09659
July 31, 2009

Indian Christians left in slums, told ‘return only as Hindus’

by Anto Akkara
Ecumenical News International

BHUBANESWAR, India — Indian officials say that a troubled and remote area of the northeastern Orissa state that witnessed widespread sectarian violence aimed at Christians a year ago, is now normal, with less than a thousand people left in relief camps.

But those who fled the violence in Kandhamal in August 2008, say they have been told by those who drove them from their homes that the price of return is conversion to Hinduism.

Thousands of Christians have left dingy relief camps in Kandhamal, but many say they can not re-enter their villages due to threats they say they face from Hindu extremists. Now they live in rented urban houses which they say are nothing more than slums.

Nagarjun Pradhan, a mathematics teacher at a government high school in Balliguda, who has a Masters degree in science was popular among local Hindus and used to give tuition to many students in his spare time. His community says his reputation among local Hindus meant his life was spared by a mob who attacked the teacher and his family in 2008. 

Still, the attackers ordered Pradhan’s Hindu landlord to evict him from his house as they did not want even one Christian to remain in the village.

“We fled to the refugee camp. But the conditions there were very bad and refugees were being threatened in the camp. So, I decided to move out of Kandhamal and rented a house in  Bhubaneswar,” said Pradhan, who had his wife, child and his widowed mother with him.

But five months later, Pradhan said he could not afford the monthly rent of 3,500 Indian rupees ($70), and had to move to sprawling Saliasahi, a slum area in the state capital of Bhubaneswar that now has more than a thousand Christian families living there.

“Life is difficult here. But, I’m happy I can practice my faith without fear,” Pradhan told Ecumenical News International after attending a Sunday service at an Evangelical church on July 19.

Pradhan said he was paid a token compensation of 10,000 rupees ($260) for the destruction of his home which he says was worth a million rupees.

“It’s impossible for a Christian to live in peace in Kandhamal,” Pradhan told ENI. “For the sake of my peace of mind I can’t go back there.” He added, “What is most important to us is our faith. I do not want to keep my government job by forsaking my faith.”

The mathematics teacher has asked for leave of absence from his teaching post until the situation improves. Pradhan tried to go back to his native village a number of times and said he was bluntly told, “You can return only if you are prepared to become a Hindu.”

Like Pradhan, more than 50,000 Christians from troubled Kandhamal have been left homeless since the August 2008 killing there of Swami Lakshmanananda Saraswati..

Maoist rebels claimed responsibility for the killing the Hindu monk who had led a vociferous campaign against conversions to Christianity. Hindu extremists charged, however, that the murder was a Christian conspiracy.

More than 90 Christians were killed and over 5,000 Christian houses, 250 churches and Christian institutions were destroyed in the ensuing violence that left tens of thousands displaced.

“We are here because of our faith. Otherwise, we could not have come here,” said Sadanand Digal, another refugee who has taken shelter at the Bhubaneswar slum.

Later, believing that peace had returned, Digal tried to go back to his village with his family. But, he said he was told by local Hindu extremists, “Only Hindus can live in Kandhamal.”

With hardly any savings, Digal has taken a mud-thatched hut in the slum for a monthly rental of 400 rupees ($10). He and wife do odd jobs for the family survival. “We prefer to stay here as Christians than being forced to become Hindus in Kandhamal,” said Digal.

Fearing that attacks on Christians will begin again during the anniversary, Roman Catholic and Protestant church officials have demanded “complete security and protection to religious minorities” on their properties and places of worship.