Anti-Christian attacks in Odisha blamed on BJP government

Christians who refuse to convert to Hinduism are denied burial rights and access to public utilities like power and water, said Fr Ajay Kumar Singh.

Two priests in eastern India were injured when policemen burst into a church and attacked them, accusing them of proselytisation.

On 22 March, police entered the Diocese of Berhampur’s Church of Our Lady of Lourdes in Juba, in the eastern state of Odisha, amid a wider surge in hostilities against Christians.

They began beating a group of girls who were cleaning the church. Hearing their cries, Fr Joshi George and his assistant Fr Dayanand Nayak rushed out to help, but were brutally attacked by the police, Fr Ajay Kumar Singh told The Tablet.

He said Fr Nayak suffered a shoulder fracture and was hospitalised for a week. The policemen confiscated his mobile and also took away 40,000 rupees from his residence.

Christians in Odisha have faced mounting persecution since the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) assumed power in the state last year, said Fr Singh, a long-serving justice and peace activist in eastern dioceses.

To get a first-hand information, a team of six lawyers, including priests and nuns, went on a fact-finding mission to the Dioecese of Balasore, he explained.

“There some Christians told us they faced social boycott threats for practicing their faith.”

Christians who refuse to convert to Hinduism are denied burial rights and access to public utilities like power and water, said Singh, who is member of the Odisha Lawyers Forum of Religious and Priests.  

Sr Sujata Jena SSCC, another member of the fact-finding team, said that in early March a family was denied the right to bury their father in Siunaguda, a Hindu tribal village about 550km south-west of the state capital Bhubaneswar. Kesab Santa, who died aged 70 on 2 March, was buried only after his son and family converted to Hinduism.  

Siunaguda village comprises 130 families from the Kondh tribal community. Of these, five families had converted to Christianity, but three have reconverted to Hinduism following threats.

The two that refused to succumb to pressures have had their power supply severed, Sr Jena said. Pastor Gangadhar Santa said his family and his uncle’s family lost access to electricity on 23 March. They are also not allowed to use the village well.

They have also been denied access to government welfare schemes like housing, for which they are eligible. Even during the official demarcation of land and properties, their holdings were ignored, he said.

Sr Jena said most people in the diocese blamed the media and the new BJP government for the spread of anti-Christian sentiments, driven by misleading statements, misrepresentation of facts and publishing of false information. She said the administration should act against local newspapers publishing misleading statements and escalating tensions.

Fr Singh said the problems began in December, when a local tribal Christian was denied burial. Some locals said it was not their custom to bury the dead, so they would not allow Budhia Murmu’s burial. His body lay in the open for 12 hours until the authorities intervened and the burial took place.

The burial problems followed a Supreme Court ruling that gave a split verdict on the burial of a pastor in his village in neighbouring Chhattisgarh state, Fr Singh said. The court ruled that he be buried in a Christian cemetery 40km away and not in his village. Sing said this verdict emboldened the Hindu tribals in Chhattisgarh as well as Odisha.

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