This remote little town amidst the forested hills of the Jharkhand-Chhattisgarh-Orissa tribal belt may have come into the national limelight today because of the antics of its ‘Raja’ Dilip Singh Judeo, but the fact is Jashpur has played a pivotal role in the RSS scheme for over five decades now. In fact, the RSS’s sword arm among India’s tribals—the Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram (VKA)—was founded in this very town in 1952. The VKA, which runs schools, hospitals and social welfare institutes with the aim of countering Christian missionary activities, has spread its network throughout India—notably in the North-east, Orissa, Gujarat and of course in Chhattisgarh. This was where it started. The founder of the VKA, R.K. Deshpande, was a Nagpur-based lawyer and belonged to the RSS. VKA general secretary Prasanna Sapre said Deshpande first came to Jashpur at the Government’s request. Soon after Independence, Ravi Shankar Shukla (chief minister of the then Central Provinces and Berar) was ‘‘alarmed’’ at the penetration of missionaries among the tribals of the region and decided to set up a Tribal Welfare Department. Deshpande’s name was recommended and though an arrest warrant was out for him (as part of the crackdown on the RSS after Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination), he was allowed to come to this outpost and start work in the new department. But he soon fell foul of the Government and was removed from the post on charges of embezzlement. Sapre says they were false charges and he was removed because of ‘‘missionary pressure’’. Deshpande then decided to continue his work among the adivasis and, backed by the RSS, started the Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram. The Maharaja of Jashpur became a patron and donated his old palace to the VKA. The Jashpur royal family has since had close links with the RSS, the Jana Sangh, and now the BJP. Sapre, in black cap and khaki shorts, is a quintessential RSS man. And though he insists the VKA has nothing to do with politics and elections, it is well known that the outfit provides ideological fuel to the BJP’s anti-conversion campaign. Sapre makes no bones about his hatred for missionaries. He talks about the anti-national intentions of the foreign missionaries in India and rails against the motive behind their service. On the high quality of service institutions provided by the Church (many a BJP supporter in adivasi villages were all praise for them), Sapre says: ‘‘We never say they are not doing seva. But when their motive is wrong, we regard it not as seva but as ku-seva (disservice).’’ There are hardly any foreign missionaries left here, almost all the fathers of the churches and parishes in rural Jashpur are local adivasis, and church literature and service is in Hindi. Yet, Sapre considers them foreign. And though there has not been a single case of forced conversion in Chhattisgarh (which, according to 1991 census figures, had 1.71 per cent Christians to 95.47 per cent Hindus), the VKA general secretary goes on at length about the dangers the missionaries pose to the nation.
