People's initiative can only restore normalcy in Orissa's Kandhamal
Thursday, July 22, 2010
By Hemant Naik, Kandhamal District is a scheduled district mostly
inhabited by the people from indigenous communities with distinct
culture, language, tradition, faith, customary practices and
livelihood dependent on forest and other natural resources. Out of the
total population of the district 6.97 lakhs, the ST population
constitute 52% , SC 18% and Other Backwards, Converted SCs and General
Caste people almost 30%. Hindus 5.27 lakhs and Christians 1.17 lakhs.
Out of 88% of the forest land, 71% reserved forest and 17% unreserved
forest.
Out of the 12% habitable land, major portion is under the position of
higher caste outsiders. 78% of the Tribals are Below Poverty Line. Out
of 18% of SC population, only 9% have some land holding. There was
exceptional growth in population of outsiders between 1961 to 2001,
growth rate, Tribals 70%, Dalits 60% and non-Adivasi – Dalit Hindus
134%.
Unrestricted immigration of outsiders and their illegal settlements in
the scheduled area with lot of influence and dominance over the local
culture, tradition, economic and socio-political condition through
various manipulative means with the help of establishment has created
a lot of crisis in the normal process of survival with dignity, self
sufficiency and freedom. Dalits of the land are not religious but
ethnic by nature and have a symbiotic relationship with mutual
dependency. There is no instance of traditional or cultural conflict
in between the communities.
Cultural Domination, Fundamentalism and Communal Violence in Kandhamal
Traditionally, the indigenous communities and various ethnic groups
never been religious fanatics, culturally intolerant and casteist. The
process of cultural domination only after 1970s with the initiations
of sanskritisation process by some religious radical forces. The
process started from Chakapad and Kandhamal has been experiencing a
series of well planned attacks against the people of religious
minority community mostly from Tribal and Dalit communities including
the women and children. The process was mainly led by a so called
religious leader Laxmanananda Saraswati.
The language, rituals, identity, customary practices, belief systems,
animistic religion of Tribals and Dalits has undergone changes under
domination by physically and economically stronger immigrated
communities. Hinduisation of Adivasis and Dalits has started
vigorously from 1970s till now by the Hindu fundamentalists and
trading communities, which resulted in replacing the indigenous
systems of worshipping and rituals by Brahmanic systems, introducing
untouchability, social discrimination and caste based hatred in
between the ethnic groups particularly against the Dalits to break the
traditional cultural bond and thus weaken the socio – political unity
by creating divisions through spreading hatred campaign basing on
social complexes. There were planned attacks in during 1970 and 1980s
and more number of violent attacks took place after the political
changes came at the centre in the state with the religious parties
came into the power. There were attacks during 1984, 1987, 1994
(during the period of Biju Patnaik) with the loss of lives of more
than 17 of ST/SC people large scale destruction and damage of
household property attacks on women and children, large number of
families forced to live their native places and took shelter in far
away urban slums and cities for survival surprisingly the government
did not take action to identify the victims and bring back home, a
word compensation to the victims to construct their houses on their
native land and also for human loss. Even today, the victims are
leading a miserable life as slum dwellers.
There was again attack on 1997 in Daringbadi Block , in 2000 at
Katingia Godapur , in 2006 at Raikia Catholic Church was attacked and
houses of socially marginalised community damaged, a many believers
and activists deadly assaulted. Two major attacks were organised on
23rd December 2007 onwards at Brahmanigaon and continued and it was
further intensified after the killing of Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati
during the period of coalition government of BJP-BJD government.
During this period of coalition government, a large number of
Saraswati Vidyamandir Schools and Institutions were established to
spread hatred campaign against the religious minority communities and
used government machinery including the aid to protect and promote
Hindu Religious Institutions also encouraged illegal sanskritisation
activities in the name of reconversion. National level convention of
Hindu Sammilanee was organised by Viswa Hindu Parisad (VHP) in which
large number of leaders of religious radical organisations including
the state participated in the convention and spread hatred message
against the religious community.
During the violence in Kandhamal alone more than 300 villages were
ransacked, 4400 houses were burnt, 5000 people became homeless, 59
people were killed including women, disabled persons and children,
Adivasis and Dalits, 18000 persons suffered with injuries, as reported
in the press some were burnt alive including 3 disabled person, young
lady and two women were gang-raped and 151 churches destroyed.
No adequate assessment was made by the government. on the extent of
damage and human loss and proper compensation and relief was given to
the victims. Large number of victims are still not in a position to
return back home and rebuild their damaged structures. Victims are
yet to get adequate protection from the attackers.
Victims are threatened, they could come back home if they withdraw the
cases filed against the culprits and also accept the Hinduism. Large
number of petitions are yet to be converted into FIRs. Many are yet to
file FIRs out of fear. No proper enquiry has been conducted by the
investigation authority on the complaints registered and also due to
the lapses in the prosecution and non co-operation of the victims out
of fear large number of criminals are getting acquitted. Interestingly
the key officials those who were during the violence and neglected to
discharge the duties are yet to be transferred.
The Administrative initiative not up to the expectation. The peace
building, relief and rehabilitation process is not transparent. Not a
single official has been made accountable for negligent of duties.
Even the Church groups though entered into the area late confine to
their activities to some kind of relief, medicine and some inadequate
help to repair the houses.
In addition to appointing some advocates to assist the process which
is also not affective as it is not backed by the community support
system. The Church aid further divides the victims as their is lack of
proper co-ordination within different denominations as their is also
differences in distribution of aid. At present the resource mobilised
in the name of Tribal and Dalit empowerment divides and weakens the
community on the ground of religious denomination, caste identity,
discriminated use of aid.
On the other hand, the divisive forces are still active on the ground
and organising planning meetings to launch further attacks in future
with the knowledge of the Administration. Religious leaders and NGOs
are not in a position to challenge the system to enforce adequate
action programmes to extend and ensure justice to the victims.
Intervention of ODAAN and Kuidina Forum for Peace and justice
ODAAN (Odisha Dalit Adivasi Action Net) is a state level forum of
organisations, peoples initiatives, experienced social and Human
Rights activists from especially tribal and marginalised communities
to work in the communally disturbed and affected areas of Odisha to
restore peace and normalcy by organising strategic interventions. The
forum was created out of the process of ISI sponsored project led by
Fr. Jimmy Dabhi and assisted by Dillip Sebak and Ramesh Ch. Nayak. The
Forum has been doing work even now in the communally disturbed areas
of Odisha particularly through its partner organisations particularly
in scheduled districts like Kandhamal, Koraput, Malkangiri, Rayagada,
Nawarangpur, Sundargarh, Sambalpur, Gajapati, Ganjam, Kalahandi,
Mayurbhanj, Keonjhar etc.
In Kandhamal, the Forum strengthened a local initiative named Kuidina
Forum for Peace and Justice to intensify the action programme in
remote affected villages of Kandhamal to speed up the peace building
process and restoration of normalcy in Kandhamal.
Demand for Human Rights Intervention
Since the Forum felt that many of the key officials in charge of
maintenance of law and order, control of crimes and also management of
relief and rehabilitation affairs did not discharge their duties
properly which encouraged the miscreants to organise more criminal
activities and further aggravated the situation. The Forum approached
the Odisha Human Rights Commission for proper investigation on the
negligence of duties and a formal case was registered on March 23,
2009 and the process is going on.
Demand for Intervention of Governor of Odisha
The Governor of Odisha, Muralidhar Chandrakant Bhandare was also kind
enough to have a long discussion with the delegation on the memorandum
submitted to him on June 3, 2009 and issued instructions to the
district administration to take adequate action on the demands.
Joint Political Action
As an important part of lobby and advocacy the Forum organised a joint
Dharana in co-operation with all political parties, organised mass
Rally and Public meeting in front of Odisha Legislative Assembly on
June 12, 2009 while the Assembly session was going on in which all the
different party leaders participated and submitted a memorandum to CM
with their joint signatures condemning the violence in Kandhamal and
also demanded appropriate action against the culprits.
Approached M.P.Pinto and Chidambaram
Forum Members also met M.P.Pinto, Vice– Chairperson, National Minority
Commission on dt. June 14, 2009 at DRDA Conference Hall, Collectorate,
Phulbani and submitted a memorandum after a long discussion on the
prevailing situation in Kandhamal in the presence of the district
magistrate and Superintendent of Police, Kandhamal.
Forum also met P.Chidambaram, Home Minister, Govt. of India on June
26, 2009 during his visit to Kandhamal and submitted a memorandum
seeking his immediate intervention to restore peace and normalcy in
Kandhamal.
Demand to Arrest the Criminals/Trouble Makers
The real criminals and leaders of the violence are yet to be taken to
task and not arrested. The attacks on the helpless are still going on.
The complainants and witnesses are threatened not to give evidence.
Thus most of the criminals are getting acquitted in the Fast Tract
Court Trials. Social Organisations dependant on so much external
support , sectarian and individualistic in approach and create more
divisions and disunity face the challenges.
Forceful Reconversion
Forceful reconversion was organised at Shankarakhol of Chakapad Block
by the Hindu Fundamentalist Forces in which 15 of Christian families
converted into Hinduism out of fear as the survivors lived in a very
helpless, unprotected and undefended condition. No organisation or
agency has taken up any initiation to oppose this kind of forceful
reconversions and thus protect the innocent believers.
As a strategic action to sensitise and mobilise the state level
different political party leaders alarge number of KFPJ members
approached Janardan Pati, State Chief of CPIM, Orissa Chapter on 2nd
February, 2010. Pati was kind enough to extend his full co-operation
to the campaign of KFPJ.
Organising the Victims in Slums
A consultation meeting was organised on 6th March 2010 at Basti
Unnayan School, Mundasahi, Jayadev Vihar, Bhubaneswar in order to
further consolidate the peace and confidence building process amongst
the victims of Kandhamal violence migrated due to attack and out of
fear and in temporary shelters of different slum areas of
Bhubaneswar.
Plan of Action
The 3rd Co-ordination meeting of ODAAN was organised at Jatrinivas,
Bhubaneswar on June 4, 2010 and it was decided to organise zonal level
meetings to intensify District level processes and also carry out the
Conflict, Resolution and Peace Building Processes through Dialogue
and other need based action programmes by empowering the community
leaders from Adivasi, Dalit, women and Religious Minority Communities.
Thus further it was decided to counter the divisive fascist forces
collectively through a joint Forum. Protecting the common interests of
all indigenous and marginalised communities by organising joint
capacity building training programmes for a deeper understanding of
social conflict and socio-political, economic, cultural and religious
dimensions attached to this, identification of divisive political,
social and cultural forces responsible for creating violence and
social disintegration by developing a strategic action plan to
counter the divisive forces effectively through a mass supported
pressure building and politically bargaining process.
It was decided to organise similar kind of capacity building training
programmes in selected Blocks and Panchayats of scheduled districts
of affected areas with priority to recent worst affected areas through
a well co-ordinated district level monitoring committee guided by the
state level core-committee. It was also decided to sensitize and
mobilize the media to support the said people based process. Besides
mobilising the required resources locally it was also decided to
mobilise the resources externally through different support
organisations with a understanding of having the ownership on
utilization of the said mobilised support in a collective, democratic
and transparent manner.
It was decided to strengthen the ongoing legal support system by
motivating the local advocates , mobilising the minimum required
resources and developing the community support based to effectively
face the situation created by the terrorising and anti-social
elements.
It was decided to have lobby and advocacy in political level and
organise round table interactions with the ST/SC elected
representatives of different political parties during the Assembly
sessions and motivate them to raise questions on relevant issues
relating to deprivation and social injustice and thus to build up
pressure on the government and District Administration to support the
ground level processes.
All the human rights activists should join hands and make this process
more inclusive and effective.
The writer is the Convenor, Kuidina Forum for Peace and Justice based
in Odisha. Please send your suggestions and comments at
janatavikasmanch@gmail.com
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