The VHP does not like
the idea of Dalits taking charge of their own lives.
The violence against Christians in Orissa, Madhya Pradesh and now in
Karnataka should be seen at various levels — from the economy of
conversion to the historical roots and real meaning of conversion.
First, funding. Nobody seems to know exactly how much money the VHP
receives from abroad. The only figure we have is $1.7 million from the
India Development and Relief Fund (IDRF) that raises money from
individuals and corporations in the United States (including Cisco and
Sun Microsystems) to distribute them among a plethora of Sangh parivar
agencies, some of whom work for ‘tribal welfare’.
On the Christian side, thanks to the Foreign Contributions Regulation
Act, the Home Ministry is in possession of the Annual Report on
Foreign Contributions for 2005-06. It lays out in minute detail
the funds received by churches and Christian organisations in India. We
know, for example, that the top donors are church-based or
Christian-inspired organisations from the US, Britain, Germany, the
Netherlands and Italy. We also know that a greater part of the funds —
Rs 7,785 crore — goes to mainly Christian and church-based
organisations in India. According to the Home Ministry’s analysis, the
major part of the fund are spent on disaster relief and establishment
costs. Welfare of scheduled tribes gets only Rs 25 crore and welfare of
scheduled Castes only Rs 9 crore. The rest of the money goes into
social work — building of schools, colleges, hospitals, etc. Nowhere is
the word proselytisation mentioned. There are also no records of mass
conversions.
Hence, the Sangh parivar’s argument that Christian charitable and
social work is a disguise to convert ‘innocent, illiterate’ tribals and
Dalits is a lie — at least as far as the records go. The Home
Ministry report also tells us that the bulk of the money is spent in
Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Delhi — not in Orissa or Gujarat.
Now to come to the violence at Kandhmal in Orissa. The man,
Laxmananda Saraswati, whose murder had sparked off the latest round of
violence, was a VHP sant who was at the forefront of the VHP’s ghar
wapasi (‘home coming’) movement that consisted of reconverting tribals
and Dalits who had been converted by the Christian missionaries.
At one level, the violence that followed Saraswati’s death was a result
of a century-old conflict between the tribal Kandhs and the Dalit Pano.
The former accuse the latter of stealing their land, aided by
missionaries who, on their part, continue to occupy land that belongs
to the state. The Panos who have converted to Christianity in large
numbers are clamouring for Scheduled Tribe status because their
conversion has not mitigated the effects of caste prejudice
against them. As a Scheduled Tribe the Panos hope to preserve their
religious identity and also be eligible for reserved government jobs.
This infuriates the Kandhs as well as the VHP.
Conversion has two dimensions to it. In the first place, it is an
intensely personal affair. It is this individual realisation occurring
over a period of time that makes the conversion of entire communities a
slow, painstaking and laborious process. It is also this
individual repudiation of Hinduism that rattles the VHP beyond measure.
It means that the tribal or the Dalit in question is no longer bound by
any fate or destiny, but is, in fact, a free agent who can transform
his life by changing his value and belief system.
The second dimension of conversion is that it is a political act. When,
over a period of time, an entire community is converted, it has
revolutionary implications. What does it mean for a Dalit to convert to
Christianity? To know that, one has to understand where the Dalit is
coming from. He lives beyond the pale of ‘caste Hindu’ society — even
his shadow is considered polluting in some
regions of this country; the jobs that he does are considered the
most filthy — dealing with animal hides (chamars), disposing of the
corpse after cremation (doms) and cleaning the night soil (bhangis). He
does not have the right to use a mechanised transport, wear nice
clothes, or jewellery. His house is frequently burned, his women are
routinely raped. He lives in a night without end.
Then, he finds a God who, like him, suffered excruciating pain, who
chose his disciples among the poor and the wretched and gave his
own life so that others could find salvation through
his suffering. The Dalit also understands that, in the
light of Jesus’ story, the Hindus do not seem to have a moral order,
that the only thing that counts for them is ritual purity and impurity.
Instead of good and evil, Hinduism deals in the categories of ritual
cleanliness and uncleanliness. The community, fortified by its
realisation that the Hindu world view is only one among many others and
not even of the most superior kind, gradually revolts and crosses over
to Christianity.
Thus what began as a conversion of an individual ends as a collective
revolt against the oppression, the brutality and the inhuman
humiliations of caste society. That is what the VHP and the Sangh
parivar do not want. They want to crush this revolt.
Soumitro Das is a Kolkata-based writer
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