Orissa flash

Visiting kandhamal and hearing about the violence committed against the Christians there has echoed back to so much of what I heard in Rwanda. Though much smaller in scale, the atrocities is just as terrible. We arrived in K. Nuagon on Tuesday  night. Under the cover of night we could only catch a glimpse of the left over violence, now almost exactly one year later. Jana Vikas, a Catholic social service center held 2 immobile burned 4x4s and a number of 2 wheelers which had been set to torch. The cement walls which were covered and petrol and burned in august of 2008 still are covered in soot. On entering, we also learned that it was here, in the same sequence of events, that sr. Meena was gang raped, and paraded naked with a priest by a crowd of drunk, angry and violent hindus. The attack itself was sparked by the killing of Swami Lakshmanda, an 80 year old religious leader who had been spreading his hateful message in Kandamal for the past 20 years. An RSS man (RSS is the original Hindutwa movement), Swami Lakshmanda stood for the assimilating Hindutwa message that stands for 1 religion (Hinduism), 1 language (Hindi), 1 culture (brahaminic caste system) in India. It was his wish that Christians would be purged from Orissa, and when he was assassinated by Maoists on Aug 23th, 2008, his followers decided to make that dream a reality.

At Jana Vikas, we met a Father , who came from a village where 7 Christians were killed and where his own father was forced to convert to Hinduism at knife point. This priest is helping run the social center, which has over 150 social workers out in the field doing relief work and restarting the centers prior activities. We also met 2 bold young JMJ sisters who are living in a burned out room and providing whatever assistance they can. Still, it is clear that more help is needed.

That night we slept at the pastoral center, which too still carried the marks of last years devastation, with a burned jeep out front and half the building covered in soot. 


The current (unofficial) count is that roughly 90 Christians have been killed, though the govt, trying to soften the state of the situation. This count is also not including those who have since subcumb to their wounds and passed on, or those who may have died in the forest while fleeing. Over 5000 houses were damaged and a number of churches, convents, seminaries, and church institutions across denominations were attacked, damaged, looted and destroyed. Many priests and sisters fled into the forest to save their lives. While I have read about the violence, going to see the burned vehicles and destroyed houses has brought this whole situation to reality for me.

We have spent this week in Orissa, with the first half in idyllic Golpalpur by the sea attending a workshop put on by the Forum of Religious for Justice and Peace on the conflict in Orissa. My room was on the third floor, and from the balcony you could see the sea over the tops of palm trees and papaya trees. This whole journey through Orissa, we have wondered how such atrocities could occur in such a beautiful place. The highlight of the workshop was Dr. Ram Puniyani, an activist who elsa and I already had a chance to meet in Mumbai. He led the group through some of the basic myths of communalism (defined as the misuse of religious identity for political mobilization), helping them to eventually identify the root issues of the violence. While the official party line is that it is aggressive christian conversions which are sparking this violence, that is only a facade that is used to hide a systematic agenda to maintain power for the BJP and for maintaining the status quo of the caste system. It is ironic that RSS officials will happily have their children educated at catholic institutions in the cities, but cry foul when Christians start schools in the village. Education brings the ability for tribals and Dalits (literally, the broken people) to recognize their own capacity and their own rights and to fight for them.

Here in the Kandamal district, we also met with a Carmelite Sister who courageously faced the prior violence 8 months earlier on Christmas day, and who, coming from Kerala on August 23rd, traveled through roadblocks set up by the mob, disguised as a sick person, in order to reach her convent. In the absence of so much christian leadership, who saved their own skins, the sisters presence was comforting and reassuring for the people. While I pose the question to myself of what I would do in such a situation, her own story is inspiring.

It has been equally discouraging to hear about the legal front. A small team 7 of lawyers comprising of those from the diocese and those from the Human rights law network are fighting to bring culprits to task here in Phulbani. Unfortunately, however, the RSS had their legal defense in place long before the violence began. With over 100 case here in phulbani, the resources of the accusers is certainly strained and many cases are already ending in acquittal.

Meanwhile, many church leaders from across the denominations have been surprisingly silent, only focusing on relief efforts. The one stalwart voice has been the catholic archbishop of Kandamal, who took the issue to the central gov in Delhi and who instructed priests and nuns to return a few months after the violence.

While this violence is terrible, everything I have heard about the RSS's infiltration into the media, the police, bureaucracy convinces me that the church needs to take a systematic approach to disseminating secularism (here in india meaning the respect and tolerance for all religion). This is not a fight between hindus and christians, but as Dr. Puniyani says, a fight for and against democratic and secular values.


Michael Le Chevallier
MDiv candidate 2011
University of Chicago
email/skype: mike.lechevallier@gmail.com
Cell: (+91)9537158645