Barefoot: Remembering Kandhamal

It was a terrifying Christmas in 2007 for tribal and dalit Christians who live in the second poorest, deeply forested district of Odisha, Kandhamal. Long-smouldering violence targeting them exploded, and was to continue to rage for another full year. During this time, 600 villages were ransacked, 5,600 houses were looted and burnt, 54,000 persons rendered homeless, 295 churches and places of worship destroyed, and 13 schools, colleges and orphanages were damaged. The official death toll was 39, although unofficially the figure is claimed to be closer to 100. 30,000 people were forced to live in relief camps, and it is estimated that nearly half are still unable to return home.

Four years later, many of the survivors gathered in Bhubaneshwar to remember and to mourn. In an exhibition organised by Anhad, some of the vandalised remains of churches and homes were displayed. In one corner, blurred, blown-up passport sized pictures of men and women who had been killed were pasted on bamboo sticks. Many stood there and wept quietly. The occasion was the release of the report of a National People's Tribunal on Kandhamal, aptly titled ‘Waiting for Justice'. The Tribunal was chaired by Justice A.P. Shah, and included among its members Syeda Hameed, Ruth Manorama, Mahesh Bhatt, Vinod Raina, Vrinda Grover, Miloon Kothari, P.S. Krishnan and Sukumar Muralidharan. I too was a member of the Tribunal.

Remains of a church in Kandhamal district. File Photo: Lingaraj Panda

Although the states of Odisha and Gujarat are located at the furthest eastern and western corners of India, separated by several thousand kilometres, the mass-targeted hate violence in both states, in 2007-08 and 2002 respectively have many striking — and deeply troubling — similarities. Each was characterised by a long build-up of hatred against religious minority residents, there is evidence of systematic advance preparation, state authorities were openly complicit in enabling the violence to persist for weeks and months, the attacks were unusually brutal and targeted women, thousands were displaced and discouraged from returning to their homes, facing organised social and economic boycott. And in both, compensation was tight-fisted and justice systematically subverted.

There is evidence in both Gujarat and Odisha of systematic planning and organisation prior to and during the attacks, as though they were both only awaiting a flashpoint to let loose the terror and mass violence. These were not spontaneous outbursts of mass anger. They were planned attacks cynically facilitated and criminally abetted by the state administration in the two states. The Tribunal notes: ‘Victim-survivors testimonials repeatedly referred to the perpetrators wearing red head bands, carrying numerous weapons such as axes, daggers, swords, guns, crowbars, pickaxes, lathis, bows and arrows, lighted torches, bombs, petrol and kerosene barrels, trishuls, tangia, pharsa bhujali and bars'. They could have been speaking of Gujarat, where we heard literally hundreds of similar testimonials...

http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/columns/Harsh_Mander/article2723257.ece


Also see: Kandhamal: The Law Must Change its Course (downloadable book)
http://dilipsimeon.blogspot.in/2012/04/kandhamal-law-must-change-its-course.html