For Jhabua tribals, Sangh dams come with a check: Shivlings first

On the surface, it looks like another well-intentioned scheme to manage rainwater better.

But this one comes with a catch. Each village that launches the project must first instal a Shivling—so what if the local administration says these villages already have enough talavs and dams.

Says Mahesh Sharma, general secretary of the Parishad: ‘‘The Ganga flowed through the jata (mane) of Lord Shiva. We want the rainwater to stop here and the jata of Lord Shiva will stop the water from flowing out of the villages.’’ However, the project organisers are silent on whether Christian tribals will be allowed to reap its benefits.

The 131 Shivlings have already been moved from Indore to Jhabua and will be installed on Shivratri when the project gets underway. But the Sangh Parivar sees this only as a starting point.

Eventually, it wants to extend the programme to some 2,500 tribal villages in the Jhabua-Dhar belt, says Harsh Chauhan, the Parishad’s state president. Nor will the process of reaching out to the tribals stop at installing Shivlings. On Friday, 20 tribals youths from each village were invited to a camp where they took a pledge to contribute to the success of the project.

‘‘The tribal boys will be asked to do shram daan (manual labour) for two months while money will be raised in the cities,’’ says Laxman Goud, BJP MLA from Indore.

Some Christian tribals in the area are worried. ‘‘For obvious reasons, Christians cannot take part in a programme to instal a shivling,’’ says Joseph Peter Mandoria, a villager from Pipalia. ‘‘But there could be friction if the Hindus try to monopolise the talavs and check dams.’’

K T Chacko, the Jhabua Bishop, picks his words carefully. ‘There is nothing wrong with the programme as long as it does not interfere with someone’s religious beliefs,’’ he says.

Some fear it could do precisely that. And the district administration questions the basic rationale behind the project.

The Parishad says it is launching the scheme because tribals are forced to leave their villages in search of work as there is a shortage of water for irrigation. Says Jhabua additional collector P R Katrolia: ‘‘In every village, there are at least half-a-dozen check dams and talavs already in operation. So why start more?’’

The truth is that the Sangh does not want to give any quarter. It has become particularly active in the area after the Gujarat riots and has been distributing pictures of Lord Hanuman and Ganesha in the villages. The BJP managed to bag all five Assembly segments in the 2003 polls.

And although infighting saw the party lose the Parliamentary elections here last year, it is hoping that check dams will check the slide.