Religious violence in Odisha

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There has been significant religious violence in the state of Orissa, India, increasing in the past several years. The tension in the region, between Hindus and Christian converts, has been centred on issues such as economic challenges, caste inequality and religious intolerance. A major contention has been the issue of religious conversion, which has been legislated on in the Orissa Freedom of Religion Act 1967 banning conversion under allurement and coercion.

Historical Background

Franciscan missionary Friar Odoric visited India in the 14th Century and wrote about his visit to Puri in a journal which he later published in Europe. In the journal, Odoric wrote in detail about a huge chariot in Jagannath which taken out annually rathyatra. According to Odoric, people sacrificed themselves to the Hindu God. The Friar's account of the human sacrifice spread throughout Europe and by the 19th century the word 'juggernaut' began to be associated with an object of such proportions capable of destroying everything in its path. At the time Orissa was known in Europe as the region where the oft-mentioned Juggernaut was located.

Baptist Christian missionaries first came to Orissa in 1822 during the British rule.

As one of the poorest regions of India, Orissa has been fertile ground for missionary work. In several districts the people have been susceptible to conversion, where they today form a significant fraction of the population.

0. R. Bachelor gives a description of missionary work in Orissa in 1856:

"OUR first missionaries. Brethren Phillips and Noyes, with their wives, having arrived in India, spent the first six months, while engaged in the study of the language, laboring in connection with the English General Baptist missionaries; ...They preached and distributed books as extensively as they were able, and there laid the foundation for our boarding-school system. Six starving children were given them by their parents or relatives, and with them our school commenced. ...Not long after, others were rescued from death, in a time of famine 5 and their number increased to fifty."

The missionaries ran into opposition from the local Brahmin community who opposed their work:

"Another obstacle is found in the power and in fluence of the Brahmans, the hereditary priests of Hinduism. They are the most intelligent, the best educated, and the most influential class. ... They will oppose to the uttermost, both with their legitimate influence and their ecclesiastical authority, the introduction of a system that must necessarily subvert their power and deprive them of the support and confidence of the people."

This marked the beginning of the confrontation between the two communities. 0. R. Bachelor expressed satisfaction at the achievements of missionaries in the first few decades:

"Where for ages past the heathen trod in idolatrous procession, where heathen rites and ceremonies from time immemorial had been celebrated, there a new song is sung, and the God of the Christian is, we hope, worshipped in spirit and in truth"

After India's Independence

Religious disharmony arose even before 1947 on aforementioned issue of religious conversion. Conversions have been legislated by the provisions of the Freedom of Religion Acts (acts replicated in numerous other parts through India). Orissa was the first province of independent India to enact legislation on religious conversions. The Orissa Freedom of Religion Act, 1967, stipulates that no person shall “convert or attempt to convert, either directly or otherwise, any person from one religious faith to another by the use of force or by inducement or by any fraudulent means”. Christian missions have been in action in Orissa among the tribals and backward Hindu castes from the early years of the previous century. Hindus have alleged that the increase in the number of Christians in Orissa has been a result of exploitation of illiteracy and impoverishment by the missionaries in contravention of the law, instead of free will. The Orissa government's records reveal the unimaginably huge funds received from abroad by the missions through overt channels. The transactions through covert channels are not available to public scrutiny. The Census of India shows that Christians constituted 75597 of the population of Kandhmal district in 1991. In the 2001 Census, their population had gone up to 117950.

Staines killing

Graham Staines was an Australian missionary working with the Evangelical Missionary Society of Mayurbhanj, an Australian missionary society. On the night of January 22, 1999, he had attended a proselytisation meeting of Christians in Keonjhar district. In the night he was sleeping in his station wagon when it was set afire. Graham and his two sons, ten-year-old Philip and six-year-old Timothy, were killed.. The Wadhwa Commission ruled out the direct involvement of any organisation in the killings.

On September 22, 2003 an appointed court of the Central Bureau of Investigation sentenced Dara Singh to death and 12 others to life imprisonment for the murders. .On May 2005, the Orissa High Court commuted Singh's sentence to life imprisonment.

December 2007

Kandhmal background

The Kandhamal district has 600,000 people of which approximately 120,000 are Christians. Kandhamal has two different communities - the Kandha tribe and Paana caste. The Kandha tribe is 80% of the population and the rest belong to the scheduled caste Paana. The Panas have converted to Christianity in large numbers and prospered financially.

2007 violence

Church authorities informed the Sub-Collector that the Kui Samaj had given a call for a bandh on 25-26 December to press their demands regarding various issues. They requested the district authorities to remain alert and preempt any trouble. On 23 December 2007, however, Christians of Brahmanigoan village tried to erect a Christmas gate in front of a Hindu place of worship. The incident caused clashes between the Christian and Hindu communities.

Swami Lakshamananda, a respected Hindu Guru, visited the site and was assaulted by a group of gunmen, leading to further clashes between Hindus and Christians..

The authorities imposed a curfew in order to control the situation.

Concerned with rising violence,after their assault on the Swami, some Dalit Christian leaders lodged a complaint with the Police for protection.

The outbreak of violence started on 24th December, 2007 at 8.00 a.m. at Bamunigam village, close to the police station under Daringibadi Block of Kandhamal District. Some Hindu activists. forcefully removed the Christmas decoration, which the Ambedkar Baniko Sangho comprising the local Christian entrepreneurs, had put up as a preparation for Christmas, with the permission from the administration The pandal was erected on the very site used by the Hindus to celebrate the Durga Puja festival in October. This was followed by exchange of hot words between two groups. Within a few minutes violence erupted. Two shots were fired into the air. People dispersed out of fear.

By December 29, 2007 nearly 700 persons of both faiths, mainly Christians, had to move to government-run relief camps to avoid attacks. Three persons were killed: one Christian, one Hindu while the identity of the third is yet to be established, as per the subsequent NCM Report.

By December 30, rioting was got under control by the security forces such as the CRPF. For the first time since the violence started, church services were held under tight security. The total number of security personnel deployed was about 2,500 police and paramilitary. The total number of people taking shelter in relief camps increased to 1200.

On Jan 1, 2008 further violence was reported at several places Police said at least 20 houses and shops were torched at Phiringia, Khajuripada, Gochapada and Brahmanigaon by rioters on Tuesday night (January 1, 2008)

Response

The Prime Minister of India Manmohan Singh and other political parties condemned the violence. Taking serious note of the attacks on churches and Christians in Orissa, the National Commission for Minorities, a body comprising of only Non-Hindu members, sought a report from the state government on the violence in four towns of Kandhamal district

Organizations such as the American Human Rights Watch alleged that the December 2007 violence was a continuation of an "anti Christian" campaign being run by right-winged Hindu groups for several years, and that government officials had been ignoring the risk to the Christian community.

Union Home minister Shivraj Patil visited relief camps and promised compensation to the victims of the communal riot. He asked the Orissa Government, led by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, to probe the riots instead of entirely depending on the reports of the judicial commission of inquiry.

The Orissa government ordered a Judicial enquiry on the violence.

National Commission for Minorities report

The National Commission for Minorities, a non-Hindu membership body constituted by the Government of India to monitor and evaluate the progress of people classified as minorities by the Indian government, investigated the Christmas violence. Their report concluded:

1. The official accounts sought to stress the complexity of the situation in Kandhamal district and attributed the violence to the confusion over the High Court Order on the inclusion of SC Christians in the ST category which is vehemently opposed by the Kui tribes in the area. The situation is certainly complex and overlaid with multi-layered contradictions. The conflation of caste-tribe-communal issues has contributed to the aggravation of social conflicts in this area.

2. The State Government must look into the speeches of Swami Lakshmananda to determine whether they amount to incitement to violence and take appropriate action.

3. The State Government must issue a White Paper on the conversion issue to dispel fears and suspicions that have been assiduously raised about the Christian community and the role of its institutions. The 1991 Census shows the Christians constituted 75597 of the population of Kandhmal district whereas in the 2001 Census their population had gone up to 117950.

4. Rehabilitation package announced by the Orissa Government needs to be reviewed to provide rehabilitation keeping in view the actual loss suffered by the victims of violence.

5. Augmenting the number of police personnel and providing them with adequate training and equipment was also imperative. Moreover for reasons that have not been explained the State Government was reluctant in reaching out to civil society and NGOs working as they do work at the grassroots can provide authorities with advance information about simmering tension and co-operate in the prevention of such incidents.

6. Orissa does not have a State Minorities Commission. The State Government must take the necessary steps to set up a statutory Minorities Commission for safeguarding the rights of minorities.

7. The confusion created by the High Court Order needs to be swiftly cleared to prevent further outbreak of tensions between STs and SCs. The government must address the obvious tensions that will arise from the different treatment given in the matter of reservation to Christians belonging to the SC community and the ST community. If Christian tribals are backward Christian SCs are no less so. To create an artificial distinction between the two is simply to communalise poverty and drive a wedge between two homogenous groups who are among the most deprived. The group therefore, recommends that the reservation given to Christian tribals should be extended to cover Christian SCs who are of exactly the same background and are subject to exactly the same disadvantage.

8. There are other reasons which Kuis cite which are that taking advantage of their illiteracy etc the Panas have acted as middle men to exploit them notably by grabbing their lands. The Kuis also allege that SC Christians obtain false certificates as Hindu SCs to take the benefits of reservations.

9. None of the above must detract from the social and economic backwardness of the district. Every indicator points to acute poverty, illiteracy, ill-health, lack of infrastructure, in short, an absence of development. Nearly two thirds of the people in this district live below the poverty line. Even as the authorities are called upon to show greater vigilance to prevent the outbreak of violence, the Government must urgently address issues of social exclusion and structural inequities. The Report did not consider aggression by Christians in the riot.

August 2008 violence

Swami Lakshmanananda Murder

On the evening of Saturday, August 23, 2008, the octogenarian Swami Lakshmanananda Saraswati, a leader of Vishwa Hindu Parishad was killed at his Jalespata ashram in Kandhamal district in Orissa, along with four others; three fellow leaders of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and a boy. The attackers, estimated at thirty gunmen, were originally suspected of being Maoist insurgents. Both the manner of attack and a letter found at the attack provided the basis for the initial suspicion. The government announced a special investigative probe into the attack.

However, Hindu groups in the state, including the BJP, blamed Christians for killing Lakshmananand. They cited Lakshmanananda's claims that Christians were trying to eliminate him for his opposition to conversion, and had attacked him eight times before. He was regularly receiving death threats and the last threat letter had been submitted to the Police only the day before the murder.

On August 28, a letter of denial was received by a some media outlets, the VHP office in the Gajapati District of Orissa and the Bajrang Dal from a Maoist group. While the letter denied that the Central Committee of the Kotagarha branch of the Maoists had approved the attack, it claimed that some Maoists may have been bribed by Christians to launch the attack. Sources within the police force have said that Maoists could have carried out the operation to appease their Christian support base. Soon after the appearance of the aforementioned letter, Azad, a leader of the Maoist People's Liberation Guerrilla Army, claimed responsibility for the murder of Lakshmanananda. Azad was suspected by the police of leading the attack himself. On September 9, 2008 the Maoists, made an official press release claiming responsibility for the killing of Lakshmanananda.

Religious Violence

After the killing of Swami Lakshmananda, the VHP called for a statewide shutdown on Monday, August 25, 2008. On the same day, rioters attacked a christian orphanage at Khuntpalli village in Bargarh district. An employee of the orphanage, a local Hindu, was killed when the orphanage was set on fire..

The statewide protest by the VHP and Bajrang Dal turned violent and was retaliated to by Christians. Amit Sharma of the VHP said Hindu people in the area had taken the death of the Swami "very seriously, and now they are going to pay them back." A curfew was imposed in all towns in Kandhamal. Despite this, violence continued in Phulbani, Tumudibandh, Baliguda, Udaygiri, Nuagaon and Tikabali towns. The situation was so volatile that Minister of State for Home, Prakash Jaiswal, and other Congress leaders belonging to the Congress party at the centre chaired by Sonia Gandhi, an Italian Catholic, who had arrived to visit the riot hit areas, were told by the state government that they could not do so because their presence might provoke the crowds, and had to return to New Delhi.

By August 29, 2008 at least 20 people were killed and 3000 people were reported to be living in government run relief camps. 1000 homes had been set on fire. Many others on both sides had to flee into jungle. All nine towns in the district were under a curfew, and the police had license to shoot.

On August 31, 2008 violence continued in several parts of the state. As a result curfew was imposed in Jeypore town of Orissa's Koraput district. Five police personnel were injured in mob violence. The state government sought additional paramilitary forces to combat the continuing violence.

On September 1, 2008 Government of Orissa claimed the situation was under control. However, 558 houses and 17 places of worship were burnt in riots. 543 houses were burnt in the worst hit Kandhamal district. 12,539 people were fed in 10 relief camps, 783 people got the facilities in two relief camps in Rayagada district. In all, 12 companies of para-military forces, 24 platoons of Orissa State Armed Police, two sections of Armed Police Reserve forces and two teams of Special Operation Group (SOG) were deployed to control the riots. On September 4th, 2008 in Tikabali, Kandhmal over 300 Hindu tribal women attacked a relief camp for the Christian riot victims. The rioters were protesting christians' having provisions in relief camps while the Hindu community was not so provided.

On September 7, 2008 VHP leader Praveen Togadia announced that an All-India agitation would be launched if the killers of Lakshmananda were not arrested. The Church in turn demanded disnissal of the state government.

On 15 September 2008, NDTV reported attacks on two hindu temples in Orissa's Sundergarh district. One was attacked on the night of 14 September, and the other 2 weeks earlier.

Political Fallout

The ruling government of Orissa, headed by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, was a coalition of the BJP and the Biju Janata Dal (BJD). In the 147-member state assembly the BJD-BJP combine has 93 members, 32 of whom are from the BJP.

Some BJP legislators blamed the government for not providing adequate protection to Saraswati, despite other attempts on his life. They called for withdrawing support from the government, which would lead to its collapse.

On Wednesday September 4, 2008, India's Supreme Court issued an order on a petition filed by Archbishop Raphael Cheenath seeking a CBI enquiry and dismissal of the state government. The order asked the Orissa state government to report on steps taken to stop a wave of communal rioting that has claimed at least 16 lives. The supreme court also asked the Naveen Patnayak government to file an affidavit by September 4 ((huh)) explaining the circumstances under which it allowed VHP leader Praveen Togadia to carry out a procession with the Saraswati's ashes, an act that would clearly inflame further communal tension. Togadia said that he never proposed to carry the "ashes" of Saraswati and alleged that Archbishop Raphael Cheenath had "lied under oath to the apex court". The dead body of Swamiji was not cremated as his was a samadhi, where a holy man is entombed on death. So the claims of the 'asthi-kalash yatra' (carrying of ashes), were not true.

Response

India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh called the Orissa violence a "shame" and offered all help from the Centre to end the communal clashes and restore normalcy. He said he would speak to Orissa chief minister Naveen Patnaik to urge him to take all necessary steps to end the violence.

The church network - including the Catholic Bishops' Conference of India, the Evangelical Fellowship of India and the National Council of Churches in India - organized for all Christian institutions to remain closed on August 29, 2008 in protest. This led to accusations of misusing educational institutions for politicking.

Vatican City On Wednesday August 27, 2008, Pope Benedict XVI condemned the violence and expressed solidarity with the priests and nuns being victimized. He "firmly condemned" the violence and called upon Indian religious and civil authorities "to work together to restore peaceful co-existence and harmony between the different religious communities." In doing so he said: "I learnt with great sorrow the information concerning the violence against the Christian community in Orissa which broke out after the reprehensible assassination of the Hindu leader, Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati. This led to derisive remarks in the press about the Italian origins of Sonia Gandhi, a Catholic, whose UPA alliance rules India from New Delhi."

Human Rights Watch, a US-based outfit, expressed extreme dismay at the mob violence against Christians instigated by the VHP. The organization also expressed concern at the state government's lack of action following the Christmas 2007 violence.

Italy's Foreign Ministry called on India's ambassador to demand ‘incisive action’ to prevent further attacks against Christians. This invited protests from the Indian media as uncalled-for interference.

The National Human Rights Commission of India(NHRC) sought a report from the Orissa government on the ongoing religious violence in the state.

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