| Re-Convert
Or Die
What’s happening
in Orissa is a brute reconversion of Dalit and Adivasi converts by the
Sangh. BISWAMOY PATI explains the history
Most reports on the
communal violence in Kandhamal highlight the obvious: that the Hindutva
outfits have targeted the Christians. Nevertheless, the history of caste
formation over the last two centuries in Orissa could provide insights
into some complexities.
It might sound strange
but a major effort to Hinduise the Kandhamala-Phulbani tract was made
by the colonial and “internal” Oriya exploiters in the 19th
century. This was the logical fallout of a drive that was aimed to tap
the natural resources of this tract and harness it to the machinery of
colonial and feudal exploitation. It was closely linked to the enterprise
of building Siva temples in this tract and can be traced back to 1855.
Thus, colonial officials like Dinabandhu Patnaik (tahsildar – headquarters,
Bisipara) recruited forced labour from the Kandhamal region for the purpose.
This drive ensured the conversion of tribals into Hinduism.
The colonial context
meant a suspicion of Christianity. Consequently, in some cases this prevented
conversions to Christianity. However, by 1950 we find a large section
of the tribal Kandhas of the region accepting Christianity as a means
to get protection from exploitation by the Hindus. Interestingly, the
Kandhas who had got Hinduised through the land settlements over the 19th
century began to assert their majoritarian identity.
Thus, by 1994 we come
across some of them preventing the Panas —– outcastes from
entering a Siva temple at Phulbani. This had led to clashes between the
Kandha converts to Hinduism and the outcaste Panas. In this sense it is
clear that the “Hindus” of today or even those of 1994 need
to be located as tribal converts to Hinduism.
The other side of
the story relates to the Panas, classified by the colonialist, in close
collaboration with Orissa’s brahminical order, as a “criminal
caste”. The colonialists negotiated the hill people of Orissa through
terror strikes in the first half of the 19th century. Working alongside
was the classification strategy that hierarchised and incorporated tribal
people to generate a workforce in agriculture. A mass of humanity comprising
hill (pahariah) people were clubbed under categories like Panas, with
systematic efforts to obliterate their history. Unlike the sections of
the affluent Kandhas and other tribal groups who could get integrated
into the caste formation, the poorer sections were “integrated”
through terror as outcastes.
Over the 1950s and
later, sections of Panas have converted to Christianity. In fact, such
conversions need to be seen as a form of protest against brahminical Hinduism’s
oppressive features and as a part of a survival strategy, as has been
noted earlier in the case of the Kandhas.
It is this problem
that causes insecurity and fears of the fascist Hindu forces and explains
their ire against Pana converts to Christianity in Orissa, Hindu fascism’s
post-Gujarat laboratory. What is being witnessed in the name of re-conversion
in Orissa is the attempt by fascist forces to convert tribals to Hinduism.
The attack on Pana converts to Christianity is aimed at terrorising them
into submission.
Pati is the author
of Identity, Hegemony,
Resistance: Towards a Social History of
Conversions in Orissa, 1800–2000
He can be reached at:
biswamoypati@hotmail.com
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