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Nuclear India story continues
They haven’t stopped hurling bombs, or killing Christians
WSN Bureau
KANDHAMAL/NEW
DELHI: At
Ground Zero of Indian Hindutva terror groups' violence against poor
dalit Christians, there is no stopping bloodshed. Three persons were
killed in fresh firing in Gresinghia in Kandhamal district of Orissa
when cops fired at a mob during a clash. Stories of torched houses
and crude bombs are staple diet and Indian media has shown little
inclination to station reporters in the area.
But much worse
has been happening in the deep interiors as faith-fuelled fires
singe the poor and the vulnerable. (See separate stories on page
10).
Meanwhile,
terrorism too kept pace with
India at a time
when the country was trying to carve a space at the nuclear high
table among world powers. At least seven people were killed in two
separate bomb explosions in Muslim-dominated neighbourhoods in
western India. A blast in Delhi's Mehrauli area killed a little kid
who had rushed to hand over a black bag dropped by two bikers when
it suddenly exploded. Five people died in a blast near a mosque in
Malegaon in Maharashtra while two others were killed in an explosion
in the town of
Modasa
in Gujarat.
Stereotyping of
Muslim continued at a frightening pace and there were virtually no
moves by the Centre or civil society to stem the tide, honorable
exceptions apart.
 Orissa has been
in the news in the recent years because of the people's movements
against the mega projects in Kashipur, Kalinganagar, Niyamgiri,
Lanjhigrah, Jagatsinghpur and Paradip which have contributed to
large scale displacement of people. But the rise of communal forces
led by the Sangha Parivar took a serious turn ever since
anti-Christian riots massacres broke out.
Christians are
only 2.36% of
India's
population, but have a rich tradition of founding and running the
most prestigious educational and health-care institutions of the
country.
Fact finding
teams have found that in Kandhamal district alone 27,000 people
became refugees and started living in camps, while 101 churches were
attacked.
Some testimonies
made the point bluntly. A fact finding mission led by people as
eminent as Prof. Manoranjan Mohanty, University of Delhi, Prof. Amit
Bhaduri, Prof (Emeritus) JNU, Delhi, Prof. Kamal Mitra Chenoy, J.N.U
and
Ms. Seema
Mustafa, Senior Journalist & Editor, Covert, found that a Hindu,
Dasrath Pradhan, was killed because he preached amity between Hindus
and Christians. The team met his sister who told us "they first
called him for a meeting and then cut his body into three pieces."
The team also met his mother who was an eye-witness to this.
Indian media has
remained mum about all these findings.
The tensions
within Orissa and specifically within Kandhamal wre neither new nor
was the government unaware of these. In 1999, Australian missionary
Graham Stuart Staines and his two minor sons were burnt to death by
a crowd in Keonjhar district. Same year, Father Aruldoss was killed
by fundamentalist groups and last year the Hindutva forces unleashed
a reign of terror against Christians. That phase of violence had
continued for a month and left hundreds of houses, institutions and
property destroyed and several killed.
In the last
decade, violence against minority groups in Orissa has included
social and economic boycotts, forced conversion – 'ghar wapsi',
intimidation, murder, arson, rape, looting and other extra-legal
actions.
Now, relief
camps where Christian families have been taking shelter are under
attack. Two crude bombs exploded in separate incidents at Baliguda
and K Nuagaon areas on Sunday night, five houses were reportedly
torched under Gochhapada police station area in Phirigia block,
officials said.
With this the
official toll in the ethnic cleansing violence rose to 35 but actual
is much higher. Reports of bodies being found in the jungles are
trickling in with unfailing regularity. On Sunday, police found the
body of Priyatamma Digal, an auxiliary nursing and midwife (ANM)
worker, from the river. On Monday, the body of Meghanath,
Priyatamma's husband, was fished out. The couple was killed last
Thursday.
Instead of law
taking its course, negotiations are on. Officials are trying to get
Tribal Kandh leaders, Dalit Pana and Christian communities to come
to the table to talk.
Orissa's
population is 36.8 million (census 2001) and Christians are only
2.4% of the state's population. Hindutva mythogises the demise of
Hinduism raising the bogey of 'conversion' and creating a fear that
Christianity will swamp Hinduism. Hindu cultural dominance organises
Hindu nationalism. The Sangh parivar seeks to build a cadre that
targets Christians, Muslims, and Dalits. This conflict has been
camouflaged as a tribal versus Dalit one; it is essentially the
Hinduised tribals enacting violence against Dalit Christians. The
RSS has 6000 shakhas in Orissa with 1, 50,000 cadres. It has 391
Saraswati Shishu Mandir schools, with 1,11,000 students preparing
for future leadership. Vanvasi Kalyan ashram runs 1,534 projects and
schools in 21 adivasi concentrated districts. The sangh has
initiated 1200 Ekal Vidyalayas in Orissa. The structure to spread
the concept of Hindutva is wide.
The Sangh
Parivar's agenda is enabled by some staggering inquities in the
state. 47.15% of the total population lives in poverty while 57% of
the rural population is poor. In Orissa, about 2.5 hectares of
irrigated agricultural land is required for a family of five to meet
subsistence, while an average family owns about 1.29 hectares.
Kashipur, Bolangir and Kalahandi are known for hunger, malnutrition
and starvation deaths.
The timing of
these anti-Christian attacks is not an accident. With elections
around the corner, the Sangh Parivar is striving to cause communal
polarization in the society and polity, so that Hindus impacted by
the propaganda, would support Hindutva and the BJP. The fact that
these attacks have started in end August, almost in tandem, with
similar characteristics is clear evidence that these were
pre-planned and directed to the same aim: Hindu polarization leading
to BJP victories in the coming State and General Elections scheduled
for early 2009.
1 October 2008
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