Nearly 100 churches and at least 700 Christian homes were destroyed by Hindu militants in the deadly violence, which began around Christmas and lasted for 10 days, according to several rights watchers and church groups.
Yet, Orissa’s Hindu-backed government has either halted or cut back promised aid to especially Dalit Christians, many of them homeless and facing food shortages in the aftermath of the clashes, said P.R. Parichha, who leads the Indian Evangelistic Association in Cuttack, Orissa’s commercial capital, and the Orissa branch of advocacy group All India Christian Council (AICC).
At the same time, authorities have reportedly refused to allow Non Governmental Organizations and other private groups to distribute aid in the area, citing security concerns. "They [the Dalits] are [therefore] without resources to rebuild their flimsy homes," Parichha added in an interview with BosNewsLife. The situation has been linked to the social status of Dalits in India. In India’s ancient system of Hinduism, Dalits are still seen as the ‘lowest’ caste, and Dalit converts to Christianity face even more difficulties accessing state-aid than their Hindu counterparts, church groups say.
"The government had promised 50,000 India Rupees ($1,250) for each [destroyed] house [but so far] 10,000 Rupees has been given," explained Parichha. In addition, "Many Dalit Christians do not have land documents in their name, though they lived there for at least several decades," Parichha insisted.
MODERATE HINDUS
Moderate Hindus and Christians agreed at a February 18 meeting in Orissa that "Hindu agitators from outside the area were the cause" of the current tensions. However they are also angry at the Orissa government for "not handling relief fairly" and held a rally February 24 to demand that local authorities "allow private agencies to bring relief," Parichha said.
It comes amid reports that Hindu militants have threatened to carry out new massive attacks against Christians, following smaller isolated incidents targeting churches earlier this week. Major violence expected Wednesday, February 26, was apparently prevented after advocacy
groups warned of imminent attacks while churches urged police to increase protection.
Advocacy group AICC sugegsted to BosNewsLife attacks are still possible in villages of Kandhamal District, where most of the unrest took place since Christmas. AICC said it learned from local Christians that Hindu leader Lambodar Kuanr and militants under his control have threatened to attack Balliguda, one of the villages targeted in late December, to obtain the unconditional release of fellow Hindu fighters.
Militants also plan to attack the tribal and Dalit Christians, demanding that they will become Hindus or otherwise leave the village, or be killed, the AICC said.
Meanwhile, Parichha said, victims of the December violence have been, in his words, "suffering without food, clothes and shelter. Students have no textbooks. People in remote villages are facing untold miseries."
FOOD SHORTAGES
He expressed concerns about food shortages in places such as Solakia village, where Hindu extremists allegedly burned and ransacked the Free Methodist and Baptist churches, and destroyed homes of a dozen Christian families. Although villagers normally live there in small huts, the district inspector allegedly told one family they did not deserve aid. "Your dwelling is not a house; it’s just a kitchen," Parichha quoted the unnamed official as saying.
Parichha said the Christian villagers are mostly day laborers. However since the clashes began, none have dared to return to the forest where many of them work, and nobody has been hired, he said. "Many of them are starving."
Parichha, who just returned from the region, said that in Munda Sahi region nearly 60 students, whose homes were destroyed, took refuge in a small temporary house. "They were preparing to take their final exams in March, and had no other place to study. They received no government relief and were dependent on private donations." Parichha and the Kandhamal Baptist Church Union purchased rice, sugar and other basic food supplies for them.
Food shortages were also noticed in the village of Budurukia where Parichha claimed 27 families, most of them Christians, are trying to live peacefully with Hindus. Yet, "when the attackers came [in December] they destroyed all the homes in the village, including those of the local Kui Hindus. The government is giving them some rice, but no cooking oil, or salt." Parichha said, "The Kui villagers are so outraged that they now want to become Christians."
MORE VIOLENCE
He explained that many more victims recall violence in several villages, including in Dombuli village, composed of only six Christian families, where December 24 some 30 people from a nearby Hindu village allegedly destroyed their houses and their only church, an independent Baptist congregation.
"They even forced 14 members of two families to “reconvert” to Hinduism, as the others fled…When one of them went to lodge a complaint with the police, he was dehumanized," Parichha claimed.
Depaketa was another village attacked by Hindus. "They burned the only Christian home in the village belonging to Saneswar Pradhan, a former Hindu leader who had accepted Christ and was promoting Christianity," Parichha added. In a related devlopment, teachers in the local school announced that Christian children would not be allowed to attend any longer, he said.
TENSIONS SPREADING
Church observers say religious tensions have also spread to other parts of India, as Hindu nationalist groups oppose the spread of Christianity in this mainly Hindu nation. India’s capital New Delhi reportedly witnessed two incidents of anti-Christian violence this week, including an attack late Thursday, February 28, on a relief organization official by a large Hindu mob.
In New Delh’s Kalyanpuri area, a worker from Gospel Mission of India (GMI) was helping to unload a truck carrying gift packets for poor children when a crowd of Hindu nationalists led by a councilor from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) allegedly accused his group of conversion by allurement.
GMI Coordinator Peter Banerjee said in published remarks that when he arrived the mob began beating him. Police managed to protect Banerjee when the crowd swelled to over 500, Christian news reports said. Earlier, on Sunday, February 24, some 30 Hindu militants of the Bajrang Dal group allegedly pelted St. Sebastian Church with stones and vandalized vehicles of church members in New Delhi’s Dilshad Garden area. Leaders of the Hindu group Bajrang Dal have denied involvement in the clashes, said Compass Direct News, a Christian news agency.
The BJP is preparing for parliamentary elections later this year, and several Christian groups have attributed the violence in New Delhi and Orissa to the upcoming ballot. Although evangelical churches are growing, Christians still comprise just over two percent of India’s mainly Hindu population of over 1.1 billion people.
(BosNewsLife welcomes (Dr.) John M. Lindner as its Senior Mission Correspondent. Lindner is a missionary writer and mission magazine publisher with 27 years experience. He heads World Christian Ministries (www.worldchristianministries.org), a group dedicated to, and reporting on, the tribulations and triumphs of missionaries of the two-thirds world, with activities that include regular e-mail newsletters sent free to subscribers. Lindner has authored two books: God’s Special Agents, with biographies of 12 mission leaders from the two-thirds world, and The Mountains Shall Sing, the story of P.M. Thomas and the Himalaya Evangelical Mission, both available on www.worldchristianministries.org. In 2005, Lindner received a Doctor of Mission degree from Emmanuel Theological Seminary in Kota, India.)
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