Last week, Suklu Potai, 16, left his home in Devgaon village, in Chhattisharh’s Kanker district, with his mother and three younger siblings after getting an ultimatum from the village elders. “They asked us to either give up our faith in Christianity or to leave the village. My father stayed back, but we decided to leave,” said Potai, his voice bouncing off the walls of the empty badminton court.
The 16-year-old Gond tribal is among at least 125 people, 36 of them children, who have been staying in an indoor stadium in Narayanpur since last month, having fled at least three villages in the district — Bhatpal, Kulhadgaon and Borawand — and those in nearby Kanker following rising tensions between the minority tribal community following the Christian faith and the non-Christian tribals.
Sources in the Narayanpur police said that over the last two months, at least 10 FIRs have been registered against the two groups, with seven of these against members of the majority tribal groups for allegedly attacking Christians.
On December 18, hundreds of Christian tribals protested outside the Collector’s office alleging harassment and violence by their fellow villagers and saying they had been forced to flee their homes.
Narayanpur Collector Ajeet Vasant told The Indian Express that of the 500-odd protesters, around 375 were sent back to their villages after the district administration held negotiations with the sarpanch (village head), gayta (tribal religious head) and patels (a high-profile position which in several villages is often handled by the sarpanch). However, around 31 families, including that of Potai, stayed back at the indoor stadium, too scared to return to their homes.
This story was originally published in indianexpress.com . Read the full story here