Memories of a Nightmare

The wounds still fester in Kandhamal, the scene of Orissa’s worst communal riots in living memory, though a sense of calm prevails on the surface, reports Dhrutikam Mohanty

An entire year has elapsed since Orissa’s Kandhamal district erupted in an orgy of communal violence following the brutal murder of Swami Laxmananda Saraswati and four disciples on August 23, 2008. But the scars are still deep. Ask Sanatan Bagh Singh, a resident of Tikabali town, one of the worst-affected areas of the district. He says: “At midnight, miscreants attacked my house. I managed to escape to a nearby forest. But I am still terrified. Fear and distrust hang heavy on my mind. I spent so many sleepless nights before taking refuge in a relief camp. You can’t imagine how horrible it was…” His trembling voice trails off. The Kandhamal communal riots claimed 37 lives, thousands were rendered homeless and 100 churches were desecrated. Bagh Singh is now trying to gather the shattered pieces of his life with a bit of help from the district administration. “I try to forget but I can’t. Memories of that nightmare still haunt me,” he says. A TSI team revisited Kandhamal for an on-the-spot assessment of the situation in the district on the first anniversary of Saraswati’s death, being observed on Janmashtami day, August 14. After a non-stop drive of about 180 kilometers from the state capital, Bhubaneswar, we took a tea break at Tikabali Bazaar and interacted with a cross-section of the town’s denizens. An uneasy calm prevails here, but scratch the surface and you find hearts that still need comforting. The Tikabali police station loomed into view and the mind raced back to the horrifying sight one had witnessed at the same spot a year ago. Miscreants had burnt down the police station. Kandhamal is today dotted with CRPF pickets. We encountered as many as three such security checks after entering the district. A day before the first anniversary of Saraswati’s death, the local administration was in no mood to let its guard down. The Tikabali police station, just a few furlongs away from the last check post that we ran into, was fully fortified with a CRPF camp. The scenario seemed to have changed with the administration going all out to eliminate traces of the havoc that the rioters had wreaked. A brief interaction with a few police personnel revealed that, as part of a strategy to boost security, 12 platoons of the Orissa State Armed Police, along with a company of CRPF, were being pressed into service to help the district police force. Besides, around 250 special police officers from neighbouring Rayagada and Gajapati districts had moved in to man sensitive areas of Kandhamal district.

But things have not changed for Banamber Mallik and Dambaru Digal of Breka village of Tikabali block. Mallik and Digal are not happy with the administration’s decision to close down the relief camps. After living for almost a year in the Tikabali camp, which was disbanded recently, Mallik and Digal are struggling to resettle in their village. Expressing dissatisfaction over the issue, Digal said: “Though the situation looks normal, hatred still simmers under the surface. The government must continue to run the relief camps and shelter homes until normalcy is fully restored.” During his June 26, 2009 visit to the Mandaika, Rahikola, Tinigia and Tikabali camps providing shelter to about 1500 people, Union home minister P.Chidambaram had exhorted the inmates to return to their villages and live without fear. But doubts still linger among members of the minority community. More than 24,000 Christians had fled their homes after their houses were attacked by rampaging mobs following Saraswati's killing. Later, the administration set up 13 relief camps in the district for riot victims. Eleven of them have now been closed. Nearly 700 victims are, however, still in two relief camps – one in Mandakia and another in Tiangia village. Efforts are on to send the remaining people back to their villages. To inspire confidence, armed policemen have been stationed around churches.From Tikabali, we headed towards Chakapada, a block headquarters famous as the karmabhumi of the late Laxmanananda Saraswati. Narrow hilly roads made the drive a tad difficult for the cab driver. It took us nearly one hour to cover a distance of 18 kilometers. Surrounded by hills and a dense forest, Chakapada is a remote village, but the place is well developed. It has a school, a health centre and panchayat offices. We stopped in front of the Chakapada ashram, which was set up by Saraswati in 1966.This was one of the institutions that he established in Kandhamal to promote education among the poor, specifically the Dalits. Chakapada gurukul ashram is now home to around 300-plus students. The ashram had planned no special event to commemorate the Swamiji’s death anniversary. But we spotted some students cleaning his samadhi with cowdung. Malay Charan Majhi, a tribal inmate, told us: “Swamiji was like our father and mother. He was a very caring man. We’ve been orphaned by his demise.”
Thereafter we were greeted by a group of villagers engaged in a preparatory meeting to finalise plans for the observance of Swamiji’s death anniversary. “We’ve been constrained to curtail the first shradhotsav of Swamiji for two reasons. First, the district administration will not allow congregation of his admireres from across the state for security reasons. Second, Maoists have distributed leaflets directing the public to refrain from participating in any of our programmes. However, we will perform some basic religious rituals,” says Jagabandhu Dash, Sanskrit teacher of Chakapada gurukul. On condition of anonymity, one inmate revealed that the ashram was facing a severe cash crunch as donations had dried up after the death of the Swami. Some local people allege that the missionaries indulged in mass conversion of tribals and scheduled caste people by luring them with money and other inducements. The Swamiji successfully stopped the conversions and vehemently opposed cow-slaughter. The Swamiji had survived at least nine attempts on his life, including a murderous attempt in December 2007. The district administration failed to provide adequate security to Saraswati even though his life was always under threat. On our way back, our cab was halted on the Chakapada-Tikabali road by a huge herd of cattle. We ask the owner of the animals, Bapu Pradhan, whether he would be going to the ashram for Swamiji’s death anniversary. We also enquired whether communal tension still persists in Kandhamal. His reply surprised us: “I don’t know anything. Police vehicles are coming to this area frequently. Something untoward must have happened.” We reached the district headquarters, Phulbani, at about 9 pm. Hotel rooms in Kandhamal are all taken. Since last year’s communal violence, the place has been receiving a steady stream of journalists from around the world, which has been keeping constant watch on the situation in Kandhamal. An essentially local issue has turned into an international one. We later learnt that the Orissa Director-General of Police was in Phulbani to supervise security operations. “He is busy with a high-level meeting and may not brief the media today,” a senior police official present at the Kandhamal SP’s office said when a request for an interaction with the DGP Manmohan Praharaj was made. There were no signs of tension in Phulbani. Saroj Mishra, a veteran medical doctor, said, “The population of Kandhamal is about 600,000 of which 150,000 are Christians. The district has two different groups of people – the Kandha tribe and the Paana caste. While the Kandha tribe is 80% of the population, the remaining 20% are Panna scheduled castes. Kandhas are socially and economically backward while most Paanas have done well economically after becoming Christians, causing tension between the two groups. You may brand it as a traditional conflict between haves and have nots, but Swamiji’s killing has turned it into a violent religious clash.”In Khajuripada, 40 kilometers from Phulbani, we met a group of students outside a primary school. They posed for us and even sang their daily prayer. While most of the students seemed unaware of the reasons why Kandhamal has been in the news lately, Rashmita Digal, a Class 5 student, knew about last year’s riots because she wasn’t allowed by her parents to attend school during that period. Back in Bhubaneswar, we met Father Joseph, Archbishop of the Catholic Church. “The situation in Kandhamal has improved, but it isn't normal. Thousands of our people still live in camps because they are scared. We hope peace will return to Kandhamal soon,” he told TSI.Hope is all that the people of Kandhamal can bank on as the district struggles to shrug off the venom of communalism.
( Special Report in TSI English, August 30 )