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