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JUST outside Jarsol village, a celebration was on. Inside the village, however, there was an eerie silence. Jiva Powar (name changed) kept a watch over the crowd of pilgrims outside his house. Paramilitary troops sat next to him. Yet he was uneasy.
In the build-up to the Vishwa Hindu Parishad's (VHP) newly created Shabari Kumbh Mela in the Dangs district of Gujarat, Adivasi Christians like Jiva felt threatened. That is why many fled their homes. "Sangh activists came to our houses and warned that during the Kumbh we would be made to bathe in order to purify us and make us Hindu," said Jiva. "One family has left the village and will return only after the Kumbh ends. A farmer has sent his wife and children to her parent's home."
Jiva also had to guard his land close to the `Pampa Sarovar' (a small pond which the Sangh claims is the place where Shabari's guru sat), where pilgrims bathed. The Shabari Kumbh trust forcibly took it over and put up stalls and shelters on it. "They are trying to take away all our rights. Without asking, they have set up all this on my land. Initially, they wanted to build a garden, but I argued with the officials who came to survey the land. Soon the trust will start claiming that the land is theirs and the government will let them take it," he lamented.
Jiva is not the only person whose land has been taken away. In Mukkamal village, Manad Powar (name changed) sold one acre (0.4 hectare) of his 3.5-acre (1.4 ha) farm land to the Shabari trust, but the latter grabbed the entire plot to build the Shabari temple (see Frontline, February 10, 2006).
The Shabari Kumbh Mela was not just an innocuous religious festival. It was organised to create a religious tourism site and to intimidate Christians.
Traditionally, there are four Kumbh melas. But the VHP started a fifth one in Subir and Jarsol villages in the Dangs, based purely on the wish of the sant Morari Bapu. He came here in 2002 and said that a Kumbh should be organised because it was the place where the saint Shabari fed Rama berries while he was looking for Sita. The Sangh's use of the myth of Shabari, an Adivasi, makes it easier for the tribal people to identify with Brahmanical Hinduism. The VHP hoped the Kumbh would lead to a "Hindu awakening" and the re-conversion of the Christian Adivasis. "Even one of the five Dang Rajas who had become Christians has returned to Hinduism," boasted a Sangh activist.
The Shabari Kumbh website is strong on anti-Christian propaganda: "For long, Bharat has been a special target of the Christian Church worldwide. To the Church, the Hindus represent the greatest stumbling block in their grand design to establish Christ's kingdom on earth. The poor, illiterate, mild Vanvasi Hindu is an obvious target in this nefarious scheme. For years, under the garb of social service, the Church has been spreading its tentacles in far-flung, tribal regions of our country. These converted Vanvasis become alienated from their customs and traditions. They get uprooted from their cultural milieu. Conversion to Christianity is invariably associated with separatism and terrorism as is evident in North-East Bharat...The process of self-alienation and separatism, which inevitably accompanies conversion, had become visible in the Dangs. Makeshift, illegal churches had mushroomed in cowsheds and residential areas. These churches were unregistered and illegal. Such was the terrorism of Christian activists that it had become unsafe for Hindus to move out of their houses after dusk."
The ground reality is very different from the picture painted by the Shabari Kumbh website. There are no involuntary conversions. Rather, Adivasi Christians are scared to move freely in the atmosphere created during the Kumbh.
On the last day of the mela, there were reports that a mob destroyed graves at a Christian cemetery in Ghumadia village. A complaint was filed with the police and the District Collector. But when contacted by Frontline, R.M. Jadhav, the District Collector, denied any knowledge of the incident and dismissed it as a rumour.
The district administration seemed to be working for the Shabari Trust. Journalists at the festival were surprised to see top district officials including the Collector and the Secretary in charge of the district, holding a press conference under the banner of the Kumbh mela and hosted by the Shabari Trust. In this deprived area, where any development work had been unheard of until recently, 22 check dams and roads were constructed at breakneck speed before the Kumbh. Government funds for the development of tribal areas were used to provide infrastructure for the mela.
Around six lakh pilgrims were expected to visit this forest district that has a total population of less than two lakh. The environmental damage caused prompted the Central Ministry of Environment and Forests to conduct an investigation.
A public interest petition has been filed in the Supreme Court against the illegal non-forest activity going on inside a protected forest. Another petition has been filed in the Supreme Court against the Shabari Kumbh video CD. The CD contains communally inflammatory remarks against Christians.
Most pilgrims were from outside Dangs district - from Surat and Ahmedabad in Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra, mobilised by the Sangh. "We have come for the ride," said Tarachand Patidar, a farmer from Ujjain, M.P. and a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) activist. "The Sangh organised this because people here have changed their religion. Those who switch their religion become enemies of the nation." Local people were a bit apprehensive to speak. Most said that they were happy that so many people were visiting their village. "But we haven't got any work during this mela. People from outside have been brought here to work," said an Adivasi from Subir.
During their speeches, Sangh leaders continued their tirade against Christians. Morari Bapu quoted from the Bible and said that Christ was against conversions. "Today, planeloads from the Vatican can come here and convert people, but if we organise a ghar vaapsi [return home ceremony], is it bad? This programme is about peace and tolerance, which is part of Hinduism. No one shall be scared of this," he said.
Chief Minister Narendra Modi warned:, "Mahatma Gandhi fought conversions. Our Constitution disapproves of them, and yet some people turn a blind eye. Let me warn everyone, it is my constitutional duty to prevent conversions." Elaborating on his vision to make the Shabari Kumbh a tourist destination, the Chief Minister said: "I see Shabari Kumbh as a Vikas Yatra [path to development]. Every Indian should have a desire to visit this place during their lifetime. If that happens, poverty will be removed. And the local culture will flourish."
But the local people are not buying that. They do not want to meet the same fate as the refugees from Saputara, a village 65 km away that was converted into a hill station.
"The government forced 40 families to leave. They jailed us and forced us to surrender our land documents as bail. They cheated and settled us in a village near the Maharashtra border," says Pandubhai Choudhari, a journalist and shopkeeper from Saputara. "We were promised farm land but never given [120 ha]. Today, people are still roaming as casual labourers searching for work or washing dishes in restaurants there."
Adivasis in the villages surrounding the site of the Kumbh mela know that the end of the festival does not mean they can breathe easy. "The organisers have paid villagers Rs.300 and taken their thumb impressions on a blank piece of paper. Who knows what they will do with that paper? The government will let them do anything," said Jiva. "Will they take away our land as they did in Saputara?"
The Shabari Kumbh Mela is just the start of the Sangh's work in the Dangs. The local people fear there is much more to follow a la Saputara.
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