Bishop of Orissa: the Church to take measures against forced reconversions of tribal people
Mumbai (AsiaNews) -- "To fight against forced reconversions in Orissa, we must educate tribal people, in order to equip them to understand their rights and build individual awareness." According to Monsignor Lucas Kerketta, Bishop of Sambalpur -- a district of Orissa, a state in north-east India -- these are the objectives that the Church must aim for in their social welfare programmes in India, a country where religious freedom violations are frequent.
Last Sunday, in the Sarat village, district of Mayurbhanj, 76 tribal Christians "re-embraced" Hinduism in a ceremony organized by the radical wing of Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), the religious wing of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the former party of power in India. This was the first mass reconversion in Mayurbhanj. The VHP characterized the event as "a return home for the tribal people". Mass conversions are not a phenomenon new to Orissa, one of the Indian states with the highest presence of Hindu fundamentalists and governed by the BJP.
Together with activists of the VHP and RSS [Editor's note: Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, cultural organization aimed at regenerating Hindu society], they have been carrying out for several years serious persecution against Christian missionaries and converted people. The law facilitates the prevailing state of things.
Orissa's religious freedom law (OFRA), foresees legal sanctions for missionaries accused of "instigating conversions"; every conversion must be officially authorized by the government.
Most inhabitants of Orissa are tribal, poor, unemployed and illiterate.
The Church seeks to intervene but fundamentalists use "convincing" means: in exchange for the "return home", they first offer economic benefits, then, if necessary, they move on to threats. Often, persecution against Christians gets confused with the fight against the Naxalites, the regional network of Maoist rebels that include some tribal people among its members.
In an interview with AsiaNews, Msgr Kerketta explained that reconversions occur among Pentecostal groups and not among Catholics. "The VHP and the RSS do not distinguish among the numerous Protestants and Catholics: often the Church is seen as the result of missionary activities carried out by "Protestant brothers", the bishop declared. Msgr Kerketta then recalled that several months ago various activists of the VHP and the RSS threatened Catholic Church personnel for the fact that a Protestant group was distributing information pamphlets and Bibles in their district.
These same activists had already warned that they would burn down churches and expel all Christians from the state is missionary activity did not cease."To contain the reconversion phenomenon, we are carrying out social programmes aimed at the tribal people of the more remote and internal areas of Orissa.
The population receives education and health assistance so that it can defend itself against any form of exploitation and become aware of individual rights," Msgr Kerketta said, adding also that the "Orissa government is led by the BJP, but local representatives of the National Congress belong to the UPA (United Progressive Alliance), the party currently in power in India."
In recent years, various episodes of violence against religious minorities have occurred in Orissa. The last took place on August 26, when a group of 300 Hindu fundamentalists attacked Our Lady of Charity Parish in Raikia, district of Kandhamal. The attckers entered the church, burned Bibles and destroyed the tabernacle and statues of saints. Local authorities subsequently arrested 3 people held responsible for the violence in which 6 people were injured.
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