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Rakshit Sonawane
KAYRE SADADPADA (PETH), JAN 22: The State Reserve Police Force (SRPF) has found a new outpost, at Kayre Sadadpada, a tribal village 11 km from Peth town in Nashik district. But behind the fragile truce it has brokered between the Hindus and the dozen-odd Christian families here is a quiet - and ugly - transformation this miniscule village has undergone in the three months since the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) marked it for saffronisation. However, if fundamentalist forces are chanting victory slogans now, the only conversion to its credit is cleaving a hamlet which had no excuse to quarrel for decades.
The handful of Christian tribals here are no longer on talking terms with the `majority' Hindu tribals and they walk 11 km to Peth town to buy their provisions every day. Their only grouse: the refusal of the perpetrators of the October 1998 riot to rebuild their church.
The saffron flags fluttering on the housetops where the Hindus live boast of the muscle-power of the Dharma Raksha Samiti, set up afterHindu tribals vandalised a church following the converted tribals' reluctance to contribute money and foodgrains towards an annual traditional tribal festival on October 16, 1998. But religion, quite simply, is not an issue among the villagers. It is, only for the agents of fundamentalism, who have marked the 600-strong village for its own proselytisation campaign.
Referring to the Vishaal Hindu Sammelan held in Peth on January 5, when some of the Christians were `reconverted' to Hinduism, a Christian tribal says: "After the sammelan, some outsiders had visited the village and asked Christians to return to the Hindu fold. But the conversions have made no difference to us. All we want is that our church be rebuilt by the offenders."
But there will be no retribution. Gopal Mahadu Jadhav, who had led the October riot, says: "All we want is amity in the village as all citizens are related to one another." There is a rider, of course. He says the damaged church will not be reconstructed "under anycircumstances". And, what if the Christian tribals fail to reconvert by the Samiti's March 31 deadline? "Instead of violence, we would prefer to ostracise them," Jadhav says. But the concession he is willing to barter offers little consolation.
Fr Arthur Jebrass, the missionary priest who was instrumental in the conversions at Kayre Sadadpada, lives a safe distance away in Peth town. At present, he is out of station though his house is still under police protection. The handful of families who converted to Christianity over the last decade reside in a cluster of houses which encircle their damaged church. And, as the SRP platoon watches over, peace returns to this wounded village - but only as a lingering memory.
On more casualty
Like gadflies disturbing centuries-old customs in the tribal belt on the Nashik-Gujarat border, the agents of saffronisation have now managed to stir the tranquility at Savarne village, 3 km from Kayre Sadadpada. Christian tribals here, perhaps in an effort to assertthemselves in the midst of a fundamentalist wave, sought to institute a `new' custom, almost with damaging consequences.
A clash was averted during the weekend, when relatives of Laxman Nimbare, a villager who had converted to Christianity, tried to erect a tombstone on January 16, 10 days after his death. When the other villagers objected, the situation could have turned ugly but for the intervention of the local authorities. The tribals usually bury their dead without raising tombstones and the converted tribals are no exception.
Copyright © 1999 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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