, where has left the minorities communities feeling unsafe, and fending for themselves. The Christians minority is portrayed negatively, in line with the growing majoritarianism, and are accused of coercing, defrauding, and alluring people into conversion, creating an illusion that justifies the violence and intimidation subjected to them. Since a while, the situation has progressively gotten worse, and now it is so detrimental that the right to practice one’s religion, which is protected by the Indian Constitution as a fundamental human and is also social right, is constantly being violated through various means of assertion, which feeds into rising acts of violence against religious minorities.

Related:

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120 Churches destroyed, Christians insecure: Manipur

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Under Guise of Religious Conversions, Attacks by Hindutva Groups Worsen Situation for Christians in India

Five states report incidents of violence and intimidation against Christians between March 20 and 22

The post Recent report provides 400 incidents of violence against Christians since January 2023, 155 reported in UP alone appeared first on SabrangIndia.

The video can be viewed here:

Location: Goraha, Nawagarh, Chattisgarh

Hindu far-right groups organized mass rally and Hanuman Chalisa recitation ceremony against opening of a church in the village. pic.twitter.com/B9zpqW3Lzp

— HindutvaWatch (@HindutvaWatchIn) May 15, 2023

In another such incident of targeting Christians, reported from Shahdol, Madhya Pradesh, the police raided a house where Christian community members were holding a prayer meet. Media reports have also suggested that police have confiscated the Christians religious books and launched an investigation into allegations of religious conversions.

The video can be viewed here:

Location: Shahdol, Madhya Pradesh

Police raided a house where Christian community members were holding a prayer meet. Latest reports suggest police have confiscated their religious books and launched an investigation into allegations of religious conversions. pic.twitter.com/Eb1lLl4ya8

— HindutvaWatch (@HindutvaWatchIn) May 15, 2023

These above-mentioned actions of the majoritarian groups, which were anti-Christians in nature, were performed in the garb of cracking down on alleged conversion. The real intention however appears to be to transform India into a functioning majoritarian state where Christians are treated as second class citizens and their institutions are not allowed to function. It is unfortunate to observe that even an opposition state government and its law enforcement agencies are siding with the perpetrators, and using tactics, of conducting “survey” of churches in the state to check “forced conversions” and deploying intelligence officers to gather more information on them. With the result of these surveys never being made public, and hence the allegations remaining un-refuted, the stigma of “conversions” against the entire Christian community sticks, the media’s proverbially sensationalist leanings adding to the targeting.

The vision that Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) saw almost a 100 years ago, of establishing and declaring India from a constitutional republic to a theocratic autocracy appears to becoming realised. Unless law enforcement and other wings of the state step up to ensure constitutional governance, this tilt towards unchecked autocratisation will continue.

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The post Anti-Christian violence: Forcibly preventing prayer, raiding homes in Chhattisgarh, MP appeared first on SabrangIndia.

The post EXCLUSIVE: 10 years later Kandhamal Carnage Survivors still await Justice appeared first on SabrangIndia.

 
Excerpts from the report of the National People’s Tribunal on Kandhamal

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 the 1990s when suddenly it started being asserted that Christian missionaries are converting. Anti-Christian violence has been occurring more in the remote interior and is accompanied by another phenomenon, that of Ghar Vapasi (return home), which is the conversion of Adivasis into the fold of Hinduism by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP)-Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram.
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 message has been spread that Christian missionaries working in remote places are soft targets and one can get away without much reprisal. Also, the anti-Christian mobilisation 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 Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (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 polarise the local communities into Christian and non-Christian camps amongst whom the seeds of tension are sown.

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 the last three decades. People like Swami Aseemanand (Dangs, Gujarat), Swami Lakshmanananda (Kandhamal, Orissa), followers of Asaram Bapu (Jhabua, Madhya Pradesh), began their work in popularising Hindu gods and goddesses in the region.

The choice of gods/goddesses from the vast pantheon of the Hindu religion was a clever one. Here Shabri (symbol of poverty and deprivation) was the main goddess, the idol for Adivasis. Temples in her name were started and regular Kumbhs (mass religious congregations of Hindus) were organised in her name. Kumbhs have been a tradition in Hinduism at fixed intervals of time on the banks of holy rivers, the Ganges in particular. Modifying that tradition, these Kumbhs were organised in Adivasi 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 the Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram.

Similarly, the god Hanuman, the foremost devotee of Lord Rama, was also made popular, by spreading his lockets and through different stories around him, in the Ekal (Vidyalaya) schools and Saraswati Shishu Mandirs. It created an atmosphere of divide in the Adivasi areas; Adivasis turned Hindus, the Hindu Dalits and upper castes versus the Christians. It is this atmosphere of divisiveness which has been at the root of the violence in these areas.

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 wreak havoc, indulge in intimidation, violence, and to get away with that.  

It is in this backdrop that when the Kandhamal carnage took place, the offences of RSS affiliates, the lapses and partisan behaviour of the state machinery, the lack of rehabilitation and deliverance of justice, came as a big jolt to the victims and became a matter of concern for human rights groups. The lack of proper investigation and other actions on the part of the state were the key for getting justice for the victims.

Prologue
Thousands of Dalits and Adivasis belonging to the Christian minority community in Kandhamal district of Orissa were victims of organised violence that began in August 2008. According to government figures, during the violence from August to December 2008, in Kandhamal district alone, more than 600 villages were ransacked, 5,600 houses were looted and burnt, 54,000 people were left homeless and 38 people were murdered. Human rights groups estimate that over 100 people were killed, including disabled and elderly persons, children and women. An un-estimated number suffered severe physical injuries and mental trauma. While there are reports of a few women being sexually assaulted, many more such victims are believed to have been intimidated into silence.

Two hundred and ninety-five churches and other places of worship, big and small, were destroyed; 13 schools, colleges, and offices of several non-profit organisations damaged. About 30,000 people were uprooted and lived in relief camps and continue to be displaced. During this period about 2,000 people were forced to renounce their Christian faith. More than 10,000 children had their education severely disrupted due to displacement and fear. Despite the passage of time since August 2008, the situation has not improved. The state administration though continues to claim that Kandhamal is peaceful and has returned to normalcy.

The National People’s Tribunal on Kandhamal
The National People’s Tribunal (NPT) on Kandhamal, held in New Delhi on August 22-24, 2010, was organised by the National Solidarity Forum – a countrywide solidarity platform of concerned social activists, media persons, researchers, legal experts, film-makers, artists, writers, scientists and civil society organisations – to assist the victims and survivors of the Kandhamal violence, 2008, to seek justice, accountability and peace and to restore the victim survivors’ right to a dignified life.

 The tribunal heard 45 victims, survivors and their representatives. The victim survivors of the violence narrated their experiences to the tribunal through duly notarised affidavits which were taken officially on record by the panel of jury members. Though the organisers intended that each of the victim survivors would orally present the contents of the affidavit before the tribunal, not all gave oral testimonies, for lack of time.

Except for one woman victim of sexual assault, who gave her testimony to the jury members in camera, all other persons deposed before the tribunal in open proceedings despite being threatened and intimidated against testifying. This report quotes from both the affidavits as well as the oral testimonies of the affected persons, who spoke in Oriya and English, assisted by translators.

In addition to the oral testimonies, the jury members considered all documentation related to each case, consisting of affidavits, court documents, medical and other supporting documents, as well as copies of reports and studies on the violence. A unique feature of this NPT was that the testimonies and depositions by victim survivors of the violence were supplemented by 15 expert testimonies of reports of field surveys, research and fact-finding, as well as statements to the tribunal… This report incorporates and draws upon the contents of all reports and statements presented before the tribunal.
Formal invitations were extended to the ministry of minority affairs, ministry of tribal affairs, ministry of women and child development, ministry of social justice and empowerment, National Human Rights Commission, National Commission for Minorities (NCM), National Commission for Scheduled Castes, National Commission for Scheduled Tribes and National Commission for Women to participate in the proceedings of the tribunal. However, there was no participation from the concerned ministries and commissions.

From August-December 2008, in Kandhamal district alone, over 600 villages were ransacked, 5,600 houses looted and burnt and 54,000 people left homeless. Human rights groups estimate that over 100 people were killed. Several suffered severe physical injuries and women were sexually assaulted. About 30,000 people continue to be displaced.

On the final day of the tribunal – August 24, 2010 – the panel members of the jury released an interim report which contained its preliminary findings.
The jury of the NPT was headed by Justice AP Shah, former chief justice of the Delhi high court. Joining him as jury members were Harsh Mander (member, National Advisory Council), Mahesh Bhatt (film-maker and activist), Miloon Kothari (former UN special rapporteur on adequate housing), PS Krishnan (retired secretary, government of India), Rabi Das (senior journalist based in Bhubaneswar), Ruth Manorama (women’s and Dalit rights activist), Sukumar Muralidharan (Delhi-based freelance journalist), Syeda Hameed (member, Planning Commission, government of India), Vahida Nainar (expert on international law, mass crimes and gender), Vinod Raina (scientist and social activist with a specific focus on right to education), Admiral Vishnu Bhagwat (former chief of naval staff) and Vrinda Grover (advocate, Delhi high court).

Context of communal politics in Orissa
The historic context of the Kandhamal violence is located in the spread of Hindutva ideology. In 2002, following the carnage of Muslims in Gujarat, Hindu nationalists gave a call to transform Orissa into Hindutva’s next laboratory. It is only since then that concerned individuals and groups began seriously studying the reach of Hindu nationalism in Orissa. Following the Gujarat pogrom of 2002 that killed over 2,000 Muslims and destroyed the community, a targeted attack on the Christian minority in Orissa was a disaster-in-waiting. The potential of manipulating the tense dynamics of the relationship between the Dalit and the Adivasi communities to serve the goals of religious fanatics made Kandhamal an ideal site for such an attack.

The sangh parivar has a visible presence in 25 of the 30 districts in Orissa. They consolidated their reach and influence with the support of the institutions of the government of Orissa, and Hindu nationalists in the state. In October 2002 a Shiv Sena unit in Balasore district in Orissa declared that it had formed the first Hindu “suicide squad” to train youth for high-risk assignments. The RSS operates 6,000 shakhas (cells) in Orissa with more than 1,75,000 cadres and a growing general membership. The VHP has more than 1,50,000 primary workers in Orissa. The Bajrang Dal has more than 60,000 activists working as leaders through 200 akharas (training centres) in the state.

The sangh parivar has amassed between 35 and 40 major organisations with numerous branches (including paramilitary hate camps and charitable, religious, educational, political and development organisations), with a massive base of a few million persons operating at every level of society, ranging from, and connecting, villages to cities, in their campaign to “Hinduise” Orissa.

Socio-economic profile of Kandhamal
Kandhamal is among the poorest districts of Orissa. It stands 29th out of Orissa’s 30 districts on the UNDP’s human development index. The Hindutva forces allege that because of low per capita income, the tribals of Kandhamal district have become easy targets for missionaries.
Kandhamal is located in the heart of Orissa. Present-day Kandhamal was formed as a district in 1994 from the earlier Phulbani district. It consists of about 2,415 villages. Because of its hilly forested areas, it has poor connectivity with other districts. Only 12 per cent of its total area is cultivable. About 71 per cent comprises forests and the rest is barren land.

Statistics presented to the tribunal on the livelihood of the people in Kandhamal prior to the violence indicate that 78 per cent of the population depended on daily wage labour and other ancillary jobs (including small businesses, private and government jobs) and 22 per cent of the population earned their livelihood from agriculture.

The Christian community is economically disenfranchised in Kandhamal. A majority of the Christian population, including local Christian leaders, are landless or marginal landholders with an average holding of half an acre per family. Christian leaders assert that the church does not convert under duress or offer money in lieu of conversions. In the 1960s and 1970s many Adivasis benefited from the services of education, health care and employment provided by the Christian missionaries. The exposure to Christianity in the course of such access to services may have led some to convert their religion.
Adivasis and Dalits are not religious but ethnic groups. Adivasis are primarily animists and do not fall in the category of religion as a social phenomenon in the same way as Christians, Muslims and Hindus. However, the sangh parivar considers Adivasis to be Hindus and where they have adopted religions other than Hinduism, they have become targets for reconversion. More than 90 per cent of the Dalits in Kandhamal, otherwise known as Panas, are Christians. The Dalits are poorer than the Adivasis and have no access to resources. However, Kondhs – the Adivasis in Kandhamal – are also a disenfranchised community; 78 per cent of the Adivasis in Kandhamal live below the poverty line.

The Panas are designated as scheduled castes (SCs), comprise about 17 per cent of the district population and hold nine per cent of the cultivable land. By contrast, the tribal Kondhs, who are designated as scheduled tribes (STs), own about 77 per cent of the cultivable land. To increase their access to land and to avail of benefits, the Phulbani Kui Janakalyan Samiti, acting on behalf of the Panas, moved the Orissa high court seeking an order to be categorised as scheduled tribes. Tribal categorisation would allow Panas to buy tribal land and provide them with benefits such as reservation of jobs, education, regularise disputed land, etc. Irrespective of the outcome of this plea, it is a cause for serious concern for the Kondhs, since any addition to the list of STs without increasing the benefits given to STs as a whole would eat into their rights.

The predicament of the Panas however is no less a matter of concern. An anomaly in the definition of scheduled castes in the Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order 1950 issued by the president of India is that the scheduled castes who convert to religions other than Hinduism are no longer regarded among scheduled castes. Subsequent amendments to the presidential order have permitted conversion to Buddhism and Sikhism without a loss of SC status but not conversion to Christianity or Islam. As a result, a scheduled caste person loses his/her SC status upon conversion to Christianity. Conversely, scheduled tribes have rights to land and reservations that they do not lose upon conversion to any religion.

The 1950 order has caused many Christian Panas to lose their rights to reservations and other benefits that they were entitled to as SCs. It is in this context that allegations are made against the Panas, of using fake certificates to avail of SC benefits despite conversion to Christianity. There is however no information on how widespread the practice is. The practice is nevertheless alleged to be prevalent in all states and is rooted in the unreasonable character of the 1950 order. While the sangh parivar claims the demand for reservation benefits by converted Panas to be the root of the problem, the fact that both Dalit and Adivasi Christians have been at the receiving end of the violence exposes the hollow nature of this claim.

Socioculturally, there is a tradition of friendly interaction in Kandhamal among people across boundaries – Hindus and Christians, Adivasis and Dalits. Both Adivasis and Dalits speak the same Kui language and despite the politicisation and subsequent construction of oppositional identities, there are intermarriages among tribal Kondhs and Dalit Kondhs. Hindus and Christians have also lived side by side and for many of them, it is the outside Oriyas (mainly caste Hindus, some of whom are members of the sangh parivar) who have instigated conflicts between Adivasis and Dalits or Hindus and Christians so that their continued exploitation of local resources and domination of local politics and economy remains unchallenged. In Hinduising the Kondh Adivasis and polarising relations between them and the Pana Dalit Christians, the sangh parivar engineered rivalries between these two communities.

A desecrated statue of Mary at Mount Carmel Convent, Orissa 2007

Violence in Kandhamal, December 2007
The violence in Kandhamal in December 2007 and that which commenced in August 2008 were interconnected as events in the Hindu nationalist targeting of the Christian minority community in Orissa. Between December 24 and 26, 2007 a total of five parish churches, 48 village churches, five convents, four presbyteries, seven hostels, one vocational training centre and one leprosy centre were burnt and destroyed. Over 500 houses were burnt, looted or destroyed; 126 shops/other properties were destroyed. Several were killed and injured.

Swami Lakshmanananda’s murder, August 2008
The purported trigger for the violence in Kandhamal commencing on August 24, 2008 was the murder of Swami Lakshmanananda the previous day. On the evening of Saturday, August 23, 2008 Swami Lakshmanananda Saraswati was killed at his ashram in Jalespata in Kandhamal district along with four others, including three fellow leaders of the VHP. The swami had lodged a first information report (FIR) 48 hours prior to the attack, seeking adequate security arrangements, based on letters of threat to his life. The attackers, estimated at 30 gunmen, were suspected Maoist insurgents, based on the manner of the attack and a letter found at the ashram. The government announced a special investigation into the attack.

Despite the media’s announcement the next day, quoting police sources, that Maoist involvement in the killings was suspected, the sangh parivar, including the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Orissa, alleged that “extremist Christian groups” were responsible for the violence. They cited Lakshmanananda’s claims that Christians were trying to eliminate him for his opposition to conversion and had attacked him eight times in the past. On August 28, 2008 some media outlets, the VHP office in Gajapati district of Orissa and the Bajrang Dal received a letter from a Maoist group. Soon after the appearance of the said letter, Azad – a leader of the Maoist People’s Liberation Guerrilla Army – claimed responsibility for the murder of Lakshmanananda. A leader of the Communist Party of India (Maoist), Sabyasachi Panda, also claimed that they had killed the swami and four of his disciples. However, on October 7, 2008 the Orissa police announced that they had arrested three Christians in connection with the murders. As the media reported, there was no post-mortem done on any of the four bodies of the deceased persons.

While a Maoist group claimed responsibility for his killing, Maoist groups had largely not been operational in the riot-impacted areas. The swami had been involved in creating a confrontational situation between Hindutva workers, Adivasis and Maoists in the area. In mid-September 2008 national RSS leader, KS Sudarshan, alleged the involvement of “foreign hands” in the mobilisation of the church and Maoists against Hindus. Maoists began to be uniformly named as “terrorists” and certain members of the Christian community who were associated with Maoists were labelled “Christian Maoists”.
History of attacks against Christians in Orissa

A history of attacks against members of the Christian community in Orissa between 1986 and 2004 was presented by Fr Ajay Singh to the tribunal, illustrating that the 2008 violence in Kandhamal was not the first or the only instance of attacks on Christians in the state.
Many victim survivors who testified before the tribunal had suffered attacks both during the December 2007 violence as well as the August 2008 violence.

Between July and December 2007, Hindutva forces organised rallies that travelled across Kandhamal, raising sentiments against Christians in the district. In December 2007, massive attacks took place, causing several deaths, looting of, damage to and destruction of several hundred houses, churches, shops, educational and health institutions. The violence that commenced in August 2008 is thus a part of the continued attacks on Christians perpetrated by Hindutva forces.

Forms of violence
Physical violence
Some narratives of victim survivors before the tribunal contained references to multiple killings and brutal assaults, indicating the widespread nature of such violence. Indira Digal’s testimony below contained such references:
“On August 26, 2008 an armed mob of more than 4,000 people came again to the village, encircling the area from all directions… Christian people desperately escaped, running into forests, trying to save their lives. The culprits did not leave them any chance for running away. This time the rioters had plenty of guns in addition to axes, daggers, swords. They used their weapons, shot and killed two Christians, Prafulla Nayak, 55, and Ajaba Digal, 20. The murderers did not stop their atrocities and a woman named Sulochana received a deep cut on the head with a dagger.

“I, with other Christians, reached the Orissa State Armed Police camp at the school of the village. During this escape seven more persons [Prasad Digal, Gilap Nayak, Choi Nayak, Prafulla Nayak, Ratikant Digal, Ajab Nayak and one more] were shot and sustained grievous injuries. Later, they were taken to the hospital for treatment and were saved.

“In addition, some members of the mob caught hold of a young girl named Manini Digal, aged about 20. They removed her clothes and made her naked in public view. They even tried to rape her publicly but she protested and resisted. Thereafter, in lust and anger, they poured kerosene/diesel on her and set fire to her body. The lonely girl suffered alone with all these humiliations and pain while the antisocial people were enjoying her suffering. Though her life is saved, she is more than 60 per cent burnt and is under treatment…” (Indira Digal)

Many people were killed or grievously injured due to the assaults by violent mobs. A woman from Petapanga village in Raikia block narrated to a team from Nirmala Niketan College that her eldest brother was stopped by some people who asked him if he was a Christian. When he said yes, they killed him. When the family received his body, they found 27 stab wounds on it, all made by different weapons. There were also burns on his body. The family learnt that they stabbed him and then dragged his body around before trying to burn it.

There are several narratives which speak of sexual and gender-based violence. The attack on Sulokshana, a permanent resident of Barakhama village, Balliguda block, is one such case. Sulokshana said that when she was in her relative’s house, around 50 attackers entered the house and attacked all the people in the house. A 20-year old girl was being raped by five-six of the attackers. Sulokshana was hiding in the house but seeing the girl’s condition, she intervened to rescue her but was in turn also attacked. Sulokshana was sexually abused by the attackers who severely assaulted her on her abdomen. She was assaulted at five places on her head with an axe, became unconscious and was admitted to the government hospital at Phulbani for five days. Due to the severity of the injuries, she was subsequently transferred to a hospital in Berhampur. She has undergone three surgeries, including of her head and stomach.

The Jan Vikas, Orissa, report stated that although 86 people across the district were killed over a period of 120 days, proving how fearlessly and freely people were attacked, the government has confirmed a total death toll of 54 people who have been considered for death compensation. The Multiple Action Research Group (MARG), New Delhi, report, based on various figures stated by different sources, states that between 75 and 123 people were killed and many more injured.

Psychological violence
Among the facets of the psychological violence faced by the victim survivors is the continued threat, intimidation and insecurity, causing obstacles to their return to their places of habitual residence, forcing victim survivors to reside in hiding or preventing a life of dignity and peace upon their return.
The National Commission for Minorities, which visited Kandhamal in September 2008 and interacted with victim survivors in the relief camps, made the following observation in its report: “In every camp I visited, the main feeling was one of despair and hopelessness at the cruel turn of events. Practically everyone complained of the threats they had received that their return to their homes was predicated on their acceptance of the Hindu religion. I was even shown a letter addressed by name to one woman, stating that the only way she could return to her home and property again was if she returned to the village as Hindu.”

While all victim survivors suffered psychological violence pursuant to personal attacks or attacks/killings of their family members or by witnessing the brutal violence perpetrated on others, the mental trauma and other psychosocial problems faced by children and women has been particularly marked yet largely ignored.

Burning of residential premises
During the violence in Kandhamal residential property of Dalit and Adivasi Christians was burnt, destroyed entirely or damaged extensively. An illustrative example is that of Gajanan Digal of Shankarakhol village, Tikabali block, whose house was completely burnt down during the violence.
After conducting a household survey in Kandhamal district, Jan Vikas said that close to 5,000 houses were ruined – it puts the figure of fully and partially damaged houses at 4,864 while the government data states it to be 4,588.

Vandalism and looting of movable property
The vandalism and destruction of movable properties such as household articles, valuables, documents and certificates and looting of ornaments and cash was a recurring experience in survivor testimonies of the violence. Chanchla Nayak deposed to the tribunal as follows: “…a large crowd of about 3,000 people led by leaders of the Bajrang Dal such as Rinku Mishra, Chaita Bindhani, Dhiru Sahoo, Bhagwan Panda, began to attack and loot our houses. Once again we Christians tried to escape from the village, Barakhama. The rioters looted, destroyed and set fire to my house. All valuables of my family, including certificates, documents, money, ornaments and utensils, were completely destroyed.”

The importance given by victim survivors to their valuable documents is in complete contrast to the callous attitude of the police in registering such complaints, as is apparent from Rajnikant’s experience. Rajnikant Pradhan of Bapuria village fled from his house along with his wife as the violence started. In his hurry to flee, he could not carry valuable documents such as his vehicle registration papers, driving licence and his wife’s education certificates. He tried to register a complaint about the lost documents and household possessions at G. Udayagiri. He was asked to visit the police station a second time, only to be shunted to Tikabali police station and thereafter to Sarangada police station, on the pretext that Bapuria did not fall within the jurisdictions of the former two police stations. Despite repeated attempts, the police at Sarangada police station refused to register his complaint and are quoted to have informed him that they were taking complaints “only about those who have gone up (been killed)” and directed him to return to the relief camp.

Between July-December 2007, Hindutva forces organised rallies across Kandhamal, raising sentiments against Christians in the district. In December 2007, massive attacks took place, causing several deaths, looting, damage and destruction of several hundred houses, churches, shops, educational and health institutions. The violence in 2008 is thus a part of the continued attacks on Christians perpetrated by Hindutva forces.

Destruction and damage of places of worship
Many churches and prayer halls were damaged and destroyed and the religious artefacts desecrated. The Jan Vikas survey indicates that at least 264 churches and prayer halls were damaged while the government data states that 196 such places of worship were damaged. The Jan Vikas and MARG reports contain many photographs of damaged and destroyed places of worship of the Christian community.

Fr Basil Kullu’s description of the manner in which the Catholic church at Madhupur, Bargarh district, was attacked by the violent mob is perhaps representative of the nature of violence perpetrated: “…They started destroying the Kanski Dungri Maria grotto (Mother Mary’s statue), which the faithful venerate and respect. Then they came to the church, broke open and got inside the church and destroyed, damaged and defiled sacred articles, statues, places of worship, etc. They also burnt all the valuable documents, utensils, household items, clothes, boxes of the poor SC/ST children who were in the hostels. In front of the police and the deputed magistrate the rioters destroyed, burnt and ransacked everything, whatever they could in two hours. Many valuables were stolen. They completely destroyed the church, priest’s residence, hostels, convent, dispensary and Maria grottos.”

In addition to residential property and religious (Christian) institutions, it has been reported that many philanthropic institutions such as schools, orphanages, old age homes, leprosy homes, dispensaries, tuberculosis sanatoriums and NGO establishments were also looted, razed to the ground, burnt down and damaged.

Forced conversions
The MARG report states that during the violence in Kandhamal that commenced on August 25, 2008 there were reports of thousands of Christians being chased and herded in groups into Hindu temples and forced to undergo ‘reconversion’ ceremonies with their heads tonsured. They were made to drink cow-dung water as a mark of ‘purification’ and some of them were forced to burn Bibles or damage churches to prove that they had forsaken the Christian faith.

The ‘reconverted’ Christians were forced to sign ‘voluntary declarations’ stating that they were becoming Hindus voluntarily – a condition required by the anti-conversion law in Orissa. Others speak of being forcibly reconverted in order to save their families, after having been called to meetings where deadly weapons such as axes, swords and iron rods were displayed. They were asked to sign a piece of paper saying that they were “renouncing foreign religion”. The ‘converted’ were also forced to loudly say “Jai Shri Ram (Hail Lord Rama)” and “Jai Bajrang Bali (Hail Hanuman)”.

Scale of violence
The Jan Vikas report categorically states that more than 25,000 people have been direct victims who lost their family members, houses, properties and livestock. Valuables were looted, trees were felled, wells and water sources damaged, crops and cattle stolen; and hundreds of philanthropic institutions such as schools, orphanages, old age homes, leprosy homes, dispensaries, tuberculosis sanatoriums and NGO establishments were looted, razed to the ground or burnt down; and public/community infrastructure such as hostels, hospitals, community halls and anganwadi kendras (women and child care centres) were considerably damaged.

In addition to the statistics, the scale of violence can be discerned from the many testimonies of victim survivors who referred to the size of the mobs that attacked their villages. Chanchla Nayak informed the tribunal that a mob of more than 4,000 people came to their village, encircling the area from all directions. Prakash Kumar Nayak stated to the tribunal that a mob of more than 3,000 people approached their village. Manyabar Nayak spoke of a mob of more than 2,000 rioters who approached his village. Narasingho Digal witnessed a mob of 500-600 people approach his village. Lalit Digal, permanent resident of Sindrigaon village, Balliguda block, narrated that a mob of about 5,000-7,000 RSS men entered the village and broke all the 36 Christian houses in about 10 minutes. Sandhya Rani of Rudangia village told the Loyola College, Chennai, team that a large mob of about 10,000 people attacked their village from all four directions, leaving them very little scope for escape.

Brutality
One of the distinctive features of the violence in Kandhamal is the extreme brutality of the violence. Many victim survivors spoke of the brutality their family members were subjected to. Ranchi Pradhan of Tiangia village, G. Udayagiri block, narrated that her son Dasarotha Pradhan was killed for supporting Christians despite being an RSS activist. His hands and legs were cut off; some attackers assaulted him on his head with an iron rod. When he fell down and died in his neighbour’s house, the house was destroyed. However, his mother, Ranchi Pradhan, retrieved his body and protected it for three days from animals even as it started decomposing.

Attacks on senior citizens, children and pregnant women
The following testimonies indicate that senior citizens were not spared from the brutal violence:
“While running away from the house, I requested my old parents to come with us. But they told me that they are too old and unable to run. They also told me that nobody would harm the old persons. Thus both my parents stayed back at home and were brutally injured in the attack by the rioters… My wounded parents were taken to hospital at G. Udayagiri and then to the Medical College at Berhampur. Upon reaching Berhampur, my father breathed his last.” (Umesh Chandra Nayak)

A woman from Majumaha village in G. Udayagiri block narrated to a team from Nirmala Niketan College how her family had to leave behind at home her 70-year-old mother-in-law who could not walk, when they fled to the forest to escape from the violent mob. When they returned after three to four hours, they found that the perpetrators had stuffed chiwda (beaten rice) into her mouth in an attempt to choke her to death. She was in immense pain but alive. The family members tried to help her but were forced to return to the forest due to the threat to their lives. The old woman died alone, a painful death.
Similarly, children were not spared from being attacked during the violence. Sulokshana of Barakhama village said that her two small children were thrown around among the perpetrators as if they were balls.

Pregnant women were treated with extreme brutality during the violence. For example, the Loyola College report refers to an incident where a five-month pregnant woman was severely assaulted on her stomach and back with a piece of wood till she became senseless.

The jury, in its interim report, highlighted the brutality and heinous nature of the violence in the following words: “The jury records its shock and deep concern for the heinous and brutal manner in which the members of the Christian community, a vast majority of whom are Dalit and tribals, were killed, dismembered, sexually assaulted and tortured.”

Patterns, planning and preparation
The pattern of attacks on property and livelihood emerges from the following testimonies:
“When I returned from the relief camp after 10 months, I discovered that the rioters had burnt down two churches in my village, looted and set fire to all Christian houses. The rioters had looted paddy, goats, chicken and all valuables from Christian homes.” (Nalini Nayak)
Victim survivors’ testimonies repeatedly referred to the perpetrators wearing red headbands, carrying numerous weapons such as axes, daggers, swords, guns, crowbars, pickaxes, lathis, bows and arrows, lighted torches, bombs, petrol and kerosene barrels, trishuls (tridents), tangias (axes), pharsas (pickaxes), bhujalis (daggers) and bars.

Victim survivors also spoke to the tribunal of various aspects of planning and preparation for the attacks. Keshamati Pradhan, a social activist belonging to the Kuidina Forum for Peace and Justice, made the following observations to the tribunal: “It is sahukars [moneylenders] from the towns of different parts of Kandhamal who took the leadership in creating the violence, supplying weapons, arms and explosives like petrol and diesel to some of our people and also used them to create more violence in the district… The Hindu fundamentalists were collecting funds by means of illegal taxes from marketplaces.”

“The rioters were collecting rice and money from members of the Kui Samaj, some non-Christian SCs and STs, businessmen, traders and government employees of their communities since long.” (Premasheela Digal)

Preparatory meetings
Many affected persons referred to meetings held by perpetrators in/near their villages just prior to the attacks:
“The night prior to the attack there was a meeting at Majagada village organised by the accused persons. Next morning, the attackers, at around 6 a.m., came and pulled my father and started abusing, shouting in filthy language and dragged him…” (Narasingho Digal, whose mother, Priyatama Digal, was raped and killed and father, Meghnath Digal, was killed by a violent mob)

Survivor testimonies further referred to the complicity of public officials: “From August 3-20, 2008, I received repeated phone calls from Sohela police station inquiring about the registration numbers, places and number of different churches in my district. I also came to know about the series of meetings of the leaders and members of the Bajrang Dal and RSS which took place in Sohela town through a police official – Mr Sujit Kumar Pradhan of Sohela police station. The police were well aware of these gatherings, where the main agenda was about destroying the Madhupur church and killing me, as I was the church leader.” (Fr Basil Kullu)

A victim sits in the ruins of her home, Orissa 2008

Among members of the Christian community, human rights defenders who had established or worked in non-profit organisations are among those who have been adversely affected by the violence. These persons narrated to the tribunal the manner in which their residences and organisational premises were attacked, damaged, movable property looted, attacks and threats were made to their persons and, in addition, they were threatened by the mobs not to carry on with human rights activism.

Participation of women as perpetrators
A distinctive feature of the violence in Kandhamal is the mass mobilisation of women who formed violent mobs and perpetrated the attacks. Narratives of victim survivors before the tribunal referred to mobs of women attacking their villages. Women who were local leaders of Hindutva organisations had also reportedly convened preparatory meetings in villages where Hindus were instigated to attack Christians.
 
Destruction of evidence
Another distinctive feature of the Kandhamal violence of 2008 was the systematic destruction of evidence of the attacks. The jury of the tribunal specifically observed as follows in the preamble to the interim report: “The deliberate destruction of evidence pertaining to these crimes came to the attention of the jury.”
Some of the killings (attacks) narrated by the victim survivors to the tribunal, in which the evidence had been deliberately destroyed, are as follows:

• The body of Parikhita Nayak was cut into three pieces and burnt by pieces of wood, straw and kerosene; his half-burnt body was buried.
• The body of Rajani Majhi, the warden of an orphanage at Padampur, was burnt and, according to Nicholas Barla, who testified before the tribunal and quoted Fr Edward Sequeira, the lower part of her body was completely burnt so as to destroy all evidence of alleged gang rape.
• Ishwar Digal’s body was cut into three pieces and thrown into the river by the attackers, as witnessed by his wife, Runima Digal.
• Premasheela Digal’s uncle-in-law, Kantheswar Digal, was killed by cutting his throat and his dead body was thrown into the river and recovered only after some days by the police.
• The collector of Bargarh forced Fr Basil Kullu to remove all evidence of damage to and destruction of the Madhupur church and hostels and even sent some persons to clear the debris that was lying in the compound, indicating the nature and extent of the attack.

    
Attacks on Hindus who assisted Christians
It was brought to the notice of the tribunal that Hindu villagers who supported or protected Christians during the violence or tried to facilitate their return to the villages after the violence were also attacked. For example, the testimony of Iswar Digal refers to the killing of Sidheswar Pradhan, a non-Christian local RSS leader aged about 60, who was trying to offer protection to the Christian people and calm down the situation during the violence.

Kamala Sahoo, a Hindu Dalit woman who was a social worker associated with a non-profit organisation named Pollishree, narrated to the tribunal that her house and office were damaged and properties looted. Her son’s shop was also burnt after all the valuables were looted.
Satyabhama Nayak, a resident of Badapanga village, told a team from Loyola College that she had protected priests and nuns from the attacks by providing them food, shelter and clothing and that due to this, her neighbours discriminated against her and refused to assist her in any way.
The alleged sexual assault and brutal killing of Rajani Majhi, an Adivasi Hindu girl, is an instance of other attacks on Hindus. Nicholas Barla, an advocate and human rights defender from Sundargarh district of Orissa, stated to the tribunal details of the burning to death of Rajani Majhi, who was an inhabitant and warden at an orphanage run by Fr Edward Sequeira in Padampur, Bargarh district.

The tribunal also heard, in camera, the testimony of a survivor of gang rape and multiple sexual assaults. The victim survivor, whom this report will refer to as AB, is a Hindu woman who was gang-raped and sexually assaulted as revenge for her Christian uncle’s refusal to convert to Hinduism.
Couples who had inter-religious marriages were also targeted for attacks and threats of attacks. For example, a Christian woman and her Hindu husband were reportedly threatened and asked to leave Rudangia village, Tikabali block – a Hindu-dominated village that they resided in – or they would be killed.

The perpetrators
Almost all the victim survivors who testified before the tribunal described the perpetrators, their religious and organisational affiliation (RSS, BJP, VHP, Bajrang Dal), their appearance, the weapons they were bearing as well as the slogans they were shouting when they perpetrated the attack.
The perpetrators were not only men, as is usually the case, but, according to testimonies, consisted of mobs of women too, mainly from the Durga Vahini (women’s wing of the VHP).

Almost all victim survivors who testified before the tribunal have identified and named some of the perpetrators from the mob, including those who led the mobs, by name. The report of Nirmala Niketan College too finds that more than half the women interviewed were able to identify the perpetrators and that they were from the same village or local persons.

Forcible conversions from Christianity to Hinduism
Testimonies of victim survivors of the violence, presented before the tribunal, repeatedly referred to threats of being killed if they did not convert to Hinduism. Some such narratives are produced below:

• “We Christian families were made to gather together and Gaurango Kanhar, Basant Kanhar and Subhash Kanhar threatened to kill us if we did not become Hindus. Due to fear for life, we agreed to become Hindus. Two of our Christian families, under threats, got converted to Hindu religion. Rest of us eight families were forced to sit at the yagna [sacrificial rite] conducted by Hindu priests. We have been warned not to go to church.” (Narahari Kanhar)

The narratives of victim survivors presented before the tribunal also indicate that coercion to convert to Hinduism extended from villages prior to and at the time of the violence, to relief camps set up by the government.
The testimonies presented before the tribunal indicate that there were many victim survivors and their families who were eager to return to their villages from the relief camps partly because of the poor conditions in the camps and partly because their land, property and sources of livelihood were in the villages. However, many who attempted to return to their villages in the hope that normalcy had returned and that they would be able to reintegrate within their communities faced severe threats to convert to Hinduism. Those who did succeed in returning to their villages continue to live in fear of forcible conversions to Hinduism and impending attacks.

Role of the state and democratic institutions
There have been many questions raised about the role and responses of the state while the violence was being unleashed on the Dalit and Adivasi Christians of Kandhamal and other districts in Orissa. Was the state a helpless and powerless victim of the perpetrators? Was it a silent spectator and a mute witness to the orgy of violence and destruction? Or did it actively collude with the perpetrators to violate the human rights of the victim survivors?

Did the state and district administration diligently discharge their responsibilities to prevent the violence and protect human lives and properties, as mandated by the Constitution, domestic and international law? What was the role played by democratic institutions that have been established to safeguard the human rights of the people?

“The biggest question is: why was the procession with the dead body of Lakshmanananda and the communal forces allowed openly by the district administration, covering more than 175 km by [road from] Jalespata to Chakapad, when curfew under Section 144 [Code of Criminal Procedure] had been clamped? Who gave the order? Why was it not stopped and controlled? It was noticed that wherever the said procession went, the dead body was kept in front of Christian institutions and houses and there were inflammatory speeches against Christian communities. At that moment a group of fundamentalists went to kill and burn the houses of Christians…” (Mohini Nayak)

The NCM was also unequivocal in holding the state accountable for failure to prevent the funeral procession of Swami Lakshmanananda which inflamed passions and incited violence. The NCM, in its September 2008 report, observes as follows: “It was obvious that public reaction to the murder of a prominent religious leader like the swamiji would be extreme. Yet when options to be followed after the murder were being considered, there is little evidence that high-level political and official leadership offered guidance and support to the local district administration. Given the near certainty that a procession of over 170 km with the body of the slain leader was bound to arouse huge passions, it would have been proper for the senior leadership of the state to try to persuade the swami’s followers to avoid a long procession and bury him in the ashram where he was murdered. A reasoned analysis of the pros and cons does not appear to have taken place.”

The Jan Vikas report stated that Praveen Togadia, a national leader of the VHP who had been barred from entering different states for his role during the Gujarat carnage 2002, was allowed by the Orissa government to visit the state and the district during a very sensitive period. He arrived on August 25, 2008 and was escorted to travel a 300-km distance by road from Bhubaneswar to Jalespata and lead the procession.

It was further brought to the notice of the tribunal that the Orissa government failed to prevent hateful rumours from being propagated, which had the impact of inciting violence against the Adivasi and Dalit Christian community. The report counters each of the baseless rumours that served to increase the scale, intensity and barbarity of the violence that was unleashed.

Dereliction of duties
The following testimonies presented at the tribunal highlight the failure of the local police in promptly responding to violations and protecting human lives and property:
“On August 27, 2008… some miscreants with lethal weapons entered my house… forcefully dragged my husband, tied him to a nearby tree and burnt him alive in my presence… The incident was reported to the local police station by my son but the police did not turn up… Desperately, I watched the dead body for five days and also tried to protect the body from the dogs which almost consumed half of the body of my husband… The police came after 10 days and the body was taken out of the grave and post-mortem was made. Though I had mentioned specific names of the criminals involved in the incident and the GR case was registered vide No. 263/2008, no main culprits were arrested… No appropriate investigation was conducted… no initiative was taken to recover my looted property…” (Priyatama Nayak)

“Personnel of the local police camping in our village did not do anything to save us. Roads were blocked by rioters by felling trees. Personnel of the CRPF [Central Reserve Police Force] and Rapid Action Force [RAF], camped four km away, ran and reached to save us. If they had not arrived, all of us would have been killed and the whole village would have been destroyed.” (Christodas Nayak, whose wife was brutally killed by a violent mob)

In a group interview conducted by Loyola College at Katipada village, the victim survivors said that the homes of 32 Christian families in the village were burnt down. Villagers escaped to the forest and stayed there for three days. They said that the police officers from Balliguda police station were present during the attack but did not help the villagers and that they were silent spectators to the violence because they had some connection with and supported the attackers.

Dereliction of duties of police personnel has been officially acknowledged by the fact that five police officials were reportedly suspended in Sister Meena’s case [of gang rape in Nuagaon] for “misconduct and negligence of duty” on the basis of a joint report filed by the Kandhamal collector Krishan Kumar and superintendent of police (SP) Praveen Kumar. Further, in a letter written by AK Upadhyaya, who works as deputy inspector-general (DIG)-training at the Biju Patnaik State Police Academy, he accuses and names 13 police officials, including former director general of police (DGP) Gopal Nanda, of dereliction of duties in protecting the life and properties of the Christians in Kandhamal. He further recommended withdrawal of medals that had been awarded to four of them.

One of the distinctive features of the violence in Kandhamal is the extreme brutality of the violence… The jury, in its interim report, had recorded its shock and deep concern for the heinous and brutal manner in which the members of the Christian community, a vast majority of whom are Dalit and tribals, were killed, dismembered, sexually assaulted and tortured.

Refusal to register FIRs
Many victim survivors and witnesses deposed before the tribunal that the police had refused to register FIRs or had registered them in a delayed/incomplete manner so as to allow perpetrators to escape accountability. The police had also reportedly failed to take action pursuant to registration of FIRs, including arrest of the accused.

Indifference to the intimidation of victim survivors
According to reports presented before the tribunal, threatening of victim survivors and witnesses has been rampant and has reached an unprecedented level in the context of the Kandhamal violence, leading to a sense of extreme insecurity. Victim survivors narrated to the tribunal their experiences of approaching the authorities for protection from intimidation by perpetrators and their supporters. The following extract is an indication of the state response:

“I have already informed about the ongoing attacks and threatening in writing and also approached personally all the officials concerned like police in-charge officer (OIC), block development officer (BDO), tehsildar, district magistrate and SP, Kandhamal, but no appropriate action has been taken so far. I have also informed the matter to the chief minister of Orissa, DGP and also hon’ble governor of Orissa about the administrative inaction and protection of my life…” (Priyatama Nayak)

Collusion and complicity
In addition to failure to prevent, wilful negligence and dereliction of duty to protect, loss of lives and property, another aspect of state responsibility for the violence in Kandhamal is that of collusion and complicity of government officials prior to, during and in the aftermath of the violence.  
Testimonies of victim survivors indicate that the police and the district administration had prior knowledge of the impending attacks.

“The police and the district administration were aware of the strategies of the rioters before the incident took place because the rioters were organising meetings and rallies in the presence of the police and district administration in many places.” (Premasheela Digal)
Fr Basil Kullu of Madhupur church informed the tribunal that he came to know about a series of meetings of the leaders and members of the Bajrang Dal and RSS which took place in Sohela town through Mr Sujit Kumar Pradhan, a police official attached to Sohela police station. The main agenda of these meetings was how to destroy the Madhupur church and to kill the church leader Fr Basil Kullu. He said that the police was well aware of these gatherings, as Mr Pradhan had taken photos and prepared a CD of it. He questioned as to why nothing was done to prevent the violence despite prior knowledge of the attacks.

Fr Basil Kullu further informed the tribunal that he was repeatedly questioned by officials of Sohela police station about the Madhupur church that he headed, from August 3-20, 2008. He said that it was no coincidence that intensive inquiries about the church were made by the police a few days prior to the attacks and that the inquiries were perhaps a part of the preparation to attack.

Testimonies also pointed to police supporting, shielding and protecting the perpetrators prior to and subsequent to the violence:
“I gave complaints to the police, naming the culprits, but the police are protecting the criminals… The riots are well-planned and executed by the fundamentalists… The police are not taking sufficient action against them.” (Dashrath Digal)
“OIC, Tikabali, Mr Mahapatra, and one Mr Jena (police person) told me two months prior to the communal violence: ‘Your Christian leadership will not work anymore.’ Both of them were silent supporters of such fundamentalists… When the riot was going on, the RAF and CRPF were not utilised by the local police. Some RAF told us that the local police misguide us: When the message is given that in the east the village is burning, then the local police was sending the CRPF and the RAF to the west side. Due to the support of the local police, the communal forces went on killing and burning the Christian community.” (Mohini Nayak)

State participation in the violence was summed up by the National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights in the following words: “The local government by and large not only stood by and silently watched as the horrendous events were unfolding but in several ways, according to the eyewitnesses, facilitated the gangs indulging in the destruction of human life and valuable property. What followed by way of administrative action – controlling the situation, relief measures for the afflicted and punishing the guilty – could only be described as formal, ritual motions to satisfy the letter of the law.”
Threatening of witnesses and destruction of evidence

Testimonies of victim survivors further highlighted the active role of the local police, tehsildars, BDOs and other local government officials in threatening of witnesses and scuttling of justice and accountability. The testimony of Mohini Nayak is a case in point:
“I am a leader of a women’s group. My house was destroyed by a mob of 300-400 persons led by Manoj Pradhan, the local MLA… As I was giving evidence in court against Manoj Pradhan, I was intimidated and threatened. The tehsildar of Raikia, Mr Reba Sankar Mohapatra, is threatening me, telling that ‘If you give witness against Manoj Pradhan, I will initiate a case against you on Regulation 2 of 1956. So you better withdraw your case.’ Mr Debabrata Jena, the BDO of Raikia, threatened me to withdraw the case against him otherwise he would cut my name from the dealership list and I would be in a problem. The local officers warned me that I and my daughter will be raped in public and forced to leave the village if I gave my testimony as a witness to the crimes committed by Manoj Pradhan.” (Mohini Nayak)

Victim survivors also testified to the fact that the collector had actively connived with the perpetrators by destroying evidence of the violence at the site of violence.
“Only on August 27, the collector, Mr Suresh [Prasad Padhy], came to see but he was not at all feeling sad and was telling that they were thieves, not any religious fanatics. When I asked for police protection, plainly he said: ‘I cannot give for 15 days.’ Instead, he forced me to remove all the things immediately, what was lying there, burnt and scattered. Surprisingly, he sent some people to clean and remove things which were lying in the compound as debris.” (Fr Basil Kullu, chief priest of Madhupur church which was attacked)
Another manner in which public officials participated in the violence is by making false allegations and threats of imposing false charges on victim survivors in order to silence them and prevent them from pursuing justice.

Relief and rehabilitation
The public officials reportedly committed grave dereliction of duty through acts of commission and omission with regard to relief and rehabilitation too. Some aspects are as follows:

• Preventing rescue, relief and rehabilitation activities in Kandhamal;
• Failure to respect the rights of victim survivors in the relief camps;
• Forcible return of victim survivors to their villages; and
• Negative role of public officials in village-level peace committees.
•  

Processes of justice and accountability
Failure and delay in registration of FIRs
Testimonies presented before the tribunal repeatedly spoke of the refusal of the police to register FIRs. Extracts of some testimonies are reproduced below:
“I had sent the FIR to OIC, Sarangada police station, with copies to the subdivisional police officer, Balliguda, SP and collector, Kandhamal, and DIG, Berhampur, by registered post on September 26, 2008. But my FIR has not yet been registered by the police station at Sarangada. The kingpins and the culprits are moving freely and no stringent action has been taken against the accused persons as yet and still there is danger to my life.” (Paul Pradhan)

“I was attacked during the 2008 riot and my house was burnt. I lodged an FIR in the local police station, Tikabali, which was not registered against the accused persons… I have repeatedly sought help from the local police station for my protection but no action was taken in spite of my petition dated May 19, 2010 against the criminals with specific names like Dahia Mallick, Sudhira Pradhan, Ajiban Mallick, Mantu Gauda and Biranchi Behera. My petition was not registered and no action was taken against the accused persons.” (Gajanan Digal)
One of the major actions that the police are duty-bound to take, in pursuance of registration of the FIR, is to arrest the perpetrators. Many victim survivors spoke to the tribunal of the failure of the police to arrest perpetrators despite the fact that the perpetrators were named in the complaints to the police.

False complaints against victim survivors
Victim survivors testified before the tribunal that they had been harassed through the lodging of false and baseless allegations against them or threatened that they would be arrested on false charges if they demanded accountability and continued pursuing justice:
“While we were in the relief camp, the secretary of the Sritiguda gram panchayat illegally entered our camp and told us to become Hindus… He contacted the police and instigated a false case against me for which I was arrested and was in the police station at Balliguda. I contacted the SP and at his intervention, I was set free from the police station. But the false case against me is still going on.” (Manyabar Nayak, resident of Kritingia village, Sarangada block)

Investigations, prosecutions and trials
The factors that have contributed to the scuttling of justice are highlighted in the letters of Sampradayik Hinsa Prapidita Sangathana (Association of Victims of Communal Violence in Kandhamal). The association wrote a letter to Mr Naveen Patnaik, the chief minister of Orissa, where aspects of justice processes in the two fast track courts are highlighted. The relevant paragraphs are reproduced below:

“We are not satisfied with the legal procedures undertaken in the two fast track courts established at Phulbani which seem to be in a hurry to dispose of the cases without proper trial and witness examination…
“In most of the cases finalised in the fast track courts at Phulbani, the accused are acquitted. The quality of the police charge sheets is doubtful and therefore we demand a CBI [Central Bureau of Investigation] inquiry into the cases for proper delivery of justice to the innocent people.”

Intimidation of victim survivors and witnesses
The narratives of victim survivors before the tribunal repeatedly referred to intimidation of witnesses with the purpose of scuttling processes of justice. Extracts of some such testimonies are produced below:
“Even in the judicial trial, I was repeatedly threatened by the miscreants not to give witness against the criminals and also pressurised to withdraw the case. Even in April 2010 the miscreants threatened my relatives, to kill me and my family members and also not to allow me to construct my house though it was on patta land, if I don’t withdraw the case… I am in a terrible condition till today. No action has been taken to arrest the criminals and also no protective measures have been arranged for the safety of my life, to lead a normal life in my native place.” (Priyatama Nayak)

Some spoke to the tribunal of how they were forced to live in hiding while pursuing the cases in courts that they were testifying in:
“I have been threatened against giving evidence in the court regarding the murder of my brother… in fear, I do not live in my village and am living in hiding with my family.” (Bipin Nayak)

While some victim survivors have testified in court and continue to live in fear, others spoke about their inability to testify in court if they were not given adequate protection:    
“I have been threatened by Shri Gobardhan Pradhan who is a leader of RSS, VHP and BJP… I am quite unable to give evidence in this case unless I am provided sufficient security.” (Rama Rao Nayak)

Some victim survivors spoke to the tribunal about how they had complained to the judge and the police about the threats and intimidation yet did not receive any assistance:
“Myself and my elder brother have gone to Phulbani to give witness in the fast track court-1. We were threatened by Biswanath Kanhar, Pabira Kanhar and Ajibana Mallick, saying that ‘we will kill you if you give evidence today’. I had complained before the judge and the hon’ble judge advised me to give a complaint to the government advocate. Till now, my life is in danger and the circumstances are not allowing me to go to Phulbani to give a complaint against the above-mentioned people.” (Antaryami Digal)

Acquittals and sentencing
Victim survivors also narrated to the tribunal that due to the destruction of the bodies of the victims, the perpetrators have been convicted for less severe crimes. An illustrative example is the brutal killing of Ishwar Digal. Runima Digal testified to the tribunal that she witnessed her husband’s body being cut into three pieces and thrown into a river by a violent mob. When she managed to take the SP to the spot, nothing was found there. She said: “I identified the accused and had to force the police to arrest the perpetrators. Still only one person was arrested and prosecuted… He was punished for five years for abduction and not for the actual murder, as the prosecution could not prove the murder. None of the people who killed my husband has been made accountable till now. The other accused are absconding.”

Crisis in the justice delivery system
A report of a meeting convened under the banners of the Common Concern and Orissa Manavik Adhikar Suraksha Abhijan on the justice delivery crisis highlights the varied dimensions of processes of justice and accountability that victim survivors have had to contend with.

• “Public prosecutors (PPs) are mostly found biased against the victims;
• In comparison with the skills, influence, clout and number of advocates favouring the accused persons, the strength of advocates needs to be improved;
• Faulty and biased methods of police investigation, framing the charge sheets and presentations in the courts weaken the cases;
• Absence of social and physical security of the victims and witnesses inside and outside the court;
• The provision that in GR cases only public prosecutors can argue, while the victim parties cannot appoint their own advocates privately, does not help the victims in cases where PPs are biased;
• Show of extra favour to the accused by some judges harasses the victims and their counsel;
• Lawyers counselling the victim parties are persuaded not to continue their legal assistance;
• Witnesses are threatened/allured to turn hostile;

Absence of democratic and left parties in comparison to the dominance of the BJP and RSS helps the culprits and corrupts the atmosphere of the courts.”

Relief and humanitarian assistance
Preventing rescue and relief work
The MARG report highlighted the fact that an “appalling feature” of the Kandhamal violence is the blockage of relief material to victim survivors and the prevention of rescue, relief and fact-finding work among them for several months subsequent to the violence. In the context of the December 2007 violence, a notification by Manish Kumar Verma, the collector of Kandhamal, banned the entry of non-profit organisations and humanitarian agencies, including church groups, into the district. The directive was finally quashed by the Supreme Court in May 2008.

However, the quashing did not cause any embarrassment to the district authorities who, subsequent to the August 2008 violence, once again prevented relief agencies, non-profit and charitable organisations from conducting relief work among the victim survivors. On the impact of the ban, the report stated that the state not only abdicated its responsibility towards providing relief measures in a prompt and adequate manner but also ensured that help did not reach the devastated victim survivors and that the attacks against the vulnerable population continued.

Annapoorna Digal narrated that her family had stayed for many days in the jungle without any food and clothing. When they approached a relief camp in Balliguda, they were sent back to their village by the camp officers who told them that there was no place to keep them and that the water in the camp had been poisoned. Subsequently, 30 kg of rice, one kg of dal and a vessel were delivered to their house by the camp officers.

The Jan Vikas report observes that while the administration claimed that the victims are well cared for and protected, these camps were devoid of basic facilities. All religious, cultural, civil and political activities were prohibited in these camps and permission denied to nuns, priests and local nurses for months. Many reports speak of appalling conditions in relief camps and clearly suggest the state government’s indifference to the plight of victim survivors.

The Orissa state government’s act of forcibly closing relief camps before the victim survivors felt secure enough to return to their places of habitual residence or resettle elsewhere is violative of the right of internally displaced persons (IDPs) to safe return or resettlement with dignity, states the MARG report.

Forcible return of victim survivors to their villages
The Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom/ Women in Security Conflict Management and Peace report, based on the visit of a team to relief camps in January 2009, clearly indicated that state officials were attempting to return the victim survivors to their villages with little regard for their security and that there was a “very strong uneasiness” among victims to return to their villages according to this deadline.

Compensation
The state government had announced a compensation package that included an ex gratia payment of Rs one lakh to the next of kin of the deceased persons. After the August 2008 violence, the ex gratia payment was announced as Rs two lakh per deceased person, to be paid from the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund. Compensation for injury caused during the violence does not feature in the compensation package announced. The central government announced an additional Rs three lakh per deceased person as an ex gratia amount, entitling the next of kin of each deceased person to a total of Rs five lakh.
Referring to the compensation amounts announced, enhanced and awarded in other similar contexts, including the Gujarat carnage of 2002, anti-Sikh violence of 1984 and the Bhagalpur violence of 1989, the MARG report concludes that there are substantial disparities between amounts awarded by the state and central governments in other contexts of communal violence and that of Kandhamal. It highlighted the fact that there are no uniform criteria or principles laid down for compensation to victim survivors of communal violence, as a result of which the grant of compensation is determined arbitrarily by the concerned state governments.

Almost all the victim survivors who testified before the tribunal spoke of the wide disparity between the actual financial loss suffered by them, the compensation they were entitled to and the compensation amounts paid.
 
Compensation for places of worship
The MARG report states that initially the state government had been reluctant to compensate for damage to/destruction of religious institutions, stating that it was against the secular policy of the state to pay any compensation for the religious institutions. Due to the insistence of the NCM, which advocated for monetary compensation to aid the work of repair/reconstruction of the buildings, and directions of the Supreme Court, it announced a (measly) scheme for compensation.

Recommendations
Recommendations are generally made to the state government of Orissa unless otherwise recommended to other authorities.

Socio-economic and cultural rights
1. Apply the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act and other livelihood schemes of the state and central government to the affected community without any discrimination on the basis of caste, religion or gender.
2. Implement widow pension schemes and provide government jobs to individuals from families that lost their members in the violence on compassionate grounds. Reinstate/reappoint victim survivors engaged in government jobs prior to the violence and transferred to areas that they perceive to be safe and secure. Soft loans should be provided for commencement of small businesses.
3. Ensure that relief camps meet the minimum international standards of health, hygiene and privacy for IDPs… Provide medical and psychological, particularly trauma, counselling to the victims/survivors, with special attention to the needs of women survivors of sexual and gender-based violence.
4. Incorporate a separate section in the state policy on relief and rehabilitation that conforms to Article 3 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child 1989, as the guiding principle for all relief and rehabilitation work.
5. Recommend that the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights and the National Commission for Scheduled Castes and the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes assess the needs of children, Dalits and Adivasis respectively from the affected Christian community in Kandhamal and make recommendations to appropriate agencies at the state and central levels for ensuring their rehabilitation at the earliest.
6. Address educational needs of the children who have suffered displacement as a result of the violence.
7. Address the long-standing problem of landlessness and land alienation of the Dalits and Adivasis in a comprehensive manner through land reform and redistribution.

Legal and judicial process
1. Identify unreported cases of sexual and gender-based violence and include the offence of sexual assault in FIRs in cases where it has been ignored and ensure that they are effectively investigated and prosecuted.
2. Inquire into the acts of all public officials named in this report and pursue stringent disciplinary, administrative and other legal action against them for grave dereliction of duty and for collusion and complicity in the crimes committed by the perpetrators.
3. Strictly enforce Sections 153A and B of the Indian Penal Code to proactively prevent programmes planned by Hindutva forces within the state, that are divisive, propagate hate and incite violence against religious minorities.
4. Constitute a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to re-examine the already registered FIRs for accuracy, examine registrations of fresh FIRs, the trials that resulted in acquittals due to intimidation and/or lack of evidence and recommend the trials that need be transferred or fresh trials be conducted outside Kandhamal.
5. Appoint special public prosecutors who discharge their duties with professional competence and integrity. At the appellate stage in the Orissa high court a special panel of lawyers to represent the victims of the Kandhamal violence be constituted.
6. Recommend that the State Legal Services Authority set up a legal cell to assist victims in their legal cases and interactions with the police and courts.
7. Provide protection to victims and witnesses before, during and after the trial process, according to the guidelines provided in the judgements of the Delhi and Punjab and Haryana high courts. Take proactive measures to prevent threats of sexual and gender-based violence to women survivors and their daughters and pay attention to the needs of the child witnesses involved in various proceedings related to the Kandhamal violence.
8. Accord special protection to human rights defenders and adequately compensate the damage to their residential and organisational properties.

Reparations
1. Adopt, at the very minimum, the 1984 anti-Sikh and 2002 anti-Muslim Gujarat compensation package to enhance the compensation already announced. In addition, victims of sexual and gender-based violence should be included as a ground eligible for compensation and employment.
2. Recognise the right of the internally displaced persons to return home and create enabling conditions to facilitate such safe return in accordance with the UN Basic Principles and Guidelines on Development-based Evictions and Displacement 2007 and the UN Guiding Principles on Internally Displaced Persons should be effectively implemented.
3. Formulate and implement policies to provide victim survivors full reparations which include compensation, restitution, rehabilitation…
4. Include movable properties in the scheme of compensation.
5. Focus on revival of dignified livelihood options for the affected families and facilitate a resumption of the livelihood they had pursued prior to the violence.
6. Include members of the affected community, particularly women, in all confidence building and peace building initiatives by the state and district administration…

Minority rights
1. Protect the right to religious freedom and clarify that this freedom means and includes the right to remain animist, areligious and/or atheist, and make any form of forced conversion or reconversion illegal.
2. Formulate a policy/programme to urgently address the issue of institutional bias against the minority Christian community in Kandhamal and other parts of Orissa, through a combination of perspective building and stringent action that is intended at upholding the rule of law.
3. Review the Orissa Freedom of Religion Act to ensure that it does not violate the right to religious freedom as guaranteed by the Indian Constitution and international law.
4. Review the definition of the scheduled castes in the presidential order of 1950, on the basis of the discrimination experienced by members of scheduled castes even after conversion.
5. Implement the recommendations of the National Commission for Minorities, issued in the reports of January, April and September 2008, with immediate effect.    

(The final report of the National People’s Tribunal on Kandhamal, August 22-24, 2010, was released in Bhubaneswar on December 2, 2011.)

Archived from Communalism Combat, January 2012 Year 18    No.163, Cover Story  
 

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Systematic and brutal attacks on the Christian community in Orissa

Brutal attacks on the Christian community by Hindutva forces ravaged Orissa’s Kandhamal district during Christmas week 2007. As an unconcerned and partisan administration looked on, a coordinated and well-planned series of attacks was launched on Christians and Christian institutions across the district. While official figures claim that three people were killed, independent estimates state that the number of those dead is much higher, with several people still missing and many more injured. Over 500 homes, more than 70 church institutions and property worth lakhs of rupees was destroyed. More than 3,000 victims of the violence were housed in refugee camps where they are subjected to further torment and denied access to justice and equitable relief.

A preliminary report by the independent fact-finding team led by Dr John Dayal, member, National Integration Council (NIC) and national president, All India Catholic Union, which visited Kandhamal district, Orissa in December 2007 and January 2008. Excerpts:

A tragedy that was waiting to happen and a tragedy that could repeat itself: Urgent conclusions

•  The events in the Kandhamal hill district of Orissa during Christmas week from December 22, 2007 to January 1, 2008 are a story of a tragedy foretold, of political and official condoning if not actual support to the activities of criminals and political activists spreading bigotry, the ideology of hate and violence. It is also a painful narrative of police and administrative indifference, repeated complicity and consistent incompetence. And finally, it is the documentation of an utter collapse of the law and order machinery on December 24, 25, 26 and 27, 2007. So much in a state where Christians number about two per cent, less than the national average.
•  There is an urgent caution and a warning in the Kandhamal developments: Unless everyone – the union government, the Orissa government and its agencies, and religious, social and development agencies – wakes up and acts in concert, there is more tragedy waiting to happen. Like a coalfield fire, passions and tensions are simmering, wounds are suppurating. Only a judicial inquiry by a Supreme Court judge, assisted by the findings of a criminal investigation by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), meets the ends of justice.
•  It is beyond doubt that the violence was premeditated, pre-planned and the work of a well-disciplined group to ensure simultaneous eruption across the Kandhamal district within hours of the first incident and to sustain it for five days despite the presence of the highest police officers in the region. It is clear that the attackers were, in the main, upper caste non-tribals and non-Dalits who had migrated from other districts of Orissa and other states although some youth of the suppressed communities had also been persuaded to join the mobs. The role of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), Bajrang Dal, Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), the Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram and their extension organisations must be the subject of an intensive investigation by the CBI.
• The sequence of events is quite clear. The Christian community and its institutions were targeted for more than 48 hours with the police looking on and being physically present at the spot in many cases. The anti-Christian violence continued until December 27, 2007. The anti-Hindu violence in Brahmanigaon (Bamunigaon) took place more than 60 hours after the first church was burnt down.
• There are unique, unprecedented and possibly dangerous elements to the Kandhamal violence of Christmas week 2007 although the state has an unhappy history of recorded and unrecorded persecution of Christians, including the burning alive of Australian leprosy mission worker Graham Stuart Staines and his sons Philip and Timothy, and Fr Arul Das, in 1999, and attacks in the Raikia block of Kandhamal and other parts of the hill tracts of Orissa.
• This is the first time at least one Hindu Oriya non-tribal house cluster has been destroyed by arsonists, affecting perhaps a total of 97 families in the villages of Brahmanigaon and Godapur.
• This is the first time that there has been a reported incident of an exchange of fire between the police and a mixed group of tribals, non-tribals and outsiders in Brahmanigaon on December 27, 2007. It is in fact a dubious first for India in which Christians’ involvement is alleged. This by itself must be subjected to close study by academics and state organisations as also by the Christian leadership.
• This is the biggest recorded case of such a large number of Christian houses being burnt, in Brahmanigaon and Barakhama, other than churches, convents and hostels which have been targets of violence in other states, most notably in Gujarat 2002, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Karnataka and occasionally even in New Delhi, Haryana, Punjab and Kashmir. We have recorded over 200 cases of violence across the country before the outbreak in Kandhamal in Orissa.
• The burning of medical centres and hostels speaks of a criminal disregard for humanity and the welfare of the people. We were told of several instances where nuns said they and their patients were in need of food and medicines.
• This is the first time in history since independence that about 3,000 Christian men, women and children are forced to live in two refugee camps, eating boiled rice not fit for human consumption because of the quantity of sand and grit, and living in the cold with no toilets, precious little medical care and no woollens. In the camp in Brahmanigaon they share this misery with their Hindu brothers and sisters. The irony is not lost. In the super cyclone and other natural disasters that have devastated the state of Orissa in the past, Christian NGOs and church groups were almost always among the first to set up relief camps and rehabilitation projects for the common people irrespective of religion and ethnic identity.
• The quality of violence against the Christian faith must be recorded so that lessons can be learnt. It has to be seen to be believed. Hate so deep and pungent does not augur well for the country and, of course, poses an immediate threat to the ideals of secularism and freedom of faith, the right to life and the right to dignity enshrined in the Constitution of India. Church buildings are broken, nuns manhandled, priests chased away, convent cows killed as their straw is set afire. These are heinous crimes. The ravishing of statues of Mary, grinding her face underfoot until nothing remains but shreds, desecrating the Host which Catholics hold to be the body of Christ and vandalising of ritual holy material before setting everything on fire speaks of an ideologically cultivated venom that has percolated deep and will need deep political and social activism to quell, defeat and eliminate.
• The police force of the district failed on all counts. The government must ensure that in future police action is not thwarted by roadblocks (however big the tree that has been felled), communication failure and lack of mobility. It is a matter of regret for the people of the state and shame for the Orissa police authorities that several incidents of grave violence and heinous crime were committed while the police looked on. This happened in more than one block headquarters.
• It is a matter of regret that until January 3, when we spoke to the last police officer before leaving the district, we recorded extremely partisan, even bigoted, behaviour in senior field police officers of the rank of circle inspector and subdivisional police officer. Senior development officers of the rank of commissioner, in their language to the victims and to us, displayed a condemnable cynicism and bias against a minority community. We are happy to record that junior and young tehsildars (administrative officers), rushed in the last days, show a more humane nature.
• There is a continuing reign of terror. Many villages are now villages of women. The men are in hiding. Elsewhere, entire villages are deserted. Steps must be taken to create a situation in which the people can return to their homes and not live in terror.
• Despite four days of extensive investigation, we have not been able to speak authoritatively of the number of dead killed by arsonists, in clashes, in police firings, or of injuries. Two dead in Brahmanigaon and two dead in Balliguda are confirmed by the police – the one person killed in police firing remains unidentified. Any one dead body just confirms a single death but does not tell how many others may have died whose bodies have not been recovered by the authorities.
• Similarly, only major church buildings, particularly of the Catholic church, the Church of North India (CNI) and the Baptist church can be easily counted because they are along the roadside at major crossroads and towns. Independent Evangelical churches and mission stations of major denominations exist in villages that have still not been reached.
• The state government’s claims of an overlay of the issues of Maoist activities in the region, the agitation of the Kuis and the Christmas week violence is not tenable. The presence of Maoists or Naxalites and the Kui movement are real in some blocks but the nature of the violence against Christians is in a group by itself. Whatever overlay does exist could have been overcome and much violence prevented if the authorities had not given permission for the hartal, or closures, on Christmas day, a date with which they are, and ought to be, familiar as educated persons.
• Attempts are also being made to present the incidents as a tribal versus Christian conflict. The evidence is to the contrary. The relations between Christian tribals and Christian non-tribals, Christian Dalits and Dalits of other faiths, as well as between Christians belonging to the tribal and Dalit communities remain cordial, as they have been historically. The issue that remains pertinent is the targeting of Dalit and tribal Christians by political-religious fundamentalists.
• It is clear that Christians, both tribals and Panas, and Dalits of various religious persuasions, are particular victims of violence. Persons opposed to the demand by a section of the community to seek scheduled status have mobilised and hijacked some of the youth of their followers to join the mobs in various hamlets and towns. The issue of scheduled tribe status must be amicably resolved with the help of a judicial or similar commission and through appropriate inquiry without delay.
• The government must also sympathetically consider the classification of a group of people who are being discriminated against twice over because of their religion. This is a group which was listed as a scheduled tribe under the British government and then listed as a scheduled caste by the state administration. Those of them professing the Christian faith are denied protection of the law and access to affirmative action programmes of the government on both counts. They do not get scheduled caste reservation and other privileges because they are now Dalits. And they do not get the privileges their Dalit brothers and sisters get because as Christians they are no longer supposed to be even Dalits. They remain in an inhuman, unconstitutional limbo, discriminated against just for their religious beliefs. This discrimination must end forthwith if the guarantees of freedom of faith under the United Nations Charter and the Indian Constitution are to have any meaning.
• The Government of India, the Supreme Court of India and other state agencies must take notice and learn their lesson. Peace committees as being constituted are not the answer. They have lost credibility. Victims have lost faith in committees constituted of their persecutors. Truth and reconciliation and an entirely unbiased state are the answer. Everyone has a role to play in this.
• Keeping in view the deep distrust that victim communities have of local police officers, central police forces must remain in the area until confidence is restored.
• Peace and reconciliation will be possible only with justice and truth. The guilty must be identified and prosecuted with all the might of the state. Biased officials, as much as corrupt officials, are responsible for the lack of development in the Kandhamal region. They must be identified so that they are never again in command positions where they can join with communal political elements pursuing their agenda of hate. There are many wise suggestions contained in the Justice Wadhwa Commission report that inquired into the murders of the Staines family, as also in reports by other commissions set up in the aftermath of communal incidents in other states. They need to be implemented, especially those relating to the police and the administration, and fundamentalist organisations, if Orissa is to remain peaceful.
• Orissa does not have forums such as a State Minorities Commission that can move fast to restore confidence. A State Minorities Commission, as recommended by the National Commission for Minorities, must be set up soon with statutory powers.
• Relief too must consist of materials and compensation according to national standards set in states that see communal violence and persecution, and it must also contain compassion, fairness and transparency.
• Irrespective of the sloganeering by Swami Lakshmanananda Saraswati who has made Kandhamal his home in recent years with the avowed objective of purging the region of every Christian presence, Christians are not enemies of the people of India or of the state. To say, as he says repeatedly even in the presence of the police, ‘Whosoever converts to Christianity becomes an enemy’, is a crime under the law of the land. To say ‘Christians will not be tolerated’. And to say it on national satellite channels is equally a crime. Action must be taken in the interests of justice and protecting the Constitution. This saintly gentleman is obviously not just above the law but is the law in the area, judging by the attitude of the police and local administrative officers towards him.
• National TV channels and segments of the local media need to introspect on whether in their reportage of the Kandhamal developments they have observed the code of ethics of the Editors Guild of India and practices observed in their reporting. Secularism, fairness and truth must remain part of the training of media persons in media institutions as well as in print, television and cyber media organisations as an ongoing process. It is interesting to note that video interviews of Lakshmanananda Saraswati were filmed by a private videographer, a known activist of the RSS, within the premises of a medical centre belonging to another RSS activist, and the tape was then telecast without further corroboration. In the tape Lakshmanananda Saraswati repeatedly said, "When people become Christians they become enemies, they become enemies of the nation. I will not tolerate this" (translated from the Hindi/Oriya). This statement, assiduously propagated, went a long way in fanning the fires.

Statistics of the violence

Deaths: Police confirm three deaths – One in police firing (unidentified but unofficially listed as Christian by the police) and two (one Hindu, one Christian) in Barakhama and Brahmanigaon. Human rights activists understand that six persons have died in the police firing in Brahmanigaon. The bodies have not been found, and are presumed to have been taken away by the mob. There have been no deaths reported in the arson although several priests and nuns had a close encounter with death.

Missing: There are persons reported missing from almost every hamlet. This is the subject of long-term investigations. Many have fled out of fear of the police. Some are safe with relatives. Others are in police custody with the police not admitting or confirming this. It will take many weeks before a count becomes possible.

It is beyond doubt that the violence was premeditated, pre-planned and the work of a well-disciplined group to ensure simultaneous eruption across the Kandhamal district within hours of the first incident and to sustain it for five days despite the presence of the highest police officers in the region.

Arson: Fire was the instrument of choice. The arsonist mob was well motivated, well armed and had come prepared with weapons and sharp iron implements.

Preliminary list of properties/places destroyed and desecrated:

Church institutions destroyed (Total: 71)

• Parish churches (five):

Balliguda; Brahmanigaon; Sankharakhole; Pobingia; Padangi

• Village churches (48):

Bodagan–Balliguda; Balliguda town; Kamapada–Balliguda; Mandipanka–Godapur; Jhinjirguda–Brahmanigaon; Ulipadaro–Brahmanigaon; Goborkutty–Kattingia; Kulpakia–Nuagaon; Dohapanga–Balliguda; seven churches in Sirtiguda–Balliguda; four churches in Phiringia; seven churches in Phulbani; four churches in Ruthungia; four churches in Kalingia; two churches in Tikabali, four village churches in Nuagaon; three other village churches; Boriguda (Padangi); Bakingia (Raikia); Dalagaon; Iripiguda. (This list of village churches is not exhaustive for reasons of topography and accessibility.)

• Convents (five):

Balliguda; Pobingia; Phulbani; Brahmanigaon; Sankharakhole

• Presbytery (four):

Balliguda; Pobingia; Brahmanigaon; Padangi

• Hostels (seven):

Pobingia – two; Balliguda – two; Brahmanigaon – two; Minor seminary (Balliguda)

• Others (two):

Vocational Training Centre (Balliguda); Sarsananda, leprosy centre (Pobingia)

Houses looted and destroyed/burnt (Total: over 500)

• 400 houses looted and destroyed in Barakhama; Tractors, cycles, motorcycles, shop goods, burnt
• 31 Christian houses burnt in Brahmanigaon
• 67 Hindu houses burnt in Brahmanigaon Oriyasahi
• 30 Christian houses burnt in Ulipadaro (Brahmanigaon)

(Arson in Phiringia, which continues (beyond the initial phase of violence), is political, involving supporters and opponents of former Orissa minister Padmanabha Behera and the caste issue.)

Shops /other properties destroyed (Total: 126)

• Brahmanigaon – 81
• Godapur – 25
• Barakhama – 20

Vehicles and other properties destroyed: Survey not yet done

Animals killed: One cow, black Jersey milch cattle, Balliguda convent, consequent to arson

Violence affected revenue blocks, Kandhamal district

Daringbari block; Balliguda block; Phiringia block; Phulbani block; Tikabali block; Khajuripoda block; Nuagaon block; Gumsar Udaigiri block; Tumudibandha block; Kothaghar block

Relief camps: The Government of Orissa has set up two relief camps, in Barakhama and in Brahmanigaon, in school buildings. The conditions in both camps are inhuman and shameful, particularly the utter lack of regard for the needs of women, children and the ill. Despite its experience of natural calamities, the government has not learnt lessons in immediate succour and assistance to the distressed and needy. We find it incomprehensible that the union home minister and the Orissa chief minister came to Barakhama in a helicopter, came to the relief camp and chose to sit under a shamiana, or tent, and talk to the people across a rope. They did not walk down a few metres to the classrooms where the injured and the ill lay. Nor did they even bother to look at the cooked rice, full of grit, which the people had to eat for want of anything else.

Calendar, chronicle and narratives of the violence

• Brahmanigaon, December 9, 2007

Swami Lakshmanananda Saraswati, commonly referred to as Swamiji, visited Brahmanigaon and had a secret meeting with the Bighneswaro Banika Sangh who are members of the RSS and VHP. The situation was tense in and around Brahmanigaon from that day onwards.

• Brahmanigaon, December 19, 2007

Permission for Christmas celebrations was obtained from the subcollector and CI office, Balliguda.

• Church youth and the Dr BR Ambedkar Banika Sangh took permission for Christmas celebrations. Officials approved it. The police circle inspector and subdivisional police officer (SDPO) inspected the site and approved it. They promised protection from December 23.
• Brahmanigaon, December 21, 2007

The SDPO visited Brahmanigaon. Christian elders met the SDPO and apprised him of the situation; he also assured them of his participation in the celebrations. The SDPO had called leaders of both communities, Hindus and Christians, for the meeting but the Hindus did not attend.

• Bhubaneswar, December 21-23, 2007

The Arya Samaj of Bhubaneswar organised a three-day Baba Ram Dev yoga programme at Capital High School, Unit III, Bhubaneswar. Twenty-five to 30 busloads of people were brought in from Kandhamal for the purpose.

On December 22, all RSS presidents from every panchayat of Kandhamal district attended a secret meeting held from 11.00 a.m. to 6.00 p.m. at an unknown location.

On the evening of December 23, once the yoga programme concluded, attendees returned to their respective homes. And from the morning of December 24, attacks began on the various church communities.

• Kandhamal district headquarters, December 22, 2007

The Christian Jana Kalyan Samaj of Kandhamal met the collector and Kandhamal district SP (superintendent of police), Narasingh Bhol. They handed over a written statement protesting the bandh called on December 25 and 26 at Kandhamal and asking that Christians be allowed to observe Christmas.

• Brahmanigaon, December 22, 2007

The SP visited Brahmanigaon to inquire into the situation, saw how matters stood but did not station any additional police forces there.

• Brahmanigaon, December 23, 2007

The police force of the district failed on all counts. The government must ensure that in future police action is not thwarted by roadblocks, communication failure and lack of mobility. It is a matter of regret for the people of the state and shame for the Orissa police authorities that several incidents of grave violence and heinous crime were committed while the police looked on

Hindu youth told church women and youth not to put up Christmas decorations. The Christians showed them their government permission order.

• Brahmanigaon, December 23, 2007, 1.30 p.m.

The Dr BR Ambedkar Banika Sangh of Brahmanigaon together with six sarpanches of the area assessed the situation and sent a fax message to the district SP in Phulbani and then met him at Brahmanigaon. The Ambedkar Banika Sangh went to the police station and discussed the tense situation in the area. They also discussed the likelihood of a secret plan by Swami Lakshmanananda Saraswati and VHP leaders to perform a yagna (offering/sacrifice, puja) in front of the church.

• Brahmanigaon, December 23, 2007

6.30 p.m. – A member of the Ambedkar Banika Sangh phoned the district SP, requesting additional police forces in the village.

• Brahmanigaon, December 24, 2007, 6.00 a.m.

The sarpanches of six gram panchayats together with village heads went to the police station and asked them to allow the weekly haat market to be opened, which RSS and Bajrang Dal activists were opposing.

• Brahmanigaon, December 24, 2007, 7.00 a.m.

The ASI (assistant subinspector) came to the market and ordered that the market be opened.

• Brahmanigaon, December 24, 2007, 8.30 a.m.

The weekly market was under way. All of a sudden, RSS leader Bikram Rout, Dhanu Pradhani and others came and threatened vendors and customers, warning them to stop trade. They also ordered shopkeepers to close down their shops and there were tussles between them. A customer was beaten up by the Bikram Rout group. Christians needed to shop for some important articles as December 25 was Christmas day.

Some Christians were putting up Christmas decorations, a big pandal (temporary structure) with a crib, sound system, etc, for night worship. The same miscreants also went to them and asked them to stop the decorations, even warning the Christians not to have any celebrations. Here too there were tussles between both groups.

At around 10 a.m. Bikram Rout and others, RSS, VHP, Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram, Bajrang Dal members, came armed with guns, swords, iron rods and other lethal weapons and attacked the Christians. The Christians, who were unarmed, fled to the nearby forest to save their lives. In the process, two Christians (Sillu and Avinash) sustained bullet injuries. Some others were wounded by other weapons.

The local police were inactive and did not take prompt action against the miscreants; these events all took place in the presence of the police. The police station is just 400 yards from the church.

All the Christians, including the priest and nuns, fled to the forest, leaving all their belongings behind.

• Dasingbadi, December 24, 2007, 10.45 a.m.

Swami Lakshmanananda Saraswati, known as Swami, at Jalespatta, Tumudibandha PS in Kandhamal district, was travelling to Brahmanigaon in his vehicle when a private bus that was in front of his vehicle on the narrow road encountered some technical trouble and had to stop on the road at Dasingbadi, near the Dasingbadi upper primary school.

There is a small village church in Dasingbadi, not far from the road, where Christian youth were busy putting up decorations for Christmas. Christmas music was being played.

Hearing the sound, Lakshmanananda Saraswati apparently asked his bodyguards and his driver to go and have the music stopped. The security guards and the driver (who are government security men) went to the spot, got into an argument with the Christian youth and at some point pulled down the decorations and the sound boxes, etc even as the Christian youth confronted them.

There is no evidence of a physical assault on Lakshmanananda Saraswati. Because of the controversy surrounding this incident, there is need for a CBI inquiry specifically into this as part of a general probe.

Lakshmanananda Saraswati then went to Daringbari in his vehicle and took his security men to the medical officer, Dr Pradhan, at Daringbari Community Health Centre, claiming they were injured. He spent two days there, at the family planning office, looked after by Dr Pradhan (who is also a Bajrang Dal member) while the inspector in-charge (IIC) of Daringbari, Mr Pradhan, provided eight or 10 policemen to guard him. The IIC advised Lakshmanananda Saraswati not to go to Brahmanigaon.

From the afternoon of December 24, rumours of Lakshmanananda Saraswati being attacked in Dasingbadi spread across the district.

Dharmendra Pradhan and Surendra Sahoo, local residents from Daringbari, went to meet Lakshmanananda Saraswati on hearing about the incident, that there had been a tussle between his security men and Christian youth at Dasingbadi. They were saddened by events and proposed to have a peace meeting to resolve the issue. But there, in the presence of the IIC and other local leaders, Lakshmanananda Saraswati said, "Kranti no thile shanti nahi, Mote kichhi mado hoi nahi (Without revolution no peace, I am not hurt)".

At about 1 p.m. on December 25 Lakshmanananda Saraswati left the Daringbari community hospital by an official jeep via Soroda road.

An RSS youth, Muna Sahoo, who owns a video camera, filmed the statement and interview with Lakshmanananda Saraswati, which was then telecast on satellite television channels in the media.

• Barakhama, December 24, 2007, 4.00 p.m.

The Christian community, aware that some untoward incident could well take place, started their Christmas worship at 4 p.m. itself.

A group of hoodlums, about 2,000 people with red tilaks on their foreheads, armed with swords, axes, pharsas (hoes), etc and chanting ‘Jai Shri Ram’; ‘Christian manonku mari diyo (Kill the Christians)’; ‘Girija dhansa koro (Destroy the church)’, etc, destroyed the Pentecostal church that lies in the eastern part of the village.

Seeing the mob and the flames, Christian villagers started running towards the forest to save themselves.

Those whose houses were burnt belong mainly to the Christian community and they are now taking shelter at the Barakhama high school.

Frightened for their lives, the men are still living in the jungle and yet officials demand that the women bring their menfolk with them else they will not receive relief materials. On the other hand, when the men do leave the jungle to come to the camp, the police book them on false cases and arrest them. Moreover, the officers in charge refuse to accept the victims’ FIRs (first information reports) pertaining to the initial attacks.

• Balliguda, December 24, 2007, 7.30 p.m.

At about 7.30 p.m. more than 400 miscreants, likely Bajrang Dal and RSS members, kumkum on their foreheads, chanting ‘Jai Shri Ram ’ and bearing guns, swords, axes, pharsas and other lethal weapons in their hands, broke open the main gate of the church, abusing the few Christian youth who were busy adding the last touches to their decorations before Christmas worship. There was stone throwing.

The mob charged towards the youth shouting, ‘Salle Christian manonku jeevan re mari diyo’; ‘Girija dhansa koro’. Faced with the barbarity of the crowd, the youth together with priest, nuns, hostel boys and seminarians all fled to the jungle to save their lives.

The mob then collected all the furniture, material for worship, the contents of the hostel godown and various personal belongings and set them afire, burning them to ashes within minutes.

The school, hostel and sisters’ residence, which is in another compound, were also ransacked and set on fire. It was only with great difficulty that the sisters and the hostel girls managed to escape to safety. One of the sisters was caught and badly manhandled by the mob.

A cow died as a consequence of the arson.

All this took place in the presence of police officials, including the tehsildar, the BDO (block development officer), the subcollector, the IIC and others.

No police action was taken. No curfew was imposed in the district.

• Pobingia, December 25, 2007, 9.00 a.m.

A mob entered the church compound at Pobingia and burnt the church, presbytery, boys’ hostel, convent and girls’ hostel.

• Brahmanigaon, December 25, 2007

10.00 a.m. – A mob first entered the village church of Ulipadaro, then destroyed and burnt 30 Christian houses and severely beat Christian residents.

11.45 a.m. – A mob entered the main gate of the church, breaking down the grills, houses, church, the priest’s residence and other properties and setting them on fire.

• Brahmanigaon, December 25, 2007, 2.00 p.m.

Orissa, December 2007

Miscreants gathered once again, entered the market and burnt shops and houses belonging to the Christian community.

• Kalingia, December 25, 2007, Day

Village church was burnt.

• Tikabali, December 25, 2007, Day

Village church was burnt.

• Sarsananda, December 25, 2007, 10.00 p.m.

Church was attacked and burnt in the presence of a magistrate and 22 police personnel.

• Bodagan, December 25, 2007, Night

Church was attacked.

• Kamapada, December 25, 2007, Night

Church was attacked.

•  Kulpakia, December 25, 2007, Night

Church was attacked.

• Sirtiguda, December 25, 2007, Night

Seven churches were burnt.

• Phiringia, December 25, 2007, Night

Church was attacked.

•  Ruthungia, December 25, 2007, Night

Eight village churches were burnt.

• Nuagaon, December 25, 2007, Night

Nine village churches were burnt.

• Dalagaon, December 25, 2007, Night

Village church was burnt.

• Iripiguda, December 25, 2007, Night

Village church was burnt.

• Krutumgarh, December 26, 2007

Non-Christian tribals of Krutumgarh collected Rs 50 from each family and had a yagna in the village. After the puja they were dancing with weapons like swords, sickles, pharsas, etc.

• Padangi, December 26, 2007, Night

Boriguda village church was burnt.

• Sankharakhole, December 26, 2007, Night

A mob entered the church compound at Sankharakhole and attacked the church, convent and priest’s residence.

• Brahmanigaon, December 27, 2007, 12.15 p.m.

There are differing accounts, even from victims, as to how the Oriyasahi (non-tribal, non-Dalit, Oriya-speaking Hindu) houses were burnt. Some say villagers from the local area burnt houses in Paikosahi. Others say it was outsiders, even from outside the district.

The police have still not provided a coherent account about the direction from which the mob came, to the walled area where civilians had taken shelter or were being kept, and to the premises of the police station nearby. This is not an open area and involves rough ground, a narrow road and many houses. Police forces opened fire on the mob when two persons were killed and the crowd dispersed.

Because this is in the nature of an encounter between a mob and the police, with an exchange of fire, this needs a separate inquiry under the law.

There is also need for a thorough probe as to what happened to the civilians injured in police firing, as several rounds were fired. The police admit to one uniformed person being injured.

Illustrative testimonies of key witnesses/victims

Oral testimony by Father Rabi Sabhasundar, Catholic parish priest, Brahmanigaon, a native of the district

"The Church of Our Lady of Lourdes, Brahmanigaon, Kandhamal district, Orissa consists of around 1,630 members belonging to 217 families. Like any other year, this year, 2007, the people of Brahmanigaon were getting ready to celebrate Christmas. So they had put up a Christmas pandal and crib in front of Christian shops as they do every year. The Christmas pandal was adorned with lights and other decorations and had a sound system. A committee (Ambedkar Banika Sangh) had already received permission for the pandal-making and celebrations from the collector, subcollector and SP. As they proceeded with these preparations, with prior permission, on the eve of Christmas celebrations, the Banika Sangh committee of Hindu groups along with RSS president Bikram Rout, 40, son of Kishore Rout, Nuagaon, Brahmanigaon PS, and Dhanu Pradhani, son of Bainath, Jhinjirguda, Brahmanigaon, in order to disrupt these celebrations, went to the police station and complained repeatedly to the ASI telling him not to allow the weekly market at Brahmanigaon.

At around 10 a.m. on Monday, December 24, the RSS president Bikram Rout along with his RSS members and Hindu traders went to the marketplace and forcibly stopped people from holding the market that day. Earlier, the ASI of Brahmanigaon police station along with five or six sarpanches from the area and most market-goers from the village had come to the marketplace and convinced Bikram Rout and his group to allow the market to continue. However, soon after the ASI’s departure, Bikram Rout and his group assaulted several villagers who had come to the market, some of whom were severely beaten with sticks and iron bars. The group brandished their weapons, threatening to attack the market-goers.

Not long after this, a mob of about 200 people came running to the pandal with guns, spears, axes and many other traditional weapons and completely destroyed the beautifully decorated crib. They also broke, looted and burnt Christian owned shops. Some of them poured petrol on and burnt three motorcycles belonging to Christians. The angry mob also burnt a generator, the light and sound system and other articles of decoration belonging to people from Digapainy, Gajapati district, which had been hired for the Christmas celebrations.

During the attack on the pandal, a 15-year-old boy was shot. Another young boy of about 12 was brutally attacked and sustained sword wounds to the head. When the boy’s parents rushed to his rescue, both of them were also beaten, receiving injuries from iron bars and traditional weapons. Following this fearsome attack, many Christians from the locality and many market-goers who had come to Brahmanigaon from nearby villages ran for their lives. Taking advantage of their helpless dispersal, Bikram Rout and his RSS members along with Hindu traders and many other Hindus set out to destroy the Christians’ shops one by one.

On December 24, 2007, instead of celebrating midnight mass, most Christians, their babies and young ones in tow, took shelter in the nearby forest where they spent a bitterly cold, dark and sleepless night. On December 25, believing that the attacks would have stopped, many of those who had taken shelter in the forest returned to their houses. But the atrocities continued on that day as well. At 10 a.m. around 400-500 RSS activists, Hindu traders from the locality with many other Hindus from nearby Hindu villages marched towards the Christian street, shouting slogans like ‘Jai Shri Ram’ and ‘Jai Hanuman’, and hurling abuse, using all sorts of vulgar and threatening words like ‘Magyasala’, ‘Padry manonku jail diyo’, ‘Semango Church ebang anustano pudi diyo, Christian manonku hatao’, and then looted and burnt most of the houses.

After having completely destroyed the houses and their contents, they forcibly entered the church campus with guns, petrol, diesel, kerosene, bombs and traditional weapons and broke and burnt the doors, windows, statues, altar, several musical instruments, the lights and sound system, furniture and many other church and religious articles, including the Bible, and completely desecrated the church. Meanwhile, some of them entered the presbytery and burnt the father’s residence as well as two motorcycles, a generator, steel and wooden almirahs, all the documents and furniture after looting several lakh rupees worth of property.

After completely destroying the church and the presbytery, the angry mob went around in search of priests and nuns to harass and burn alive. Confronted with the ravaging mob of RSS activists, three priests, a deacon, a regent, two brothers, five sisters of the Holy Cross Convent, Brahmanigaon and four domestic workers ran to the nearby jungle together with many other Christians to save their lives.

It is especially tragic that all these atrocities, this destruction, took place in the presence of police forces. Till today, priests, nuns and others are hiding out in forests and nearby villages in sheer terror. Though the government has promised to provide relief to people of both communities, unfortunately only one community, Hindus, are given relief while Christians are neglected. When Christian women go to ask for relief materials, government relief officials harass them and tell them to bring their husbands. Having experienced atrocities at the hands of the Hindu community and then harassment by government officials, Christians continue to live in fear and trepidation. We don’t know how long this violence and cruelty will persist."

Statement by Sister Zerina, principal, Carmel School, Phulbani

"The school is situated only about two kilometres from the superintendent of police and collector’s offices in Phulbani. There are 550 students in our school, which was started in 1989. Ninety-eight per cent of the students are Hindu, there are only two per cent Christians in the school. There are four sisters, four Christian teachers, 13 Hindu teachers, two Christian staff and one Hindu accountant at the school. I have been principal here for the last two years.

I received news on December 23 that something would happen and also heard about the bandh called on December 25 and 26. I wanted to go to Bhopal for a meeting the same evening but a local shopkeeper advised me not to go that night or the next day. We then decided not to go to Bhopal at all. At 6.30 p.m. on December 24, some locals came and met us; they reported that automobile tyres were being set on fire at Madiguda chowk, just 200 metres from the school. At about the same time, the parish priest, Fr Mathew telephoned to say there would be no holy mass at the Christ Jyoti parish church. I also received a phone call from Sr Christa in Balliguda, saying the problem was escalating. The deputy collector, Arun Parichha rang to tell us that there was some trouble in Brahmanigaon. He said the vehicle of an RSS leader had been attacked and there would be more trouble and that he was monitoring the law and order situation. At about 8 p.m. Sr Christa from the convent in Balliguda rang me to say the convent in Balliguda had been set on fire. She asked us to pray for them. The sisters and I panicked. At about 8.30 p.m. we received news from Sr Christa in Balliguda saying they were safe but acutely suffocated because their premises were filled with smoke. That was the last connection we had with our sisters from Balliguda that day.

At around 9.30 a.m. on December 25, a Hindu teacher, Mr Sarangdhar came to the school to ask about my travel plans. Fr Bijya Nayak from Krutumgarh also rang up and warned us of a possible attack on the school, convent and parish. We rang up a neighbour, Mr Paul Raj from Sadhan, to ask for help from the police. Meanwhile, Sr Christa also rang and advised us to leave the premises and take all our important documents with us. There were a total of four sisters, two maidservants and two hostel girls who were also with us at the convent. At 11.00 a.m. I went for prayers. That was when Sr Rohine shouted, "They’ve come inside!" The mob was shouting ‘Jai Shri Ram’ and ‘Kill the Christians’. They all carried swords and other weapons. On seeing the crowd, Sr Rohine and Sr Hemanti jumped over the convent wall and ran for their lives. One of them sprained her leg in the process. About fifteen minutes after the attack began some policemen came to our school. There has been damage to the school and the school bus."

Statement by Fr Laxmikanta Pradhan, Catholic church, Balliguda

"At around 7.30 p.m. on the evening of December 24 a huge group of Hindu fundamentalists with kumkum on their foreheads and carrying lethal weapons like swords, guns, iron rods and axes in their hands, rushed to our church, abusing the priest and sisters in very filthy language. They broke the main gate and entered the church compound, started breaking all the Christmas decorations, pandal and worship materials. They then wanted to kill some of the Christians who were busy preparing for Christmas celebrations. We ran for our lives and took refuge in the jungle. From the hill we could see the flames rising up from our church, residence and hostels. Later, we found that the church and all the worship materials had been burnt down. In the residence and hostels too we found that everything had been burnt."

Setting up the fact-finding committee

The first act of violence took place on the morning of December 24, 2007 in the small town of Brahmanigaon, which has a police station, the office or the revenue office and other institutions. This is a major entry point to the entire Kandhamal hills region and an important marketplace. Some Christians own shops and are comparatively better off than others. They have mobile phones, as does the parish priest whose church was the first to be burnt down. They informed Archbishop Raphael Cheenath and his office, and they in turn informed others, including Dr John Dayal in New Delhi. Dr John Dayal and others immediately informed the national media in New Delhi and Mumbai. But it was Christmas Eve and news planners were focused on the celebratory and commercial aspects of the holiday season. The event did not get the coverage it deserved.

Church and civil society groups however were alerted, in swift order, the offices of the prime minister, president and union home minister were informed, as was the office of the chief minister of Orissa. The prime minister was not initially available but a delegation called on union Home Minister Shivraj Patil on December 27, 2007. President Pratibha Patil was met by the bishop of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and eventually Archbishop Cheenath and Archbishop Vincent Concessao of Delhi met the prime minister. Two public rallies and candlelight vigils were taken out in New Delhi as also in Mumbai, Bhubaneswar and other cities.

At those rallies it was decided that the facts of Kandhamal had to be ascertained in detail and without bias.

At a meeting of Christian and other activist groups in Bhubaneswar the fact-finding group was set up. The fact-finding team consisted of:

1. John Dayal, member, National Integration Council, Government of India, senior editor and political columnist and well-known national human rights activist with experience in many people’s tribunals and fact-finding missions.

2. Nicholas Barla, lawyer and human rights expert from Rourkela with experience in police and social conflicts in the state.

3. Hemant Nayak, social scientist and human rights and development activist, Bhubaneswar.

The team was facilitated by many persons at various stages.

The team made two visits to the district. The first visit was aborted at the Phulbani offices of the police superintendent on December 29, 2007 after having visited affected churches and convents in some of the areas. The second visit took place from January 1 to the night of January 3, 2008 and covered almost every affected area barring one.

It is important to record the circumstances of the first visit. We believe that truth must prevail and that facts, if unearthed early, naturally quell doubts and ensure that rumours are not given currency.

We noted in our press statement in Bhubaneswar on December 30, 2007: "I report with deep sorrow and anguish that I and a five member fact-finding team that had gone to the Phulbani area of Kandhamal district on Saturday, December 29, 2007, was forcibly expelled by inspector general of police, Pradeep Kapoor, who ordered the Phulbani town police inspector to ensure that I left the district that night. The town police inspector then made us follow an armed police escort for a one and a half hour drive in the dark of night until we reached the border of Ganjam district, where he left us. We could return to Bhubaneswar by 4 a.m. today, December 30, 2007, deeply distressed and feeling very frustrated with the experience.

"The fact-finding team was set up at a meeting of activists in the Swosti Hotel in Bhubaneswar on December 28, 2007, to get an authentic first-hand account of the developments and the violence in Kandhamal district because rumours, absence of authentic media reports and often inaccurate government accounts of the casualties had left people confused. There were also fears that lack of authentic information would impact on the confidence-building measures and the peace process. I was requested to lead the fact-finding team in view of my experience in Gujarat, Nandigram, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, the North-east.

"As a matter of abundant precaution, I wrote to the director general of police, Orissa, on December 28, 2007. I, inter alia, said ‘I am a member of the National Integration Council, Government of India, and the national president of the All India Catholic Union. I am part of a fact-finding team set up by civil society and human rights groups to assess the situation in the violence affected areas of Orissa for us to be able to formulate a people’s initiative for confidence-building and peace. The team, consisting of six persons including me, intends to leave Bhubaneswar on the morning of December 29, 2007 and return on the evening of December 31, 2007. We will have a night halt in Phulbani. We will appreciate any assistance and facilitation we can get from the Orissa police and in particular from the police forces of the district. I am sure your office will take the necessary steps and inform the district police of the area.’

"We drove to Phulbani on December 29, reaching safely and without any problems by about 5 p.m. En route we were able to assess the damage done to the NISSWAS School of Social Work set up by Dr RK Nayak, IAS retired, and currently a member of parliament, Rajya Sabha. We also saw the damage done to the Carmelite convent and the Carmel English School. Nuns we interviewed told us how attempts were made to set the convent on fire even as the nuns were cowering in a room they had locked themselves in. Two sisters who could escape injured themselves in the process.

"Later, we went to the offices of the police superintendent to discuss with them our onward journey to Balliguda that evening or early next morning and to see if there was need for curfew passes which are normally given to media and other groups. The inspector general of police, Mr Kapoor, the divisional commissioner and the deputy inspector general of police were present in the room. I was questioned in some detail, always very politely, by Mr Kapoor who wanted to know about my membership with the NIC, my credentials as a journalist and the books I had authored. He also photographed my colleagues and me with his mobile telephone camera. I gave a patient reply to every single question. I also pointed out that this was not a government inquiry but that I would prepare a report I would submit to the authorities and which would also help facilitate the National Minority Commission members who were scheduled to visit the spot on January 6, 2008. I reminded the police we were a peaceful group and our team included an advocate apart from interpreters with expertise in ethnic studies.

"Mr Kapoor was ever polite but remained adamant. My colleagues felt they were being interrogated in a police station. Mr Kapoor said he would not allow me to proceed or even to remain in Phulbani. He said it would not be safe for me or for the persons with whom I would stay. He said the Rapid Action Force had been deployed in Phulbani town and I had to draw my inference from this fact about the situation and tension in the place. I told him there was no way we would be crashing police barriers. It was not for fear of our lives but in deference to the rule of law that we would go. He was apparently not satisfied. He called the Phulbani police officers and ordered them to escort me out.

"The Kandhamal region needs not just media coverage and government relief operations. The rescue, relief and rehabilitation programme has to be done in a transparent manner. Already there have been too many complaints of police and administrative apathy, complicity and even aggressive force against one community, the victim community. Independent fact-finding teams and the information they give help in maintaining transparency and positively contribute to the peace process. I hope we will be able to visit and record the situation in every affected village as an important part of building long-term peace, harmony, and in ensuring relief, compensation and rehabilitation. – John Dayal"

We are very happy the fact-finding team could visit the Kandhamal region again from January 1, 2008, without police escort, without police protection, without official cooperation and with no help other than the goodwill of all people – Christians and Hindus alike.

(Non-government white paper on the violence in Kandhamal district, Orissa: A preliminary report of the fact-finding team led by Dr John Dayal, which visited Kandhamal district, Orissa, on December 29, 2007 and from January 1 to January 3, 2008. Released at Bhubaneswar, January 5, 2008.)

Archived from Communalism Combat, January 2008 Year 14    No.127, Cover Story 1

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The electoral arena in the 90s has taken a qualitative turn for the worse. The earlier electoral equation, Congress vs. the Janata Dal/Janata Party and its allies, has been replaced by a triangle with first the BJP and now the BJP and its allies as the base of the triangle. Of the two other arms of the triangle, one is the Congress and other is the declining Third Front.

Progressive groups and individuals are faced with a serious dilemma as far as voting in various constituencies and campaigning is concerned. Barring the Left parties — whose secular and democratic credentials are strong — and the other earlier constituents of Third Front — though they had earlier stood on secular and democratic ground, many of them now seem to be wavering — both the major combatants in the electoral battle field are tainted with communalism of different varieties. It is in this context that the stance of the Left in singling out the BJP as THE communal force, to be isolated and dumped on a priority basis, has come for criticism from certain friends and groups from the liberal, progressive and left spectrum. Bringing to our attention the gory deeds of Congress in subtly tolerating communalism, these radical elements are advocating equi–distance from the BJP and the Congress. I would like to examine the pitfalls of this equi–distance thesis in this article. Congress and Communalism: Right since its inception, the main thrust of the Indian National Congress has been to struggle for a democratic, secular India at the formal level. At the same time, there has always been a weakness to accommodate and tolerate communal elements, more so Hindu communal elements. Some of the major leaders of the Congress had strong streaks of Hindu nationalism. The important ones in this category include Lala Lajpat Rai, Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya and Dr. Munje (one of the founders of RSS). Many leaders of the Hindu Mahasabha were also the members of the Congress. Dr. K. B. Hedgewar, the first Sarsanghchalak (supremo) of the RSS founded in 1927 was formally in the Congress till 1934. In the pre-Independence era, the Congress acted merely as a platform, the dominant part of it being secular and democratic as represented by the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi and Pandit Nehru. 

Undoubtedly, Hindu communal elements within the Congress put pressure from within to supplement the agenda of the Hindu Mahasabha and RSS, to act as the opposite and parallel of Muslim communalism represented mainly by the Muslim League. With Partition, formation of Pakistan and the migration of theMuslim elite from different parts of the country to Pakistan, Muslim communalism in a way got deflated.But it did survive in the Indian polity, assuming strident postures at crucial times like the Shah Bano case etc, to provide much needed prop to Hindu communalism. 

The Congress underwent major transformation in the mid–sixties. Though it continued to pay lip service to secular rhetoric, apart from appeasing the fundamentalist sections of Muslim community, it did little to ameliorate the conditions of minorities. Also, the state apparatus started getting infiltrated by the Hindu communal elements — RSS trainees — who at the grass root level started giving a Hindu slant to the policies of a formally secular state. It is due to these factors that Muslims started getting discriminated against in jobs and social opportunities. They also became victims of anti–Muslim violence led by Hindu communal organisations, supported and abetted by a  ommunally infected State. The Congress was not principled enough to oppose and curtail this as a section of its leadership was either ‘soft communal’ or had no qualms in compromising with and promoting Hindu  communalism. 

During these years the principal project of the Congress was to build a strong Indian State. In this process it started suppressing ethnic and regional aspirations and imposed the Indian identity and laws on many
ethnic groups and regions by force. The Congress pursued the policy of relentless centralisation and intervened in state affairs at every minor pretext. This led to situations of insurgency in the Northeast, Kashmir and Punjab. In Punjab and Kashmir, the worsening situation was allowed to take a communal turn. The anti–Sikh pogrom led by the Congress in 1984 can be said to belong to this category of repression of ethnic aspirations of Sikhs. 

But as Aijaz Ahmed pointed out some years ago, Congress communalism is a pragmatic one that has been used by it time and again to ‘solve’ some other problem, for example, suppressing  thno–regional aspirations (Economic and Political Weekly, June 1,1996, Pg. 1329). They have to be contrasted with the systematic and sustained anti–Muslim violence whose ideological roots lie in the very concept of Hindu Rashtra. 

Hindu Communal Politics: The basic premise of the RSS is to work towards the goal of Hindu Rashtra and as its political arm, the BJP, is committed to help in the realisation of that goal. Since 1986, the BJP has pursued the aggressive agenda of Hindu Rashtra through the Ramjanambhoomi campaign leading to the demolition of Babri Mosque, post–demolition communal violence etc. Most of the inquiry commission reports on communal violence (Jagmohan Reddy, Justice Madon, Vithayathil, Srikrishna and Venugopal) have proved without any shadow of doubt that the various constituents of the sangh parivar have been the major actors in anti–Muslim communal violence. More recently, the National Human Rights Commission, National Minorities Commission and independent human rights groups have highlighted the role of most of the progenies of the RSS in anti–Christian violence. Lately, after realising that it cannot grab power at the Centre on its own on a communal, the BJP has ‘cleverly’ been talking of the need for a ‘National Agenda of Governance’ and a ‘National Democratic Alliance’ to woo the regional parties whose narrow regional interests and tubular vision does not permit them to see the core communal project of BJP. This temporary democratic posture of the BJP is merely for the sake of gradually increasing its vote bank/social base to be able to come to power at Centre on its own so that the agenda of Hindu Rashtra ‘in toto’ can be imposed on society. Till then the decent looking agenda will remain sprinkled with hidden agendas.

In the long term this elite, middle class party will freeze society in the existent social dynamics, taking away the rights of exploited, oppressed and those on lower rungs of hierarchy to struggle for social, economic and gender justice. The communalism of BJP is a cover for a gradually evolving fascism, with the aim of foisting Brahminical Hindu politics on the country. In the words of Aijaz Ahmed, the sangh parivar’s and the BJP’s is a programmatic communalism. 

Equi–distance and comparisons: It is not to say that the other parties are desirable, ideal and capable of sustaining the secular democratic programme. We have seen that the Congress could impose Emergency with ease and pass various anti–democratic legislation time and again. It has often compromised with and aided Hindu communalism. The other parties have also shown manifest inadequacies as far as perusal of democratic principles is concerned.

But all said and done, none of them is driven by the engine of RSS, a fascist organisation wedded to the concept of Hindu Rashtra — a Brahminical–Hinduism based nationalism akin to race based nationalism or Muslim nationalism. This is what makes the BJP a different cup of tea – nay, poison. Historical Precedents: As I have argued elsewhere(Fascism of Sangh Parivar, EKTA, Mumbai, 1999), the sangh parivar is a fascist variant with a number of similarities to European fascism which got strengthened, post–Mandal, in reaction to Dalit, OBC assertion in 1990s. 

In Germany, Hitler rapidly increased his social and electoral base by projecting the fear of a strong workers movement. The triangle there was: communists, Hitler’s National Socialists (fascists) and the Centrists – Social Democrats, akin to the Congress in India. In spite of seeing the methods and dangerous potential of Hitler, communists, who were a substantial force, in a way followed the electoral policy of
equi–distance from Social Democrats (whom they called social fascists) and the National Socialists (Hitler’s party). Though Hitler did not have majority he was able to come to power through negotiations as the opponents had shifting and divided aims and were unable to focus on the real essentials of power while Nazis had unwavering aims and had a firm grasp on ‘real politics’.

The Imminent Dangers: In view of what I have argued above, the BJP should totally be out of reckoning as far as electoral choice is concerned. Just because there is a vacuum of parties with decent secular and democratic credentials does not mean that one lands up supporting a party whose fascist potential is there without any shadow of doubt? What if the Congress, which time and again has used communalism to fulfil its political ambition, benefits from it? Surely, it is an evil whose magnitude is ‘n’ times lower than thedangers of BJP being in power. 

The equi—distance position stance holds no water. The BJP cannot be equated with any other party; it has to be an ‘untouchable’ for us — Historical revenge of the untouchables!

Archived from Communalism Combat, July 1999, Year 6  No. 51, Debate

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