Phulbani: The stories go like this.
A poor, illiterate Hindu villager falls ill and looks for help at a Christian missionary-run medical facility. He’s offered a spurious, ineffective white substance and asked to take the “medicine” in the name of Jagannath. It doesn’t work. After days of suffering, the missionary gives the villager an authentic allopathic pill and asks him to take it in the name of Jesus. When it cures him,the impressed and grateful villager is asked to embrace Christianity.
Nowhere people: Christians outside a shelter at Raikia village in Orissa in this 30 August photo. Parth Sanyal / Reuters
A paper mache or wooden idol of Jagannath, this state’s ubiquitous deity representing the lord of the world, and a bronze cross are both set on fire by missionaries. While Jagannath is reduced to ashes, the cross remains unscathed. The power of Christianity is “proven” before the enthralled would-be converts.
Or perhaps a clergy member will simply say “Jai Ganesh” to start a car—and it sputters. When he says “Jai Jesus”, it suddenly starts.
These are the alleged real scenarios offered by the local Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) office-bearers when asked why they are lashing out against Indian Christians and their missionaries.
The Hindu group accuses missionaries operating in Kandhamal—the scene of violence and rioting over the last few weeks—of deceitful methods to increase their flock.
“For the last 30 years, they have been targeting the poor and illiterate people of this area and converting them by fraud, deception and lure,” says Priyanath Sharma, the Vibhag Sampadak, or division secretary, for Kandhamal and Bhanjanagar. “If people convert of their own free will, we have no issues, but we oppose these methods vehemently.” He cites numbers from the 2001 Census, which shows the Hindu population of Kandhamal district has grown by 2% and Christians by 16%.
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It was against this kind of proselytization that Laksmananda Saraswati, whose murder by unknown assailants on the night of 23 August, sparked off the current round of violence in the district, had worked since 1966.
While thousands of Christians have sought safety in camps, a smaller number is finding it safer to switch allegiances—and Gods. Hindu groups have devised “reconversion” campaigns of their own, including the use of gifts and social service programmes.
This district is one of the most backward and remote in Orissa. With practically no industry and the overwhelmingly tribal population dependent on marginal farming, poverty and illiteracy are rampant in the district. Lakshmananda, who set up a girl’s hostel, Kanya Ashram, for 250 inmates in Chakapada, also worked to promote literacy among the tribals and is revered by thousands of people in the district, especially the Kondhs, after whom the district was renamed. Most of the Christians are Panos, with Digal and Nayek common surnames.