To: The Commission of Inquiry
of Honourable Justice Panigrahi/Re. Kandhamal, Orissa
From: Dr. Angana Chatterji
Associate Professor, Social
and Cultural Anthropology
California Institute of
Integral Studies
E-mail:
achatterji [at] ciis[dot]edu;
Angana [at] aol[dot]com
Address
in the United States: Anthropology Department, 1453 Mission Street, San
Francisco, California - 94103, United States
Phone in the United States:
001-415-575-6119
Phone when in India: 9937770819
Note:
I am a Citizen of India, born and raised in Calcutta/Kolkata, and a
Permanent Resident of the United States. I travel to India regularly
and remain committed to making myself available should you require any
clarifications from me.
Note
2:
I am submitting this sworn statement by fax through Advocate XXXX on 31
May 2008. The original will arrive by courier the following week, and I
request the Commission to kindly accept the same on arrival.
________________
To:
The Commission of Inquiry of Honourable Justice Panigrahi
From: Dr. Angana
Chatterji
Re. Kandhamal, Orissa
30 May 2008
To whom it may concern
I am
writing to
submit the enclosed sworn statement of fact/affidavit on the violence
in Kandhamal district in Orissa that ensued in December 2007. This
affidavit has been notarized by a Public Notary.
My statement is based on
extensive research on the communalisation of
Orissa conducted by me between June 2002-June 2008. I have undertaken
over 15 trips to the state since June 2002, including in 66 villages,
11 towns, and 4 cities across 17 districts. I travelled to Kandhamal
district in January 2005, after the incidents in Raikia. I travelled to
Kandhamal district and visited certain towns and villages again in
January 2008, following the violence of December 2007.
In 2005-2006, I co-convened
with Advocate Mihir Desai the Indian
People's Tribunal on Communalism in Orissa organised by the Indian
People's Tribunal on Environment and Human Rights (IPT). The Tribunal
was led by Justice K. K. Usha, Retired Chief Justice of Kerala. The
Tribunal was constituted in response to concerns voiced by citizens
over the growth of communalism and increased aggression throughout
Orissa particularly since the Gujarat 2002 genocide. The Tribunal was
targeted by Hindutva, Hindu extremist, activists and women members of
the Tribunal threatened, in June 2005.
The findings of the report
strongly warned about the formidable extent
of mobilisation by the majoritarian communalist group of organisations
in Orissa, including in Kandhamal district, and documented their
adverse impact of society, economy, culture, and polity in the state.
According to the report, the Sangh Parivar group of Hindutva, Hindu
supremacist, organisations has a visible presence
in twenty-five of thirty districts in Orissa. The Tribunal's report had
submitted detailed recommendations for action, which did not invoke any
reflection or determination on part of the Government of Orissa or the
Central Government.
The State Government of Orissa
has been incapable of dealing with, or
responding appropriately to, these issues and the serious concerns they
pose to democratic governance in the state, and of ensuring the
security and sanctity of peoples and groups made vulnerable through
majoritarian communalism as perpetrated by Hindu nationalist
organisations in the state. These matters and circumstances that led to
the Kandhamal violence of December 2007 in Orissa continue to pose a
threat to the sanctity and security of human rights in the state,
particularly of religious and ethnic minorities, disenfranchised
Adivasi and caste groups, and other vulnerable groups such as women and
secular organisations, and active individuals across the state. Failure
to take preventative action jeopardises rule of law, the right to life
and livelihood, freedom of speech, freedom of movement, freedom of
assembly, freedom of inquiry, and the right to information in Orissa.
NOTE: While working in Orissa,
I have, at times, been portrayed by
Hindutva activists and its leaders as a 'foreigner' and a 'missionary',
who have also campaigned against my travels in Orissa publicly and to
the police and intelligence agencies. I would like to clarify, again,
for the record, that I am a citizen of India and a resident of the
United States, who is an associate professor of anthropology and
teaches in an accredited institution of higher learning. It is ironic
that while non-resident Indians are being encouraged to participate in
the well-being of the Indian nation, I am being targeted for doing so.
I travel to India regularly, at least twice each year, to continue my
research work and visit family and friends. My work has been focused on
the human rights of Dalits, Adivasis, women, as well as other
disenfranchised and minority groups across religion, caste and class,
inclusive of numerous people who self-define in various ways as Hindu.
I would also like to clarify that I am a secular person of Hindu
descent and that my taking a position opposing Hindutva and Hindu
nationalism is in no way in opposition to Hindus or Hinduism.
Kandhamal
Riots, December 2007
December
25,
2007: Seven churches, Catholic, Protestant, Pentecostal, independent...
were torched in Barakhama village, in west Kandhamal/Phulbani district,
central Orissa. December 23: Hindutva-affiliated Adivasi organisations
organised a march, reportedly supported by Hindu communalist groups,
rallying: 'Stop Christianity. Kill Christians'. It is stated that the
Kui Samaj, a Sangh-affiliated Adivasi organisation that works in the
district, was prompted by Hindutva activists into calling for a
Kandhamal bandh
(strike) on December 25 and 26, demanding that Dalit Christians be
denied scheduled caste status. A Dalit Christian leader from Barakhama
testified: "On December 22, hearing of plans to create trouble during
Christmas, we went to the local police and informed them of the
situation. They assured us that things would be under control. On
December 24, in the daytime, we heard voices of Bajrang Dal, VHP
(Vishwa Hindu Parishad) , RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh), Shiv Sena
people, chanting: 'Hindu, Hindu, Bhai,
Bhai', 'RSS Zindabad',
'Lakshmanananda Zindabad'.
Hindutva activists shut down shops. That night they felled trees to
block roads along National Highway 217, across hill terrain, severed
power and phone lines. On the 25th, we went to the inspector in-charge
of police again. On the 25th, at 2.30, about 200 of us sat down to
Christmas prayer at our church and around 4 p.m. we heard the mob
approach." "Before the mob came we heard the sound of people
approaching. The sound of hatred. Our lives, our faith, our existence
is under attack and neither the neighbours, the police nor the state
care." - Dalit Christian woman in Kandhamal.
The mob, about 3,000-4,000
persons, many bearing symbolic tilaks
(mark on forehead), reportedly belonged to various Sangh Parivar groups
named above, incited local Hindus into rioting. Estimates state 20 per
cent of the mob comprised of people from Barakhama, 80 per cent from
surrounding Balliguda, Raikia, Phulbani, as far away as Behrampur. In
Barakhama, Christian homes were selected for destruction by the mob,
Hindu homes spared. A Dalit Christian woman testified: "They broke the
door to our church. We ran. We fell and kept running." Women and men
were intimidated and assaulted. Cries of 'Jai
Bajrangbali' rent the air. 'Christians
must become Hindu or Die. Kill Them. Kill Them. Kill Them. Gita not
Bible. Destroy their Faith.'
The crowd carried rods,
trishuls
(tridents), swords, kerosene, and crude bombs. They used guns, a first
in Orissa, weapons available in the market and makeshift local
fabrications. Predominantly middle class caste Hindus participated in
looting, destroying and torching property. They threw bombs to start
the fire. The breakage was systematic, thorough. Women and men hid for
days in forests in winter temperatures, later seeking shelter in the
Balliguda town relief camp, returning to decimated Barakhama on January
2. Engulfed in soot and sorrow, people attempted to function amid
charred remnants. A woman said: "Everything burns down and we are left
with nothing. How little our lives are made (of). How alone we are, so
far away from everything."
In Balliguda, in one church,
furniture was dragged out, lit into a
grotesque sculpture. The private violated in public, made spectacle. A
Catholic church burnt, opposite the street the fire station witnessed
the incident but did not intervene. A cow, dragged from a shed, set
afire, was beaten to death, identified as 'Christian'.
Earlier, on December 23, Hindu
activists organised a conversion ceremony for Pastor Digal from Kutikia
gram panchayat
and 12 members of the Christian community. Pastor Digal was beaten,
forcibly tonsured and then paraded naked as he refused to reject
Christianity. As well, Lakshmanananda Saraswati, the influential
octogenarian Hindu proselytiser, determined to hold a
yagna
(Vedic rite) on Christmas day in Brahmanigaon where the Dalit Pana
Christian-based Ambedkar Banika Sangh had constructed a platform for
Christmas festivities.
On the morning of December 24,
at approximately 11 a.m., activists from
various Hindutva groups, including Bajrang Dal, VHP, RSS, Vanavasi
Kalyan Ashram, reportedly organised vandalism of Christmas symbols
erected on the occasion of Christmas and unleashed turmoil in
Brahmanigaon/ Bamunigaon village in central Kandhamal. Some among the
3,000-person mob of Hindutva activists were armed with guns.
Reportedly, shots were fired on Christians, wounding two young boys,
Sillu (12) and Avinash Nayak (15). The Church of Our Lady of Lourdes
was decimated, portions of the property were set afire, and the
presbytery looted. Testimonials state that, unarmed police, present
near the spot, failed to act. The attack of the Church of Our Lady of
Lourdes led to Dalit Christians, largely from the Pana community,
seeking refuge in the nearby forests for three days.
After
these events, sources state, on December 24, the car in which
Lakshmanananda Saraswati was travelling to the site of the incident to
organise a yagna
to rouse Hindu sentiments against Christmas, was stopped by Christians.
The vehicle and driver were knocked around. Reportedly, Lakshmanananda
Saraswati claimed to the press that he had been injured while
eyewitness accounts and doctors' statements contradict this and his own
activities point to the contrary.
“You are just burning tyres. How many Sai houses and churches have you
burnt? Without kranti (revolution) there can be no shanti (peace).
Narendra Modi has done kranti in Gujarat, the reason why shanti [i]s
there.”
Reportedly, this statement was made by Lakshmanananda Saraswati, in
inciting his followers, using a mobile phone on 25 December 2007, from
a medical centre in Daringbadi in Kandhamal district, with police and
journalists present.
Reportedly, following
Lakshmanananda Saraswati's allegations, Hindutva
groups called for a 36-hour strike on the evening of December 24. Then
followed the violence across Kandhamal, stretching over a three-day
period in which Christian communities were attacked by Hindutva groups
and their cadre.
It has been stated by members
of the Hindu community that Christian
display of religiosity, and the economic privilege that allowed for
such exhibition, led to the rioting. It has been a focus in the press
that Christians in one area in Brahmanigaon responded with violence. It
must be noted that Christians in one area did respond with some,
not
proportionate, violence. In the absence of state action in curbing
Hindutva's aggression, this might have aided the Christian community in
checking Hindutva's violence. It must be noted that Christian
retaliation in Brahmanigaon did not endanger bodies but focused on
destroying property even while Hindutva's violence explicitly sought to
endanger Christian bodies.
Minority failure to submit to
state and majoritarian (by the majority
community) subjection is evidenced as a manifestation of 'evil'.
Dominant rationale reduces this to majority
vs
minority communalism. This position appeals to liberal notions of
'balance' and fails to scrutinise state violence (often greater than,
and inciting of, group violence). Rather than focus on systematic
targeting of Christians, their overwhelmingly peaceful submission to
Hindutva's violence and vast structural injustices and differences in
relations of power between majority and minority, the scrutiny appears
to be focused on the failure of all
Christian groups to simply submit to dominance.
Impunity
'Bharatmata
ki Jai (Hail to Mother India)' -
Slogans of Hindu nationalist and militant organisations.
Targeted: Balliguda,
Brahmanigaon, Barakhama, Bodagan, Chakapad,
Daringbari, Goborkutty, Jhinjirguda, Kalingia, Kamapada, Kulpakia,
Mandipanka, Nuagaon, Phulbani, Pobingia, Sindrigaon, Ulipadaro and
various village. Convents and presbytery in Balliguda, Pobingia,
Phulbani, Brahmanigaon. Two hostels each in Balliguda, Brahmanigaon,
Pobingia. Minor seminary and a vocational training centre in Balliguda.
Organisational offices, as that of World Vision, destroyed. Across
Kandhamal, approximately 632 (some place the number at 700) Christian
homes, 80-95 churches, mostly in villages, and 94-96 institutions were
destroyed, vandalised and torched. Homes and institutions were robbed,
cash, jewellery, implements, machinery and other valuables looted. A
Hindutva mob surrounded Tikabali police station, two jeeps were torched.
It is important to note that
Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik's
celebration of his party's 10th anniversary coincided with the riots.
The celebration had required that large numbers of the state's police
forces be moved out of districts to the state capital, Bhubaneswar.
This perhaps made it difficult for the police to respond to the
emergent situation in Kandhamal on December 24-25. Certain bureaucrats
allege that the Orissa government initially directed forces against
intervening.
In the week following the
attacks, hundreds of people were missing.
Some remained lost to their families three weeks after the event. Large
numbers sought refuge in the nearby forests, including children, women,
the elderly, persons with disabilities, including mental illnesses.
Some sustained burn and other injuries. Women were molested. Death
counts remained inaccurate, the unofficial number of deaths noted at
11, four died under police fire. The pertinent district collector and
superintendent of police were transferred, not discharged. Following
the violence, the administration neither documented the devastation nor
participated in its expeditious clean up. Reportedly, the police
refused Christians seeking to file First Information Reports (FIRs)
while Hindutva activists filed charges against members of the Christian
community. As well, Christians attempting to file FIRs are confronted
with Hindu religious symbols ever present in (hostile) public places.
Hindutva activists charge that
the riots are a part of ethnic violence
is contradicted by the timing of the violence. Certain members of Sangh
Parivar organisations, especially the Bajrang Dal, reportedly claimed
in private that some Hindutva activists had come from Gujarat to offer
support in Kandhamal. Hindu communalists reportedly charged that they
would resume their attack against the Christian community once the
Central Reserve Police Force withdraws, to 'teach them a lesson'.
Initially, in response to
queries, the Orissa state government had
reportedly claimed that as many as 4,000 trees may have been felled to
allow for the blockade of roads and breakdown in communications.
According to the forest department, it appeared that as few as 351
trees may have been felled. This indicated negligence on part of the
state's ability to respond and points to the frailties in communication
and infrastructure networks. It is evident that the government did not
undertake the necessary steps to provide adequate security to the
Christian community in Kandhamal.
Immediately following the
event, relief, compensation, reparation
measures, were incommensurate with the extent of social, psychological
and economic losses and segregation experienced by communities. The
Balliguda relief camp was skeletal, its distribution discriminated
against women, and there was a considerable presence of Hindutva
activists during the disbursement of relief, which further contributed
to the insecurity experienced by Christian community members. As people
returned to rows upon rows of uninhabitable homes, the administration
offered people one blanket and a shawl, some clothes, rations. Despite
continuing tensions, police presence abated within a week of the riots.
Confidence-building steps were absent. Individual relief measures were
halted by the state government by the order of the Collector and
District Magistrate of Phulbani of 11 January 2008 and by the order of
the Orissa High Court of 28 January 2008 in Writ Petition (C) NO. 1257
of 2008, stating that such action escalates tensions in the area.
Church leaders organised to provide relief, which has been targeted as
an act of missionising. The police were reticent to act with regard to
Hindutva activists who mobilised Hindu contingents in and around relief
camps, or take action regarding sectarian relief organised in the
'Hindu Relief Camp' in Karadavadi village in adjacent Ganjam district.
State-organised relief and rehabilitation measures have discriminated
against the Christian community and not met local needs. In response to
a Special Leave Petition (C) NO. 7796 of 2008 that came up for hearing
on 7 April 2008, the Supreme Court stayed the orders of 11 and 28
January 2008.
The state government failed to
provide adequate short-term supplies to
the families whose homes have been destroyed. Compensation must match
the values of demolished homes and enable people to rebuild and restock
their dwellings. Surveys to determine losses must be undertaken
collaboratively with local people, rather than ethnocentric treatment
of them as a hindrance to the process, as 'thieves' intent on profiting
from the situation.
Judicial
Inquiry Commission
While
this
Judicial Inquiry Commission (JIC) chaired by a honourable former judge
has been appointed by the Government of Orissa to investigate the
riots, its power/legitimacy is in question, and it is of the gravest
concern that its mandate is not binding on the government. The central
government did not appoint an inquiry by the Central Bureau of
Investigation (CBI), even as it is apparent that the very
administration that failed to contain the riots and delayed deploying
adequate forces, and whose officials at the district level may have
been involved in its execution, cannot administer justice.
Note: It is reportedly known
that Hindutva activists have lobbied the
JIC to organise its terms of reference premised on the claim that an
attack on Lakshmanananda Saraswati by Christians in Brahmanigaon
propelled the riots which they allege to have been spontaneous. This
timeline, as explained above and in various other accounts of the
events, is falsified, and must be addressed by this Commission.
Hindutvaisation
of Kandhamal leading to the Riots of 2007
The
Kandhamal
riots were not unexpected. The extent of the violence and coordination
of attacks across mountainous terrain lead independent investigators to
conclude that the violence was planned, that the police had prior
knowledge of Hindutva groups' intent to riot. That these riots were
premeditated have been confirmed by the report of the Minorities
Commission in mid-January 2008. The progressive Hindutvaisation of
Hindus in Kandhamal has enabled Hindu communalist to act with impunity.
Reportedly, Lakshmanananda Saraswati has been overseeing Hinduisation
there since 1969. Adivasis, Dalits, Christians, Muslims have been
targeted through social and economic boycotts, forced conversions to
Hinduism (posed as 're'conversion which presupposes that Adivasis and
Dalits were 'originally' Hindus even while they may/do not
self-identify as Hindus) and other violences. The Orissa Prevention of
Cow Slaughter Act, 1960 has been deployed against Muslims; the Orissa
Freedom of Religion Act, 1967, against Christians.
Kandhamal district witnessed
Hindutva's violence in 1986, followed by
the Sangh Parivar's growth in the area. An Adivasi Sangh leader from
Phulbani, a close associate of Lakshmanananda Saraswati and a Vanavasi
Kalyan Ashram teacher as well as a self-proclaimed expert at
lathi
(stick)-wielding, echoed the sentiments of colleagues from the Nikhil
Utkal Kui Samaj, reportedly a Sangh-affiliated Adivasi organisation
that works in the district: "We are promoting Hindu rituals amongst
Vanavasis
('forest dwellers', derogatory naming of Adivasis) who are all Hindus.
Lakshmanananda Saraswati has been a restraining force on the Christians
who were doing the conversion work."
Hindutva's discourse
concerning the riots is noteworthy. Hindutva
activists have reportedly charged that Christian conversions in the
area and the interventions of Maoist and Naxalite groups led to a
spontaneous outburst from Hindus in December 2007, culminating in the
Kandhamal riots. It is important to clarify that Maoist groups are
largely not operational in the areas where the violence took place,
even as Hindu communalist groups have witnessed an upsurge in recent
years in those exact areas. The shooting that injured Sillu and Avinash
Nayak was reportedly stated by Hindutva activists and the police to
have been undertaken by Maoist and Naxalite cadre. Eyewitness accounts,
however, have detailed in testimonies that the mob was led by those
understood to be local RSS leaders, such as Bikram Raut, Dhanu
Pradhani, and others. Hindutva activists have also reportedly charged
that the riots were fomented by the Kui Adivasi community as a
'natural' uprising against Pana Christians of Dalit background. They
have asserted that the violence was engineered by Kondh (Kondha,
Kandha) Adivasi community members in the Raikia region, by Kui members
in Barakhama and Pobingia, and by Maoists and Naxalites in Daringbadi
and Brahmanigaon area. Hindutva groups and activists used the December
2007 riots in Kandhamal to amalgamate tensions between dominant and
casted Hindus, and/through their mobilisation/Hinduisation of Khond and
Kui Adivasis, against Dalit Christians, including from the Pana
community. They have also used this violence to rumour Maoist and
Naxalite presence in the area and label it as uniformly violent.
Following the instatement of
Vanavasi Kalyan Ashrams in 1987, it is
noteworthy that since the mid-1990s, Hindutva organisations have worked
extensively among Kondh and Kui Adivasi groups, seeking to assimilate
and Hinduise them, and create economic and political hostilities
between them and the Pana Dalit community, especially within its
Christian segment. The strategy deployed by Hindutva groups and
activists has been crucial to dividing disenfranchised and subaltern
Adivasi and Dalit groups in the region through the process of
religionisation and assimilation of Adivasis into Hindutva. It is
important to note that, per eyewitness accounts, members of the Kondh
Adivasi community were deployed by Hindutva activists in the felling of
trees across National Highway 217. Hindutva groups have also mobilised
Adivasis, especially Kondh and Kui (the latter were named a scheduled
tribe by a presidential order of 2002), which has been reportedly
supported by Lakshmanananda Saraswati, against Pana demand for
scheduled tribe status. Pana Dalit demand for status must be assessed
taking into account a context where the state has systematically denied
the rights of disenfranchised groups, as for example, the rights to
reservation/affirmative action of Dalits that convert to Christianity
or Islam. In September 2007, the Kui Samaj reportedly stated that
granting 'scheduled tribe' certificates to Panas could cause serious
communal tension in the region. The Kui Samaj also reportedly demanded
the resignation of Padmanav Behera, of the Pana Christian community,
Minister of Steel and Mines, Government of Orissa.
Through the Kandhamal riots of
2007, Hindutva's discourse named
Christians as 'conversion terrorists'. In September 1999, Catholic
priest Arul Das was murdered in Jamabani village in Mayurbhanj,
followed by the destruction of churches in Kandhamal. In August 2004,
Our Lady of Charity Catholic Church was vandalised in Raikia and eight
Christian homes burnt. Then too, as this Christian leader stated: "They
broke everything in the church, the idols, and burnt the holy book.
They burnt some of our houses. The parish priest saw all this
helplessly. The people who entered the church were traders and other
RSS activists but many were outsiders, maybe from Kattingia, where
there is an RSS stronghold. The police were there but did not do
anything." The Raikia incident led to the economic and social
ghettoisation of the Christian community since 2004.
Raikia is proximate to G.
Udaigiri town where Sangh Parivar
mobilisations significantly increased between 2000 and 2004. In May
2007, Pastor Pabitra Kumar Kota was beaten. In October 2005, converting
200 Bonda Adivasi Christians to Hinduism in Malkangiri, Lakshmanananda
Saraswati reportedly stated: "How will we… make India a completely
Hindu country? This is our aim and this is what we want to do. The
feeling of Hindutva should come within the hearts and minds of all the
people."
In April 2006, celebrating RSS
architect Madhav Sadashiv Golwalkar's
centenary, the Sangh organised the Asthamatruk Rath Yatra, aimed at
converting Christians to Hinduism. Lakshmanananda Saraswati, with VHP
and RSS leaders in attendance, was triumphant, as eight chariots, named
after female deities, travelled through Orissa carrying sanctified
water and soil from a multitude of villages, calling on Orissans to
assemble 'Akhand Hindu Rashtra'. Presided by Lakshmanananda Saraswati,
seven yagnas
were held, culminating at Chakapad in Kandhamal district, at the
Sammelan attended by 30,000 Adivasis from across the state. Hinduised
Adivasis are required to work with both Sangh Parivar groups and ruling
political parties. On April 9, 342 Christians, and on April 10, nine
Christians from over 74 families were converted to Hinduism. In
September 2007, the VHP organised a road and rail blockade in Orissa,
against the supposed destruction of the mythic 'Ram Setu' (bridge). In
conjunction with the blockade, Lakshmanananda Saraswati as well
reportedly conducted a Ram Dhanu Rath Yatra to mobilise Adivasis for
the Ram Setu. Hindutva activists, Praveen Togadia and Subash Chouhan,
returned to Orissa, reportedly rousing sentiments for Hindutva's
political and spiritual victory. Between July and December 2007, Hindu
communalist-organised rallies travelled across Kandhamal, raising
sentiments against Christians in the district.
Numbers and rates of
conversions to Christianity are inflated by the
Hindu Right and circulate in retaliatory capacity even within
progressive communities who fixate on such conversions as contributing
to the communalisation of society. Christian conversions are storied as
debilitating to the majority status of Hindus in Orissa while Muslims
are seen as 'infiltrating' from Bangladesh, looting livelihood
opportunities from residents and dislocating the 'Oriya (and Indian)
nation'. Hindu nationalists place Christians and Muslims in the liminal
in-between, as concurrently internal and external to the nation/as
enemy. Non-Hinduised Adivasis and Dalits are perceived as 'unruly'.
Hindutva leaders rumour:
'Phulbani-Kandhamal is a most important
Christian area in Orissa with rampant and forced conversions'. However,
the Christian population in Kandhamal district is 1,17,950 while Hindus
number 5,27,757. Sangh leaders claim: 'By the VHP data there are 927
churches in Phulbani district built on illegally taken land'. Church
leaders respond that there are 521 churches in the district, on legally
acquired church property, and estimate as few as 200-300 consensual
conversions and baptism ceremonies annually in Phulbani town with a
faintly elevated figure in rural Kandhamal (per the All India Christian
Council, AICC, statement of 2005). Between 2005-2007, the number of
churches was placed between 521-1,100 -- in citing this figure it is
important to note that in Adivasi and Dalit Christian villages across
most rural areas in Orissa, modest ceremonial spaces or hut-like
structures and small buildings often operate as churches serving a
congregation of 10-12 families, and that various and unassuming places
of worship are located in village homes. Many of these churches are
administered by the Church of North India, which was inaugurated in
Nagpur in 1970 and is registered as a society under the Societies Act
XXI of 1860. While few members of certain Christian sects, such as some
Pentecostals, may preach in public places, most, such as Catholics, do
not. Conversions to Christianity do not occur with the intent to
destabilise the Hindu or other communities, and the content and
programme of church-based education does not foster communal hatred or
divisiveness in thought or deed.
Hindutva activists' claims are
unsubstantiated - that Christian
missionaries (who are mostly of Indian descent) and Muslim traders have
caused the destruction of tribal culture and undertaken the illegal
acquisition and encroachment of tribal lands since the early 1980s.
While the delegitimisation of Adivasi rights to lands and their
displacement from customary and communitarian property are serious and
righteous grievances, Christian missionaries and Muslim traders are not
the primary reason for the land grab and the paucity of land reforms in
Orissa. Such rumouring is acceptable to the dominant caste groups, even
as general caste land grab is the primary reason for the
disenfranchisement-displacement of Adivasis from traditional rights to
land. In 1998 there was an agitation for land reforms that did not
translate into practical implementation.
The situation is compounded by
a decline in the actual number of
available employment and income generating opportunities in the area.
Kandhamal remains socio-economically vulnerable, with a large
percentage of the population living below the poverty line. In
addition, 60 per cent of state-operated schools are without teachers
while schools operated by Christian organisations are usually available
in townships. In a context of disenfranchisement and poverty, and the
need to work and the unfeasibility of acquiring employment after basic
schooling, the rate of student attrition within Adivasi communities,
for example, in G. Udaigiri, is very high at the school level, with
only three per cent continuing through completion.
The Christian community too is
economically disenfranchised in
Kandhamal. A majority of the Christian population, local Christian
leaders state, is landless or marginal landholders, with an average
holding of half an acre per family. Christian leaders said that the
church does not convert under duress or offer money in lieu of
conversions. In the 1960s and 70s, when there was a thrust in
conversions, Adivasis benefited through accessing health care,
education and employment offered by Christian missionaries.
The politicisation of Adivasis
and Dalits leads them to claim that
Hinduism is distant to them, 'outside' to them. This is dangerous to
the Sangh Parivar's ideology which uses the notion of 'Adivasis as
Hindus' to connect Hinduism across time in the space named India and
'Dalits as Hindus' to maintain its numeric dominance. Politicised
Adivasis and Dalits are named 'terrorist', 'Maoist', 'militant'.
Hindutva rumours that Dalits are exploiting Adivasis and that land is a
major contention between them. Dalits are posed as 'dangerous', as the
claiming of the identity of 'Dalit' is a politicisation debilitating to
the Sangh Parivar. (Dalit: Marathi for oppressed or 'broken', from the
root 'dal',
which denotes dispersion, symbolic and literal, of those that
mistreatment has violated. Term used by Dalit peoples and groups for
self-identification in politicised contexts.)
Hindutva rumours that Dalits
have acquired economic benefits, augmented
by their Christianisation. This is not borne out in reality, as Dalits
remain landless - in Kandhamal, approximately 90 per cent of Dalits are
landless. Hindutva rumours that the 'success' of the Dalit community is
causing economic rift in the area and the success of Christian Dalits
is causing communalisation. In reality, it is the Hindu casted business
community that maintains economic privilege/dominance in the area.
Their economic power is however justified in the interest of
maintaining and growing the ('shining' Hindu/Indian) nation.
In Hinduising Adivasis and
polarising relations between them and Dalits
in the area, the Sangh Parivar has reportedly engineered rivalries
between Kondh Adivasis and Pana Dalit Christians in Kandhamal,
instigating against the latter's campaign for scheduled tribe status.
Dalit Christians, under current law, forfeit their right to affirmative
action. In current law, Paragraph 3 of the Constitution (Scheduled
Castes) Order, 1950 held caste and religion to be mutually exclusive:
'no person who professes a religion different from the Hindu [later
amended to include the Sikh or the Buddhist] religion shall be deemed
to be a member of a Scheduled Caste'.
Functioning against the right
to freedom of religion and failing to
take into account that the subjugation of Dalits is a historical,
political, and economic issue, and not a religious one, per these
provisions, Dalits who convert to Christianity or Islam, Jainism and
Zoroastrianism, and other faiths, are divested of scheduled caste
status and affirmative action afforded by the state via the
'reservation' system for scheduled castes and tribes, and refused
benefits granted those that identify as Hindu Dalits. This, Christian
leaders contend, impacts the ability of Dalit Christians to secure
resources routinely controlled by those from upper caste backgrounds.
Dalit converts to Hinduism are not denied such rights.
Discriminated against on the
basis of religion, marginalised peoples
that discard or function outside Hinduism are barred from equal access
to affirmative action that their ethno-cultural and class status
allocates. This rejection disregards that benefits reserved for
scheduled castes and tribes are premised on feudal, colonial and
post-colonial structural mistreatment of such peoples, not religion
alone. Religion functions in a Hindu dominant nation as race did under
colonial rule, informing hierarchies that define purity and impurity,
belonging and un-belonging, 'norm' and 'other'.
State institutions are in
internal disagreement over the issue of
affirmative action for religious minorities. Responding to a writ
petition (No. 180 of 2004) filed by the AICC via the Centre for Public
Interest Litigation, the Supreme Court of India asked the Government of
India for arguments and guidelines on broadening the assistance of
'reservation' to scheduled castes that convert to Christianity. Muslim
organisations too have campaigned for the inclusion of Muslim Dalits in
diverse forms of affirmative action. The government deferred the issue
to the Ranganath Mishra National Commission for Linguistic and
Religious Minorities, even while the Commission's jurisdiction was
advisory and did not extend to decision making on such matters. In May
2007, the Mishra Commission's report recommendations advocated that the
benefits of 'reservation' be extended to Dalit converts to Christianity
and Islam and that religion be dissociated from scheduled caste status
in implementing affirmative action. On July 19, 2007 the Supreme Court
referred the matter back to the central (Congress) government for its
decision, which remains pending. In October 2007, the National
Commission for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes advocated
'reservation' for Dalits that convert to Christianity and Islam, even
as the Central Government has persisted in its refusal to act, and the
matter is yet to be tabled in the parliament.
A
History of Sangh Parivar's Violence in Orissa
In the
last
decade, various incidents have occurred in the State of Orissa
instigated by Hindu nationalists that communalize society and create
communal violence. Actions against minority groups have included social
and economic boycotts, vandalism, torching of private and public
properties, physical and emotional threats and abuse, and gendered and
sexualized violence, including torture, rape, and murder. It has also
included the use of certain laws that function against minority rights,
such as the Orissa Prevention of Cow Slaughter Act, 1960 (in particular
against Muslims and poor Dalits)
and the Orissa Freedom of Religion Act, 1967 (in particular against
Christians). In January 1999, Australian missionary Graham Staines and
his two sons, Philip and Timothy, were murdered in Keonjhar district.
In February 1999, Jacqueline Mary, a Catholic nun, was gang raped by
men in Mayurbhanj district. In September 1999, Arul Das, Catholic
priest, was murdered in Mayurbhanj district. In August 1999, Shiekh
Rehman, a male Muslim clothes merchant, was mutilated and burnt to
death in public demonstration at the Padiabeda weekly market in
Mayurbhanj district, and various social and economic boycotts placed
against the Muslim community. On 16 March 2002, the Orissa State
Assembly was attacked days after the horrific targeting of minorities
in Gujarat, as a few hundred Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Bajrang Dal
activists burst into the Orissa Assembly and ransacked the complex,
demanding the construction of the temple in Ayodhya and objecting to
alleged remarks made against the two organisations by House Members. In
February 2004, in Jagatsinghpur District, seven Christian women and a
male pastor were forcibly tonsured and a social boycott is in place
against them even to this day. In August 2004, a church in Phulbani
District was attacked. Poor Muslims who trade in cows, leather and meat
are intimidated and threatened on a regular basis in the state.
Thousands upon thousands of Adivasis and Dalits have been forcibly
converted to Hinduism -- in 2007, that mandate of Hindutva activists
was to convert 10,000 Christians to Hinduism. Dalits in Orissa are
being mobilised to serve the Hindu Rashtra (state). Violence against
women continues. Hindu nationalist organisations are reportedly
mobilising one of the largest volunteer bases in Orissa, creating, and
infiltrating into, political, governmental, developmental, educational
and charitable institutions.
Hindutva mythologizes the
demise of Hinduism in 'Hindustan',
legitimating violence as just response, patriotic and pro-national.
Majoritarianism (assertions by the majority, here Hindu, community
toward acquiring and maintaining social, economic, cultural, political,
religious, legal and state-nationalistic power, where majoritarian
aspirations are linked to 'truth' and 'freedom') operates with an
explicit mandate to maintain dominance and Hinduise non-Hindus and
other marginal and secular groups, including Christians, Muslims,
Adivasis and Dalits, with the goal of creating a Hindu state in India.
The record of majoritarian group violence against disenfranchised
sections of society in India poses a threat to internal peace and
security. These communal groups and their affiliates and cadre often
operate outside the purview of the law.
The Sangh Parivar titles
itself as an adjunct and/or adversary to the
state that offsets governmental failure by dispensing 'morality' and
'progress' to citizens. The Sangh's governance in Orissa parallels that
of the state and collaborates with it. In the last decade, violence
against minority groups in Orissa has reportedly included social and
economic boycotts, forced conversions, intimidation, murder, arson,
rape, looting and other extralegal actions. Hindu communalists use
local militarism (as in Kandhamal) as consort to state controlled
militarisation (as in Kashipur, where in December 2000, three Adivasis
were killed in police firing, and Kalinga Nagar, where in January 2006,
12 Adivasis and a policeman were killed in police firing).
The absence of structural
reforms and assertion of Hindu elites has
defined post-colonial governance since 1947 in Orissa. Hindu
communalist groups have reportedly proliferated into 10,000-14,000
impacted villages through sectarian relief work in the aftermath of the
1999 cyclone that left 10,000 dead. Hindu cultural dominance organises
Hindu nationalism. Orissa amalgamated as a majoritarian/Hindu state
between 1866 and 1936, consolidating its position as the earliest
linguistic province. In 1965-1966, the RSS announced the
Go Raksha Andolan
(Cow Protection Movement) across India. In 1967, the VHP began
operating in Orissa, with Raghunath Sethi, a Dalit RSS pracharak, as
its secretary, and the Akhil Bharatiya Vidhyarthi Parishad (ABVP, an
RSS-inspired student body) started its Orissa chapter. Between 1967-69,
they entrusted Lakhan (later Swami Lakshmanananda Saraswati), a male
Hindu proselytizer, with the task of regularizing the mandate of the
Orissa Prevention of Cow Slaughter Act of 1960. Lakshmanananda
Saraswati's association with the area began as early as 1965. The Sangh
Parivar extended its reach to Adivasi localities in the state, via the
VHP, appointing Lakshmanananda Saraswati, in 1969, and Raghunath Sethi
to oversee the Hinduisation and Sanskritisation of Phulbani/Kandhamal
district. Drawing upon such mobilizations in Phulbani and other places,
Golwalkar convened a full-scale RSS training camp in Orissa in 1967, to
provide cadre with in-state training. In 1970, the Sangh acclaimed
Orissa, naming it an 'advanced prant'.
The Sangh Parivar reportedly
seeks to build a cadre comprised of
Hindus, men and women, and targets Christians, Muslims, Adivasis and
Dalits and other disenfranchised and progressive and secular groups in
Orissa. Orissa has a population of 36.8 million (Census 2001). Of this,
7,61,985 - 2.1 per cent - are Muslims. Orissa Christians number
8,97,861 - just 2.4 per cent of the state's population per the census
of 2001 (in 1991, it was 2.1 per cent and in 1981, 1.7 per cent). There
are 6.08 million Dalits in Orissa, 16.5 per cent of the population.
Adivasis are 8.14 million in number, 22.1 per cent of the population,
the largest among all states in India.
The Sangh has reportedly
amassed between 35 and 40 major organisations
with numerous branches (including paramilitary hate camps) in 25
districts in Orissa, with a massive base of a few million operating at
every level of society, ranging from, and connecting, villages to
cities, and Orissa to the 'Hindu nation'. Conscription into Hindu
activism is coordinated through political reform, propaganda/thought
control, cultural and religious interventions, developmental/social
service and charitable work, sectarian health care, unionisation and
revisionist education. Hindu communalists have reportedly inaugurated
various trusts and branches of national and international institutions
in Orissa to aid fund-raising, including, reportedly, the Friends of
Tribal Society, Samarpan Charitable Trust, Sookruti, Yasodha Sadan and
Odisha International Centre.
Reports cite that the RSS
operates 6,000 shakhas
in Orissa with a 1,50,000+ cadre. RSS graduates take an oath affirming
allegiance to the RSS as national duty: 'I will devote my body, mind
and money (tana,
mana, bhana)
to the motherland.' Hindu communalists also hire paid operatives to
undertake mob activity. Led by the RSS, Vidya Bharati (known as Shiksha
Vikas Samiti in Orissa) directs 391 Saraswati Shishu Mandir schools in
Orissa, including in Balangir, Kalahandi, Koraput, Malkangiri,
Nabarangpur, Nuapada, Kandhamal and Rayagada districts, with 1,11,000
students preparing for future leadership.
Training camps in Bhadrak and
Behrampur reportedly aim at Adivasi
youth. Vanavasi Kalyan Ashram runs 1,534 projects and schools in 21
Adivasi concentrated districts. The Sangh has initiated 1,200 Ekal
Vidyalayas in 10 districts in Orissa to target Adivasis. In March 2000,
the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-Biju Janata Dal
(BJD) coalition came to power. In October 2002, a Shiv Sena unit in
Balasore district reportedly formed the first Hindu 'suicide squad'.
The Hindu Suraksha Samiti organises against Muslims. Revolting slogans,
'Mussalman ka ek hi sthan, Pakistan ya
Kabristan (For Muslims there is one
place, Pakistan or the grave)', perforate neighbourhoods.
The Sangh Parivar's agenda is
enabled by the staggering inequities
present in the state, where severe social and institutionalised forms
of caste, class, gender and heterosexist oppressions and caste, class,
gendered and sexualised violence are rampant. Unemployment is on the
rise in Orissa and abysmal daily wages prevail; 47.15 per cent of the
total population lives in poverty while 57 per cent of the rural
population is poor (87 per cent of the state's population lives in
villages currently and per the 2001 census, there are 51,352 villages
in Orissa). Among the Adivasi population, 68.9 per cent are poor while
54.9 per cent of Dalits live in need. Among the Muslim population, 70
per cent are poor in Cuttack, Jagatsinghpur and Puri districts, where
they are concentrated.
The female to male ratio is a
problematic 972 per 1,000 in Orissa and
the Human Rights Protection Committee and the Orissa Crime Branch
reported that in the last decade (1990-1999) the state has recorded a
460 per cent increase in dowry related deaths relative to the previous
decade.
In Orissa, about 2.5 hectares
of irrigated agricultural land is
required for a family of five to meet subsistence requirements while
the average family owns about 1.29 hectares. Women seldom hold joint or
individual title to land, which debilitates their ability to
independently secure livelihood resources. Additionally, only 21 per
cent of all land available for cultivation is irrigated. The cyclone of
1999 and the droughts of 2000 and 2003, the floods of 2001, 2003, 2005,
2006 and 2007, have presented overwhelming challenges for the
environmental and economic well-being of the state.
In Orissa, efforts at land
redistribution and reforms have been
insufficient. State and bilateral development, and irresponsible
industrialisation, anti-poor and pro-corporatisation politics and
practices and the privatisation of resources and development have
systematically deprived the poor of rights to decision making over
livelihood and survival resources, led to rampant displacement, police
brutality and even deaths, and continue to deny them customary rights
to public resources such as forests and water.
Continuing
Situation
The
Kandhamal
riots story betrayal, indifference, negligence - of nation, government,
humanity, disregard for law and order, gendered violence enacted with
impunity. The Kandhamal riots of 2007 barely registered in the nation's
memory. Muslims targeted in the Bhadrak riots of 1991 still await
justice in Orissa. 'Minorities' and other disenfranchised are regularly
and routinely denied their right to self-determination. The history and
record of state accountability in preventing and administering justice
in instances of majoritarian violence is very weak. The incapacity of
the Communal Violence (Prevention, Control and Rehabilitation of
Victims) Bill, 2005, introduced in the Parliament of India in December
2005 and approved by the union cabinet in March 2007, attests to this.
The bill, advocated by citizen motivated efforts for the prevention of
genocide and crimes against humanity, in its official formulation as
introduced by the Congress government, remained deficient in defining
procedures for state and public answerability. It failed to address
issues of negligence displayed by state authorities in preventing and
controlling communal violence, and in disbursing timely and just
compensation and psychosocial rehabilitation, as well as establishing
parameters for witness protection and for soliciting and recording
victim testimonies. It failed to chart measures to bring justice and
accountability with regard to gender and sex-based crimes in the event
of communal violence (which is not effectively addressed by the IPC or
separate legislation), and in imposing checks and balances on the state
and its police and security forces, whose inertia and majoritarianist
complicity in communal collisions have been consistent.
In Kandhamal, Hindutva
activists, groups, neighbours, the police, the
chief minister, the central government, acted with egregious impunity.
The activities reportedly propagated by Hindutva groups are of serious
concern to the health of society and prompt seditious, anti-minority
propaganda and hate actions. The BJD-BJP coalition government in Orissa
has repeatedly failed to honour the constitutional mandate to maintain
the separation of religion and state. Political parties, focused on
politicking the issue, are ill-equipped to respond to immediate and
long-term needs of people. The communal situation in the state remains
at par with an emergency. The Government of Orissa has failed to
respond to these issues and the serious concerns they pose to
democratic governance in the state.
The CBI must expeditiously
investigate the activities of the Bajrang
Dal, VHP and RSS, and apply, as appropriate, relevant provisions of the
Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967. Section 2G of the act,
'unlawful association' denotes: (1) 'that which has for its object any
unlawful activity, or which encourages or aids persons to undertake any
unlawful activity, or through which the members undertake such
activity'; or (2) 'which has for its object any activity which is
punishable under Section 153A or Section 153B of the Indian Penal Code
1860 ([Central Act] 45 of 1860) or which encourages or aids persons to
undertake any such activity; or of which the members undertake any such
activity'.
The status, actions and
finances of communal groups and their
affiliates and cadre, and the actions of their membership must be
identified and investigated. These groups must be investigated and
monitored, and, as appropriate, requisite action must be taken and
sanctions be imposed on their activities, and reparations be made
retroactively to the affected communities and individuals.
Certain organisations, such as
the VHP and Vanavasi Kalyan Ashram, have
been registered as charity organisations. As their work appears to be
political in nature, they should be audited and recognised as political
organisations. A serious concern is whether the activities of these
fall within the objectives of a trust; whether in fact these
organisations should have been registered as social trusts given the
nature of their activities; whether the monies collected are indeed
used for the purposes for which they were collected; and whether
illegal and political activities are being carried out in the name of
social work. Given these concerns, the charitable status and the rights
and privileges enjoyed by these groups must be reviewed.
The right of individuals to
undergo religious conversions is
constitutionally authorised, unless under duress. Historically,
conversions from Hinduism to Christianity or Islam have occurred for
multiple reasons, such as being a form of resistance among the elite
and as a way to escape caste oppression and social stigma for Adivasis
and Dalits. Societal or Hindu 'feelings' about conversions to
Christianity or Islam does not render these conversions inappropriate,
invalid or illegal. It is only in circumstances where conversions occur
coercively or are undertaken with the intent of mobilising a culture of
hate, as, for example, undertaken by Hindutva activists, that
conversions must be disallowed.
It must be noted that
'reconversion' (assumes all Adivasis and Dalits
to be 'originally' Hindus, contrary to their self-identification)
strategies of the Sangh Parivar appear to be shifting in Orissa. In
Kandhamal, for example, public and exhibitionist conversion ceremonies
that particularly targeted (primarily Dalit and Adivasi) Christian
community members and non-Christian Adivasis, forcing them to submit to
Hinduism, have been fewer in number in 2007 than between 2004 and 2006.
Converting politicised Adivasi and Dalit Christians to Hinduism is
proving difficult for the Sangh Parivar. The outcry against such
ceremonies from the Christian community and certain human rights groups
might have influenced a shift. The Sangh Parivar has instead increased
its emphasis on the Hinduisation of Adivasis by making them a part of
Hindu rituals and ceremonies (as during the Sammelan), which, in
effect, 'converts' Adivasis into Hinduism by assuming that they are
Hindu. Such 'conversion' tactics are diffused and no longer have to
negotiate certain legalities, which public and stated conversion
ceremonies did. On converting/'reconverting' to Hinduism, Adivasis are
expected to join Hindu caste society as Sudras, a 'higher' placement
than Dalits in the caste hierarchy, Sangh activists say.
Dalit Christians are doubly
discriminated against, as Dalits and as
Christians. Post-Hinduisation, Adivasis are being mobilised against
Christian groups. Adivasis are incited into targeting Dalit Christians,
both fomenting Adivasi-Dalit divides and vitiating the historical
solidarities between them. This is crucial to Hinduisation. It also
acts to warn non-Christian Dalits against conversion to Christianity.
The Hindutvaisation of the
Hindu community, and Hinduisation of the
secular, allows the Sangh's escalation. This process unfolded in
Brahmanigaon, for example, where the growth of the business community
has supported the rise of the Sangh Parivar. Hindutva conversions
served to terrorise the Adivasi and Dalit community, via which the
Sangh Parivar achieves its preliminary expansionist goals. While
ceremonial conversions continue sporadically, a more protracted and
dispersed strategy of Hinduisation through incorporation and
assimilation is aggressively pursued as effective methodology.
The Orissa Freedom of Religion
Act, 1967 must be repealed. Provisions
for preventing and prohibiting conversions that commence under duress
and coercion already exist under the Indian Penal Code (IPC). There is
no basis for the existence of a separate law, especially one that sets
draconian parameters and has been used by communalists to target and
prohibit voluntary conversion within minority, especially Christian,
communities. The Orissa Prevention of Cow Slaughter Act, 1960 too
should be repealed. Provisions for preventing and prohibiting cruelty
to animals already exist under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals
Act, 1960 and there is no basis for the existence of a separate law,
especially one which is utilised to intervene on the livelihood
practices of economically disenfranchised groups with detrimental
effects, such as among Adivasis, Dalits and Muslims, who engage in
cattle trade and cow slaughter.
In 2003, Subash Chouhan, then
state convenor of the Bajrang Dal, had stated: "Orissa is the second
Hindu Rajya
(to Gujarat). Whatever happens here, say politics happens, it will have
to be Hindutva politics, with Hindutva's consent." In December 2007,
Narendra Modi, Gujarat chief minister, in command over police and law
enforcement machinery and as such culpable for the participation of the
Gujarat government in the genocide of 2,000 Muslims, was re-elected. On
December 31, 2007, Prasant, upper caste RSS worker in Orissa, stated:
"Gujarat remains the guiding light for Hindutva and our conscience as
Hindus." Recent atrocities in Kandhamal confirm his assertion.
"We are waiting for the next
riot. We do not know where it will happen
but we know that Kandhamal was a warning, not the end." - Christian
labour organiser, January 2008.
_______________________________
List of documents:
I have consulted over 50
documents as well as statements, both public
and testimonials offered to me, on the Kandhamal 2007 matter in writing
the above, including Commission reports and S. Anand (2008) 'Next Stop
Orissa' Tehelka, Volume V, Issue 2 (19 January). Also, I have utilised
recorded interviews with residents of Kandhamal undertaken by me/Angana
Chatterji in January 2008, and an article I published in the
Asian Age and a report I authored for
Communalism Combat, both in Janaury 2008.
In addition, I have utilised
over 100 secondary sources on Orissa in framing the context, including:
John Boulton (1979)
'Nationalism and Tradition in Orissa', in R. J. Moore (ed.)
Tradition and Politics in
South Asia, pp. 227-60, Delhi, Vikas
Publishing House.
Angana Chatterji and Mihir
Desai, eds. (2006). Communalism in Orissa
(Report of the Indian People's
Tribunal). Mumbai, Indian People's Tribunal.
Bikash Das (2003) 'Framing the
Freedom of Religion: Critique of Orissa Freedom of Religion Act, 1967',
Combat Law, Volume 1(6.1), March, pp.
16-18.
Pralay Kanungo (2003)
'Hindutva's Entry into a "Hindu Province": Early Years of RSS in
Orissa',
Economic and Political Weekly (2
August), pp. 3293-303.
Sanjay Kumar (2002) 'The
Adivasis of Orissa' (From A Study by Centre For The Study Of Developing
Societies), The Hindu (6
November).
Harekrishna Mahtab, Prabhat
Mukherjee, Sushil De and Sudhakar Patnaik, eds. (1959)
History of The Freedom
Movement in Orissa, Volumes I through V,
Cuttack, Manmohan Press.
Nivedita Mohanty (2005)
Oriya Nationalism: Quest for a United Orissa, 1866-1956,
Jagatsinghpur,
Prafulla Pathagar Publications.
Biswamoy Pati (2001)
Situating Social History. Orissa. 1899-1997, New
Delhi, Orient Longman.
Biswamoy Pati (2003)
Identity, Hegemony, Resistance. Towards a Social History of Conversions
in Orissa. 1800-2000, New
Delhi, Three Essays Collective.