INDIA: Hindu festival poses threat to adivasi identity, culture and religion; violence feared 

Dear friends,

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has learned that adivasis (indigenous people) in the Dangs District in the Indian state of Gujarat are living in fear as a Hindu festival in their district from 11 to 13 February 2006 approaches. The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a Hindu fundamentalist organisation, is mobilising about 500,000 non-adivasis from throughout the country to attend the Kumbh Mela, a Hindu festival held every 12 years in four different place of India.

Cooperation between the state government of Gujarat, led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and the RSS has added to the fears of the adivasis in the Dangs. Adivasis in the Dangs remember that this government was in power when at least 2,000 Muslims were killed by Hindu fundamentalists in the riots in Gujarat in 2002 and that similar violence targeting Muslims was unleashed in 1992 after the destruction of the Babri mosque in Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh, by a crowd of about 200,000 Hindu fundamentalists. In both cases, the police either did not intervene to stop the violence or were accused of contributing to the violence and people’s deaths and injuries. The adivasis in the Dangs fear that a similar event will take place in their district in mid-February.

Some adivasis in the district, especially those who have converted to Christianity, have already been threatened and their homes attacked.

The AHRC shares the concerns of the adivasis in the Dangs that violence will occur between February 11 and 13 and thus issues this urgent appeal as an early warning. We ask you to write to government officials and police in the Dangs, asking them to ensure the safety of adivasis in the district, especially during the Kumbh Mela.

Urgent Appeals Programme
Asian Human Rights Commission
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DETAILED INFORMATION:

In the past few months, non-adivasis have been moving into the Dangs District of Gujarat to attend the Vanvasi (Adivasi) Maha Kumbh Mela that will be held from 11 to 13 February 2006. It is expected that 500,000 mostly non-adivasis from throughout India will be mobilised to take part in this Hindu festival that is held every 12 years in the country. Normally, however, this traditional festival is rotated among four places in India—Nasik, Haridwar, Allahabad and Ujjain. This is the first time it will be held in the Dangs in an adivasi area.

Adivasis in the Dangs are fearful that the festival will deteriorate into violence directed at them. The RSS and other Hindu fundamentalists in the district who are organising the Kumbh Mela have been asserting that adivasis, who are predominantly animists, are Hindus, and they have been urging adivasis to “reconvert” to Hinduism.

In this campaign, the Hindu fundamentalists in the district have been using the Hindu story of Ram and an adivasi woman, Shabari, to legitimise their assertion that adivasis have traditionally been Hindus. Based on a speech by Morari Bapu in 2003, Hindu fundamentalists claim that Ram visited the Dangs and that the hill Chamak Dungar (Shining Mountain) is precisely the place where Ram met Shabari and ate the wild berries she had tasted. They have forcibly taken land with the state government’s consent and have cut down thousands of trees in violation of laws protecting adivasi lands and the forests and have built a large Hindu temple. In addition, a small pond in the village of Subir, Jarsol Dahad, has been designated as another place included in the story of Ram and Shabari and has been renamed Pampa Sarovar. Again, the adivasis claim that the land was forcibly taken from them.

Adivasis who have converted to Christianity—approximately 5 percent of the population in the Dangs—are particularly afraid. In their materials, Hindu fundamentalists have stated that Christianity is a dangerous religion of foreigners, and they call for its destruction in the same way that Ram killed the demon Ravana. Moreover, they have taken pictures of the homes of Christian adivasis and Christian institutions, such as schools. Christian adivasisfear that these photographs will be used to target their homes and schools. In addition, pamphlets produced by Hindu fundamentalists containing the slogan “Hindu Jago, Christi Bhagao” (Arise Hindus, Throw Out the Christians) have been circulated in the Dangs. Already threats and attacks have taken place against Christian adivasis.

In October 2005, about 15 RSS members entered the home of a Christian adivasi woman and told her to convert to Hinduism, demanding that she destroy the Christian pictures she had in her home and threatening her that she and her family would face problems if she refused to convert to Hinduism. They then took a picture related to her Christian faith from the wall and later tore it and threw it away. Although a complaint was filed with the police the next day, no action has been taken by the police.

The fear of the adivasis is compounded by the support that the BJP-led state government is giving the Kumbh Mela. The state government will spend 400 crore rupees (US$90.8 million) for the Kumbh Mela for roads, parking lots, electricity, water and other infrastructure. Moreover, the district collector, the top government official in the district, justified communal mobilisation as a religious and cultural awakening.

The adivasis in the Dangs are aware that the BJP, RSS and other Hindu fundamentalists were involved in previous violent events in India targeting another minority community in the country, Muslims, in the Gujarat riots in 2002 that killed at least 2,000 people and the death of thousands more in the wake of the destruction of the Babri mosque in Ayodhya in the state of Uttar Pradesh in 1992. The police played a passive role in both incidents as they did not intervene to stop the violence and, in fact, have been accused of being involved in it, especially in the 2002 riots in Gujarat.

The last concern of the adivasis involves the large influx of people coming to the Dangs, a district that consists of about 186,000 people of which more than 90 percent are adivasis. With 500,000 mainly non-adivasis expected to attend the Kumbh Mela from outside of the district, the adivasis will be a minority in the district during the Hindu festival. This could pave the way for the permanent ouster of adivasis and an influx of non-adivasis in the Subir area as has already occurred in the Saputara area of the Dangs.

BACKGROUND

India has signed and ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) that guarantees religious freedom in Article 18 and protects the culture and religion of minorities in Article 27. The Constitution of India also guarantees religious freedom. In spite of these international and constitutional protections, the Dangs has seen violence directed at adivasis in the past, especially those who have chosen Christianity as their faith.

In 1998, there were 38 attacks directed at Christian adivasis in a three-week period in the Dangs, especially at their churches with 29 churches set on fire by Hindu fundamentalists. One Christian evangelist was also killed. During this period, adivasis in the Dangs were pressured to embrace Hinduism.

Much of the Hindu agitation in the Dangs is traced by local adivasis to the arrival in the district in 1997 of Swami Asimanand from West Bengal, a member of the fundamentalist group Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP). He went throughout the villages in the district telling villagers that Christian missionaries were a threat to Hinduism and national security and that adivasis should “reconvert” to Hinduism. It was at this time that a trust called Vanvasi Kalyan Parishad (Tribal Welfare Trust) was started as part of the RSS family.

As noted above, it must be emphasised that it was in the same state, Gujarat, that at least 2,000 Muslims were murdered during communal violence perpetrated by the state government lead by upper-caste Hindus. The same government is now in power in Gujarat and is headed by a chief minister who was denied entry to some countries on the grounds that he was responsible for genocide in his jurisdiction. Given the fact that domestic legal mechanisms are fully under the control of the state government, it is highly improbable that those who are targeted by fanatic religious forces stand any chance of attaining justice and protection under the current regime in Gujarat.

SUGGESTED ACTION:

Please urgently send letters to the police and government officials in the Dangs District of Gujarat calling for them to ensure that there is no violence directed at adivasis in the district during the Kumbh Mela from Feb. 11 to 13, 2006. Please remind them of their obligation to uphold the cultural and religious traditions of the adivasis in the district and to safeguard the constitutional rights of every citizen.

 

 

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