Forcible Conversions in Narayanpur and Chhattisgarh - I
By Irfan Engineer
The
Hindu nationalists have quite successfully propagated that Christians
are converting Hindus with either inducements, fraud or through coercion
on such a large scale that there would be a demographic imbalance
sooner rather than later. My visit to villages in Narayanpur and
Kondagaon in the state of Chhattisgarh as a member of fact-finding team
constituted by CSSS, UCF, AIPF and AILAJ showed once again that the shoe
fits on the other foot. It is the Christians who are being subjected to
violence, threats and forced displacements if they do not convert to
Hindu religion. Some Christians have been converted forcibly, while
others who resisted were forced to leave their villages and seek refuge
from violence elsewhere.
According to Adv. Sonisingh Jhali,
All India People’s Forum, based in Jadalpur and who has been helping the
displaced Christian Adivasis, more than one thousand of them have been
displaced from their villages. According to the District Collector &
Magistrate of Narayanpur, 250 have been displaced from the villages in
his district and have sought shelter in indoor stadium of the district.
However, another about 150 displaced are in the Kondagaon Panchayat
Bhavan, while many have sought refuge in various churches.
We
met Ram Poyam (35 years) and 16 others, including 6 children, 8 women
and three men, on 22nd December in the Nayapada Church in Pharasgaon.
Two children were studying in 7th Standard. According to Poyam, a Halba
Adivasi, there was a death in their village – Chalka – on 9th December,
for which all the villagers had assembled. The assembled villagers,
about one hundred in number, marched towards the homes of Christian
Adivasis after the funeral and asked them to convert to Hindu religion.
The Adivasis call themselves “vishwasu” (those who have faith in Jesus
Christ) and not Christian as, according to them, they have not yet
converted to Christianity, in as much as they have not declared
themselves to be Christians through an affidavit for the purposes of
government records. Those who have filed affidavits are called as paper
Christians as against vishwasu. When the vishwasus refused to give up
their faith in Jesus Christ, led by the sarpanch of the village,
Sevakram Netam, the villagers heaped abuses and threat on the vishwasus
and given two alternatives – either face death or leave the village.
Besides the sarpanch, they were abused by Chandulal Netam, Samluram
Netam, and the traditional leader Jigru. All of them belonged to the
Gondwana Samaj, an organisation of Gond Adivasis. The hundred villagers
stood there surrounding the homes of the 17 vishwasus until they decided
to leave. As they left on foot and some on motorbike, they were not
allowed to lock their homes. However, according to the information that
the vishwasus have, their homes have not been damaged. They filed a
complaint with the police, but no FIR was registered. The Town Inspector
(TI) took them to their village to plead with the villagers to allow
them to stay in the village. The villagers refused and the TI did tamely
returned as if he was not an official of the state charged with the
duty to maintain law and order and protect rights of the vulnerable
citizens.
The Vishwasus would contribute their share for the
traditional village festivals but would not partake in the prasad
offered to the traditional gods. They otherwise lived their lives as
other Adivasis – they lived by collecting tendu leaves, Mahua flowers,
fishing, farming their small land holdings. These 17 persons had become
vishwasus at different times after the year 2015, mostly because they
suffered from some “incurable” illness. They believed that they were
cured by praying to Lord Jesus. Sugri Nag (F-27 years) and her mother
Shanwari Nag (60) had come to the Church. Both of them converted, even
as their other relatives strongly opposed them, as Sugri’s father
suffered a paralytic stroke on 15th February 2021. Father converted too,
but Sugri’s brother did not convert. The three of them live in peace.
If
in Chalka the vishwasus left the village without being physically
assaulted, all vishwasus were not as lucky. In Chimdi village, 12 houses
of vishwasus were demolished along with their prayer centre. With
inaction of the state, the attacks became more and more violent by the
day till one thousand were displaced from nearly 40 villages.
There
was one thing common among all the vishwasus we met during our 3-day
visit to Narayanpur and Kondagaon, though they belonged to different
churches – they would not touch alcohol with a barged pole. Giving up
their drinking habits, they could spend the money saved (on an average,
Rs. 3,000/- per month) on education of their children and wearing better
clothes.
The 17 vishwasus of Chalka belong to “New India
Church”. Different villages had different and independent Churches.
Independent Church means one pastor centric Church. The pastor of the
Church too was from among the Adivasi community not trained in any
well-established seminary. The pastor would attend prayer meetings in
other towns and would pick up doctrines of faith in those meetings. A
confident vishwasu who was fast learner in the prayer meetings and could
gather his own following and had the ability to stand up to the
opposition from other villagers would become a pastor. The vishwasus
themselves faced various challenges in retaining their faith. Becoming a
vishwasu not only helped healing of a disease and improvement of one’s
life by giving up drinking, it also meant developing leadership
qualities, having followers and becoming more confident. Normally,
Adivasis are forced to live a subdued life in presence of non-Adivasis
as they are treated as backward, uncivilized, and what not, even by the
administrative machinery of the state. The displaced 17 vishwasus from
Chalka village whom we met in Nayapada Church told us that the TI as
well as Kondagaon district collector told them that they (the vishwasus)
were also at fault as they had abandoned their age-old traditions, and
that they would not partake ‘prasad’. The TI and the Kondagaon district
collector both told them to convert to Hinduism to be able to return to
their villages. The vishwasus, however, were firm in their faith and
refuse to embrace Hinduism now. They confronted these mighty powerful
officials of the state and told them to take legal action on those who
had turned them out of their villages and they would be able to return
to their villages. It is their faith that gives them this confidence to
stand up to the mighty state officials, sort of remind them of their
duties and assert their faith in the face of opposition from the huge
majority within their village. It is because of this that number of
Christian vishwasus are growing in these districts and not because some
established Church are propagating Christianity and seeking conversions –
material improvement in their lives by giving up drinking, fellowship
with other vishwasus, leadership opportunities as pastors and
development of confidence as Lord Jesus is with them. In fact,
established churches have completely ignore them. We didn’t find them
coming to their help as they faced eviction from their homes, or
speaking up for them. Aren’t the Adivasi vishwasus Christian enough or
important enough for the established Church to speak up for them? … to be continued
Irfan Engineer
Director,
Centre for Study of Society and Secularism
Director,
Centre for Study of Society and Secularism
