Orissa and then Karnataka Preparing for a Gujarat Way
As the news of rampages by VHP and Bajrang Dal activists on the Christian population started pouring in from Orissa, the dreadful pictures of similar destruction in the Dangs Tribal belt prior to the build up of the Gujarat 2000 genocide came to mind. Kandhmal in Orissa has become another such hotbed of the fascist Hindutva brigade. There has been the immediate plea ? killing of the VHP leader Swamy Lakshmananda and his four disciples. But, there has been the recurring eruption of Sangh Parivar led incidents of violence ? 9 years ago the burning alive of missionary Graham Staines and his two children and the Dara Singh episode; 2005 ? hounding out of an independent people?s tribunal that was on visit to study the communal situation; on December 2007 Christmas eve?attack on decorations of Christmas celebrations and churches;2008 July riots on the issue of cow slaughter. There has been meticulously prepared lists of the Christian churches, prayer halls and about the local Christian inhabitants. Then there has been the open acquiescence of successive governments, especially the present BJD-BJP regime. Even during this latest episode while 5 days of rampage of the Sangh Parivar organisations continued unabated, while Togadia and his band of violent attackers burnt 600 houses and drove out 8000 people to the jungles, the administration was very slow to react. In January 2008 when the National Commission on Minorities came to study the 2007 Christmas eve attacks, in spite of their recommendations to keep a check on the incendiary speeches of de facto instigator Swamy Lakshmananda the govt remained inactive. In fact this notorious VHP leader, repeatedly at the centre of discord and violence instigating a section of masses against another in the name of hindutva was attacked in 1971,1995?.in 2007 December?and on request was provided special armed security by the govt.
Add to this, the regular pouring in of funds from sources inside and outside the country ? the wealthy arch-Hindu NRIs, the Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh-like international organizations and the numerous Sangh Parivar set-up NGOs who corner a large chunk of govt. funds meant for amelioration programmes of the poor. In terms of funding, the hindutva forces are not at all in a weaker position with respect to Christian NGOs.
It all sums up to implementation of another blue-print of the Sangh Parivar in another region of the country.
In Khandmal the age-old presence of Christian missionaries with their social and economic support programmes influenced the masses who were poor and downtrodden. Especially a large section of Dalits?the Panas, got under their influence and got converted into Christians. To the hindutva forces they and their missionaries were an obstacle and naturally the target. This provided their main excuse of re-conversion of the ?forcibly? converted.
Thus shifting away from the real, basic issues of dire poverty and backwardness, the issue of conversion has gone on breeding conflict and violence.
The Pana Dalits have never remained in the Hindu mainstream of culture. Due to ages of oppression- socially, culturally and economically they have gradually swayed into the fold of Christian missionaries. The Kandh Tribals too were never Hindus (the name of the district suggests its association with the Kandh Tribe). They have their own religion, or better to say ?religion? of Nature-Worship. Kandhs have gradually been taken into the fold of the hindutva organizations in opposition to the Panas. But a good section of Kandhs did not yet come in fold of the forces of hindutva and even now many of them follow their own ?religion?.
Now one major section of the utterly poor and backward has been pitted against another. The Tribal Kandhs by the hindutva forces against the Dalits Christian Panas. These two major communities of Kandhmal no doubt has a history of discord and conflict but it did not take the present shape of violent murderous mass assaults between each other on communalism, fanatical religiosity.
It was related to the basic issues of their wretched livelihood, economy and social oppression against which they have been struggling since a long time to somehow live amidst scarce resources that many a times brought one against the other. These issues of their improvement in their poverty-stricken lives have become lost amidst the blown-up myth of conversion.
There has been the issue of land, which the Tribal Kandhs often accused the Dalit Panas of usurping. It has a long history starting from the British Era which might have influenced the Kandhs? Psyche, when many tribal people including Kandhs took refuse and lost their ?right? on the forest, while the lower caste Panas gained a little by agricultural activity. Then there has been the meagre benefits that came from govt. programmes which were like a drop in their ocean of wants, but Christian Dalits are not considered in general as Scheduled Castes and so they cannot get governmental ?benefits? scheduled for Scheduled Caste People. Though, benefits of associating with the Christian missionaries enabled the Panas to some sort of development in their literacy, better opportunities and access to charities and doles. Although, in spite of such meagre supports from the top, the mass of them remained in a very backward state of helpless dependence on these. No more than that. In the end none of these charities could really change their lives.
Added to this backwardness their has been the faulty ruling class policies. In early 1990?s along with the existing name of Kandh Tribals three more Tribals groups- the Kuis, Kuvis and Kuee were given ST status in the central list of the govt. The Panas felt deprived and demanded ST status as a large section of them speak the same Kui language. The Kandhs started vehemently opposing it apprehending loss of their slice of the Tribal status benefits. As Christians many of them did not even get the SC benefits in spite of being Dalits. When the Kandhmal Lok Sabha (parliament) seat was converted from SC reserved constituency to ST reserved constituency, the Panas once again demanded ST tag feeling deprived of representation in the govt. The conflict surged further.
In this fruitless mutually destructive conflict for cornering benefits the real struggle to change their lives getting out of oppression and exploitation did never take-off landing the masses in frustration and hopelessness. With the growing communalization of our society and with the hindutva forces at its head, Kandhmal became a fertile ground to divide the poor masses and mobilized in the name of the raked-up issues like conversion, Christian manipulation etc. And as the communal-temperature increased both sides, Hindu and Christian organisations pushed hard their accelerators. But anyway, ?conversion? was not the agenda or THE Main Programme of the Christian Organisations and that can be verified by ?decadal rise of %age of population on basis of religion? data; though, of later, to be ?competitive? they have increased their religious activities.
The question further arises that, is this explosive brand of communally fascist politics serving the pro-globalisation, pro-liberalisation policies of the ruling class? The Kalingnagar revolt brought to the fore the united opposition of the Tribals and other poor masses of this backward state. Opposition against the large scale forcible land acquisition and mining policies of the imperialists and big capitalists spread. POSCO was another example. Amidst this internal conflicts, divisions between Tribal, Dalits other oppressed masses specially where 22% of the populations are Tribals definitely serves the ruling classes. In fact Kandhmal itself has been found recently to contain large deposits of bauxite which the capitalists are hankering for.
Many such questions lie beneath what is seen in the present Kandhmal cauldron, which are the real issues separate from the framed ups ones to forge a real revolutionary change of the hapless lives of the poor. Only a gunshot killing the notorious Swami or taking responsibility of ?further punishing such fanatical aliments? by some heroic, self sacrificing bunch of revolutionaries can?t provide a shortcut to the real task of arousing the revolutionary communist consciousness of the real creators of history, the poor masses, to decide their own fate wiping away all vestiges of discrimination, oppression and backwardness in a revolutionary manner. The painful absence of revolutionary proletarian class in the arena of class struggle and its organisations that has faith in real class struggle can only breed such mutually destructive wars instigated and utilized by ruling class forces. The advanced elements of the proletariat must prepare themselves quickly. How long they will just have to watch all these agonising social disorders, blood sheds among their would-be ally forces, absolutely unwanted and conspiratorially planted antagonistic contradiction among themselves! The fascist forces are trying their best to convert this would-be developed and natural resource rich and state into another Gujarat with a high speed.
[When this editorial piece was going to press for publication more news of communal ?clashes? were pouring in at first from Karnataka, then from Kerala, where ?clashes? meant burning down of many more churches and Christian establishments by fascist Hindu forces on the plea of forceful ?conversion? to Christianity. But, contrary to the publicity that revolutionary communists are blind about ?religious conversion? by Christian Missionaries or do not criticise that strongly, we must add that conversion, be that by ?brute muscle force? which the hindutva forces often display to show its power or by ?subtle monetary force? of other NGOs or Christian missions etc, ( ? and why not add the rich Hindu NGO-s too with the sole aim of propagating communal sentiments) only corroborates the Marxist view that often religion serves as a ploy or device for the ruling classes of the country and imperialist forces too to divide the toiling poor, to pit one of them against the other, to belittle the real issues in their awareness, to dupe them, to deceive them and what not! Moreover, the hindutva forces cannot evade the question: Why these communities remained so backward for decades and only attracted their attention after those people converted to Buddhism or Christianity or Islam? Why were you suddenly taken aback, started hue and cry and started counter activity by your Hindu NGO (or ?cultural organisation? like RSS!!!) only after the Christian Missionaries established their influence by their hard work in the underdeveloped zones? If your motive is to ?develop the condition of the tribe people? then why do you consider and enforce ?conversion? of them to Brahminical Hinduism from their tribal-ethnic culture as necessary and almost the first step?]
Please Note: After the above Editorial piece was ready we found an informative analysis in EPW: Hindutva?s Fury against Christians in Orissa by Pralay Kanungo; Economic & Political Weekly; September 13, 2008; P16; and we would like to request the readers to go through that EPW article.
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