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Pogrom Torn Kandhamal revisited – Philip P. Eapen
Philip P.Eapen
Christians in Kandhamal were planning to celebrate Christmas in a big way in 2011. That’s when a group called for a bandh (a general shutdown) of the whole district for four days from Dec 24.
Sensing foul play in the selection of the dates, Christians protested. A bandh not only keeps business establishment closed; it also paralyses the life of people. Roads will get blocked by tree trunks. Such an atmosphere is suitable for persecuting Christinas.
The Union government and Odisha state government put police force in full alert. The district collector and police chief personally oversaw security arrangements and visited churches to reassure Christians.
Yet, on Christmas eve, the 24th of December, the house of a Christian near Baliguda was burnt down by people who were upset about his conversion to Christian faith. Due to Christmas and the revised one-day bandh on December 26th, news is just trickling from this remote area. The affected family did not wish to file an FIR due to fear. Later, an FIR was filed.
The District Collector and Superintendent of Police reassure Christians on Christmas Eve
Kandhamal – the territory of the people group called Kandh – is a hilly region that is 600 to 1200 m above MSL. The climate of this region is similar to that of Munnar or Kodaikanal. The higher latitude compensates brings about lower temperatures than what is found in the southern hill stations. Mercury dips below zero degree Celsius in a few villages.
The Kandhs are rice eaters. They eat fish and meat occasionally. A typical meal consists of rice, dal and a vegetable dish.
My visit coincided with the rice paddy harvest. Fields bore a golden post-harvest hue. Villagers – mostly husband-wife teams were busy threshing the grain. Some beat the grain out of the sheaves while most use cows and bulls to thresh the sheaves. Interestingly, none of the animals were muzzled. I don’t know whether this practice was influenced by the biblical injunction against muzzling oxen that threshed grain.
Kandhamal received the gospel in 1914 when a few British missionaries arrived there! Missionaries arrived at a village called Mallikapodi and established a church there on April 12, 1914. These missionaries trained young boys to read and write. They educated them to grade V level. After that, these boys were sent out as teachers, preachers and doctors! This is how Mallikapodi became the centre of evangelistic activities in Kandhamal district a century ago. The neighbouring town G. Udayagiri boasted of a mission hospital that functioned very well under the stewardship of missionaries.
The local tribal language of Kandhamal is Kui. British missionaries learned Kui. They encouraged these people to be faithful to Kui instead of making a complete transition to Odiya, which today is the official language of Odisha state.
My hosts claim is very similar to Malayalam. How do they know it? “Ten percent of our district’s population is in Kerala. Most are in Ernakulam district, in Perumbavoor, working in various plywood industries,” explained Br R Nayak who joined us from Berhampur. He works in a bank. “The population of Odiyas in Kerala is so large that some theatres in Kerala exhibit Odiya movies.” That was news to me!
Br R Nayak wonders whether a group people from Kerala or Tamil Nadu had long ago inhabited the hills of Kandhamal. He could be right. Many centuries ago, the large Tamil empire included the present Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Pondicherry, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Sri Lanka, Singapore, and parts of Malaysia. Probably a group of Tamil soldiers who fought to extend the empire to Odisha settled in the hills of Kandhamal to give rise to today’s Kui speaking Kandhs.
The Kui speaking Kandhs are tribals. They bore tribal tattoo marks
To prove his point, he showed me the tattoo marks on his mother’s face. Those marks, he said, were characteristic of tribal people. The Kui people were once ruled by Ghumsar. (Hence, Udayagiri is known as Ghumsar Udayagiri.) “Our girls were very pretty,” R Nayak said. Indeed they are! “The king used to capture our young girls and violate them. To prevent such atrocities, the elders subjected their daughters to this painful procedure. They wanted their girls to look ugly so that the King and his men would leave them alone! When you can’t defend your women with your might, the next best thing might be to make them unattractive.
Br R Nayak explained to me that the Kandhs, like other tribesmen of India, were animists. Hinduism was alien to them. As a boy, he had helped his father to conduct animistic sacrifices. Like Isaac who accompanied Abraham to Mount Moriah, R Nayak used to carry a chicken and follow his father and other folks to the jungle. His father sacrificed the chicken on a rock. Later, the entire gathering enjoyed a ritual meal. These tribal people never knew the gods of the rest of India. They never carried coconuts or flowers to temples. All these practices were later introduced to tribal areas by settlers from outside these regions.
How did the infamous riots begin in 2008? The large population of Christians in Kandhamal and neighbouring Gajapati district was a pain in the neck for many fundamentalists. They were also jealous of Christians in Kandhamal who were far ahead of the remaining populace in terms of education and employment. In the whole of Orissa, the Christian-dominated Udayagiri in Kandhamal has the highest density of well educated and well settled people! My new friends tell me that this is sufficient proof that demonstrates what the Gospel can do to any people.
There was a Swami in Kandhamal who worked among the tribal people to prevent their conversion to Christianity. He also initiated efforts to “reconvert” Christian tribal folks to Hinduism although tribal religons was animism. This Swami was murdered in 2008.The majority community blamed Christians for the murder of the Swami. Christians were also accused of slaughtering a cow. These rumours triggered the pogrom.
Most of the attacks took place at night. Several hundreds of Christians were chased out of their homes. Their houses and churches were destroyed and burnt. Many were mercilessly killed. Those who managed to escape slaughter took shelter in the forests and hills. Violent mobs pursued these Christians into the forests to kill them. These outrageous killings went on for three months.
Wealthy Christian leaders who had vehicles sped away to the plains – to Berhampur or to Bhubaneswar, the State capital. Some fled to Kerala. Poorer Christians were left in the hills to suffer like sheep without shepherds. Later, in the relief camps, Christians decided to reject the leadership of all those leaders who had fled to escape persecution.
The local pastor of Mallikapodi Church fled to the forests in the hills. He took his wife, three daughters and his 2-year old son farther into the forests than any other member of this church. They survived on biscuits which they managed to take with them. The pastor was especially scared because the rioters mainly targeted pastors and Christian leaders. And then, being a father of 3 young girls, he was naturally anxious for their safety. Were there wild animals in the forest? I asked the pastor. “We did not see any large animal. But there must have been snakes everywhere. God protected us. We returned to G Udayagiri town after a few days and got enrolled in the relief camp. After a few weeks, we went to our native village in the neighbouring district.”
Pastor D Nayak was not at home when a mob struck his house. They used a cooking gas cylinder in his house to blast his house. His wife and two sons – both under ten years at that time – ran away into the hills. They managed to reach Udyagiri by taking a jungle short cut. They sought refuge in a camp set up by the government. Later, the pastor found his sons in this relief camp. They lived there for six months. Life in the “relief camp” was terrible. They did not have anything except the clothes they wore when they escaped the violence. The relief camp was more or less a prison. They were not allowed to go anywhere except for an hour or two every day. This was in fact to provide them security. An elderly man who went out to shop for his monthly rations was found dead by the wayside.
Pastor D Nayak and his family were invited to live in a friend’s house in Pondicherry for two weeks. They enjoyed the journey and the stay. Mrs. Nayak could get psychiatric help from JIPMER for the condition she faced after the riots began. They then returned to the relief camp.
Pastor D Nayak remembers with gratitude a group of Christians who came all the way from Kollam in Kerala to help these poor Christians. Various Christian agencies stepped in to build houses. EFICOR built around 450 houses for those whose houses were destroyed. The government too gave some money to each family to rebuild homes and lives. Another Christian group provided clothes and a few hundred sarees for the women.
A few days before the pogrom, Pastor D Nayak met his friend who was a businessman in Udayagiri. He told Nayak, “I have a heart problem. I don’t know how long I’ll live. I am glad we met today.” A few days later, militant Hindus took him away from his house. His wife followed him. Their sons saw the direction in which their parents were taken. The man was tied up and his wife was raped in his sight. Later, the two were butchered and pieces of their body were thrown into a river nearby. Two days later, the decomposed body parts were discovered in downstream.
Complete details about the 2008 pogrom against Christians in Kandhamal will never come to light. Dozens of Christians refused to testify in court against their neighbours. These Christians feared that the accused would hurt them after serving time in prisons. Magistrates and police officials were baffled. Hundreds of murderers, arsonists and rapists thus had to be acquitted.
ANGELIC RESCUE
Pastor Nayak recalls that persecution of Christians in Kandhamal did not begin in 2008. There were several instances of persecution before the 2008 pogrom. However, these went unnoticed. The Hindu swami – Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati – was behind all these attacks. He took initiative to convert animistic tribal folks to Hinduism and to “reconvert” local Christians to Hinduism. Media coverage was poor in the past. Communication systems and roads were quite primitive. Therefore the outside world did not know about these atrocities.
In 1988, at the age of twenty, D Nayak went to a local village market with a friend. A large crowd was present there, buying and selling. Suddenly, a group of Hindus surrounded him and his friends. Some beat them while others pelted them with stones. The mob shouted slogans praising Hinduism and denouncing Christianity.
The young men bled profusely. D Nayak’s while shirt turned red. Huge lumps appeared on Nayak’s head and face due to the stoning. The two men were led to a local Shiva temple. They were taken to the inner sanctuary where the main idol was kept. The leader of the mob drew a sword and asked the men, “If you will renounce your Jesus and accept Hinduism, we will let you go. Otherwise, we’ll butcher you.” Nayak replied that he wouldn’t recant his faith in Jesus. He said that he was prepared to die.
All of a sudden, a tall well-built young man entered the room. The man who threatened to kill the young men dropped his sword and began to tremble. This tall man asked the young men to get up and follow him. D Nayak didn’t understand what was happening. No one who bayed for his blood objected when he was being led out. This mysterious tall man led him to the local police station. A few minutes later, he brought out the second young man too to the station. After that, he disappeared.
While they were at the station, they saw Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati travelling up and down in his vehicle. The swami was obviously supervising the entire operation, encouraging the crowd to do these hate crimes. The police did not take the matter seriously. No case was registered against anyone. They were made to sit in the station till dusk. Later, they slipped out of the police station and walked home. Until today, Pastor Nayak doesn’t know the whereabouts of the man who rescued him. The God of the Bible had rescued his servants from certain death several times by sending his angels. Probably this was a divinely co-ordinated angelic rescue.
