Sangh's tribal face threatens more riots

Not over yet says RSS tribal face

By Rajesh Ramachandran in Kandhamal
MAIL TODAY October 10, 2008

TRIBAL leader Lambodar Kanhars house is heavily guarded by the state, which still cannot ensure safe passage to tens of thousands of Dalit Christians who desperately want to return home.

Kanhar is widely alleged to have led the December 2007 riots against Panos, the Dalits and many victims claim he led the mob this time too. But the administration insists that he was not arrested along with the 500 tribal and Sangh Parivar activists because he was somehow not involved in the riots that began on August 24.

Yet, with the police guarding him, Kanhar threatens another round of riots, if his demands are not met. “ We will wait for one more month. If our demands are not met by then, there will be riots again. These riots are spontaneous and are very effective because they are for the tribal cause,” explains Kanhar nonchalantly.

He refutes all accusations of Sangh Parivar involvement, feigns complete ignorance of the presence of RSS leaders like Ajit Mahapatra in the district when Dalits were raped, murdered and their houses systematically torched and he asserts that the riots here were not anti- Christian.

He leans on his chair and effortlessly echoes the “ earth shakes when big trees fall” logic: “ If my father is killed wont my siblings get together to seek revenge? That is what happened here.

Pano Christians among the Maoists have killed our guru, Lakshmanananda Saraswati. Christians had a meeting with the Maoists to plot the murder. Otherwise why should the Maoists kill Swami ji ? He had no enmity with the Maoists, he was only obstructing conversion and preventing cow slaughter.” According to this Kui Samaj coordination committee secretary, his is only an ethnic fight for rights. And Kanhars prescription for peace is a role reversal: “ The Panos served us faithfully, tilled our land, tended to our cattle and gifted men for our human sacrifice. But over the years they grabbed our land, stole our girls and our due in government jobs with fake tribe certificates. Peace can be restored only if our demands for restoration of land, investigation into fake caste certificates and removal of those with such certificates from government jobs are met.” In other words, he wants to resubjugate the Panos.

The contradictions here are largely between an imagined glorious past and an impoverished present. Panos were the underdogs for far too long and like most underdogs were enterprising. They grabbed the first opportunity that conversion to Christianity presented them to shake off the shackles of the past. In a state where untouchability is widely practiced even in tribal areas, Panos were liberated from the Kandha serfdom and also untouchability by the new faith.

Then, competing Christian missionaries brought relative prosperity, some political muscle in the Dalit reserved constituency and also education, health, jobs and a better life.

But Kandhas comprising over 50 per cent of the districts population remained backward. For them, a Pano wearing shirt- pants, buying land, landing jobs and their children zooming in and out of the village in new two- wheelers were all instances of “ exploitation”. No doubt, some Pano politicians by demanding tribe status for Dalits on the grounds that both speak the same Kui language fuelled this strife. They had their eyes set on land and jobs, probably.

But, the ethnic conflict cannot be ignored. After all, the first widely reported riot was in 1982 and the next one in 1994.

Then, the Sangh Parivars dramatic entry into the scene only exacerbated the divide, changing the contours of the conflict. Whether Kanhar likes it or not, many Kandha Christians too have been raped, murdered and left homeless.