Blind faith? Fragile peace blown to bits in Orissa

A MATTER OF FAITH: CNN-IBN panelists debate if conversions pitting Hindus against Christians.

      

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Religion has split Orissa and the divide is murderous. Several people have been killed in communal clashes in Kandhamal district after the murder of a Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) leader on Saturday.

The VHP called for a statewide shutdown in the state on Monday during which churches, prayer houses and vehicles were attacked in many places.

The communal tension began after Swami Laxmananand Saraswati, a member of VHP’s central advisory committee, and four others were murdered by suspected Naxals in Kandhamal district.

Police and paramilitary forces are on guard in towns of Kandhamal district. Section 144, which prohibits the assembly of four or more people, has been clamped across Kandhamal.

Saraswati was leading a campaign against cow slaughter and religious conversion in the communally sensitive district. Rightwing Hindu groups allege that Christians killed Saraswati because he opposed conversion. Christian organisations reject such allegations.

In one of the worst attacks, a Christian woman died and a priest was severely burnt when a mob set fire to an orphanage run by Christian missionaries in Bargarh district on Monday.

The incident again brought shame to the state. Nine years ago, Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two young sons were burnt alive by a Hindu mob in Keonjhar district.

What has caused the communal divide in Orissa? Is religion to blame or politics? Are conversions pitting Hindus against Christians? CNN-IBN’s Sagarika Ghose asked this on Face The Nation.

The guests on the show were: RSS spokesperson Ram Madhav, Reverend Dr Richard Howell, general secretary of the Evangelical Fellowship of India, and Professor Manoranjan Mohanty, of the Council for Social Development.

Madhav was infuriated at allegations that Hindu groups were targeting missionaries and Christians in Orissa. “The situation is quite different. Hindus are at the receiving end. A highly respected saint was killed. There is enough evidence to prove the complicity of Christian organisations in the murder,” he claimed.

Howell rejected the Madhav’s allegation and claimed conversion has become an excuse to attack Christians and malign them. “The VHP gets the maximum amount of money India than Christians. Christians have used money to serve and empower the poor and marginalized. Not a single case has been proved till date in the courts of forced conversion (by Christian groups),” he said.

The issue is not religion but poverty, said Professor Mohanty. “Kandhamal is one of the poorest regions in the country. Seventy per cent people here are below the poverty line; 51 per cent are tribals and 16 per cent are Dalits,” he said.