*REPORT ON preliminary visit to site of ALLEGED RELIGIOUS CONVERSION*
* *
*At-* Badha saara sahi, Khurda
*The Incident :*
On 8th May 2011, there was a news item published in daily
oriya news paper the ‘ Khabara’ (Page 4) that there was an incident of
religious conversion at the village Badha Saara sahi which is situated jut
adjacent to Khurda town ( Block/Police Station/ Dist. Khurda). The report
went on to mention that an FIR was lodged by one Kailash Pradhan on behalf
of other villagers, that some of their co-villagers along with some
outsiders are trying to forcefully convert them in to another religion. It
mentioned that after receiving the FIR the concerned police has the
registered the case under section 323, 294,427, 506,509, 265(A), and 34
Indian penal Code. Three persons are arrested and forwarded to judicial
custody on the said allegation. They are namely (1) Prakash Nayak, of
village Choti Palanga (2) Iswar Nayak (actual name Sarbeswar Nayak as we
found from the visit) of Chotipalanga, (3) Ishwar Sahoo of Badha Saara Sahi,
Khurda.
After going through the news paper report we felt that there
is a need to make a field visit to learn more about the incident as it is an
issue which requires immediate intervention by the civil society groups to
avoid any communal crisis.
* *
*The Place & Date of Visit*
* *Badha Saara Sahi, Khurda
Chotipalanga, Baghamari, Khurda
On: 12th May 2011
*The Visit & Findings*
a) The family members of persons arrested from Chotipalanga village and
their neighbours
b) The Informant from Badha Saara Sahi, his family members / neighbours
as well as the alleged perpetrators from Badha Saara Sahi
c) Inspector In Charge, Khurda police station
*Observations at Chotipalanga*
a) The arrested individuals and their neighbours are all from Saara
community. This community identifies itself as tribal. They are ordinarily
referred to as Adivasis by other villagers as well as by the government.
However they are not identified as Scheduled Tribes.
b) They are extremely poor economically and are landless. Daily wages
are the only source of livelihood.
c) They suffer from the practice of untouchability in all spheres of
life and are considered so even by some communities that are designated as
Scheduled Caste. There is a natural anger against this system of
untouchability. They expressed that they do not want to be part of the Hindu
religion, while at the same time stating that they are not converts to any
other religion. They seek to influence others from their community to oppose
the practice of untouchability but do not seek to convert anyone to any
other religion.
d) They claimed to be part of an organization called ‘Samajika Nyaya
Macha’ which is opposed to caste based oppression and practice of
untouchability.
*Observations at Badha Saara Sahi*
a) We met the principal complainant at Badha Saara Sahi. He said that
the other group, referred to him by Manavbadi Sanstha, tried to coerce them
to stop worshipping Gods & Goddesses, asked women not to wear vermilion, or
wear bangles. He said that there was a meeting of Manavbadi Sangathan where
large numbers of people from other villages had assembled at the school and
community hall. He claimed that the Manavbadis had attacked them physically
and broke the door of the Bhagabat Ghara (place of worship).
b) On visiting the Bhagabata Ghara, which is actually a community hall
belonging to the entire village that is being used for religious purposes,
we found door broken but there was no damage inside where there were
various images of Hindu gods and goddesses.
a) We met some villager who were accused by the principal complainant
of being part of the Manavbadi group. These people said that they indeed
were part of the Manavbadi group but had not used any force to challenge the
religious beliefs or practice of the other group. They accepted that they
did propose to the others to join their campaign against untouchability. We
found that the women from these households were also wearing bangles,
vermilion etc. They said that since they too wear Bangle and vermillion,
there was no question of influencing anyone to do otherwise. These people
seemed to be very much poorer than the group which had lodged the FIR
against them.
b) Both sides also shared about their common struggle to be recognised
as Scheduled Tribes and of their women being part of a forum which has often
come to Bhubaneswar to make the demand.
*Observations at Police Station*
*a) *We discussed with the IIC, Sri Jena, at Khurda Police Station. He
termed the news about ‘conversion’ to be entirely false and frivolous. He
said that there is no involvement of any religious group in the incident. He
said that there was allegation about some people in the meeting forcing
others to abandon their religious practices. He also shared a copy of the
FIR with us.
*Recommendations *
1. As all the accused are extremely poor and suffer from practices of
untouchability, it is natural that there is discontent against religious
practices that promote such untouchability and discrimination. Any movement
against untouchability has traditionally received hostile response from the
upper castes. Hence even in this case, the role of upper caste backlash
against the community fighting untouchability can not be ruled out. This may
lead to violent riot like situations and therefore there is a need for the
government as well as the civil society to get in to the heart of the matter
to clear all ambiguities. There is a need to inquire more about the
identity, activities and beliefs of the Samajika Nyaya Mancha. At the same
time there is also a need to inquire in to the role of other organizations.
For instance, Pragativadi (Page 4, 8th May 2011) reports about the role
played by the RSS in this matter and their altercation with the Manvabadi
group.
2. News reporting, especially in the Khabara, has been misleading as
there is no instance of conversion while the newspaper explicitly mentioned,
even in the headline, that there was religious conversion. It also went on
casually to point out that this was in sequence with earlier incidents of
religious conversion in Kandhamal and Keonjhar. Within two weeks of this
report, the same newspaper has also reported about another instance of
religious conversion in Konark. Such news should be handled carefully even
when they are true. But when they are false, it can make the media a
collaborator of those who are attempting to vitiate the atmosphere of
religious harmony in the state.
3. Recently there have been even more arrests. 54 people have been
arrested on Sunday (22nd May 2011, reported in Khabara and other media
including television channels) and one more has been arrested yesterday.
Such large number of arrests of extremely poor and oppressed people can not
lead towards any solution. Rather the government must seek to go to the root
of the matter and try to sort it out amicably with help of those who are
working in the state to protect its ethos of religious harmony and
tolerance.
*Team members*
*1) *Manas Ranjan, Activist
*2) *Rasmi ranjan Jena, Advocate
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