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Journalism of Courage
Two years after communal violence swept through Kandhamal district,leaving 38 dead and thousands of houses burnt,religion seems to be the last thing on peoples mind as conversion and reconversion have taken a backseat.
Though official statistics to prove this trend are not available,state government officials say fear in the minds of pastors and the crackdown on the Sangh Parivar after the riots has put a halt to such activities. While the pastors are scared to visit interior places,the VHP/RSS people are wary of administrative action over forcible reconversion of Christians, said a senior government official.
What Laxmanananda could not stop in his lifetime has been achieved after his death. We hope people are more focused on things other than religion, said a senior Home Department official,who has been keeping a close watch on conversion and reconversion activities after the riots.
Fr Mukand,a Christian leader of Kandhamal,testified: People are struggling for their livelihoods. The pastors are scared of visiting the remote areas.
The development comes as a welcome change in Kandhamal which has been a hunting ground of overzealous missionaries and the Sangh Parivar. From 19,128 in 1961 to 1.17 lakh in 2001,the Christian population in the district grew by 66 per cent. In contrast,the Hindu population grew from 3.04 lakh in 1961 to 5.27 lakh in 2001. Most of the population growth was due to illegal conversion by Christians, alleged Sibani Patnaik,Vibhag Sampark Pramukh of RSS in Kandhamal. The National Commission for Minorities which probed the 2008 Kandhamal riots also said in its report that the Christian population had registered a larger increase than that of the Hindu population.
Conversions and reconversions happened despite the Orissa Freedom of Religion Act,which requires anyone wishing to convert to another religion to seek the district magistrates permission. The law was enacted in 1967 in Orissa,the first state in India to do so,to prohibit forcible conversion. But only two people have applied for change in religion so far.
Although the Freedom of Religion Act has been in existence for about 40 years,not a single case has been registered under this Act for forced or induced conversion in Kandhamal. If indeed conversions by force or fraud were responsible for the feelings against Christians,it is absolutely amazing that the provisions of an Act designed precisely to address such conversions have never been invoked, said Michael Pinto,the NCM vice-president,in his 2008 report.
