Soulspeek
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Raipur: Away from national glare, a silent religious conquest is taking shape in tribal Chhattisgarh. After the new dispensation took charge at the Centre, the ongoing tussle between the forces of Hindutva and Christians is going decidedly in favour of the former.
Here are a few instances of how things have started changing in the state, particularly in its southern region.
* A priest appeared before the media in Jagdalpur in the company of local Vishwa Hindu Parishad leaders a month ago and announced the Church's decision to display pictures of the Hindu Goddess Saraswati in their schools. He also said the principals and vice-principals would be called acharya and up-acharya henceforth instead of 'father'.
* In the Bastar region, the VHP has objected to the distribution of sweets by Santa Claus among people during Christmas. It has instructed the community to replace sweets with 'prasad'.
* Around the time the BJP government took control at the Centre, five villages in Bastar, through their gram sabhas, passed orders prohibiting non-Hindus from practicing religious activities and prayers in their villages. Members of the Christian community allege that the VHP provoked people to pass the order and the state government is protecting them.
* "People are holding mahapanchayats in other parts of the state for the last six months. Some of them are issuing circulars against the missionaries. Around 52 members of the Christian community have been attacked by the VHP activists in recent months,” Arun Pannalal, general secretary of Chhattisgarh Christian Forum (CCF), has told the media.
The Bastar incident last month was only a symptom of the communal problem affecting the state.
According to political observers, the symptoms have been clearly visible over the last few months but the malady had set in long ago. The equation between Christians and Hindus started changing after the BJP came to power in the state in 2003. The process has intensified now.
Some of the legislations of the BJP-led state government directly target Christian missionaries. Many effectively turned out to be tools for the government and the administration to patronize and promote right wing forces on the ground.
Chhattisgarh, for example, is one of the five states in the country to have the anti-conversion law. The state had inherited one from Madhya Pradesh but felt the need to amend the law once the BJP came to power. The state assembly passed the Chhattisgarh Freedom of Religion (Amendment) Act, 2006 which provided for a three-year jail term and a fine of Rs 20, 000 for those indulging in religious conversion through allurement, fraud or force.
It also provided that "the return to ancestor's original religion or his own original religion by any person shall not be construed as 'conversion'." Many see this provision as a means to allow the continuance of programmes by right-wing Hindu organisations – branded as 'Ghar Wapsi' or home coming to reconvert Christians to Hinduism. The bill requires a person intending to convert to another religion to apply to the district collector at least 30 days in advance. The Collector is vested with the right to refuse permission to convert. This is seen as an infringement of one's constitutional right to choose one's religion.
As if the existing provisions of the law – both central and state – were not enough, the state assembly has passed and enacted bills such as Tonahi Pratadna Nivaran Adhiniyam-2005 – essentially dealing with faith and superstition under various names. The laws have come handy in the harassment of Christians, the community feels.
"When there exist enough laws, what is the purpose of enacting more for the same types of offence if not harassment?” asks Arun Pannalal, general secretary of Chhattisgarh Christian Forum.
Also, incidents of the Hindu right volunteers storming the places where 'Changai – Sabhas' – or, according to the believers "sessions of faith healing or simply prayer meetings” - are held, frequently find place in the local media. The police come or are brought into the picture and cases are framed mostly to the disadvantage of one community.
If conversion or re-conversion is the more visible reason for the conflict of interests, the equally serious, some believe real, cause for dispute is over the issue of the ownership of land that the Christian missionaries have in their possession. The missionaries started coming to the state in 1860s. Churches, schools, hospitals and burial places came up in areas which either belonged to those later labeled as tribals, or was no-man's land. In many cases it was gifted by the local Rajas. These areas, deep inside the forests and over the hills, were inaccessible for others and continued to remain so for over a century thereafter. The post-independence era saw a shift in priorities of the government towards settlement of the tribals. The Land Revenue Act was amended to provide for the return of land, acquired by non-tribals without the prior permission of the collector, back to the tribal.
A common complaint among the missionaries has been that the provision has been misused by digging out the roots of the ownership of lands in their possession to the ancestors of the present generation of the tribals. If the reopening of cases and the resultant slew of litigation is seen by the Christians as harassment, the tribal – read Christian - descendants of the original owners see virtue in siding with the state. The missionaries have a much larger land bank in their possession in the north of state including Jashpur and Sarguja districts. Yet, significantly, the confrontation linked to the ownership of land is more pronounced in the south – in Bastar where the government has signed significant MOUs with the likes of Tatas and Essars and has failed so far to acquire and hand over the huge tracts of promised land.
Source-
Chhattisgarh: Hindutva targeting of Christians over conversions really about land?
Here are a few instances of how things have started changing in the state, particularly in its southern region.
* A priest appeared before the media in Jagdalpur in the company of local Vishwa Hindu Parishad leaders a month ago and announced the Church's decision to display pictures of the Hindu Goddess Saraswati in their schools. He also said the principals and vice-principals would be called acharya and up-acharya henceforth instead of 'father'.
* In the Bastar region, the VHP has objected to the distribution of sweets by Santa Claus among people during Christmas. It has instructed the community to replace sweets with 'prasad'.
* Around the time the BJP government took control at the Centre, five villages in Bastar, through their gram sabhas, passed orders prohibiting non-Hindus from practicing religious activities and prayers in their villages. Members of the Christian community allege that the VHP provoked people to pass the order and the state government is protecting them.
* "People are holding mahapanchayats in other parts of the state for the last six months. Some of them are issuing circulars against the missionaries. Around 52 members of the Christian community have been attacked by the VHP activists in recent months,” Arun Pannalal, general secretary of Chhattisgarh Christian Forum (CCF), has told the media.
The Bastar incident last month was only a symptom of the communal problem affecting the state.
According to political observers, the symptoms have been clearly visible over the last few months but the malady had set in long ago. The equation between Christians and Hindus started changing after the BJP came to power in the state in 2003. The process has intensified now.
Some of the legislations of the BJP-led state government directly target Christian missionaries. Many effectively turned out to be tools for the government and the administration to patronize and promote right wing forces on the ground.
Chhattisgarh, for example, is one of the five states in the country to have the anti-conversion law. The state had inherited one from Madhya Pradesh but felt the need to amend the law once the BJP came to power. The state assembly passed the Chhattisgarh Freedom of Religion (Amendment) Act, 2006 which provided for a three-year jail term and a fine of Rs 20, 000 for those indulging in religious conversion through allurement, fraud or force.
It also provided that "the return to ancestor's original religion or his own original religion by any person shall not be construed as 'conversion'." Many see this provision as a means to allow the continuance of programmes by right-wing Hindu organisations – branded as 'Ghar Wapsi' or home coming to reconvert Christians to Hinduism. The bill requires a person intending to convert to another religion to apply to the district collector at least 30 days in advance. The Collector is vested with the right to refuse permission to convert. This is seen as an infringement of one's constitutional right to choose one's religion.
As if the existing provisions of the law – both central and state – were not enough, the state assembly has passed and enacted bills such as Tonahi Pratadna Nivaran Adhiniyam-2005 – essentially dealing with faith and superstition under various names. The laws have come handy in the harassment of Christians, the community feels.
"When there exist enough laws, what is the purpose of enacting more for the same types of offence if not harassment?” asks Arun Pannalal, general secretary of Chhattisgarh Christian Forum.
Also, incidents of the Hindu right volunteers storming the places where 'Changai – Sabhas' – or, according to the believers "sessions of faith healing or simply prayer meetings” - are held, frequently find place in the local media. The police come or are brought into the picture and cases are framed mostly to the disadvantage of one community.
If conversion or re-conversion is the more visible reason for the conflict of interests, the equally serious, some believe real, cause for dispute is over the issue of the ownership of land that the Christian missionaries have in their possession. The missionaries started coming to the state in 1860s. Churches, schools, hospitals and burial places came up in areas which either belonged to those later labeled as tribals, or was no-man's land. In many cases it was gifted by the local Rajas. These areas, deep inside the forests and over the hills, were inaccessible for others and continued to remain so for over a century thereafter. The post-independence era saw a shift in priorities of the government towards settlement of the tribals. The Land Revenue Act was amended to provide for the return of land, acquired by non-tribals without the prior permission of the collector, back to the tribal.
A common complaint among the missionaries has been that the provision has been misused by digging out the roots of the ownership of lands in their possession to the ancestors of the present generation of the tribals. If the reopening of cases and the resultant slew of litigation is seen by the Christians as harassment, the tribal – read Christian - descendants of the original owners see virtue in siding with the state. The missionaries have a much larger land bank in their possession in the north of state including Jashpur and Sarguja districts. Yet, significantly, the confrontation linked to the ownership of land is more pronounced in the south – in Bastar where the government has signed significant MOUs with the likes of Tatas and Essars and has failed so far to acquire and hand over the huge tracts of promised land.
Source-
Chhattisgarh: Hindutva targeting of Christians over conversions really about land?
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