ZHANKVAV (Mangrol Taluka), July 21: As happens so often, the storm that appears to be brewing in this village boils down to little more than a dispute over land, 16 acres of it. The facts of the case are: Shantilal Shah, then the owner of the plot of land, gifted it to the Loyola Education Trust, which set up the Shantiniketan School in 1984. However, there was already a tenant on the plot, Dinesh Chandubhai Surti, who had moved court claiming ownership of it. Recently, the court had upheld his claim and appointed him rightful owner of the land.The matter would have ended there, but for a bureaucratic bungle on the part of the mamlatdar's office. For, even as Surti's case was in progress, the transfer of the land from Shah to the Loyola trust was legalised. This means, in effect, that both the trust and Surti are legal owners of the land.The matter - which reached a head with Friday evening's acts of violence - appears to have snowballed into an issue with a communal tinge, due to the involvement of the Sangh Parivar. Surti is an acknowledged BJP worker and says he was helped by local party leader Ganpat Vasava. However, a few important questions remain unanswered. Why did the mamlatdar's office not stop construction of the school in 1984, given that the land was under dispute? Why were legal papers, facilitating the transfer of land from the name of Shantilal Shah to the Loyola Education Trust in 1984 made legal when the matter was in court? And, most importantly, what happens to the 750-odd tribal students being educated at the school and who reside in the nearby villages?The issue seems to have defined the ridge between upper-castes and tribals. Surti, belonging to the upper castes, owned a shop in the town that was damaged on Friday. It has also made targets of the missionaries working in the tribal areas of South Gujarat. Father S J Albert, the manager and Parish priest of the centre at Zankhvav (apart from the school, the trust also has a residential hostel and a church in the village) has been forced to flee and is yet to be traced; another missionary's jeep was stoned and the occupant injured; and the school playground was dug up and the building damaged.``We fear more harassment and attacks both on the school and also on individuals,'' says Fr James, the principal of the school. Officials of the CID and IB here confirmed an increase in the number of attacks on Christian missionaries working in South Gujarat.The saffron brigade regards the 8000-odd tribal Christians from the Mangrol, Mandvi, Umarpada and Vyara talukas those who have been snatched away from Hinduism. A memorandum submitted by the VHP and the BD to the collector on Monday makes even more serious allegations besides forcible conversions, those of propagating anti-national activities and misusing of religious places. What they perhaps fail to realise that the missionaries have accorded a certain level of self respect to the tribals, who have felt downtrodden for ages. Top
