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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