Monday, June 29, 2009

ALL INDIA CHRISTIAN COUNCIL

Press Note

29 June 2009

Christians seek urgent protection of witnesses of Orissa violence, rehabilitation of victims of Orissa violence, SC rights for Dalit Christians

The Christian community today asked the Union government to intervene decisively in Orissa and ensure the protection of witnesses whose lives are being threatened by criminals, including politicians and legislators of the Bharatiya Janata Party charged with multiple murders in the anti Christian violence of August-October 2008.

Community representatives were invited today by the new Central Minister for Minority Affairs, Mr. Salman Khursheed, at his offices to appraise himself of the issues confronting the 2.6 crore [26 million] Christians in the country. The Christian delegation consisted of Delhi Catholic auxiliary Bishop Franco, Believers Bishop Simon John, All India Christian Council Secretary General Dr John Dayal, Sister Molly of St Beads College, Shimla and others. The Minister said he would take up with concerned ministries in the Union government and with the state governments issues that had been brought to his notice.

The Christian delegation demanded that the community be consulted in the formulation of the proposed Equal Opportunities Commission, the Anti-Communal Violence Bill and the Educational reforms that Union HRD minister Kapil Sibal has proposed in his public statements recently. The delegation also impressed on the minister the urgent need to give Scheduled Caste status to Dalit Christians, the setting up of a Commission to assess economic deprivation in the community on the lines of the Justice Sachhar committee for Muslims, commensurate share in central development funds, full relief and rehabilitation to all victims of communal violence in Orissa and other states, an end to harassment of Christian educational institutions, pastors, evangelists in various states, and abrogation of all so called Freedom of Religion laws passed by both BJP and Congress ruled states.

The following is the text of the memo presented to the minister:

Mr Salman Khursheed

Hon’ble Minister, Independent Charge

Ministry for Minority Affairs, New Delhi

Dear Minister

Greetings from the All India Christian Council and the other organisations I have the honour to represent. Please also accept our congratulations on your election to the Lok Sabha, and your installation as Minister with Independent Charge of Minority Affairs, an important portfolio that can help ensure strengthening of the very foundations of a secular and united India.

We thank you for inviting us to this meeting, even as we take this opportunity to express how touched we are at the feelings expressed last week by Union Home Minister Mr P Chidambaram who, during his visit to Orissa, offered an apology to the victims of Hindutva violence in the Kandhamal region. We expect the expressions of remorse will be followed by unremitting action by the Union and State governments in unison till confidence is restored, the guilty punished, the victims rehabilitated with all human dignity, and a Witness Protection Programme put into operation to ensure justice in the courts. My colleague Dr. Sampaul, the National Secretary of the All India Christian Council, has already written this in a letter to Mr Chidambaram.

As you are aware, the Church in India called upon all people, and specially Christians, to fully take part in the political democratic process in the General Elections, as it wanted India to emerge as nation strong enough to combat terrorism, communalism, and casteism. We continue to be deeply concerned at the rural crisis, urban poverty, and rise in unemployment, displacement in the SEZs – as Christians too are sufferers together with others -- and the plight of women and the girl child.

The Christian community puts its own interests subservient to the interests of the Nation. But it feels that there are certain issues which are paramount – security of Religious Minorities, compensation to the victims at par with that given in other states, proportionate share to Christians in funds and projects earmarked for all minorities, as also in government jobs, civil services, police and other services, and removal of obstructions in the continuation and growth of our effort in the education, health and social service sectors.

On the eve of the General Elections, National consultations of Church and community leaders, presided over by Archbishop Vincent Concessao, with Dr John Dayal as the convenor, formulated urgent issues agitating the community. We had given such a list to the Prime Minister in his previous government and to your predecessor in the ministry. We also held consultations with the Planning Commission once to ensure that the National Five year Plans, as well as the National Census and National Sample Surveys reflected the Christian reality in the hinterland. Nothing has been done, and therefore we present you once again some, not all, of the grave issues that confront the Christian community and challenge the people and the Church.

Our immediate anxiety, of course, continues to be Orissa where the situation remains grave, as Mr Chidambaram saw for himself, with thousands in government refugee camps, tens of thousands not able to return home under threat of being killed or forcibly converted to Hinduism by the local Sabah Parivar activists, and witnesses to murders, rape and mayhem being threatened with death by goons of the culprits. It is a shame and slur on democratic processes that two of the men accused of murders have been elected to the State Assembly on Bharatiya Janata Party ticket, and they are using their political clout to evade justice.

Our other major issues, requiring your urgent attention are:

1. Security of Religious Minorities: The Christian community had felt itself very safe in India since Independence, and the formative years of the democracy under Jawaharlal Nehru, and then under the premiership of Lal Bahadur Shashtri, Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi. But after a spurt of violence in 1998-1999, hate crimes against the Church and the Christian community have been increasing alarmingly since 1997, averaging about 250 incidents a year. But 2007 and 2008 have seen such violence reach an unprecedented level. The violence has not been confined to Orissa. Fourteen other States have been affected, seven seriously. Karnataka is now second only to Orissa in crimes against Christians. Orissa in 2008 saw 120 deaths, 4,600 houses burnt, over 300 villages purged of Christians, and women, including religious women, raped. Six thousand men, women and children are still in government refugee camps, from the peak of 26,000. Battalions of Central forces are needed to maintain peace, and yet a sense of deep insecurity permeates the community in Orissa.

a. The Union Government must carry out a full investigation into the nationwide activities of extremist groups accused of the incitement and perpetration of violence against minority groups, including Hindutva groups, their foreign finances, and their penetration into the administrative and police apparatus.

b. Enforcing rule of law, ending Impunity of state, Police and criminal justice dispensation system in assuring Freedom of Faith: In State after State, the community has watched in utter helplessness uniformed Policemen accompany assailants attacking institutions, churches and house churches. In States such as Manipur, even villages have dared pass laws against Christians, banning conversions and excommunicating people. Pastors and Priests have been arrested on false charges, denied bail, and harassed. Often, the police have stood by while Priests, pastors and Lay persons were beaten up, often in the glare of Television Cameras. The Subordinate magistracy and judiciary have often been partisan in their conduct. This impunity must end.

c. The Prevention of Communal Violence Bill must take cognisance of Christian concerns and apprehensions. Government cannot shrug off responsibility. The rehabilitation seems to have been left to the Church. It is for the governments to reconstruct damaged and destroyed homes, institutions and churches, and provide adequate and commensurate compensation to the victims. These would be deterrent, in fact, to violence against the community.

2. Redress Economic deprivation and reversal of Unemployment and under-employment amongst Christian youth—Need for a National Commission on the lines of the Justice Rajender Sachhar Commission set up for Muslims: There is over 8 [Eight] per cent joblessness amongst Christian youth, the highest among minorities. Tribal Christian girls are amongst the most deprived in terms of education and nourishment. Rural employment generation schemes and central special components for marginalised groups do not reach their Christian counterparts in Tribal and Rural India There is no real assessment as to what extent institutions such as the National Minorities Financial Development Corporation, or sundry scholarship schemes have benefitted the Christian community even if they may have benefited some other Minorities. The Government must urgently set up a Commission on the Pattern of the Justice Sachhar committee to survey and assess the quantum of deprivation, marginalisation and lack of devolution of developmental initiatives, to the Christian community. Government must ensure fair spending on a pro rata basis on the Christian community from schemed meant to benefit the minority communities. Dalits, Tribals, Landless labour and marginal farmers, coastal and fishery workers and urban youth remain major victims.

3. Dalit Christian rights: Successive governments have betrayed Christians of Dalit origin. The Constitution of 1950 provided for affirmative action for Scheduled Castes without reference to religion. The Presidential Order of 1950, subsequently made into law, communalised the affirmative action by penalising those who converted to other faiths. Subsequently, government extended the privileges once again to Sikhs and Buddhists of Dalit origin. Christians remain deprived of these rights, though several Study Groups and National Commissions have strongly recommended that these rights be given to Dalit Christians. This in effect communalises the secular Indian Constitution. Government must pass legislation to immediately restore the Constitution to its 26 January 1950 position on this issue so that Dalit Christians get all privileges and safeguards that are given to their brothers and sisters professing other faiths. The recommendations of the Justice Rang Nath Misra Commission should be implemented.

4. Assault on right of Tribal Christians: Strident and frightening statements have been made in right wing Hindutva groups in Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, among others, threatening to deny Christian Tribals their statutory rights in Education, land and employment, and to restrict Tribal rights to only those who convert to Hinduism. This violates Constitutional guarantees, and divided the Tribal people. The Union government must thwart all such nefarious efforts and hate mongering.

5. Irrational and Bigoted implementation of Forest Act and its implications for Dalit Christians: Recent experience in Orissa’s Kandhamal and other districts have shown how Supreme Court guidelines are being ignored in the implementation of the Forest Act, and traditional forest dwellers, many of them Dalits, are being deprived of their land, livelihood and even liberty as false cases are being brought against them. This, of course, must cease forthwith. The right of all indigenous dwellers must be protected according to the guidelines of the Supreme Court and witch-hunt and harassment must end.

6. Erosion of Minority rights under Article 30: Various State governments and political parties have tried to infringe upon Article 30, and have made persistent efforts to erode the rights of Minorities to run and administer educational institutions. Christian educational institutions have frequently had to approach the Supreme Court of India to try to protect these fundamental rights. The ironically titled Freedom of Religion Bills actually erodes the Constitutional right to Freedom to profess, practice and propagate faith. They have become instruments of persecution, and in fact, provide an excuse for criminal and communal elements to target the Church and Christian workers in particular when they exercise their right to propagate their faith. Government must assure there will be no effort in the future to infringe upon, erode, or nibble at Minority educational and other Constitutional rights under any pretext.

7. The Union government must use its good offices to ensure that state governments – both under Congress Control and run by other parties – withdraw laws they have passed under the guise of Freedom of Religion, which in actuality, are being used to brutally suppress Christianity and punish Pastors, Priests, Nuns and church workers.

8. Shrinking Secular-Spiritual Space: State and city administrations are auctioning land for schools and hospitals in the Open Market. The result is that the Church and Voluntary sector can no longer get legal possession of low cost land for providing Educational and health facilities to the marginalised groups are affordable prices. In addition, new townships and urban spaces, most of them now in the private sector, do not provide for simple and basic Secular spaces, including plots of land for Churches and cemeteries. In many new urban conglomerates in the emerging landscape, there is, in fact, no provision for cemeteries at all. Union and State Governments must ensure adequate and commensurate Secular and Spiritual Space – Education land, cemeteries etc

9. Ending gender-bias and upholding the rights of women in reforms in Christian Personal Laws: Christian Women more than a decade ago led a campaign for reforms in Christian personal laws which dated from the Nineteenth Century. Though some progress has been made, Governments have been tardy in passing reform amendments to the centuries' old Christian personal laws despite the united endorsement and support by the Catholic Bishops Conference of India, the National Council of Churches, the Joint Women’s Programme and others. Political parties must assure the community that laws will reformed in full as devised in the documents prepared by the united Christian campaign to bring them in line with contemporary demands of gender rights.

10. We welcome the concept of an Equal Opportunity commission, but it must be formed in consultation with the Christian community and other minority groups.

11. We also demand statutory status to the Minority Commission and assurances that such Central commissions work for the actual benefit of the communities and not as adjuncts of political parties.

12. The Church and the Community uphold the sanctity of life and any attempt to destroy it at any stage is unacceptable. Advances and research in science, such as stem cell research, cloning, transplants, must be in consonance with ethical and moral values. Legislation must not be passed which compromises human life in any form and which justifies meddling with the established processes in nature in the guise of scientific research.

13. Special Memorandum on Orissa: The Union government must use its good offices with the Orissa government to:

i. Ensure that (with reference to the ruling of the Supreme Court in Writ Petitions) police unfailingly assist victims of violence to submit FIRs.

ii. There must be a Witness Protection Programme put into immediate operation giving serious consideration to the need for a suitable atmosphere for victims and witnesses to testify, in order to expedite prosecutions and convictions;

iii. Investigate reports of police officers failing to register cases or showing complicity in attacks, and bring prosecutions against offending officers;

iv. Supply a substantial number of investigating officers and public prosecutors, and implement fast-track courts in at least four locations in Kandhamal district.

v. Investigate the forcible conversion of Christians to Hinduism, and prosecute perpetrators under the provisions of the Indian Penal Code;

vi. Request that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) carry out an investigation into the assassination of Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Lakhmanananda Saraswati and the subsequent anti-Christian violence from 24th August 2008, paying specific attention to the root causes of this violence, including the propagation of anti-Christian hatred;

vii. Undertake the following actions with regard to relief camps, taking into consideration the UN Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement:

    1. Provide an adequate standard of living to the inhabitants of relief camps, in accordance with the definition given in Principle 18;

    1. Provide education to displaced children in relief camps, in accordance with Principle 23;

    1. Ensure that relief camps continue until the establishment of suitable conditions and the means for the displaced persons to return voluntarily, in safety and with dignity, to their homes, or to resettle voluntarily, in accordance with Principle 28;

    1. Grant permission and security to lawyers, priests and medical teams to visit relief camps in Kandhamal;

viii. Provide further compensation for those who have been affected by the violence, including covering the loss of crops, livestock and employment, and assess required levels of compensation on a case-by-case basis through certified independent evaluators;

ix. The Government should take measures to carry out an extensive research with the view to rehabilitating the victims of violence, make the recommendations public, and implement them without loss of time.

x. Undertake to follow the recommendations of the National Commission for Minorities in September 2008 on the establishment of Peace Committees, and further to take measures to ensure that all communities are adequately represented within such Peace Committees, to enable these to promote reconciliation and inter-communal understanding with integrity;

xi. Establish a State Commission for Minorities (in the model of its national counterpart) and ensure that members of the commission are appointed by transparent and non-partisan procedures;

xii. Repeal the Orissa Freedom of Religion Act, 1967.

xiii. Provide further compensation for those who have been affected by the violence, including covering the loss of crops, livestock and employment, and assess required levels of compensation on a case-by-case basis through certified independent evaluators;

Thank you

God Bless India

Dr. John Dayal

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Report of Fact Finding Team investigating attack on Saoner Church; and a radical experiment in peacemaking

ALL INDIA CHRISTIAN COUNCIL

Plot No. 142, Telecom Colony, Kanajiguda, Secunderabad - 500015

040-2786-8907 www.christiancouncil.in

President Dr Joseph D Souza Secretary General Dr John Dayal

Secretary General’s Contacts; john.dayal@gmail.com, Mobile 0981102172

Unexpected hate violence against church, and an equally surprising guarantee of community peace

Report of the investigations into the attack on the Church at Saoner, Nagpur, Maharashtra, India on 19 April 2009

Fact-finding team led by Dr John Dayal, Secretary General, All India Christian Council with Mr. Vishal Lal, Open Doors and Mr. Prateek Tongra, All India Christian Council, Nagpur

[The Fact Finding Team acknowledges with thanks infrastructure and other assistance from Mr Nitin Sardar, Truthseekers International and Mr Vijaesh Lal, Open Doors Foundation, and the cooperation of Civil Society movements of Nagpur]

NAGPUR, 26 June 209

Preamble: The attack by some miscreants, owning allegiance to a cocktail of Hindutva outfits, on the outpost the Douglas Memorial Church in Saoner town, a dot on the highway from Nagpur to Bhopal, on Sunday, April 19, 2009 could not have been more unexpected as it took place in an otherwise somnambulant hinterland Vidharbha stretch of Maharashtra. Equally surprising was the mass response. The Other Backward Classes, [OBCs] members of some of which had been arrested in the attack, responded in a uniquely magnificent manner, publicly announcing that in future they, and not the police, would ensure peace, would guarantee religious harmony in the region, and would personally ensure the safety and security of the church, of the school, of the pastor and his family. This fact finding report was therefore deliberately delayed to see if the promise was fulfilled. At the moment of filing of this report, the experiment remains a success, with possibilities that it can be replicated elsewhere in the country where sporadic acts of violence take place against church groups. Engaging the local Dalit and OBC groups, together with the others, in a voluntary people-to-people peace accord would seem to hold out hope for lasting peace even when the sparsely deployed police force would be ineffective or just insufficient, and anyway too late in arriving on the scene.

THE FACTS OF THE CASE:

Other than scholars of Marathi literature interested in the works of the classic writer author Gadkari who was born here in the early part of the last century, not many people even in the state of Maharashtra had heard of Saoner, a dusty, hot township about 40 kilometres from the state’s northern capital city of Nagpur. It was known just as a point where the National Highway to Bhopal and New Delhi branches off to the coal-mine plateau of Chindwara 120 kilometres away. This is basically a small time trading post for forest produce, organic pulses and grain harvested with great difficulty in the plains of Vidarbha, the poorest and most deprived area of India’s most developed province.

On 20 April, 2009, Nagpur and the rest of India woke up to Saoner’s newfound notoriety as the latest in the increasing list of places of Christian prosecution at the hands of right wing Hindutva elements. Said the times of India in a small news report:

“Miscreants attack Saoner church

20 Apr 2009

Soumittra S Bose, TNN

Miscreants apparently belonging to Hindu radical groups attacked over 100-year-old church during morning mass on Sunday in Saoner, about 40 kms from city. Two worshippers, both women, were hurt as fanatics, allegedly from outfits like VHP and Bajrang Dal, stormed the premises of the Douglas Memorial Church at 10.40 am chanting ‘Jai Shree Ram, Jai Bajrang’. Both outfits, however, denied they had a hand in the attack but said it was done by Hindus angry over religious conversions in the area. Children present in the church too were intimidated. The intruders tore up holy books including Bible, ransacked the furniture, broke musical instruments, and damaged the altar. The attackers, chanting ‘Har Har Mahadev’, shattered window glasses of a school bus parked in the campus. The group of 20-25 attackers was armed with sticks, swords and swordsticks, and possibly had firearms too.”

Two days later, the Times of India reported again:

“Saoner minorities feel insecure now

22 Apr 2009 Soumittra S Bose, TNN

When the banner put up by a Muslim organisation during a festival recently was damaged, Saoner residents dismissed it as a one-off happening. After last Sunday’s church attack, the minority communities are afraid it indicates beginning of a new trend. Members of Muslim community, expressing their concern, said that their mind is now full of anxiety as fanatics have started targeting religious institutions. Police statistics show that 60% of around 40,000 population of Saoner town is Hindu while 30% is Buddhist, 10% Muslim and rest others including Christians. Most Christians are attached to the Douglas Memorial Church. “Today a church has been ransacked. Tomorrow another religious place would be destroyed. They created a ruckus during Muslim festival. Sooner or later, somebody will retaliate. We must ensure that a bunch of miscreants do not succeed in vitiating the feeling of harmony. So far, all communities have lived peacefully in friendly manner,” said Jabbir Shaikh who lives on bank of Kolar River. Kusumbai Jhorawane and Rekha Thoke, both regular worshippers at Douglas Memorial church, had witnessed the attack. They are still reeling under the fear. “We are petrified. They can also target us. We shall come here again but the memories shall keep haunting us,” said Thoke. “Though nobody was seriously injured, the attackers were aggressive. We are now feeling threatened,” said Jhorawane.”

The Fact Finding team was in Saoner on 24th and 25th April 2009. We interviewed the Pastor of the Church, a wide cross section of society, two other eye witnesses, police officers, local politicians including the member of the State Assembly from the constituency, and leaders of civil society at Nagpur who had come to Saoner for a public meeting on 25th April. We were also present at the public meeting.

The main narrative of the attack was obviously from the Pastor, Mark Madhukar Sakharpekar, who doubles up as the parish priest of his church, unpaid Principal of the High school run since 1978 from a new building built by him and his father, Pastor Madhukar who was priest between 1975 and 2003, on the compound of the Church which itself was built in 1832 and refurbished in 1902. The senior Madhukar, now very ill, was patently a popular man and his school has become the main high quality educational institution in the area, patronised by the rich and the powerful as also by civil servants, police officers and businessmen who send their wards to study here. In fact, there are less than half a dozen Christian children out of the student body of 700 in the school at any one time. The community is proud of the fact that this school has produced the first generation of English-knowing students who have then done well in colleges in Nagpur. Interestingly, the office of the Principal displays huge portrays of National leaders such as Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru, the mandatory Maharaj Shivaji, and surprisingly, portraits of several founders of Hindutva, including Savarkar. Asked about it, the Principal-cum-Pastor said it was on instructions from the Education Department of the Government of Maharashtra, currently in the control of the Congress party.

The heritage church, however, is in a shabby condition, but did have some wooded pews and a new music system of sorts. Pastor Mark succeeded his father – who was also the one who had ordained him in this independent church which owes allegiance to an Anglican faction headed by the current Moderator, Rev Chandrakant D Salve. The denomination break from the parent Church three decades ago was possibly a reason why senior churchmen from Nagpur maintained their distance from the Pastor even after the attack was so widely publicised in the media. Pastor Mark is married, and his parents, wife and small son live in the small parsonage next to the church and the school. A part of the church property is walled off, and is said to have been usurped some years ago by outsiders. The last baptism in the church took place as far back as 2001, apart from the baptism of Pastor Mark’s own son, Joshua. The large major Christian activity in the region was a Revival meeting by Brother Rajkumar, an Independent evangelist, in 2007.

According to Pastor Mark, the total number of Christians cannot be more than 500 in the administrative region of Saoner consisting of a population of 40,000 in 432 villages, and are served by a Catholic institution run by some Nuns, and an outreach programme of the Believers Church of Gospel for Asia mission. Politically, the region is basically loyal to the Congress or its breakaway factions such as the NCP of Mr Sharad Pawar. Sections of the people are tribals, and there are about three dozen families of South Indians, mostly government or private sector employees.

Our own investigations reveal that there has been increasing right wing activity since the split in the Mumbai based Shiv Sena and the attack launched by one of its factions against Hindi speakers and migrants from Madhya Pradesh and North India. Since Saoner has a large Hindi speaking population because of its location in Vidharbha region and its proximity to Madhya Pradesh, very many young men once loyal to the Shiva Sena found themselves suddenly without a strong and popular political base. Apparently, these Shiv Sena members were quickly mopped up, or constituted themselves into some groups aligned with the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh or the Bajrang Dal, the more militant faction of the Sangh Parivar. They had been flexing their muscles as the State was gearing up for the Lok Sabha parliamentary elections, which the State Assembly elections scheduled for later in the year.

There was nothing subtle about the attack, but apparently some amount of preparedness had gone into it as the assailants were quite large in number, armed, and very focussed. Pastor Mark narrated the sequence of events: There was a congregation of about 50 to sixty Christians at worship, most of them women, many of them Dalits. Even as the pastor was getting ready to give his Homily at about 10:45 a.m., a gang of about 30 young men armed with staves and clubs, several trishaws [steel tridents] and knives, broke through the main door and barged into the church shouting slogans “Jai Shriram,” “Jai Bajrang Bali” and “Har Har Mahadev.” They smashed the benches with the rods, focussed on the musical instruments and attacked the women in the front rows and on the sides of the aisle. A pregnant woman was among those who were manhandled. Pastor Mark said one threw the trident at him, but the man missed his target. The Pastor’s Bible was snatched and torn. The men abused the women and asked them to run away from the church and not to come back. They then came out and vented their ire on the school bus, damaging its windowpanes and windscreen. The violence continued for almost 20 minutes to half an hour. At one stage, the mob wanted to attack the family of Pastor Mark in the parsonage [the retired pastor who founded the school was at that time on his bed, as he is partially paralysed] the family was spared when Pastor Mark begged them not to harm his old parents and his wife and child. The Pastor defied one of the gang leaders as Sonu Baraiya, 35, who runs a cassette shop and is said to be the head of the local unit of the Bajrang Dal. The pastor said another man, Pandit Dube, a resident of the Water Tank area, had a pistol or revolver which he brandished menacingly. Dube was the one who ran to attack Pastor Mark’s mother as she came out of the parsonage after hearing the noise. Pastor Mark said he was repeatedly threatened by the pistol wielding Dube.

Pastor Mark’s narration was corroborated by an old Dalit woman who was in the congregation who gave her name as Mrs Pachhobai Ramnathji Kalse, a widow and a pensioner. Mrs Kalse said she told the attackers she had come of her own attack and there was no allurement or force by the Pastor. She said the attack would not stop her from attending church service together with others of the congregation.

The aggressors had apparently also gone to the local police station to complain that Pastor Mark was converting Tribals in his church. The police eventually came to the Church after the attack and asked Pastor Mark to come to the Police station where they recorded the statements of the Pastor and some other women.

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The police eventually arrested ten persons and produced them in court.

But the arrests united the Sangh elements in Saoner and Nagpur. The Sangh Parivar and Bajrang Dal in particular had called a Bandh and a closure of markets on 25th in protest against the arrest of Bajrang Dal activists. A defence committee was also formed in Nagpur which retained high powered lawyers to defend the suspects whose bail petitions were dismissed by the local court. The fact Finding team was in the Saoner court on the evening of 24th April 29 when the Nagpur senior advocates argued that the police had failed to establish any charges to retain custody of the suspects. The advocates also repeated the charge that there was large scale conversion was going on in the church and that there were in fact more than 5 to 6 people in the church when the incident took place. Counsel charged that the violence was in fact the result of a class between people waiting to be converted and their own relatives who did not want them to convert and leave their culture. Counsel also charged that the police had not taken any action on applications which had been submitted to the local police two days before the violence accusing the pastor of large scale conversions by fraud and coercion. He said the police had not asked converts if they had converted by their own free will. The court did not agree with defence counsel to let all the eleven accused free, but it also rejected the police request for continued remand, or custody, so that they could carry on investigations to trace four leaders of the group who were still absconding. The suspects were remanded to judicial custody and sent to the local jail amidst high drama in the small court room and its courtyard which is close to the police station. There was a sizable police presence to keep a check on about a hundred people, apparently supporters of the arrested persons, who had gathered there.

Nagpur houses the headquarters the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh, the mother organisation of which the Bharatiya Janata party is the political arm. The BJP’s local leadership had at first fully supported the attack on the Saoner church. The Bharatiya Janata party district Yuva Morcha [youth wing] vice chief Shashikant Singh was arrested on 22 April in a case filed against him under Section 153 (a )(1) and (2) for giving an interview to a news channel not only supporting the attack on the church but also giving a “warning” that the “agitation” would be expanded in future. He repeated the threats in statements to the media later in the day. He was sent to police custody till 24 April 29.

In their press statements, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad denied any role by any Hindutva group in the violence against the church. But Sangh-affiliated groups later called for a Bund or strike in Saoner on 25th April 29 and demanded that shopkeepers pull down shutters that day. Police was called in from neighbouring areas as a precautionary measure.

The Fact Finding team was in fact in the market on the eve of the bandh. It was a bustling day with Tribals from surrounding areas and small farmers occupying almost every available space in the market, all the way to the lane that leads to the Church, selling their produce. There was a talk that there would be a strike next day, but there was no palpable tension. At the same time, pamphlets were distributed in the market, to shopkeepers and prominent citizens that they should, instead of closing shops for the bandh not only keep the markets open but come for a peace meeting called by the town leadership to wash away this “sin” in Saoner by the attack on the church, and also to assure security to the tiny minority community on behalf of the entire people of the town.

The meeting by Saoner Nagrik Manch convenor Adv Jayant Khedkar was held at Bazaar chowk, Jay Stambh, and was chaired my Member of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly Sunil Kedar who had been elected as an Independent from the Saoner constituency, but later joined the Nationalist Congress party. The Association of local businessmen and traders not only ignored the call of a closure, or Bandh, by the Hindutva groups, but joined in the peace rally together with groups such as Truthseekers, All India Secular Forum, Bahujan Sangharsh Samiti, India Peace Centre, representatives of the local Muslim and Buddhist community, and several OBC groups. A prominent participant was Dr Suresh Khairnar of the All India Secular Forum who had led a civil society Fact Finding Team to Saoner after the violence.

The meeting lasted more than three hours. Almost every speaker expressed his shock that a church could have been attacked in Saoner. They denounced the attackers and said there was no way communal and violent elements would be tolerated in the region. The OBC leaders and members of the trading community were particular in associating themselves with assurances of peace. They volunteered that the church would be repaired at their cost and all damaged furniture and vehicle would be repaired and restored, or brought new.

There was but a small; group of local Christians in the large crowd that sat through the evening and late into the night. Some pastors had come from Nagpur to show their solidarity, but there was no senior church leader from Nagpur.

Church response. Nagpur is home to the headquarters of the major Protestant Churches affiliated to the national Council of Churches. It is also an important Archdiocese of the Catholic Church and has a resident Bishop of the Church of North India and another of the Believers Church apart from possibly as many as 700 independent pastors. It has several major and very popular Christian educational institutions. It was disappointing to learn that apart from some church officials sent to Saoner by NCCI general Secretary Bishop Das, and groups led by senior Truthseekers activists Nitin Sardar and others who were there from the second day after the violence, most senior church leaders chose not to go to Saoner to ascertain the facts for themselves, or in solidarity with the Pastor and members of the attacked church. A small protest was organised in Nagpur by some independent pastors and all church groups, and was well covered by the local media. In lessons learnt from Orissa, local church groups could easily have shown more solidarity. Church unity will be crucial in the Nagpur region in the future for vigilance against persecution and anti Christian violence.

Role of the media: The Marathi and Hindi Language media, which had given some coverage to the charges of large scale conversions made by the Sangh activists against the Saoner church, in fairness, also covered the Christian protests. No media however covered the major path-breaking peacemaking rally in Saoner on 25th April or the failure of the Sangh-called bandh. Their priorities, it sends, were the dog show held in the city the same day!

POSTSCRIPT: Rev Nitin Sardar of Truthseekers and Dr Suresh Khairnar told the fact Finding Team on 25 June 2009 they were keeping a watch on the situation. Peacemaking efforts were being sustained, and the police was being persuaded, according to Dr Khairnar, to see how wounds were healed and rifts in society closed. The point for the police was to catch the conspirators, but not to harass others. They said the OBC leaders are keeping their end of the bargain to maintain peace and communal harmony in the Saoner region.

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Vienna Bloodshed of Sikh Dalits a Symptom of Deep Malaise

Caste discrimination continues outside of India and violence erupts in India

Global community exposed to caste discrimination

 

LONDON – May 28, 2009 – Several days after the attack on the top leadership of the Ravidass religious sect by orthodox Sikh terrorists in Vienna, world governments and the global human rights and human dignity community has apparently not understood the significance and implications of this incident. One high priest died, the head of the sect was injured, three persons were killed so far in the subsequent violence in India, several towns were placed under military curfew, and billions of rupees worth of public property was destroyed.

“This is not the first time caste tensions in India burst into bloody violence in Europe. Similar incidents happened in the United Kingdom and even in the United States,” said Dr. Joseph D’souza, International President of the Dalit Freedom Network. On May 24, 2009, a group of armed Sikh upper caste expatriates raided a place of worship in Vienna, Austria, where Sant Niranjan Dass, aged about 68 and head of the Dera Sachkhand Ballan of the Shri Guru Ravidass Sabha movement, was preaching. The movement is based near Jalandhar in Punjab state of India. He was grievously injured and his associate Sant Rama Nand, aged about 56, killed.

Guru Ravidass, the founder, was a key figure in India’s Sufi movement which rebelled against upper caste tyranny. A leather worker, Sant Ravidass was deemed to be an untouchable by the high castes. Though his hymns find a place in the Sikh holy book Guru Granth Sahib, Ravidass himself is the locus of devotion for a large number of the downtrodden and former untouchable castes.

“Although it appears prosperous, Punjab has deep caste chasms and class conflicts. The upper caste Jat Sikhs command the bulk of the land resources, and upper caste Hindus run the bulk of business and trade. The Dalits, formerly known as untouchables, have less than 5 [five] percent of the state’s resources,” said John Dayal, Secretary General of the All India Christian Council. Dalits are often kept out of the management of the Gurdwaras and other places of worship. Lower caste Sikhs have set up their own parallel places of worship in almost every village in Punjab. They have also evolved their own social customs and liturgy, which is an anathema to the upper castes.

“Expatriate Sikh populations seem to have carried these divisions to Europe and to North America, as have other Indian groups. In the liberal environment of the West, the Dalits prospered, and their prosperity added to jealousies back in India,” said D’souza.

Dayal said, “It is a tragedy that the Indian government is in denial about the contemporary ramifications of caste on India. Although there are exceptions, the Indian government’s resistance and high-octane diplomatic pressures stalled honest discussions on caste discrimination and birth-based inequity in international fora such as the UN Durban conference on racism in 2001 and recent meetings in Geneva.”

D’souza said, “We call on India to assist in an honest, international discourse on the implications of caste and to help devise systems to root out the 3,000 year old evil once and for all. The measures contained in the Indian Constitution are laudable, but, for want of other reforms or perhaps political will, they have not delivered full human dignity to the Indian Dalits of any religious faith. The Dalit Christians and Muslims remain the most deprived, shorn even of the token affirmative action programmes of the government.”

The All India Christian Council (www.christiancouncil.in), birthed in 1998, exists to protect and serve the Christian community, minorities, and the oppressed castes. The aicc is a coalition of thousands of Indian denominations, organizations, and lay leaders.

The Dalit Freedom Network (www.dalitnetwork.org), founded in the United States in 2003, partners with the All India Confederation of SC/ST Organisations and the All India Christian Council to support Dalits in their emancipation movement through education, health care, economic advancement, and human right advocacy. To contact the Dalit Freedom Network partner organisation in the United Kingdom: 39 Honor Oak Road, Forest Hill, London SE23 3SH; or see www.daliteducation.org or telephone 0208 464 7879 or mobile 0771 007 7871.

 

For more information, contact:

Dr. Joseph D’souza, International President, Dalit Freedom Network

jdsouza@dalitnetwork.org

+44-771-035-2286

 

Dr. John Dayal, Secretary General, All India Christian Council

catholicunion@gmail.com

+91-9811021072

+91-40-2786-8908

 

For immediate release

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