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Orissa Violence – Kandhamal on Fire
"To have a first hand impression about the situation and steps taken to pacify it, delegations under the leadership of CM Naveen Patnaik, Union Home minister Sivraj Patil, Orissa Home Secretary and DGP and various other ministers and leaders have visited the place. But the situation has still not improved upto expectation as almost all political leaders played their own electoral card instead of pressuring the total machinery work with commitment to restore peace in the district of Kandhamal and Orissa."
Basudev Mahapatra : September 6, 2008
Kandhamal has become the focus of national as well as international media but for a wrong reason. The district has been worst hit by communal violence in the aftermath of killing of Swami Lakshmanananda Saraswati – a senior leader and central advisor of Viswa Hindu Parishad (VHP). This is the second such violence in less than a year’s time. The district had witnessed a similar situation on the eve of Christmas day 2007 that continued over a fortnight.
Occurrence of violence regularly challenging Orissa government’s claim of normalcy in the district has put both state and district administration in trouble. A fresh violence has occurred in a relief camp in Tikabali on the very day of visit of the revenue minister Manmohan Samal who belongs to BJP. As the events went, Tribal people and the other Hindu members met the revenue minister in the relief centre itself and demanded relief for themselves on the plea that they are poor people living in a miserable condition because of the imposition of curfew and 144 as they are unable to go to work in such a situation. Somehow, the revenue minister could escape the place being escorted by police. Soon after, over 500 women armed with lathi marched towards the relief centre. Apprehending that there would be an attack on the relief centre, police soon started lathi-charge wherein over 50 persons were injured including 10 shifted to Phulbani District Head Quarter Hospital and the nearest Medical College in Berhampur in a serious condition.
Now, tribal right, women right and human right activists are raising the issue of violation of right in this incident as male police and paramilitary forces have beaten up the tribal and hindu women.
Considering a case filed by the arch bishop of Cuttack for immediate hearing, honourable Supreme Court has recently expressed doubt over the steps taken by Orissa government to restore peace in the district and ensure safety and security to the people in general and the members of the community that has been vulnerable to the violence in particular. The apex court also raised question about how government of Orissa allowed VHP leader Pravin Togadia to visit the tension gripped Kandhamal district to attend the cremation of Swamiji when Union Minister of State for Home Affairs was advised not to visit on law and order reasons.
Believed to be in a fix because of its coalition partner BJP, Naveen Patnaik government finally filed an affidavit on demand of the apex court not to allow VHP to hold its Sankalp Yatra (Oath Rally) on the 12TH day of Swami Saraswati’s demise to make people take oath to work for the fulfilment of Swamiji’s desire of establishment of anti-conversion law and stop cow slaughter in the district. However, instead of giving an assurance, Orissa government has only offered a promise to work upto its best to stop the Sankalp Yatra.
In order to control the lingering violence in Kandhamal, the district is getting populated with central paramilitary forces and state armed forces. By now, 33 companies of Paramilitary forces are already deployed and 3 more companies are to be deployed by the centre very soon. State government has also deployed another 14 platoons of its own armed force to the riot hit district. But still situation in Kandhamal is tensed with almost regular occurrence of violence in different rural pockets. By now hundreds of houses and worshipping centres are torched and thousands are looted, ransacked and brought to pieces. When the government says that sixteen people have died in the violence so far, local sources counts it over 30 with chances for the number going up.
It’s already over a week that Kandhamal is witnessing series of violence since August 25 last and the administration has utterly failed in bringing it under control and restoring peace I the district.
The major reason behind the failure of administration is poor communication facilities in the interior parts of the district and large number of huge size trees on both sides of the roads which are cut by the tribal people to block the road and torch the houses they target. By the time rapid action forces reach the place and clear the road the attackers leave the place after ransacking and setting houses and other structures afire. It’s definitely a shame to come across the fact of poor communication facilities in a tribal populated district even after 60 years of freedom.
Media has also been very active in the district since the occurrence of violence and has reported every tit and bit of the events that have taken place in the wake of the current violence. But, unfortunately, many of the media reports couldn’t keep themselves free form some kind of bias – be it communal or political. This is the reason why people from both the communities have a negative opinion about reporting of the violence and other incidents.
To have a first hand impression about the situation and steps taken to pacify it, delegations under the leadership of CM Naveen Patnaik, Union Home minister Sivraj Patil, Orissa Home Secretary and DGP and various other ministers and leaders have visited the place. But the situation has still not improved upto expectation as almost all political leaders played their own electoral card instead of pressuring the total machinery work with commitment to restore peace in the district of Kandhamal and Orissa.
The reasons of lingering violence, as brought to public so far, are the killing of Swami Lakshmanananda Saraswati by a group of armed miscreants and the local Kandh tribal community and Hindu organisations of Orissa claiming a hand of church behind this. And as it is projected till date, the Christian community in the district has been facing the wrath of violence pursued by the Hindus and tribals of Kandhamal. Although government agencies were apprehending Maoist hands behind the incident, an open declaration of Maoists in Kotgad of Kandhamal clarifying their non-involvement in the case has made this issue more complicated.
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When the violence is termed communal across the globe, few astonishing facts came to notice while I visited the relief camp in Tikabali. Even hindus were attacked, their houses were torched after being looted. Many Hindu families stay in the said relief camp. A Hindu inmate Jubati Digal has lost all her belongings as the tribal members of her own village looted and ransacked her house on 27th in the night and torched her house on 28th in the midnight. Jubati heard the attackers talking - ‘we will not allow the panas (SC community of the district) stay with us’. The attackers looked for Jubati’s husband Rajendra Digal to throw him into the fire. Somehow, Rajendra escaped from the place and managed to reach Tikabali Relief Centre.
This is not the lone case. Bhisma Digal of Tengedapathar has come across a similar Situation. Knowing that he is a Hindu, the tribal mob torched his house.
So, the chronic caste conflict between Kandh (ST) and Pana (SC) communities that has led to the division of old Boudh – Phulbani district and renaming the divided Phulbani district into its present name ‘Kandhamal’ still plays a role in the present violence. The caste fight has been severed since 1994 where about 36 persons died. The Kandhs have always alleged against the Panas of exploiting them since ages and grabbing their lands notoriously. The tribal community reacted strongly to the attempt of the SC community to get ST status on the plea that they are all Kui speaking people. Why and how both the caste communities living together since centuries became enemy of each other?
When one peeps into the history and go through the early accounts on both the caste communities of the region, the Panas were basically from plains who were linked with the Kandhs as agents to supply adults or children for ‘Meriah’ sacrifice (the practice of human sacrifice to the mother earth that was prevalent among the Kandhs during British and pre-British days) and other household goods available in the plains against kind of animal husbandry, traditional artifacts, forest goods and part of harvest. (Ref: 1. A personal Narrative of thirteen years service among the wild tribes of Khondistan (the place as named by the British for Phulbani and neighbouring Kandh populated areas) for suppression of Human Sacrifice, John Campbell, London – 1864; 2. History of Rise and progress of the operations for the Suppression of Human Sacrifice and Female Infanticide in Hill tracts of Orissa 1836 - 1854, Calcutta - 1854).
It suggests, the panas were basically agents to provide meriah lives and various other services to the Kandhas against a handsome return. Gradually the Panas settled in the place to run their business with the Kandhas smoothly as well as more effectively. So, both the caste communities co-existed harmoniously for quite a long period of time. According to local intellectuals and researchers, communal tension started threatening the social fabric mostly during the past two decades over sustained conversion activities by Christian Missionaries and a reactive opposition and re-conversion drives by the saffron outfits that were led by Swami Lakshmanananda Saraswati in The district of Kandhamal.
It’s also a fact that religion had and has still a role in growing caste disparity and widening the gap among the communities and between the communities as it happened in Kandhamal. Christian Missionaries have been accused of being engaged in proselytizing the poor forest dwellers through allurements in the backward, tribal concentrated and poverty stricken districts of Orissa and other states as well.
However, the issue is not conversion, but its impact on the socio-economic and cultural life of people and its role in widening the gap between people and communities living together. As per the social analysts, ‘after being converted the Christian members receive support from the Churches and missionaries that make them a bit affluent in compare to them who stick to their old religion. This increases the economic disparity between the communities and among people living in one village. The other issue has been the differences in religious practices and cult differences that lead to socio - cultural conflicts between the tribals and the SC community most of which has been converted into Christians’.
The last violence that occurred in the end of 2007 and lingered over a fortnight was also a caste conflict started from a communal spark. This time also, as it seems, caste conflict plays in Kandhamal in the name of communal violence.
So, it is necessary for the government to analyse the issues that have led to the disparity and caste enmity in the district of Kandhamal in order to bring sustainable peace.