John Dayal
It was the Nineteenth time since 2004 that the Public Interest Litigation on the issue of Dalit Christians did not come up for a real hearing in the Supreme Court of India though it was listed on the judicial agenda. But the Bench headed by the Chief Justice of India was not really to blame. They were busy the entire day, 24th February 2011, and would remain so for many other days, hearing a challenge by minority and private schools to the Government’s new law of Right to Education. The private and minority sector is arguing that its member schools are not obliged to give a quarter of their new admissions to children of the poor.
The poor and marginalised Dalit Christians will have to wait for another time, and so will the Dalit Muslims who have joined them in recent years challenging through several Writ petitions -- now being heard together -- Constitution’s Article 341’s Clause [iii], which was inserted surreptitiously through a Presidential Order in 1950 to restrict just to Hindus all the affirmative action, including reservations in jobs, education and legislatures, that the new Government of a new India wanted to give to an entire population described as “untouchables” and kept in subjugation since the law giver Manu wrote his infamous Code.
The issue may come back in the Supreme Court next month or perhaps after the summer vacations – it is not clear at the moment of writing this article.
But there are ominous developments which portend that Dalits of the so called “non-Indic” or Semitic origin religions may never wrest their rights from the Government and its institutions. The latest has come from the learned Mr. G. E. Vahanvati, Advocate General of India, the Government’s highest Law officer who has told the Union Cabinet, in effect, that they just need to play cool and do not have to respond to the otherwise heart-rending cries of the Dalits as the issue is “too complicated. About Mr. Vahanvati, later.
The issue of course is very complicated, and very embarrassing for India’s secularism, if truth be told.
The British, like the Romans way back before them in Biblical Times, liked to count populations, if only to assess how many people they were ruling over, and just which group was in their fiefdom. In their Nineteenth century Census of India, they counted what Manu had just thrown out of his mind – the lower castes, the untouchables. In due time after the Munity of 1857, they sought to win over the poor who already thought of the Empress Victoria Government as Mai-Baap, or mother and father. The result was not just some plums for their “own” people, the Anglo-Indians with a White paternal ancestry, who got jobs in the Armed Forces, the Railways and the Postal Services, and to the “native Christians”, but also to the Depressed classes, the untouchables. Thus was born the affirmative action reservations for the Scheduled castes, so named because they figure in a list appended to the Constitution. The untouchables after abolishment of untouchability, rejected the term Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi coined for them-- Harijan, Children of God – sarcastically asking if the rest were children of the Devil. It would some decades before they coined for themselves the name they go under now, Dalits, or the Broken People.
Officially, the Dalits are about 15 per cent or so of the entire Indian population. The fact is that many of them converted first to Islam, from the 13th to the 19th centuries, and then to Christianity in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries. The Dalit Muslims may number perhaps as many as 50 to 70 million, or at least a third of the Islamic population in India, the rest coming mainly from the Other Backward Classes and a minority from the upper castes and migrants from West and Central Asia.
The Christian Dalits consist of perhaps up to two thirds – or at least 60 per cent -- of the entire Christian population in India, with most of them concentrated in Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala, Punjab, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh. Most Christians in Andhra, Punjab and Gujarat are of Dalit origin, whether they accept it today or not. The Christians among the tribals of the North East and the tribal-Adivasis of the Chhota-Nagpur region and contiguous areas of central India constitute between 15 to 20 per cent of the community, and are exclusive in that they enjoy all rights and privileges given to their brothers and sisters professing Hinduism or their own particular faiths such as Sarna, Shamaic, nature or ancestor worship.
The transfer of power and the rise of Independent India saw an India-British covenant which gave Anglo Indians two seats in the Lok Sabha, and also reserved seats in the legislatures of Bengal, Andhra, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and many other states despite their ever decreasing numbers because of migration to the UK, Australia, Canada and New Zealand in succeeding decades.
The issue of separate quotas for Dalit Christians did not arise at the time of the birth of the new Republic because the Constitution, imagined by Jawaharlal Nehru and written by a committee headed by the great Dalit leader Babasaheb Bhim Rao Ambedkar, correctly understood that the caste system impacted all of India, irrespective of region, ethnicity and religion. The affirmative action contained in the slew of guarantees for the Scheduled castes, including reservations in legislatures, in Government jobs and educational institutions, were meant for all Dalits irrespective of religion. Religions such as Sikhism, Buddhism and course Islam and Christianity do not have caste in their theological construct, but the people professing these religions live together, even as they do to this date, and suffer the same infirmities as their Hindu counterparts.
This law did continue for some months. There is very little documentation, but knowing the caste structure of the Congress and other parties even in the Opposition at the time the Constitution was promulgated – 26th January 1950 – it was clear that this treatment of all Dalits in a single basket – would grossly displease the upper crust and the upper caste among all parties. We know how the landed gentry flummoxed land reforms and the right wing parties sought to dictate to Nehru. [I need hardly say the upper class former Rajas and Maharajas, the landlords, and the Mahants, have made reappearance in Parliament and on Page-3 of newspapers in recent years]. Their fears were obvious. A large group of people, their de facto slaves and bonded labour, were not only being let free and emancipated, they were being educated and would pose a challenge in time. Dalit Christians and Muslims also had the added advantage of claiming spiritual uplift despite their poverty.
Presidential Order of 1950, later forming part three of the Constitution’s Article 341 was the result. The order said in no uncertain terms that privileges such as reservations would be given to just Hindus. Anyone converting to Christianity and Islam, Sikhism or Buddhism, would lose them. And later orders from administration and courts said Dalits who converted to Hinduism from Islam or Christianity would regain the reservations and other advantages. In effect, Dalits had no freedom of faith enjoyed by other citizens of India unless they converted to Hinduism. In one stroke of the pen, their fundamental human rights were taken away from them.
The All India Catholic Union was among the first to protest and challenge this order. Sikhs Dalits – called Mazbhis – and Neo Buddhists joined the movement later. The most recent entrants to the now massive movement are the Pasmanda Muslims.
The Sikhs were powerful. They had regiments in the army, and Punjab is close to Delhi, the national Capital, in more ways than one. Their agitation led to the restoration of their rights by 1956. The Buddhists were really Ambedkarites and the so called neo-Buddhists of Maharashtra. They too had the Mahar regiment in the Army, but it was sheer numbers and the support in Parliament that prompted the then Union Welfare Minister Ram Vilas Paswan, himself a Dalit, to grant them the Scheduled Caste rights. The Christians despite a massive rally in Delhi were denied the privileges, Mr. Paswan and others telling them they would bring forth a law soon thereafter. It as many years later, in the Government of P V Narsimha Rao, a Brahmin, that his Welfare minister Sitaram Kesari persuaded the crafting of a Cabinet resolution on granting the SC rights to Christians. The Cabinet paper was not without loopholes. It mentioned all the pros and cons, carrying the day for the Christians by a thin margin. The Government drafted a Bill, but inadvertently or by design, the Bill was not admitted by the Speaker, Mr. Shivraj Patil who would later earn further notoriety for his silence while Christians in Orissa were massacred in 2008.
The agitation and advocacy has continued unabatedly since them. Rallies have been held all over India, and religiously when Parliament is in session, Dalit Christians come in numbers large and small to Jantar Mantar on Parliament Street in New Delhi to register their protest, to make their cry. Christian organizers give dinners in honour of Christian MPs and went in delegations to party presidents and Government ministers pleading the cause. All of it has been in vain so far.
Things have started moving since a Public Interest Litigation was filed in 2004 by the PIL Centre headed by former Union Law Minister Shanti Bhushan and his son Prashant, the human rights lawyer. The PIL asked the Government whether the fact that Dalit Christians and Dalit Muslims are deprived of the benefits of reservation did not amount to hostile discrimination under Article 14.
The Government now has to either justify upholding the 1950 Presidential Order or accept the Rangnath Misra Commission recommendation of reservation for Dalit Christians and Dalit Muslims. Many other writs have been filed since then, some my Pasmanda Muslims and even a few by the Hindutva groups opposing the Christian and Muslim demands. All the writs have been clubbed together for hearing in Courtroom Number One, presided over by the Chief Justice of India. One positive result has been the support that has finally come from Government’s own statutory and other commissions and organisations.
I recall in the ‘Nineties, the then Deputy Speaker of the Lok Sabha Suraj Bhan, telling me and CBCI secretary Father John Vallamattam, who later founded Indian Currents, how it was in the Fifties when he was member of a Parliamentary team which was assessing this issue. They travelled to many states and cities, including Mumbai, Goa and Kerala. In each halt, they asked the Church hierarchy to explain to them the existence of Dalit Christians. As I recall Mr. Bhan telling the story, “despite the existence of walls dividing upper and lower castes in life in the Church and in death in the cemetery, all of them said they had no Dalits in the Church.”
Many a Church maintains this position, perhaps out of a wrong understanding of faith, sociology, history and Constitutional rights.
Once the matter came to the Supreme Court, it asked the Government to respond. For the first time in fifty years, it could not hide, nor ignore the issue hoping it would vanish like a bad dream. Typically, the first response of the Government was to buy time. It was to repeat this trick more than once. It told the Supreme Court it had set up a commission to examine the issue – the National Commission for religious and Linguistic Minorities headed by former Supreme Court judge and then Congress Member of Parliament, Mr. Rangnath Misra. Even as the Advocate General of the day, the late Mr. Milon Bannerjee was telling the Supreme Court this, some of us who were in the court drove over to Justice Misra who said he had no knowledge of this. It would be many days before he would be finally asked to examine the issue. Dalit Christians and Muslims gave him kilograms of data, scores of historical records including some dating back to the Nineteenth century law courts of Madras presidency.
Justice Misra’s commission, which had the redoubtable jurist Tahir Mahmood on it together with St. Stephen’s College Principal, the late Dr. Anil Wilson, wrote a monumental report. The commission held that the stigma of being a Dalit, that caste itself, crossed the boundaries of religion. It ruled that Christian and Muslim Dalit deserved all the privileges of being Scheduled castes. However the ruling was not without some baggage. The member secretary, Indian Administrative Service officer Asha Das, wrote a vitriolic dissent note, repeating every argument given by every Brahminical officer and minister since 1950. Also refusing the Dalit Christian request was the Department of Welfare, and then headed by the Dalit leader and former Foreign Service officer Meira Kumar. In several signed notes, her department said the Christians did not qualify.
But the sustained pressure – the issue was taken to the United Nations conference on race and racial discrimination held in Durban, South Africa, by office bearers of the All India Christian Council and the All India Catholic Union – and the many rallies of the Christians in New Delhi, Madurai and Chennai, among other places, did have an impact. Political parties including the DMK allied to their support. In time, several State legislatures, including Tamil Naidu and Andhra Pradesh, passed resolutions in support. Chief ministers such as Nitish Kumar, Mayawati and M K Karunanidhi, all from non-Congress spectrum, wrote to the Union Government saying that Dalit Christians, and Muslims, must be given their nights. The BJP was the dissenter. The Congress has remained mum.
The Government, however, has been active in a negative way. After Justice Misra said “Yes”, the Government sent his report to the national Commission for Scheduled castes, headed by former Union Home Minister and once Governor Buta Singh. Many delegations met Buta, who told them he agreed with their demand. He said so in his written report, but added a mischievous footnote, saying that Christians and Muslims be given their reservations without touching the 15 per cent reservations given to Hindu, Buddhist and Sikh Scheduled castes . He did not explain why the commission had not put this rider when the SC status was bestowed on Dalit Sikhs, the community to which he himself belonged, and then to Buddhists.
This is a critical issue. Other than in Tamil Naidu, the maximum reservations which can be made under a Supreme Court ruling is a total of 50 per cent. Government can, possibly justly, say that even if it were to agree to such reservations, it would violate the Supreme Court orders, or say advocates against the Dalit Christians. They also, of course, maintain that there cannot be a Dalit amongst Christianity and Islam, both Semitic religions as there is no untoucbability amongst them. True. But they of course forget that untoucbability has been banned in Hinduism by law, and that Dalits get the privileges of SC Status because of the infirmity of suppression three thousand year old.
The Government was sleeping well till the Supreme Court disturbed its siesta last year, asking it to make up its mind soon, and respond in the hearings scheduled for 24th February 2011.
The Political Affairs Committee of the Union Cabinet, charged with formulating the Government position, asked Advocate General Vahanvati to brief it. It was in this briefing that Vahanvati dropped his bombshell. Vahanvati said “many complicated legal issues are involved” but currently “no decision was called for.” The complication from the Buta Singh suggestion -- if reservation is given to these two groups, it should not be from the 15 per cent meant for Dalits. It should be a separate quota. The existing position on reservation at the national level is: 27 per cent for the Other Backward Classes (OBCs), 15 per cent for the SC (or Dalits) and 7.5 per cent for the Scheduled Tribes. The three categories together account for 49.5 per cent, and till now, the Supreme Court has ruled that reservation should not exceed 50 per cent.” Clearly, therefore, a decision one way or the other will open a can of worms, “a newspaper said. The Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs is headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, and includes Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, Home Minister P. Chidambaram and Defence Minister A.K. Antony. A special invitee at the meeting was Minorities Affairs Minister Salman Khursheed.
Newspapers are pointing that elections in Tamil Naidu, Bengal and Kerala put pressure on the Government on act, as these three states have Christians and Muslims in sizable numbers. The CPM recently organised a major convention at Kottayam, a major Christian centre in Kerala, to woo the Dalit Christians. Christians form 19% of the state's 31.8 million people while Dalit Christians are around 4%. DMK boss and chief minister M Karunanidhi has maintained that the demand for granting Scheduled Caste status to Dalit Christians "is not only just but also indisputable" and if necessary the party would even lead an agitation, the Hindustan Times said. The Congress however fears what Hindustan Times described as a “political backlash which would cost dearly for the party.”
The Vahanvati briefing and the adjournment of the case has not gone down well with Christian organisations. The All India Christian Council termed the statement of Attorney-General Vahanvati as “ominous”.
“In the many years the case has been in the Apex court, proceedings have been delayed because of the Government’s inability to make up its mind on the matter despite repeated prodding by the court. This speaks of a debilitating indecisiveness which is born of political perfidy and bureaucratic obduracy. Sections of the officialdom, belonging to the upper castes, and sections of the same power groups in the ruling and the major opposition party are opposing the assertion of the religious minority groups to regain their constitutional rights, the aicc feels. We do not see why these groups feel so threatened. Our brothers and sisters in the Hindu, Sikh and Buddhist Dalits know that most Government jobs go unfilled, and there is enough for everyone to share without restricting each others’ privileges and rights, “the council said
“It is a mystery why the Government yet demurs.” When the Constitution was signed, the affirmative action of reservations in jobs, legislatures, schools, and on such issues as rural development was given to all Dalits who were struggling to regain human dignity after 3,000 years of oppression at the hands of the ruling upper caste-led social system, the Christian council added. “This era of prevarication and political indecisiveness must now end, Dalit Christians and Muslims must be given their rights now,” it said
Monday, February 28, 2011
Saturday, February 5, 2011
Hate poisons the Narmada
FACT FINDING REPORT ON THE EVENTS ON THE EVE OF THE PROPOSED NARMADA SAMAJIK KUMBH AT MANDLA, MADHYA PRADESH
JABALPUR, 1 FEBRUARY 2011
A fact finding team which toured the Narmada Valley areas in Mandla district in Madhya Pradesh on the eve of the so-called Narmada Samajik Kumbh scheduled to be held from 10th to 12th February 2011 has found that the Christian community not just of the district but of the entire region encompassing Madhya Pradesh and neighbouring state of Chhatisgarh, have solid reasons to fear an outbreak of violence against them during or after the event from cadres of the Sangh Parivar.
The Sangh Parivar has left no one in any doubt that the main reason for organising the Kumbh, or holy river bank gathering, at which they expect two million people and the entire leadership of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, its daughter organisations and the governments of Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh to attend, is to purge the region of “Christian missionaries” they accuse of carrying on large scale conversions of tribals, mostly Gonds in this part of the country.
The church leadership in turn has sent urgent representations to the Governor and chief minister of Madhya Pradesh apprising them of the sinister developments and calling on the State to ensure that they are not persecuted and that there is no outbreak of violence. “Our sources tell us there will be a major ghar wapsi or conversion to Hinduism of local Christians. We urge the administration to take timely action and appropriate steps to protect the citizens and particularly the minorities, their places of worship and institutions and religious personnel. The administration would be entirely and wholly responsible in case of any undesirable eventuality,” a memorandum signed by priests and representatives of the Christian community to the State Governor, with copies to the Chief Minister and the divisional and district authorities said. The memorandum also listed samples of newspaper clippings and the offensive posters targetting minorities.
The Fact Finding Team: the fact finding team consisted of Dr John Dayal, Member, National Integration Council of the Government of India, and secretary general of the All India Christian Council, and Mr Vijayesh Lal, Human rights activist and Secretary of Religious Liberty Commission - EFI. The team spent three days in the Mandla-Jabalpur region, and met with the Catholic bishop of Jabalpur, Right Reverend Gerald Almeida as well as over 200 Catholic, Protestant and evangelic priests, pastors and church workers of the region in two groups in Jabalpur, where one group had come as they were afraid to meet the team in their village areas, and in the Mandla Catholic parish church hall.
The team visited the banks of the Narmada River, particularly the left bank, where some houses and fields had been levelled to make housing, toilet and other arrangements of the crowds expected to attend. The team spoke with the contractors building the “shamianas” and tents, roads and a new barrage, to local policemen, and others. The team could not, for want of time, go to Bhopal to meet with the Chief Minister, the Home Minister, the State Minorities Commission and the Governor, all of whom have been apprised of the situation by the local church authorities.
The fact finding team also collected, or photographed, pamphlets, posers, hoardings, and were given copies of other printed material.
Background: The district lies in the Mahakoshal region of Madhya Pradesh state. Most of the district lies in the basin of the Narmada River whose origins are in streams perhaps a hundred kilometres upstream from the town. Mandla district is part of the Administrative commissioner’s division of Jabalpur, with an area of 8,771 square kilometres, an official Census population of 779,414, a literacy rate of 59.85. Politically, it sends a member to the Lok Sabha, the lower house of Parliament and as many as 12 members to the State Assembly, making it politically a very important region. Government statistics say much of the population are Adivasis (tribals, who the RSS wants to describe as Vanvasis, or forest-dwellers, a term abhorred by the people). The State government admits that despite 60 years of Independence, 11 Five year Plans and millions of rupees spent in Union and State projects, the Mandla district “consistently” ranks among the 20 most backward districts in India. It is rugged terrain, and barring the state highway, inner roads continue to be in a terrible condition. Even within sight of from the highway, housing ranges from brick and cement houses to mud and thatch huts.
The Church is active in the region in education, health and development projects, many begun in recent years. The Catholic Church runs a hospital, a girl’s school and a boy’s school, apart from work done by the fathers and Sisters. The Church also has a home for its retired clergy in the region. The catholic population is thinly spread over the region, barring two villages which have a sizable number of Gond Catholics. The Church of North India has a century old church in the town, near the offices and residences of the Collector and Police chief. The CNI church has some historical and architectural importance. About 400 protestant and evangelical Pastors
Backgrounder to Kumbh Melas: The Kumbh, as the encyclopaedia says, is a mass Hindu pilgrimage, usually on the banks of a holy river and with a fixed periodicity. The minor Kumbhs are held every 3 years, the Ardh or half Kumbhs every six years at on the Ganges at Haridwar in Uttarakhand and Allahabad in Uttar Pradesh on the junction of the Ganges and Yamuna rivers and the main or 12 yearly Kumbh at river banks at four places --Allahabad, Haridwar, and Ujjain in Madhya Pradesh and Nasik in Maharashtra. The government spends billions of rupees in the periodic preparations, largely on crowd management, sanitation and habitation, but the religious rituals are carried out by well known Akharas, or congregations which have traditional rights of bathing and prayers in a sharply contested hierarchy and priority. The government has little role in it, and political parties even less. Political parties however to register their presence, and it not just Bharatiya Janata party leaders but such Congress top brass as Mrs Sonia Gandhi who make their presence felt at these religious fetes together with the other millions of the faithful. [By the way, the Supreme Court has recently upheld the official expenditure at Kumbhs, the Muslim Haj and the Hindu pilgrimage to Mansarover in Chinese-held Tibet as legitimate.]
What distinguished the “”Narmada Samajik Kumbh” from the others is that is part of a very recent series of religious festivals invented by the Sangh Parivar as part of an ideological campaign to animate tribal populations in western and central India, specially the Chhotanagpur region inhabited by some of the oldest tribes in the world, anthropologically older than the Dravidian and the Aryan groups that now constitute much of the Indian population. While the people call themselves Adivasis, or original people, the Sangh Parivar calls them Vanvasis or forest dwellers as it is loath to admit that they pre-date the Aryans in the subcontinent. This region is also heavily forested, and has vast reserves of rare earths, minerals, coal and much of the country’s bio diversity. While the late Lakshmananda Saraswati was evangelising the Kondh tribals of Kandhamal in Orissa – later scene of much violence against Christians – with similar heavily Sanskritised ritual, his colleague in the Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram Swami Aseemanand, invented the “Shabari Kumbh” in the Dangs district of Gujarat to create a political and ritual campaign against local Christians and church workers. Aseemanand, born in Bengal and with a master’s degree in science, had become a terror in south Gujarat, which first saw serial violence against Christians on Christmas Eve in 1998 in which over three dozen village churches were torched. Aseemanand is currently in police custody and is being investigated for his part in “Hindutva terror” targetting religious minorities and involving the3 bombing of Muslim shrines and mosques as well as the India-Pakistan peace train, called the Samjhauta express, in 2007. In fact the Shabari event launched by Aseemanand was planned in Madhya Pradesh, according to media reports.
The India Abroad News Service in a despatch from Ahmedabad in January 17 reported that Aseemanand, the chief organiser of the 'shabari mahakumbh', first held in February 2006 to reconvert Christian tribals as Hindus in the tribal Dangs district of Gujarat, had earlier announced that the second edition would be held this year at the same venue, but the venue was shifted later. IANS quoted Hindu Jagran Manch and other co-sponsors based in Surat saying the decision to shift the congregation away from Dangs has been taken in view of the heightened surveillance by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). It was first christened 'Maa Narmada Kumbh'. The name was changed to Narmada Samajik Kumbh when some tribal groups objected and threatened to hold their own festivities to challenge the Kumbh. The Fact Finding team was told that the Tribals possibly would go ahead with their alternative celebrations.
The Kumbh venue is spread over 14 square km area to accommodate about 20 lakh people that are expected to attend. The government has allotted Rs 140 crore [Rupees 1,400 million] for the civil works, tentage, roads and other arrangements.
Already, a barrage has been built across the nascent Narmada River to hold back water for the people to bathe in, as normally at this time of the year, there is not much water in the river. The fact finding team could not ascertain if environmental clearances had been got from the Central authorities for this barrage which itself may have repercussions on wildlife and irrigation downstream. Several kilometres of roads have been built on the riverbed and fields, while tens of kilometres of roads leading up to the river from Jabalpur are being hurriedly given a fresh black-top after removing the old asphalt coating. In normal times, a small temple and a natural island host the several ritual bathing ceremonies held every year, and attended only by local people. The fact finding tram witnessed one such bathing festival, which was supervised by a handful of policemen.
We understand that for the coming Kumbh, not only police from the division but other parts of the State is being deployed, as prominent Hindu religious leaders as well as activists of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, the Bajrang Dal and other Hindu organisations, besides prominent Bharatiya Janata Party leaders, are expected to attend. We were given to understand that Chief Ministers of BJP-ruled states, including Mr. Narendra Modi of Gujarat, Mr. Shivraj Singh Chauhan of Madhya Pradesh and Mr. Raman Singh of Chhattisgarh, were also expected to attend.
We were told that even before the New year, groups of Sadhus and Sangh activists had been roaming about the villages in Mandla, as well as villages and town in the rest of state, going home to home to tell about the Kumbh and to collect money for food and arrangements for the devotees. We were told that such teams of fund collectors were even active in Jabalpur, the second major town in Madhya Pradesh and seat of its High court.
It was in this context that the Pastors and social leaders in Mandla told us of the threatening nature of the Sangh propaganda. They said much of the treat was oral, and conveyed as the groups moved across the villages briefing the people about the activities of the “missionaries” or Christian pastors. The group leaders were openly saying they would wipe out Christianity from the region and covert the region’s Christians to Hinduism in Ghar wapsi through ritual cleansing.
We came across software used to print various sizes of banners and flex-boards. One such set of slogans on the posters charged the Christian missionaries of fooling the local people through their educational and medical services. The main slogan was that the “Church will do anything for conversions” Some of this software bears the signatures of the “Dharma Jagran Samiti, Maharashtra”.
Interestingly, the State administration is going out of its way to patronise the Kumbh The police superintendent on 6 December 2010 issued orders telling Churches , and others, that they needed to close down their schools and other institutions which would used to house the visiting dignitaries, women police and other officials. The school officials told the police it would be impossible to close down the schools for such a long period. After this, the police superintendent claimed he had not signed such an order. The fact Finding team could procure a copy of the order.
The Mandla police have always kept close tabs on the local Christian leadership. The police issued a notice to Sister Olga Lucas of the Deenbandhudham Convent that they were investigating complaints and wanted the Convent to give a list of the nuns serving in the convent with details, further details of their bank accounts, the details of other inmates, numbers of landline and mobile telephones in the convent and the names of those who owned these instruments. Going to ridiculous lengths, the police also asked for full details of patients undergoing treatment in the hospital and clinics, and the details of the administrative structure of the congregation of the nuns, together growth names, addresses and phone numbers of the office bearers and superiors.
Similar notices were also issued to other catholic priests and protestant pastors. The Fact Finding committee could get hold of copies of many of these handwritten notices and orders
The collective fears of the community and church leaders are evident in the text of the Memorandum submitted to the Governor, which inter alia says [English translation, as the original is in Hindi] “It is a matter of great happiness for the Mahishmati Nagar Mandla that the Narmada Kumbh is organized at Mandla on 10,11 and 12th February 2011. As per the information received about 20 lacs [two million] people are expected to arrive for this program. The Kumbh is supposed to be a time of blessings for all. But many fears too are expressed about the purpose of organizing this Mela.
1. As per one of the Paper reports, one of the aims of the Mela is to save the tribals from the persecution of the Christian missionaries. To persecute somebody is against the principles and teachings of Christianity. Moreover the Christian Community in Mandla District have been giving generous support for the development of this District through its educational, medical and social works. Therefore we request the Govt. take care and stop the black propaganda going on against the Christians so that the religious good will prevailing here may not be lost.
2. It is informed by various sources that during the Kumbh in large number, Christians will be reconverted to Hinduism through “Ghar wapasi” (Home Coming) program. Joining any religion or returning to any religion is a fundamental right of every citizen of this country. But we request the Govt. to see that no one is allured or forced to go back to any religion and thus violate their fundamental rights.
3. Another fear about Kumbh is that large number of people from outside M.P. are involved in the preparations and conducting the Kumbh. Since the work is allotted to people who do not know well the language and culture of this place, it can create unwanted situations and problems. In that situation if anything unwanted like stampede etc happens we wish that any antisocial elements should not put the blame on the minorities and take advantage of the situation. To face such situation we request the Government to insure all the buildings, shops, institutions and other movable and immovable properties of the minorities at the expense of the Govt. itself and save the minorities from any risk.
4. Some of the political groups have expressed their doubt that the Kumbh is organized to lease out terrorism here. If the Govt. has some doubt of such thing, to save the innocent people from such situation, in time Govt. may deploy necessary police and Para military forces.
5. From the information received it is learnt that in order to spoil the religious harmony and social peace, a lot of leaflets and flexes are printed and they are being distributed. In time if the Govt. does not take precautionary measures on it and stops it, there is a possibility of losing religious harmony and cause social unrest.
6. Mandla is a peaceful and healthy area. But the coming of such a large number of people may pollute this area and this may lead to some kind of epidemic.
7. We request the Govt to introspect on the above points and take necessary steps in time. Give total protection for the people, institutions and worshipping places of the minorities. If needed kindly arrange sufficient paramilitary force for the same. If through the negligence of the Govt. if anything unwanted happens the Govt. will be held responsible for the same. We wish a peaceful Kumbh and all the success for it and promise our full support and cooperation.”
The Church leadership has reserved its right to consult legal opinion and, if necessary, move the courts for protection.
After its visit, the Fact Finding team fears that even if there is no violence and no forcible conversions of Christians to Hinduism during the duration of the Kumbh, the Hindutva campaign had vitiated the atmosphere and seriously impacted on human relationships between Christian and other tribals in the hamlets, villages and townships of the region. The penetration of hard core Sangh activists and their cells in this area may have long term repercussions for the freedom of religion in this region and may seriously impact on the continuing social work of the Church, including the running of schools and medical centres.
The Fact finding tram hopes the Madhya Pradesh government will take whatever administrative steps are required to prevent any coercive moves against the Christian minority community, that the government will take cognisance of the massive hate campaign that has been unleashed, that it will monitor the security of the minorities during the Kumbh and that it will take long term measures to see that constitutional guarantees of freedom of faith continue to be implemented in the Mandla region.
A copy of this report is being sent to the Governor of Madhya Pradesh, to the Chief Minister, to the National Commission for Minorities, to the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes and to the office of the Prime Minister of India for their information.
Enclosures:
Soft copies of posters
Photocopies of police notices to Convents and churches
Text of the Church memorandum to the Governor
JABALPUR, 1 FEBRUARY 2011
A fact finding team which toured the Narmada Valley areas in Mandla district in Madhya Pradesh on the eve of the so-called Narmada Samajik Kumbh scheduled to be held from 10th to 12th February 2011 has found that the Christian community not just of the district but of the entire region encompassing Madhya Pradesh and neighbouring state of Chhatisgarh, have solid reasons to fear an outbreak of violence against them during or after the event from cadres of the Sangh Parivar.
The Sangh Parivar has left no one in any doubt that the main reason for organising the Kumbh, or holy river bank gathering, at which they expect two million people and the entire leadership of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, its daughter organisations and the governments of Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh to attend, is to purge the region of “Christian missionaries” they accuse of carrying on large scale conversions of tribals, mostly Gonds in this part of the country.
The church leadership in turn has sent urgent representations to the Governor and chief minister of Madhya Pradesh apprising them of the sinister developments and calling on the State to ensure that they are not persecuted and that there is no outbreak of violence. “Our sources tell us there will be a major ghar wapsi or conversion to Hinduism of local Christians. We urge the administration to take timely action and appropriate steps to protect the citizens and particularly the minorities, their places of worship and institutions and religious personnel. The administration would be entirely and wholly responsible in case of any undesirable eventuality,” a memorandum signed by priests and representatives of the Christian community to the State Governor, with copies to the Chief Minister and the divisional and district authorities said. The memorandum also listed samples of newspaper clippings and the offensive posters targetting minorities.
The Fact Finding Team: the fact finding team consisted of Dr John Dayal, Member, National Integration Council of the Government of India, and secretary general of the All India Christian Council, and Mr Vijayesh Lal, Human rights activist and Secretary of Religious Liberty Commission - EFI. The team spent three days in the Mandla-Jabalpur region, and met with the Catholic bishop of Jabalpur, Right Reverend Gerald Almeida as well as over 200 Catholic, Protestant and evangelic priests, pastors and church workers of the region in two groups in Jabalpur, where one group had come as they were afraid to meet the team in their village areas, and in the Mandla Catholic parish church hall.
The team visited the banks of the Narmada River, particularly the left bank, where some houses and fields had been levelled to make housing, toilet and other arrangements of the crowds expected to attend. The team spoke with the contractors building the “shamianas” and tents, roads and a new barrage, to local policemen, and others. The team could not, for want of time, go to Bhopal to meet with the Chief Minister, the Home Minister, the State Minorities Commission and the Governor, all of whom have been apprised of the situation by the local church authorities.
The fact finding team also collected, or photographed, pamphlets, posers, hoardings, and were given copies of other printed material.
Background: The district lies in the Mahakoshal region of Madhya Pradesh state. Most of the district lies in the basin of the Narmada River whose origins are in streams perhaps a hundred kilometres upstream from the town. Mandla district is part of the Administrative commissioner’s division of Jabalpur, with an area of 8,771 square kilometres, an official Census population of 779,414, a literacy rate of 59.85. Politically, it sends a member to the Lok Sabha, the lower house of Parliament and as many as 12 members to the State Assembly, making it politically a very important region. Government statistics say much of the population are Adivasis (tribals, who the RSS wants to describe as Vanvasis, or forest-dwellers, a term abhorred by the people). The State government admits that despite 60 years of Independence, 11 Five year Plans and millions of rupees spent in Union and State projects, the Mandla district “consistently” ranks among the 20 most backward districts in India. It is rugged terrain, and barring the state highway, inner roads continue to be in a terrible condition. Even within sight of from the highway, housing ranges from brick and cement houses to mud and thatch huts.
The Church is active in the region in education, health and development projects, many begun in recent years. The Catholic Church runs a hospital, a girl’s school and a boy’s school, apart from work done by the fathers and Sisters. The Church also has a home for its retired clergy in the region. The catholic population is thinly spread over the region, barring two villages which have a sizable number of Gond Catholics. The Church of North India has a century old church in the town, near the offices and residences of the Collector and Police chief. The CNI church has some historical and architectural importance. About 400 protestant and evangelical Pastors
Backgrounder to Kumbh Melas: The Kumbh, as the encyclopaedia says, is a mass Hindu pilgrimage, usually on the banks of a holy river and with a fixed periodicity. The minor Kumbhs are held every 3 years, the Ardh or half Kumbhs every six years at on the Ganges at Haridwar in Uttarakhand and Allahabad in Uttar Pradesh on the junction of the Ganges and Yamuna rivers and the main or 12 yearly Kumbh at river banks at four places --Allahabad, Haridwar, and Ujjain in Madhya Pradesh and Nasik in Maharashtra. The government spends billions of rupees in the periodic preparations, largely on crowd management, sanitation and habitation, but the religious rituals are carried out by well known Akharas, or congregations which have traditional rights of bathing and prayers in a sharply contested hierarchy and priority. The government has little role in it, and political parties even less. Political parties however to register their presence, and it not just Bharatiya Janata party leaders but such Congress top brass as Mrs Sonia Gandhi who make their presence felt at these religious fetes together with the other millions of the faithful. [By the way, the Supreme Court has recently upheld the official expenditure at Kumbhs, the Muslim Haj and the Hindu pilgrimage to Mansarover in Chinese-held Tibet as legitimate.]
What distinguished the “”Narmada Samajik Kumbh” from the others is that is part of a very recent series of religious festivals invented by the Sangh Parivar as part of an ideological campaign to animate tribal populations in western and central India, specially the Chhotanagpur region inhabited by some of the oldest tribes in the world, anthropologically older than the Dravidian and the Aryan groups that now constitute much of the Indian population. While the people call themselves Adivasis, or original people, the Sangh Parivar calls them Vanvasis or forest dwellers as it is loath to admit that they pre-date the Aryans in the subcontinent. This region is also heavily forested, and has vast reserves of rare earths, minerals, coal and much of the country’s bio diversity. While the late Lakshmananda Saraswati was evangelising the Kondh tribals of Kandhamal in Orissa – later scene of much violence against Christians – with similar heavily Sanskritised ritual, his colleague in the Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram Swami Aseemanand, invented the “Shabari Kumbh” in the Dangs district of Gujarat to create a political and ritual campaign against local Christians and church workers. Aseemanand, born in Bengal and with a master’s degree in science, had become a terror in south Gujarat, which first saw serial violence against Christians on Christmas Eve in 1998 in which over three dozen village churches were torched. Aseemanand is currently in police custody and is being investigated for his part in “Hindutva terror” targetting religious minorities and involving the3 bombing of Muslim shrines and mosques as well as the India-Pakistan peace train, called the Samjhauta express, in 2007. In fact the Shabari event launched by Aseemanand was planned in Madhya Pradesh, according to media reports.
The India Abroad News Service in a despatch from Ahmedabad in January 17 reported that Aseemanand, the chief organiser of the 'shabari mahakumbh', first held in February 2006 to reconvert Christian tribals as Hindus in the tribal Dangs district of Gujarat, had earlier announced that the second edition would be held this year at the same venue, but the venue was shifted later. IANS quoted Hindu Jagran Manch and other co-sponsors based in Surat saying the decision to shift the congregation away from Dangs has been taken in view of the heightened surveillance by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). It was first christened 'Maa Narmada Kumbh'. The name was changed to Narmada Samajik Kumbh when some tribal groups objected and threatened to hold their own festivities to challenge the Kumbh. The Fact Finding team was told that the Tribals possibly would go ahead with their alternative celebrations.
The Kumbh venue is spread over 14 square km area to accommodate about 20 lakh people that are expected to attend. The government has allotted Rs 140 crore [Rupees 1,400 million] for the civil works, tentage, roads and other arrangements.
Already, a barrage has been built across the nascent Narmada River to hold back water for the people to bathe in, as normally at this time of the year, there is not much water in the river. The fact finding team could not ascertain if environmental clearances had been got from the Central authorities for this barrage which itself may have repercussions on wildlife and irrigation downstream. Several kilometres of roads have been built on the riverbed and fields, while tens of kilometres of roads leading up to the river from Jabalpur are being hurriedly given a fresh black-top after removing the old asphalt coating. In normal times, a small temple and a natural island host the several ritual bathing ceremonies held every year, and attended only by local people. The fact finding tram witnessed one such bathing festival, which was supervised by a handful of policemen.
We understand that for the coming Kumbh, not only police from the division but other parts of the State is being deployed, as prominent Hindu religious leaders as well as activists of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, the Bajrang Dal and other Hindu organisations, besides prominent Bharatiya Janata Party leaders, are expected to attend. We were given to understand that Chief Ministers of BJP-ruled states, including Mr. Narendra Modi of Gujarat, Mr. Shivraj Singh Chauhan of Madhya Pradesh and Mr. Raman Singh of Chhattisgarh, were also expected to attend.
We were told that even before the New year, groups of Sadhus and Sangh activists had been roaming about the villages in Mandla, as well as villages and town in the rest of state, going home to home to tell about the Kumbh and to collect money for food and arrangements for the devotees. We were told that such teams of fund collectors were even active in Jabalpur, the second major town in Madhya Pradesh and seat of its High court.
It was in this context that the Pastors and social leaders in Mandla told us of the threatening nature of the Sangh propaganda. They said much of the treat was oral, and conveyed as the groups moved across the villages briefing the people about the activities of the “missionaries” or Christian pastors. The group leaders were openly saying they would wipe out Christianity from the region and covert the region’s Christians to Hinduism in Ghar wapsi through ritual cleansing.
We came across software used to print various sizes of banners and flex-boards. One such set of slogans on the posters charged the Christian missionaries of fooling the local people through their educational and medical services. The main slogan was that the “Church will do anything for conversions” Some of this software bears the signatures of the “Dharma Jagran Samiti, Maharashtra”.
Interestingly, the State administration is going out of its way to patronise the Kumbh The police superintendent on 6 December 2010 issued orders telling Churches , and others, that they needed to close down their schools and other institutions which would used to house the visiting dignitaries, women police and other officials. The school officials told the police it would be impossible to close down the schools for such a long period. After this, the police superintendent claimed he had not signed such an order. The fact Finding team could procure a copy of the order.
The Mandla police have always kept close tabs on the local Christian leadership. The police issued a notice to Sister Olga Lucas of the Deenbandhudham Convent that they were investigating complaints and wanted the Convent to give a list of the nuns serving in the convent with details, further details of their bank accounts, the details of other inmates, numbers of landline and mobile telephones in the convent and the names of those who owned these instruments. Going to ridiculous lengths, the police also asked for full details of patients undergoing treatment in the hospital and clinics, and the details of the administrative structure of the congregation of the nuns, together growth names, addresses and phone numbers of the office bearers and superiors.
Similar notices were also issued to other catholic priests and protestant pastors. The Fact Finding committee could get hold of copies of many of these handwritten notices and orders
The collective fears of the community and church leaders are evident in the text of the Memorandum submitted to the Governor, which inter alia says [English translation, as the original is in Hindi] “It is a matter of great happiness for the Mahishmati Nagar Mandla that the Narmada Kumbh is organized at Mandla on 10,11 and 12th February 2011. As per the information received about 20 lacs [two million] people are expected to arrive for this program. The Kumbh is supposed to be a time of blessings for all. But many fears too are expressed about the purpose of organizing this Mela.
1. As per one of the Paper reports, one of the aims of the Mela is to save the tribals from the persecution of the Christian missionaries. To persecute somebody is against the principles and teachings of Christianity. Moreover the Christian Community in Mandla District have been giving generous support for the development of this District through its educational, medical and social works. Therefore we request the Govt. take care and stop the black propaganda going on against the Christians so that the religious good will prevailing here may not be lost.
2. It is informed by various sources that during the Kumbh in large number, Christians will be reconverted to Hinduism through “Ghar wapasi” (Home Coming) program. Joining any religion or returning to any religion is a fundamental right of every citizen of this country. But we request the Govt. to see that no one is allured or forced to go back to any religion and thus violate their fundamental rights.
3. Another fear about Kumbh is that large number of people from outside M.P. are involved in the preparations and conducting the Kumbh. Since the work is allotted to people who do not know well the language and culture of this place, it can create unwanted situations and problems. In that situation if anything unwanted like stampede etc happens we wish that any antisocial elements should not put the blame on the minorities and take advantage of the situation. To face such situation we request the Government to insure all the buildings, shops, institutions and other movable and immovable properties of the minorities at the expense of the Govt. itself and save the minorities from any risk.
4. Some of the political groups have expressed their doubt that the Kumbh is organized to lease out terrorism here. If the Govt. has some doubt of such thing, to save the innocent people from such situation, in time Govt. may deploy necessary police and Para military forces.
5. From the information received it is learnt that in order to spoil the religious harmony and social peace, a lot of leaflets and flexes are printed and they are being distributed. In time if the Govt. does not take precautionary measures on it and stops it, there is a possibility of losing religious harmony and cause social unrest.
6. Mandla is a peaceful and healthy area. But the coming of such a large number of people may pollute this area and this may lead to some kind of epidemic.
7. We request the Govt to introspect on the above points and take necessary steps in time. Give total protection for the people, institutions and worshipping places of the minorities. If needed kindly arrange sufficient paramilitary force for the same. If through the negligence of the Govt. if anything unwanted happens the Govt. will be held responsible for the same. We wish a peaceful Kumbh and all the success for it and promise our full support and cooperation.”
The Church leadership has reserved its right to consult legal opinion and, if necessary, move the courts for protection.
After its visit, the Fact Finding team fears that even if there is no violence and no forcible conversions of Christians to Hinduism during the duration of the Kumbh, the Hindutva campaign had vitiated the atmosphere and seriously impacted on human relationships between Christian and other tribals in the hamlets, villages and townships of the region. The penetration of hard core Sangh activists and their cells in this area may have long term repercussions for the freedom of religion in this region and may seriously impact on the continuing social work of the Church, including the running of schools and medical centres.
The Fact finding tram hopes the Madhya Pradesh government will take whatever administrative steps are required to prevent any coercive moves against the Christian minority community, that the government will take cognisance of the massive hate campaign that has been unleashed, that it will monitor the security of the minorities during the Kumbh and that it will take long term measures to see that constitutional guarantees of freedom of faith continue to be implemented in the Mandla region.
A copy of this report is being sent to the Governor of Madhya Pradesh, to the Chief Minister, to the National Commission for Minorities, to the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes and to the office of the Prime Minister of India for their information.
Enclosures:
Soft copies of posters
Photocopies of police notices to Convents and churches
Text of the Church memorandum to the Governor
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