A year-long mobilisation by the Janjati Suraksha Manch, an affiliate of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, led by a former legislator from the Bharatiya Janata Party, preceded the worst ever wave of violence against Christian Adivasis in Chhattisgarh’s Bastar region.
On January 2, two weeks after hundreds of Christian Adivasis were forcibly evicted from their villages in Narayanpur and Kondagaon districts, a mob attacked a church in Narayanpur town. The police only failed to protect the church while even the district superintendent of police was injured in the attack.
While tensions over religious conversions are not new in the region, this is the first time there has been such large-scale, organised violence against Christians.
The violence comes close on the heels of large public meetings organised by the Janjati Suraksha Manch in Chhattisgarh’s Adivasi areas to demand that those converting to Christianity and Islam be denied Scheduled Tribes status, cutting them off from reservations in jobs, educational institutions and legislatures. Currently, the law confers Scheduled Tribes status on all Adivasis, irrespective of the religion they follow.
In Bastar, the Janjati Suraksha Manch held several rallies throughout the year, both in Narayanpur and Kondagaon. At a rally in Narayanpur on November 6, Bhojraj Nag, a former Bharatiya Janata Party legislator and state convenor of the Janjati Suraksha Manch, is reported to have said: “These people are using the benefits meant for tribal communities, but at the same time introduce themselves as Christians and Muslims. They should not get a reservation, and we are prepared to take this matter to court.”
However, rather than inside a courtroom, conflict soon erupted in the villages of Narayanpur and Kondagaon.
In at least 16 villages, Adivasi followers of Christianity say they were summoned to public meetings and threatened with eviction if they did not renounce their faith. Those who refused to, were assaulted and driven out of their homes on December 18, in a series of coordinated attacks that left nearly 500 people displaced.
“We could not even salvage our belongings,” said Malti Usendi, who was forced to abandon her house in Narayanpur’s Bhorpal village at six in the morning.
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