Tribal ill fare

Manoharpur haunts me still; it always will. Some time back when I arrived in Manoharpur 8211; infamous for the Graham Staines murder 8211;...

Manoharpur haunts me still; it always will. Some time back when I arrived in Manoharpur 8211; infamous for the Graham Staines murder 8211; it was high noon. The summer sun is unsparing. So is life for the poor ignorant tribals of this tiny village that keeps hitting the headlines for the wrong reasons.

Ranu Marandi, with her rumpled, torn dirty sari and tousled hair appears like a creature from the nether world. She is only 30 but looks more like 70 and knows only Kui, the local tribal tongue. I find her cleaning winged ants. Their wings would be clipped and then they will be lightly fried. With that, 8216;lunch8217; for her three children is ready.

She had become a Christian ten years ago. Some ten months ago she became a Hindu. But neither Jesus nor Krishna seems to be helping her. She lost her husband to malaria even after she was assured that Jesus would cure him.

The drudgery of life continues unabated. There was nothing left for her to continue as a Christian. She returned to the Hindu fold. Her youngest child died of some nameless disease after she was told that Krishna would protect her since Jesus could not.

Ultimately, God for Ranu, is only a doctor who can cure her family of all ailments. And in her case that God had failed.

In the case of most others, too, God could not prove his existence to all these 70-odd tribals who became Hindus at a highly publicised function presided over by the mighty Shankaracharya of Puri in backward, remote, inaccessible Manoharpur!

Not for them the tenets of Christianity or the teachings of the Bhagavad Gita. What is their status as neo-Hindus? They do not know what it is and do not bother to know what it is either. Saona Murmu, Sugu Marandi, Nishi Hembrum, Gitu Murmu 8211; moving about with tonsured heads, a reminder of the Shankaracharya8217;s rituals 8211; are victims of the horrible manipulations of religion 8211; as man has made it, not God.

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They would continue to live as they did, tackling life, the wrath of nature, going to the village deity for 8216;sala puja8217;, occasionally eating beef, even while the world fights over them.

How many Hindus? And Christians? Everyone is interested in getting them to change their God, none in changing their lives. Uneducated, famished, disease-prone, they continue to lead a precarious existence.

Colossal money is pumped into tribal welfare. Schemes are floated every day. But the benefits do not reach. There is no school here, no hospital, no drinking water. The dropout rate of tribal students is an alarming 80 per cent at the primary level. Tribal areas continue to be a malaria hotspot.

The women here die of childbirth. Their land is snatched away by the mafia. The forest is fast depleting, robbing them of a major source of income.

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Nobody has time to attend to all this. Nobody has time for them. Their gods have changed. They have not. No matter whether they are Christians or Hindus, God is not on their side.