No beef-burgers please, We are Indians

Food, faith and politics

JOHN DAYAL

“Congratulations Maharashtra: It is now safer to be cow than a woman, Dalit or Muslim in the state”, a Tweet by anonymous but popular commentator @RushieExplains went viral on social media when the President of India, Mr. Pranab Mukherjee, signed into law a twenty-year old legislation banning the slaughter of cows, bulls bullocks in that state, making it the 23^rd state to criminalize the production or eating of beef and beef products, in fact the possession of the meat, a serious offence inciting a five year prison term. The irony was because the current punishments under Indian law 2 years for drunken driving, the sort indulged in by film stars and billionaires, 2 years for manslaughter, three years for theft, 5 years for cow slaughter, 7 years for conversions by priests, specially if involving Tribals and Dalits to Christianity. Indian law has no punishment for marital rape.

The cow as the holy animal of Hindus has always been a disputed belief. Prof D N Jha in his book 'The Myth of the Holy Cow' explains this misrepresentation of cow's holiness. Rigveda has references of cow being one of the most commonly consumed food item among the Brahmins. The practice of cow slaughter was an integral part of the Aryan cult. Jha writes cow and bull meat was one of the favourite delicacies of the Hindu deity Indra. Swami Vivekananda, whose name is now a chant in the corridors of power said: ‘You will be astonished if I tell you that, according to old ceremonials, he is not a good Hindu who does not eat beef. On certain occasions he must sacrifice a bull and eat it.’ [Vivekananda speaking at the Shakespeare Club, Pasadena, California, USA (2 February 1900) on the theme of ‘Buddhist India’, cited in Swami Vivekananda, The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, Vol 3, (Calcutta: Advaita Ashram, 1997), p. 536].  Further research sponsored by the Ramakrishna Mission established that “Vedic Aryans, including the Brahmanas, ate fish, meat and even beef. A distinguished guest was honoured with beef served at a meal. Although the Vedic Aryans ate beef, milch cows were not killed. [C. Kunhan Raja, ‘Vedic Culture’, cited in the series, Suniti Kumar Chatterji and others (eds.), The Cultural Heritage of India, Vol 1 (Calcutta: The Ramakrishna Mission, 1993), p. 217].

Not many Indians, even if they are non-vegetarians, can really afford meat of any kind in the manner that it is consumed in the rest of the world where the flesh of animals, birds or fish is the main staple, and  starch, grain or potato, and vegetables the accompaniment. In South Asia, the starch is the staple, and the protein  whether flesh or from pulses, the  condiment to make it palatable or moist. This has to do  with the purchasing capacity of the people, rather than any dietary preferences. And unlike the West where prime cuts of quality  beef can be really expensive,  the meat of the buffalo, the  old and exhausted cow and bulls and bullocks of no further use to the farmer or tradesman are butchered, is about the cheapest protein consumed by religions and ethnic minorities and the Dalits. But even then, the consumption figures are low.

The decision to curtail or ban the meat of the cow, then, is a matter not so much of faith, or economics, as of practical politics, even though the governments  claim that bovines enrich the soil and the environment by helping farmers on synthetic fertilizers. The argument is easily countered by critics who point out that marginal farmers can hardly afford to take care of cattle no longer useful as milch or draught animals who then are turned out to die miserably of starvation.

The Congress was the first to poeticize the cow, so to say, and Mahatma Gandhi and his peers in the early 20^th century used it to full measure. It would be remembered that the electoral symbol of the cow for years was a pair of bullocks under yoke, succeeded later by a cow and calf. The Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh and its political wing, the Bharatiya Janata Party, has hijacked the iconography and the political symbolism. The general elections, and the elections to the state assemblies, some of which the BJP won, culminated in the humiliating drubbing in the Delhi polls. The one cheerful strain through the last  year has been the fact that the core vote share of the BJP has remained at just over 30 percent, or a third of the voting public. It is this core that the BJP has to preserve as it cobbles coalitions and economic arguments to win in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. It desperately needs to win big in these two mammoth states which send a good number of members to the Rajya Sabha where the BJP government is in a minority and has been defeated on the Vote of Thanks to the Address of the President. With UP and Bihar in its fold, it can in the next two years get a majority in the two houses of Parliament and be able to enact ay law it wants to. The emotional appeal of the cow will be very useful, even if the misogynist statements of some RSS luminaries put off a section of the people now supporting the party.

A PERSPECTIVE ON THE INITIAL MONTHS OF THE NARENDRA MODI GOVERNMENT AND THE SANGH PARIVAR IN INDIA

 JOHN DAYAL

4 OCTOBER 2014

Prime Minister for the next five years. We respect the verdict of the people. As law-abiding citizens, we are honour-bound to contribute all tht we can to the growth of India, and the values of secularism and socialism, the interests of the common man, specially the marginalised.

But just a few days ago, 27th September 2014, the Christian Community with Civil Society and Muslim groups,  organised a Public Meeting at Jantar Mantar, near Parliament House, to protest the sharp spike in the hate campaign and violence against Christians and Muslims in several states, a hateful description of religious minorities that was heard even in the Lok Sabha in the speech of BJP member and Hindu religious head Adityanath, MP. This was for the first time a speech full of such venom had been heard in the history of the Lok Sabha.

At the Public meeting, they released the Report on Minorities, which documents much of what has happened in the last three months, and the response of those in Civil Society who cherish the values of the Freedom Struggle, led by Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru. This is called The Idea of India.

I will not narrate ever incident of violence, or every hate speech, every burning of a church and the beating up of a pastor. They are a matter of record, now.

India’s worst violence against Christians was in 2008, mostly against  Dalits and Tribals, in the Kandhamal district of Orissa and in several other districts including the state capital of Bhubaneswar from 23rd August 2008 following the killing of Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Swami Lakshmanananda Saraswati, reportedly by Maoist groups who have been operating in the state for some time. The violence later spread to some other states, specially Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka as also some other states.

More than 56,000 men, women and children were displaced in the violence that continued for several weeks. They first survived in the forests, and then in government refugee camps for almost one year. More than 5,600 houses and over 300 churches and Christian institutions were totally destroyed in Kandhamal alone. We have a list of more than 100 persons who were killed, though the government admits to fewer dead. There were several rapes, including the gang-rape of a Catholic Nun. Several Catholic priests and protestant pastors were injured and one Catholic Priest, Fr Bernard, then treasurer of the diocese, died later of injuries he suffered.

We have been extremely unhappy and dissatisfied with both the relief and the rehabilitation process of the government and the pace and quality of the criminal justice dispensation system, including the police investigations. The Christian Community has filed Public Interest Litigations in the Supreme Court demanding better relief and rehabilitation, and retrial of murder cases.

Structural violence is another cause of deep worry.

Dalit Christians, who have their origin in the former untouchable castes, have been denied the rights given to Hindu and Sikh and Buddhist converts. All governments have been deaf, ad the Supreme court has been listening to the case for ten years.

The second one is the issue of the so called Freedom of Religion laws, or anti-conversion laws, that exist in the States of Arunachal, Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh. They have been internationally condemned as violating the human rights and freedom of faith of these people. It is feared these may become a national law.

Islamic violence in Syria and the near-elimination of Christians in Mosul by the Islamic State of Syria and the Levant, ISIS, has been in focus internationally.

But away from the view of the International media, South Asia’s increasing bigotry and religious intolerance has reached an unacceptable stage. Official impunity, extreme legislations and the complicity of state and non-state actors compound the issue.

Christians as minority religionists are the subject of persecution in each one of the seven South Asian countries -- India, Pakistan, Bhutan, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka [Maldives, the seventh, has almost no minorities in an entirely Islamic state] – but followers of every other major world religion are persecuted in one or the other of the sub-continent’s seven country.

Muslims and Christians are victims in India, Christians, Hindus and Buddhists in Bangladesh and Pakistan, which are Muslim-majority nations, and Christians and Muslims in the Buddhist countries of Sri Lanka, Bhutan and Nepal.

It complicates issues as the countries differ in their political structures and overlays of ethnic identities. Ironically, India’s anti conversion laws designed against the Christian church, and Pakistan’s anti Blasphemy laws, are sought to be replicated in the other countries to contain evangelisation, and assert the supremacy of the majority religion.

This complicates sharing of good practices – such as the proposed Communal and targetted violence prevention Bill which the National Advisory Council headed by Mrs. Sonia Gandhi evolved in 2011 in the face if sharpening religious divides in India in the wake of the 2002 anti Muslim violence of Gujarat and the 2008 pogrom against Christians in the Kandhamal district of Orissa state. I know this because I played s small part in the making of that Bill which was junked, and which the BJP government will never enact.

Recent dialogues between representatives of all religious groups from the south Asian countries have cautioned against a rise in extremism that could threaten peace in the region where India and Pakistan have huge nuclear arsenals.

While majoritarianism is a common factor, and the recent rise in Wahabi Islam in Pakistan and Bangladesh a major trigger, smaller nations such as Bhutan and Nepal are falling prey to extreme protectionism to keep “alien” faiths, and immigrants, from polluting “traditional culture”.

In politically chaotic Nepal this is done without legal provisions, as the country is no longer officially a Hindu nation. A draft bill banning conversions remains on the anvil. A cause of concern is the tentacles the extreme Hinduism ideology of India’s Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh is spreading in the Himalayan nation. The Catholic Church is perhaps sometimes tolerated because of its educational institutions, but a Damocles sword always hangs over about 25,000 Christian believers in house churches and Pentecostal Para churches. For all practical purposes, it remains almost an underground church.

It is even more underground in Bhutan with its archaic nationalism and culture policy designed to preserve the purity of its Buddhist tradition and ethnicity. Even Buddhist Nepalese feel the sting of being aliens. There are a mere 14,000 Christians in a Bhutanese population of 700,000. But the country’s first-ever democratic government is yet to clear a proposal to grant Christians the right to build churches and form organizations, although it has not been tardy in enacting a law against conversions. This means that officially the state does not acknowledge the presence of Christians in the country, although it has punished a few Christians in recent times.

In Sri Lanka after the end of the civil war with The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, the victorious Sinhala-Buddhist government has started putting pressure on the Muslims, and the Christians. About 70 per cent of the population of Sri Lanka is Buddhist Sinhalese, 15 per cent Hindu Tamils, 8 per cent Christian, and 7 per cent Tamil speaking Muslim. Almost 80 per cent of the Christians are Roman Catholics, many of them Sinhala. The regime is particularly suspicious of Protestant groups, 40 per cent of who suffer from the double disability of being Tamils. Churches and individual Christians, who comprise approximately 7 per cent of the population, have been physically assaulted War crimes apart, the current triumphal Buddhist onslaught against Muslims, and the sustained pressure on Christians has caused deep concern in the international human rights community.

The plight of Christians in Pakistan – women raped, houses burnt and men arrested and threatened with execution on charges under the notorious anti blasphemy laws - is well known and has attracted international opprobrium and clemency campaigns.

But it is the wave of violence against Hindus and Christians in Bangladesh that is the immediate cause of deep concern, especially in India, which is the recipient of people fleeing for their lives from the febrile nation. India itself has a nuanced policy on people from coming from Bangladesh; the Hindus are absorbed and often given nationality as refugees, but the Muslims are deemed to be illegal infiltrators and are forever under the shadow of expulsion. The situation of Christians remains on a limbo. This year, Islamic fundamentalists protesting a trial of the war criminals of the 1971 struggle for Independence from Pakistan vent their anger specially on Hindus in an orgy of violence that has left thousand homeless. The Dhaka government is taking some timid steps to control the Islamists, but the minorities remain terrorized.

India, the big brother in the sub continent named after it, is in no moral position to point a finger at its neighbours. Official records show that in 2012, there reportedly were 560 communal riots, big and small, leading 89 dead and 1,846 injured. A majority of the victims were Muslims. There are no official records for the persecution of Christian pastors and believers.

In just three months after May this year, over 600 incidents of targetted violence violence against religious minorities have taken place from May to September 2014 in several parts of the country, specially which have seen, or will soon see, by-elections or elections to the Legislative Assemblies. In the first few weeks of the new government, by its own admission 113 communal incidents took place in various parts of the country during May-June in which 15 people were killed and 318 others were injured, Minister of State for Home Affairs, Mr. Kiren Rijiju told the Rajya Sabha.

We have recorded 36 recorded incidents against the tiny Christian community in various parts of the country. The Christian community, its pastors, congregations and churches, were targets of mob violence and State impunity in dozens of cases in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, particularly, as the Sangh Parivar declared a campaign of “Ghar Wapsi” and Shuddhikaran or conversions to Hinduism, and a war on all evangelical activity. Target dates, one of them coinciding with Christmas 2014, have been set to “cleanse” various areas of Muslim and Christian presence.

The state apparatus and specially the police often became a party arresting not the aggressors but the victims to satisfy the demands of the mob. There have attempts at religious profiling of Christian academic institutions and their students in the national capital, New Delhi.

The hate campaign, the violence, the open threats have stunned not just the religious minorities, but civil society, jurists and academics. Many of them articulated their concern not just at the violence but at the silence of the Government, State organisations charged with addressing issues of communal harmony and national integration, and the leadership of the BJP and Mr. Modi.

The well known Dalit-OBC political scientist recently wrote :“The highest in the government and the Sangh Parivar are in unison in sending across the message that Islam is un-Indian and Muslims by and large anti-national. We must take these signs seriously because the implications of linking up religion and nationalism are bound to be disastrous.”

The internationally respected Economic and Political Weekly recently noted “If communal polarisation of the electorate to build a Hindutva vote bank was a constant presence in the general election campaign, it has only seen a sharpening in the, supposedly important, “first 100 days” of the BJP-led government in office. An important way in which this has been done is the strategy of the Sangh Parivar to calibrate communal violence and hate campaigns in a way so as to keep it “under the radar”. One of the ways of accomplishing this is to shift the locus of violence and mobilisations from the urban centres to small towns and rural areas; another course is to keep the “dead-count” low and use variants of everyday, “routine” violence to spread tensions and create panic.

Eminent jurist Mr. Fali Nariman, a former Member of the Rajya Sabha and a Member of the National Integration Council traditionally chaired by the Prime Minister of India, expressed concern at the government’s “silence” on the hate speeches witnessed in parts of India and rued that Hinduism was “changing its benign face”. Recurrent instances of religious tension fanned by fanaticism and hate-speech has shown that the Hindu tradition of tolerance is showing signs of strain. And let me say this frankly – my apprehension is that Hinduism is somehow changing its benign face because, and only because it is believed and proudly proclaimed by a few (and not contradicted by those at the top): that it is because of their faith and belief that HINDUS have been now put in the driving seat of governance. Nariman praised Jawaharlal Nehru, saying he “never looked upon the diverse and varied peoples of India from the standpoint of Hinduism”. While dealing with minority rights, Indian courts had once conceptualised their role as that of an Opposition political party — until the BJP in the early 1990s characterized Congress policy as “appeasement of the minorities”. The label stuck; “minority” became an unpopular word, he said. “We have been hearing on television and reading in newspapers almost daily a tirade by one or more individuals or groups against one or another section of citizens (from) a religious minority. The criticism has been that the majority government at the Centre has done nothing to stop this tirade. I agree,” he said delivering the annual lecture organised by the National Commission for Minorities at the Constitution Club. It was titled “Minorities at crossroads: comments on judicial pronouncements”.

Human rights activist and former Administrator, Mr. Harsh Mander notes that the patterns are familiar. A multitude of ever-growing Hindu nationalist organisations – some mainstream, some fringe – deploy and refashion small local disputes to spur rage and suspicion against the Muslim people, each time reviving and fuelling old stereotypes. The manufactured flashpoints are also familiar: disputes over land for shrines and graveyards, an offending loudspeaker in a place of worship, charges of young Muslim men sexually harassing hapless Hindu women in a sinister campaign of ‘love jihad’, sometimes with the added twist of forced conversions, or cow slaughter, and conversion by Christians and Muslims.

According to me as an observer of the Sangh Parivar for close to 45 years, the BJP is unabashed about its links with the Sangh Parivar. Mr. Modi is himself a former RSS leader, as are several of his Cabinet colleagues. Some ranking RSS officials have in recent weeks been inducted as general secretaries of the BJP, leaving absolutely no one in any doubt of the seamless fusion of the political party and the Sangh which styles itself as a social and cultural organisations.

Mr. Seshadri Chari, former editor of RSS mouthpiece Organiser and member of the BJP national executive, who enjoys a deserved reputation as a sober and reflective commentator, is quoted in the Outlook Magazine saying says that Hindus have always been a majority in India but the manifestation of majoritarianism has been reflected in the cultural and social field. “Now it is reflected in the politics of the country. A large number of foot-soldiers in the RSS-BJP do believe that the political Hindu has arrived.”

THE HATE CAMPAIGN: RSS chief Mr. Mohan Bhagwat has asserted that everyone in India is Hindu, including Muslims and Christians, because this is the land of the Hindu people and civilisation. This refrain was picked up by the Deputy Chief Minister of Goa, and by big and small leaders across the country, going viral on social media and the national TV News channels in their English and Hindi debates. The Sangh ideologue MG Vaidya said on 19th May, three days after the election results, that they can now tackle issues such as the building of the Ram temple on the site of the Babri mosque they demolished in 1992 Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Mr. Ashok Singhal, said “if [Muslims] keep opposing Hindus, how long can they survive?”. Another leader said “Modi will restore Hindutva rule, like Prithviraj Chauhan (25th May 2014). The focus is now on Love Jihad.  

RECENT ATTACKS ON THE CHRISTIAN COMMUNITY: Christians constitute 2.3 per cent of the national population, according to the 2011 census. They have been a focal target of the Sangh Parivar for a long time. Recent  weeks have again seen a rash of well-planned and organized attacks on Churches, Christian schools and institutes. of religious symbols, burning of Bibles and Crosses to dishonour the religion have been intentionally carried out through the country. In August 2014, 72 Valmikis (a section of the Dalit or former Untouchable community) who had in the past converted to Christianity underwent a so-called “re-conversion” to Hinduism in Aligarh in the state of Uttar Pradesh, under the auspices of the ‘Dharam Jagran Vivad” (Religious Awakening Forum). This was a “Ghar Wapsi” (literally, a “return home”) ceremony through which the Sangh Parivar intervenes to claim non-Hindu members of the Dalit and Adivasi communities as Hindus.

The Constitution of India guarantees freedom of religion, allowing for the free exercise of individual choice over matters of faith. However, “Freedom of Religion” laws enacted in several states presume that individuals are incapable of making their own informed decisions regarding matters of faith, and can only be manipulated or coerced into conversion.

The language of the Gujarat anti-conversion law enacted in 2003 is telling in this respect. Conversion is viewed as an attempt “to make one person to renounce one religion and adopt another religion.” These laws empower district administrations to oversee and regulate religious conversions, in order to prevent what are referred to as conversions by “fraud” or “force.” Effectively, these laws target Christian and Muslim communities and provide opportunities for both local officials and Hindu supremacist organizations to harass and intimidate them.

The anti-conversion laws, passed by a number of states, do not apply to such ‘Ghar Vapsi’ ceremonies. The Sangh Parivar has a singular focus on curbing any conversions out of Hinduism, particularly by Dalits and Adivasis. In April 2013 BJP leader Venkaiah Naidu, now a Cabinet minister, had publicly announced his party’s intention to “bring an anti- conversion law to ban religious conversions in the country if it is voted to power in 2014 General Elections.” Highlighting the primary motivation underlying his party’s anxiety over conversions, he went on to add: “...The country will be safe and sound only when Hindus are in a majority.”

Inspired by the party’s rise to power, several Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders have launched so-called “re-conversion” drives targeting Christian communities. RSS Hindu activist, Rajeshwar Singh recently declared while converting a Christian family to Hinduism in Hasayan (140 km south of Delhi in the state of Uttar Pradesh), “We will cleanse our Hindu society. We will not let the conspiracy of church or mosque succeed in Bharat (India).” Rumors continue to circulate suggesting Christians were forcibly converted and the church has also been refashioned into a Shiva temple. These conversion efforts are directed primarily at Adivasis and Dalits, informed by a caste politics that drives Hindutva anxieties over conversion.

The basic claim that all Christians, like Muslims, are converts, empowers Hindutva groups to deny the religious legitimacy of Adivasi and Dalit Christians. Moreover the claim that conversion to Hinduism is merely “re-conversion” rests on the fallacious notion that all Adivasis are “Hindu” by default, denying the legitimacy of their own distinct and autonomous religious traditions. In BJP-ruled states like Chhattisgarh, draconian laws specifically target Christians, as in the recent case of the Bilaspur High Court banning “all non-Hindu religious propaganda, prayers and speeches in the villages” in Bastar district. The message is clearly that the only religious identity permissible is Hinduism.

The administration has remained silent on the growing atmosphere of repression threatening Christians in India. Just as an example of the wanton violence, on May 18, 2014 in Kundapur, Karnataka, the properties of two churches were damaged by unidentified miscreants. An ornamental pot at the entrance of the Holy Rosary church was broken and a signpost leading to St. Antony Church in Koteshwar also was uprooted. On June 24, 2014 in Bhilai, Durg, suspected Hindu extremists demolished an independent church. According to local sources, the church was completely destroyed. Another incident is that of courage at one of the Free Methodist Churches at Belar, 30 kms east of Jagadalpur, Chhattisgarh which was under attack. A frenzied mob of the Bajrang Dal stormed towards the church premises on June 3, 2014 with the intention of demolishing the building. But the villagers took their ground and frustrated the evil plan.

A church was burnt in Jobal, in Madhya Pradesh. Such attacks are pre planned and pre-meditated to cause maximum damage to property, resources, vehicles, and cause damages that are very hard to rebuild. Social Exclusion: 52 families were denied ration for two months in the Sirisguda Village which was an order enforced by the panchayat head. They approached the food inspector of the district and asked for an enquiry to be conducted. On Monday, June 16, 2014, when the two representatives were sent to appease the village leaders and the complainants, both of them were chased away from the village. Then some assailants filed a false complaint at the Badanji Police Station, Lakandi Taluk - District Bastar about the Christians beating the Hindus in the village. This was simultaneously followed up by a mob of 200 perpetrators who attacked 52 Christian families. Most families were stoned and chased away with sticks, while 8 men and 2 women were seriously injured and hospitalized.

This incident preceded the banning of non-Hindu missionaries in Bastar, Social exclusions are one of the primary tactics to victimize minorities denying basic human rights that are common to every citizen. These exclusion orders, often make Christians vulnerable to excessive violence and denial of social privileges like access to water, electricity and work. On July 28, 2014 a mob of over 300 persons from the Yadav community led by Swami Krishnadavananda threatened the Pastor and 30 families who were believers in the Church at Gallaragati, Holalkara in the Chitradurga District to convert to Hinduism. They along with the local Panchayat issued a one week deadline to decide on the same, which otherwise, would lead to the families being ostracized from the local village. Such exclusions force families into submission or are attacked for making a choice of being Christian.

Assaults on Church Leaders and Believers: Assaults on Church leaders and believers have augmented bizarrely. Profiling of Christians in villages and attacking them has been the most effective way of spreading terror among the minorities. A Christian along with his wife, mother-in-law and mother were beaten by Hindu fanatics at Parapur Village in Bastar, Chhattisgarh on July 26, 2014. The incident occurred when five Hindu fanatics took Shri Raguram (name changed) outside his house and started verbally abusing him. They alleged he had left their Gods and became a Christian to which he replied saying that he had become a Christian because he wanted to and no one had forced him to do so. On hearing this, they started slapping and kicking him. When they began to strangle him with the intention of killing, his mother and mother-in-law interfered and stopped the men from trying to kill him. They slapped and beat the elderly women and his wife. He was bleeding profusely and was later admitted to the Jagdalpur hospital. Raguram's wife went to the Lohandiguda Police Station to file a complaint, but the police refused to do so.

Most of these incidents are not reported to the police due to fear and intimidation fromthe local thugs that operate for the RSS, VHP and the Bajrang Dal. Such attacks are unconstitutional and against the fundamental right to freedom on religion.

Police Inaction: However, the violence in itself fails to reveal the full picture. The impunity enjoyed by the violent mobs is a bigger cause for concern. Many victims of violence complain about the lack of police action, including hostility towards Christians. Police resist filing criminal complaints and have on several instances allegedly threatened to falsely incriminate the victims in some cases. On September 6, 2014, for instance, twelve pastors were beaten at a Police station in Greater Noida on the pretext of a mob of about 150 Hindu fundamentalists that had gathered outside and demanded such action. The police obliged and thrashed the pastors. No reports were filed. It was baffling to know that the police had thrashed the pastors. Such police atrocities have led to increase of impunity among perpetrators.

THE RISE OF THE RASHTRIYA SWAYAMSEWAK SANGH: The 89 year old Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh is witnessing steady growth. Experts have noted that with more shakhas, online recruits, and mainstreaming of their agenda, the Sangh - ideological parent of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) - is on the upswing. In July 2012, the Sangh had 34,761 shakhas; this number swelled to 37,125 shakhas the following year; and this year - by July 2014 - RSS was holding 39,396 daily shakhas.

There has also been a spurt in the number of volunteers registering on the Join RSS link on its website. If there were around 1000 such people every month in 2012, 2500 possible volunteers in 2013, this number has swelled to an average of around 7000 online recruits this year.

There was a time in the last decade when the number of shakhas were over 43,000. Sangh officials have said there had been a spike in numbers when they celebrated Guru Golwalkar's Birth centenary in 2006-07.

The 2014 campaign during the extended 2014 General Elections saw the Sangh in full flow. Sangh was out there in full force backing the BJP. They visited homes, and this increased their interface with society. It has received greater, and appreciative media visibility.  

On Dussehara day this year, Mr. Bhagwat’s speech at the RSS headquarters in Nagpur, Maharashtra, was televised live by the  Doordarshan Television network, owned by the government of India, and reaching out to every nook and corner of the country. Private television channels in the past few months have done dedicated shows on the RSS head, Mr. Mohan Bhagwat's birthday, on the life of founder Dr. Keshav Hedgewar, and discussions on Sangh's work. There has also been more discussion on Hindutva related issues - be it the desirability of a Hindu Rashtra, the place of Muslims in India, whether there is anything called 'Hindu terror', or 'love jehad'.

The Sangh has also reached out directly to students in colleges and universities and in fact there is currently a three day camp of Sangh affiliated students in Delhi underway in Sonepat, attended by Bhagwat himself. They also organise social functions for busy professionals in cities like Bangalore who cannot attend morning shakhas daily.

THE RSS AND THE NORTH-EAST: The North-Eastern States have been on the agenda of the RSS for a very long time, from the 1960s certainly in the hysteria following the war with China. It has been the argument of the Sangh that the presence of Christianity in Nagaland, Meghalaya and Manipur poses a threat to the unity and integrity of the political nation-state of India. Slogans such as “Nagaland for Christ” are picked up as illustrations of what the Sangh calls the traitorous and anti-national sentiments that Christianity has introduced in the people of the North-Eastern states.

Both the BJP and the RSS have been devising strategies to make an entry into this area, with their older presence in the states of Arunachal Pradesh and Assam, and among the large Hindu Meitei population in the state of Manipur. “Our presence in the north-east is not new. The Sangh has been active in Arunachal Pradesh, Assam and Manipur for a long time. We have had MLAs in Manipur who came from the Parivar. The BJP’s first State presence was in Meghalaya in the north-east. The presence of the Sangh is limited in Tripura and Mizoram is the only State, where the Sangh has no foothold. Expanding our work in these areas is part of the Sangh’s overall strengthening plan. It is not linked to the BJP’s victory,” a Sangh functionary has said.

Instilling a “nationalist pride” in the Northeast is now on top agenda for the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS), according to its chief, Mr. Bhagwat, who says the Education wing of the RSS, which runs two schools in Nagaland, will carry forward the work in Northeast. He recently inaugurated a school and disclosed, “Five years ago, we started a Vidyabharti school in Nagaland. Today, the children are speaking in Hindi and we are glad that we have been able to spread the spirit of nationalism there. Tomorrow, they will be fearless and defend every inch of this country. Our vision is not restricted to just these areas. This is our country and we have to be concerned about what is happening here. The Vidyabharti claims “The tribal society is an integral part of the Hindu civilisation. The tribals are devotees of Hindu Gods and they are equal to any other Hindu. They are very straightforward and simple and many people are taking advantage of their lack of knowledge. Vidyabharti is educating tribals to make sure they are aware of what is happening around them. It is unfortunate that people see Vidyabharti as a violent organization. It is untrue. The aim is to educate through the tenets of Hindu way of life.”

In the recent general elections, RSS prepared the ground for the BJP's spectacular performance. The BJP clinched half of the 14 Lok Sabha seats in Assam and opened its account in Arunachal winning one constituency. As much as 36.6% of voters chose the party in Assam, transforming it from being an outfit of Hindi speaking people to a mass-based party. RSS cadres have worked silently leading to a huge undercurrent among the voters. Around 1,000 RSS volunteers have been working to turn the tide in favour of the BJP. They took to community contact programmes in Assam and Arunachal. They also mobilised students in colleges and universities. While the work by the ideological parent helped the BJP build an organisational base, Narendra Modi's outburst against illegal immigration from Bangladesh boosted its popularity among the locals. The BJP also brought community leaders to its fold, making the party acceptable among tea tribes and others. BJP's national security cell convener P Chandrasekhar Rao said Modi's statement that after May 16 illegal immigrants will have to leave India has created a sense of security among the Assamese people.

A LOOK INTO THE FUTURE: Not since Mrs. Indira Gandhi lost office and Mr. Morarji Desai assumed power at the head of the Janata Party has there been such a drastic change, even a reversal, of ideologies, policies, and a vision for the future. The factors that led to the defeat of Mrs. Gandhi in 1977 are now well known. She halted democracy in its tracks and gifted the country’s governance to her son Mr. Sanjay Gandhi, who emerged as the undisputed extra-constitutional center of power and authority. For all practical purposes, the Constitution was suspended, and an unofficial dictatorship came into being. I mention the Emergency [1975-1977] for two reasons. The first reason for the total recall is that the Emergency shattered the belief that the foundations of Indian democracy are so strong and rooted in the Freedom Struggle that they cannot be shaken even momentarily. The second is that a “popular” and “strong” leader with a mass following and little opposition — and perhaps assisted by extra-constitutional power centers — can if she or he wants to, do ` Mr. Morarji Desai, who became prime minister after Mrs. Gandhi’s defeat, had to make a clean break from the past. He was unequal to the task, but the Jan Sangh was a part of the government and made full use of the opportunity, penetrating the media and various wings of the government. This was of great help to the Bharatiya Janata Party, the new version of the Jan Sangh, when it came to power in 1998. Prime Minister, Mr. Narendra Modi, does not face the issues that confronted Mr. Desai. Dr. Manmohan Singh, the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance prime minister, did not alter the democratic fabric. Mr. Modi’s speeches in Parliament and his intervention in the administrative structures give ample evidence that he sees himself as the sole repository of political and governance power, so endowed by the massive mandate he earned for himself in the 2014 general elections. 


Many analysts have said that Mr. Modi rides two horses. One is the development and good governance agenda, which he has repeatedly articulated as his mantra in Gujarat and in New Delhi since he became prime minister. The other remains Hindutva, the right-wing, hyper-nationalist argument of supremacy that posits Hindus as the sole inheritors of the Indian civilization and culture.

If the development agenda fails, Mr. Modi will have to ride full gallop on the Hindutva horse, if he wants to win the next elections in 2019. That is the risk It will not be easy for a development agenda to succeed miraculously in the circumstances that the Indian economy finds itself in this globalized world?” is then the big question.

Economic and emotional depression brought on by crop failures due to the lack of rain in the forecast, along with attempts to generate mass employment through highway and bullet train construction that are bound to fail, do not bode well for the development agenda. Moreover, there will be 100 million young men and women looking for jobs, apart from those in the un-cleared backlog.

Cashing in the demographic dividend will not, therefore, be an easy task with the main markets in Europe and North America still not out of the doldrums, and little spare capital from abroad for the much wanted foreign direct investment (FDI) that is such a pet of Union finance minister. And this is not even hinting at the fact that much of this FDI is really Indian black money generated by the Indian corporate world.

The economy’s refusal to resurrect itself in a rapid manner and the failure to create jobs on a massive scale are dangerous portends. They may collectively pose a threat to the self-confidence of the government and frustrate Mr. Modi in his self-appointed role as the man who would deliver India from all its Ills and past failures.

Mr. Modi just cannot afford a failure. For if he does, he will have to adopt a Hindutva agenda full force, appealing to the Hindu masses and mobilizing the RSS and its cadres to polarize the people. That can mean big trouble for Christians and Muslims in India.

I would like to pray that this never happens. But We must be prepared for the worst case scenario even as we work for economic development of the people of India.

Chistian Copmmunity tells Sonia's Council to revise Law against Communal Violence

Observations of the Christian Community on Proposed Communal violence Prevention Bill 2005/10

National Advisory Council meeting 24th June 2010

A. The Christian community, approximately 2.4 per cent of the Indian population, is yet to emerge from the trauma of the violence against it in Kandhamal District of Orissa in 2007 and 2008, which saw mass murder, unprecedented arson, gang rapes and coercive change of religion, among other crimes, and the continuing acts of violence against its members, individual pastors, priests, nuns, institutions, prayer meetings and tract distribution, across the country but more viciously in Karnataka, Orissa, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Punjab, Uttarakhand, and occasionally even in the National Capital Region of Delhi. This experience is marked by our understanding of the protection given to the aggressors, issues of command responsibility and impunity, and a callous attitude towards Christianity which is seen even in official circles as an alien religion, and its faithful as so much lesser citizens in the exercise of their Constitutional rights. This experience, as much as our empathy with the experiences of our brothers and sisters in the Dalit community, the Tribal people and members of the Sikh and Muslim faiths, guides our understating of communal violence, and our response to the Communal Violence Control and Prevention Bill through its various incarnations from when it was first moved in Parliament in 2005 till the last Cabinet note of December 2009.


The Catholic Bishops Conference of India gave a detailed note to the Government some time ago. On behalf of the All India Christian Council, its office bearers also conveyed to Government our feelings. Other denominations and groups have also communicated with the government. The Christian community consists of several ecclesiastical groups and denominations, apart from ranging across all linguistic and ethnic groups in the country as is proper for its 2,000 year old history of existence in this great country.


It may be mentioned that we entirely support the major recommendations made by the Muslim community groups and by concerned Civil society. We strongly feel any Law to be relevant must empower the people, specially the survivor-victims. It must in no way further empower the State and the political apparatus to harass religious minorities.


This note therefore covers not just the experience of the Catholic and Episcopal groups in all their diversity as already enunciated by them, but also the experiences and needs if the membership of the All India Christian Council from the Evangelical and Pentecost churches, Independent Church groups and pastors, and above all, the common Christians, specially Tribal and Dalits, who may worship in their house, or go to a Church, and who are untied in their faith in the Salvation assured by Jesus Christ.


B. Needless to say, the proposed CV Bill is ignorant of the diversity of the minority communities, and specifically of the following issues of the Christian Community.


1. Dalit Christians: 60 per cent of all Christians in India trace their origins from the Dalit communities, now called the Scheduled Castes. They live with their fellow Indians in Dalit colonies, semi urban hovels, and village Cheris. They are subject to all atrocities faced by the others. In addition, they are targeted for being Christians, taunted, vilified and subject to sustained hate campaigns. And yet they do not get the hope or the security provided by anti-atrocity laws, or other provisions of the IPC.


2. TRIBALS: A large number of tribals are Christinas in the States of Rajasdthan, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Andhra, Chhatisgarh, Orissa and Jharkhand, apart from the Tribals of the North-Eastern region. The tribals of the so-called Chhotanagpur region particularly suffer from administrative and communal action, and find little or no recourse in the law. The experience in Kandhamal has brought this to the fore.


3. PLACES OF WORSHIP: While large cathedrals are landmarks in cities, the churches in small towns and villages may be just a kutcha hut or a log cabin. Often, both in Catholic and Protestant traditions, prayers are held within the house together with family members and neighbours. Sometimes, prayers are also held in the open on Sundays and other special days. Increasingly house churches have been targeted and often the police has been a party to the violence.


4. VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN: Nuns of the Catholic, Orthodox and of some Episcopal churches, as well as wives of Evangelical and Independent pastors have been particularly targeted in Madhya Pradesh, up to and including gang grape and sexual coercion, with the police entirely inactive, if not complicit. The Nuns can be identified at a distance and are therefore vulnerable all the more.


5. DIFFUSED POPULATION: Apart from certain districts, the Christian population is widely dispersed, and ingle families or a small cluster becomes very vulnerable.


6. PATTERN OF VIOLENCE: Though populations are dispersed in the major states – barring Kerala, Meghalaya, Nagaland and Goa, -- the violence is consistent. And yet authorities, especially the police dismiss it as “sporadic” unrelated and unconnected violence. The overall Pattern of Violence is never taken into account while taking preventive or curative measures.


7. HATE CAMPAIGNS: For the last forty years, there has been a consistent and sustained hate campaign against Christians, often officially supported. Where huge temples exist in government building and even in police stations, it is perhaps difficult to expect a secular approach from subordinate officials and policemen. The hate campaign in media is supported by partisanship in the district administration, further aggravating the communal harmony in those regions. These include refusal to distribute religious tracts and refusal of permission to sell or distribute Bibles, permission for holding Healing Ministries and Prayer meetings on public or private grounds and fields, and mis-reporting in the mass media painting the Christians in a negative light.


The following is an internal commentary by the All India Christian Council and its expert associates, which takes into account the above and assesses the new Bill with its suggestions.


C. OUR OBSERVATIONS ON THE CV BILL


The government has proposed a law to prevent control and deal with the aftermath of communal violence, which would include caste-based or religiously-motivated violence. Communal violence is recognised as a problem which runs deeper than simply undermining law and order. The UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief echoed the NCM in emphasising that communal violence is most likely to occur in a situation in which the following elements are present:


• Long-standing antagonism along religious lines;

• A specific occurrence triggering an emotional response among members of religious communities;

• A sense among perpetrators and the religious community to which they belong that communal violence is justifiable;

• A sense among perpetrators that the reaction of police to communal violence would be absent, partisan or ineffective.


The Communal Violence (Prevention, Control and Rehabilitation of Victims) Bill, 2009, was first introduced on 26 November 2005, and has undergone a series of revisions, which include the adoption of a number of recommendations issued by the NCM. It is expected to be introduced in the Lok Sabha in 2010, having received Cabinet approval in December 2009.


PROVISIONS:

The purpose of the Bill is outlined in the Statement of Objects and Reasons:

“Communal violence threatens the secular fabric, unity, integrity and internal security of a nation. With a view to empowering the State Governments and the Central Government to take effective measures to provide for the prevention and control of communal violence and to rehabilitate the victims of such violence, for speedy investigation and trial of offences including imposition of enhanced punishments, than those provided in the Indian Penal Code, on persons involved in communal violence and for matters connected therewith, it has been decided to enact a law by Parliament.”


The current version of the Bill sets out a series of measures to these ends, and includes the following provisions:


• Article 3(1) groups a number of offences under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and other laws in a schedule. If one or more of these offences are committed “in such manner and on such a scale which involves the use of criminal force or violence against any group, caste or community, resulting in grievous hurt, loss of life, or extensive damage or destruction of property” and where “such use of criminal force or violence is committed with a view to create disharmony or feelings of enmity, hatred or ill-will between different groups, castes or communities”, resulting in an imminent “threat to the secular fabric, integrity, unity or internal security of India”, a state government is required to notify this as a “communally disturbed area”.

• Article 4 specifies that a state government may request the central government to deploy armed forces in these circumstances.

• Article 5 provides for preventative measures to be taken by a district magistrate prior to any outbreak of communal violence.

• Articles 6-10 provide for preventative measures to be taken by the “competent authority” after an area has been designated as communally disturbed.

• Articles 11-16 proscribe and stipulate punishments for certain acts associated with communal violence, including possessing weapons or threatening witnesses;

• Article 17 stipulates punishments for public servants or competent authorities who act in a mala fide manner or wilfully fail to exercise lawful authority, and thereby fail to prevent communal violence.

• Article 19 provides that punishments stipulated for scheduled offences must be doubled if the offences are committed on a scale and in a manner which constitute communal violence.

• Article 21 provides for the declaration of police stations within the scheduled area, and for the provision of women police officers to investigate scheduled offences committed against women or children.

• Article 22 provides for the review of cases where the investigating officer does not file a charge sheet within three months of a First Information Report (FIR) being registered.

• Article 23 provides for the constitution of “Special Investigation Teams” if the state government believes the investigation of offences was not carried out in a fair and impartial manner.

• Articles 24-37 provide for the establishment and procedure of “Special Courts” for the trial of scheduled offences, and for the appointment of public prosecutors. Article 32 provides for concealing the identities of witnesses testifying before a special court.

• Articles 38-41 provide for the creation and functions of a “State Communal Disturbance Relief and Rehabilitation Council” by the relevant state government, including several ex officio members and several members nominated by the state government, including representatives of all major religious communities. Article 40 stipulates the functions of the council in planning relief efforts, including advising the state government on compensation and the establishment of relief camps, taking a range of remedial measures for the welfare of victims and the reparation of damage, recommending measures for activating a “district communal harmony committee” and reporting to the government on shortcomings in remedial measures. Article 41 stipulates the preparation of a plan “for promotion of communal harmony and prevention of communal violence” to be recommended for adoption by the council to the state government.

• Articles 42-44 provide for the creation and functions of a district equivalent of the state committee, to act as the implementing body for relief and rehabilitation measures.

• Articles 45-48 provide for the creation and functions of a national equivalent of the state committee, with responsibilities including advising relevant state governments on relief, rehabilitation and compensation and making recommendations to the central government.

• Articles 49-52 provide for state governments to establish schemes for the compensation of victims of communal violence.

• Articles 53-54 provide for the payment of compensation for damages by offenders.

• Articles 55-56 set out special powers of the central government to deal with communal violence. These include directing the
relevant state government to take appropriate measures, and declaring a “communally disturbed area” if the state fails to do so when necessary, and deploying armed forces under the authority of the central government.

• Article 58 provides that there should be no discrimination in the provision of relief or compensation “on the ground of sex, caste, community, descent or religion”.


D. OUR CRITIQUE:


The principle of a CV Bill has been welcomed by religious minorities in India, and it has the potential to add positively to India’s excellent body of legislation protecting against acts of discrimination or prejudicial violence. However, there exist legitimate concerns about the effectiveness of the 2005 and the 2009 drafts of the Bill, which have been voiced by civil society and religious minority organisations, by the NCM and by the UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief in the report of her 2008 visit to India. The Special Rapporteur recommended specifically that the legislation “should take into account the concerns of religious minorities” (paragraph 67).


The most serious, substantive and prominent concerns about the Bill in its current form include the following:

1. The Bill does not define “communal violence” adequately, and therefore cannot protect against it effectively. Firstly, it construes communal violence as disharmony between two different communities, or mass rioting by one community against another, but it does not recognise the process by which communal tension or hatred is incited, and it does not recognise the phenomenon of state complicity in the incitement or execution of communal violence. Secondly, the premise of the “communally disturbed area” does not do justice to the reality of communal violence as experienced by some religious minorities, especially Christians: certain states see frequent, well-targeted, single incidents of religiously-motivated violence, which are often orchestrated by extremist organisations, and this pattern of violence would not be addressed under the provisions of the Bill. Thirdly, the Bill inadequately covers the possible range of offences which might constitute “communal violence” (including specific forms of sexual violence), and the implications of this context for evidentiary standards in the investigative process.


2. The Bill does not provide for sufficient safeguards against the poor or discriminatory exercise of power by those responsible for protecting the rights of victims, which is a recurrent problem in cases of communal violence. The Special Rapporteur noted that civil society organisations have “voiced their concern that the sweeping powers given by the Bill to state governments could be misused to intimidate members of the minority community” (paragraph 40). Article 17 provides for the prosecution of public servants for the dereliction of duty, but this requires the prior sanction of the state government, and if the state government is complicit in (or not unfavourable towards) the communal violence, it becomes extremely unlikely that discriminatory behaviour or the dereliction of duty by public servants will be prosecuted. Article 22 of the Bill provides for the review of every case in which the investigating officer does not file a charge sheet within three months of an FIR being registered, but this may be circumvented by the common tactic whereby police officers fail to register FIRs according to proper procedure. Article 57, the so-called “good faith” clause, provides immunity for officials; however, the standard of mens rea, or command responsibility, should be enshrined in the Bill, so that superior authorities are held accountable for the unlawful activities of their subordinates. The NCM made a number of relevant additional recommendations to increase accountability: That the reports of any commissions of inquiry should be made public as a matter of course; that the National Human Rights Commission should be mandated to monitor the performance of special courts; and that those found guilty of involvement in communal violence should be debarred permanently from government jobs and from contesting any office.


3. The Bill should provide additional measures to protect witnesses or victims from intimidation. Article 15 criminalises acts which threaten witnesses, and Article 32 provides that the identity of witnesses may be concealed. However, the Bill should draw upon the guidelines of the Supreme Court and recommendations of the Law Commission. It would be strengthened considerably by providing for the police protection of witnesses at risk of threat or intimidation. Incentivising witnesses by providing travel and maintenance expenses (as recommended in Article 21(2)(ii) of The Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act), would further protect against witnesses preferring to stay silent rather than risking intimidation as a consequence of giving evidence. In addition, the rights of persons displaced into camps as a result of communal violence, as outlined in Article 40(b), should be in line with the UN Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement, including the provision of education to displaced children (principle 23) and ensuring that 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 (principle 28).


4. The Bill should set out a uniform, binding scheme for the provision of compensation to victims of communal violence, to address the inconsistencies shown in previous cases. It should establish the rights of victims or their dependents to financial compensation, and should also provide compensation to rebuild places of worship damaged or destroyed as a result of communal violence. This was among the recommendations of the NCM not included among the amendments in the 2009 version of the Bill.


E. Aftermath of 2008 anti-Christian violence in Orissa


In August to October 2008, Orissa witnessed the worst spate of communal violence ever faced by the Christian community in post-independence India, including brutal murders and rapes, widespread destruction of churches and property, and forcible conversions to Hinduism. The attacks, centred in Kandhamal district, were catalysed by the assassination on 23 August 2008 of Lakshmananda Saraswati, local head of the radical Hindu nationalist group VHP, by assailants believed to have been Maoists. On 24 August, when his remains were paraded around the district, mobs began setting up roadblocks, shouting Hindu nationalist and violent anti-Christian slogans, openly blaming Christians for the murder and calling for revenge as they attacked Christian targets. Although rural poverty and underlying issues of ethnic tensions over entitlements in Kandhamal played a role in the violence, these were not the primary causes but provided a context for the radicalisation of one community and the incitement of violence. The Orissa chief minister publicly acknowledged the role of extremist Hindu nationalist organisations in the violence in the legislative assembly for the first time in November 2009.


The violence which started in August 2008 continued for over eight weeks. At least 50,000 were displaced and 70 were killed; among the victims were Hindus opposing the rioters. Widespread anti-Christian attacks had also taken place in Kandhamal in December 2007, impunity for which laid the foundations for the second more serious wave of violence in 2008. The state government failed to implement detailed recommendations made by India’s NCM in early 2008.


F. SOCIAL CONTEXT:


Rural poverty is endemic in southern Orissa, the area in which the violence was centred, and the rural poverty ratio actually increased in this area during the period 1983-2000. There exist deep underlying issues of entitlement in Kandhamal, which created a context for the instigation of the 2008 violence: one such issue is the classification of Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe communities, which was formalised in 1950. Both communities trace their ancestry to the indigenous inhabitants of the land, and constitute a single ethnic, linguistic and cultural group. However, Kandhamal is designated as a ‘Scheduled Area’ under the provision of the fifth schedule of the constitution, and as such, certain entitlements are reserved for the Scheduled Tribes, including freehold (patta) ownership of land. This is a potential cause of tension between Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. Moreover, Christians of Scheduled Caste background or ancestry are not eligible to the same entitlements as Scheduled Castes (see section 4.3 above). It is in the interest of those Scheduled Castes who profess Christianity to be reclassified as Scheduled Tribes, as this would reverse their double disenfranchisement, so tensions among Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes can therefore take on a religious colouring in the right circumstances.


Although these factors of ethnicity and entitlement provided a context for the violence, it is important to emphasise that Christians in the area have been drawn from both Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe communities. During the violence, Christians from both communities were attacked.


The extremist Hindu nationalist presence in Kandhamal has played upon existing sensitivities, and co-opted them onto a religious nationalist template. Extremist Hindu nationalists have been operational in the area for around 40 years, and they originate from a non-indigenous, caste Hindu, trader community. Their agenda has been the preservation of Hindu purity, including the prevention of cow slaughter and of religious conversions. Christians, as the largest religious minority in the area, constitute a threatening ‘other’, and provide a ready scapegoat.


The local prominence of Naxalites, or Maoist insurgents, creates an additional layer of complication. Naxalites were almost certainly responsible for the assassination of Swami Lakshmananda Saraswati, which precipitated the mass violence against Christians. There are numerous theories about the Naxalites’ motivation for the murder, one of which is that it was an act of retribution against his activities, and that it was calculated to gain support from disenfranchised people in the area, including Christians. The palpable absence of state machinery from the area, means that the scene has been set for something of a ‘turf war’ between Hindu extremists and Naxalites.


G. ISSUES ARISING FROM CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE OF KANDHAMAL FAST TRACK COURTS:


We had welcomed the Fast track courts and had high hopes from the two Additional Sessions Judges and the Public prosecutors. We feel betrayed after the lapse of one year. Out of 12 deaths by murder, where judgement is pronounced, there was only one conviction; and accused in 11 deaths are acquitted. Justice, reconciliation and peace remain an unfulfilled objective. There are legitimate fears of impunity on a large scale. Local lawyers suggest that the majority of crimes have not been registered properly by the police, and the majority of cases which reach the courts have resulted in acquittals. There is also widespread evidence of endemic bias and dereliction of duty in the investigation and prosecution of offences. As of now, lawyers in Kandhamal said that of 3,223 complaints submitted to the police; only 831 had been registered as First Information Reports (FIRs). The judicial system in place has been partially successful, but the realities of trying cases in a rural situation amidst widespread fear, combined with poverty and illiteracy, create special needs which the current system is failing to address adequately. Many witnesses or victims are reluctant to testify in court for fear of retribution and lack of confidence in the efficacy of the system, and they have been intimidated and threatened, sometimes by mobs outside courtrooms;


We suggest that the new CV bill take care of the following issues:


1. The Fast Track courts should be set up outside the affected area, preferably in a neighbouring district, and in special cases, in an adjoining state to remove any inference with the course of justice.


2. The Judges appointed should be subjected to review for their performances by superior courts to weed out bigotry and vested interest, if any


3. Special public prosecutors be appointed at government expense out a panel whetted by civil society and survivors-victims


4. Survivor-victims are allowed to arrange their own lawyers to assist the Special PPs.


5. Survivor Victims be allowed to file additional FIRs other than those filed by police suo motu


6. Survivor-Victims’ lawyers be allowed to cross examine defence witness and intervene properly in the judicial court process.


7. Witnesses security and transport be taken care of by government in a foolproof witness protection programme


8. In case of gender violence cases, in camera proceedings be arranged


9. Adequate security be provided in court premises and environments


10. Legal observers / amicus curie be allowed to monitor the course of the trial


11. Special Investigation Teams be set up in case police investigations are found to be inadequate.


John Dayal

Secretary General, All India Christian Council