In Metropolitan towns, including the national capital of Delhi, Christians celebrated Christmas under the protective shadow of the guns held by police pickets at their gates. There were far fewer incidents of Christmas-time violence this year, though a smashed statue  of Jesus Christ in a vandalised  church was clear signal that aggressive cadres of the Sangh Parivar, as it is called, will not slacken on their now eight-year-old campaign to intimidate the Christian community.

The scenario in the countryside, in small towns, and in forested regions, home to the ancient Adivasi communities, is far different. December has been fraught with reports of intimidation and violence from various states, including Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, and Uttarakhand. Governments continue to talk of national Common Civil Codes, and a stern national law against conversions; political cadres have been active terrorising the Christian community in some of these states.

Two districts of the Bastar region, Narayanpur and Kondagaon, have become the epicentre of this mass expulsion of Christians from among Adivasis who will submit themselves to a Ghar Wapsi or forcible conversion to a form of Hinduism and acceptance of private cultural taxation – or donations – to celebrate a set of cultural and agricultural festivals celebrated by the dominant group of the village. A fact-finding team’s report unequivocally said: “There is an organised campaign to forcibly convert Christian Adivasis to Hindu religion.” 

Using a totally warped and weaponised version of the Provisions of the Panchayats (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act, 1996, or PESA regulations, aggressive village elders have taken the law into their own hands to force coverts to Christianity to renege on their faith in Christ or face violence and expulsion. 

In the fortnight before Christmas 2022, some 1,000 Adivasi children, women and men have been thrown out of their homes and land in several villages of Narayanpur and Kondagaon. More than 1,000 of them have taken shelter in church compounds, sports stadiums and open spaces where night temperatures have been below 10 degrees centigrade in some areas.

These districts were once part of the vast virgin forest region of Bastar, populated by the Mariah and closely related tribes. This is an area where the Vanvasi Kalyan Ashrams, as well as the Rama Krishan Mission, have been long active. 

The Vanvasi Kalyan machine is aggressively active in the region, ostensibly to “counter” the influence of the Christian church which has historically brought education and medical services to this region. This is the area which was the fiefdom of the family of Dilip Singh Judev, who was a junior Minister in the Atal Behari Vajpayee government. Judev used his political clout, the government apparatus and his private militia to forcibly convert Christians to Hinduism.

Since then, this region in Chhattisgarh as well as similar areas in neighboring states have seen a concerted and high pitch attempt to polarize the Adivasis community. While a section of the community professed Christianity in various phases in the last hundred years or so, many adhere to their ancient practice of worshipping nature, groves of trees and large stone shibboleths.  

There are allegations that coverts to Christianity do not pay their share for village festivals and prayers to launch the sowing or harvesting seasons, birth of children and such like. However, sociologists have monitored and written that while some Adivasis will  celebrate festivals in their own fashion and not join other villagers in their worship,  there is no loss of “Ädivasi” culture of people professing different faiths.

However, Sangh activists and political leaders have been baiting Christian tribals in Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Odhisa over the years, the tension occasionally breaking out in targeted violence against the Christian community.

The extent of the December 2022 violence in Chhattisgarh has been documented by a four-member fact-finding team consisting of lawyers and human rights activists that visited the impacted area from December 22 to 24, 2022.

“There is a sustained and organized campaign to forcibly convert Christian Adivasis of Bastar in Chhattisgarh to a Hindu way of life. The official machinery is complicit in the on-going violence which has led to the displacement of thousands of children, women, and men from their villages in the region,” the fact-finding team said in its report which was released to the Press on December 29. The report called on the state government to take urgent steps to stop the violence and coercion.

“Strict action must be taken against the forcible conversions of Christian Adivasis that have taken place,” said Mr. Irfan Engineer, Director, Centre for Study of Society and Secularism, Mumbai, who led the fact-finding mission. The other members were Mr. Ashok Verma, Senior Journalist, Ranchi, Adv. Nicholas Barla, and Mr. Brijendra Tiwari, Convenor, All India People's Forum, Chhattisgarh.

Mr. Engineer reminded the state government that the right to freedom of choice of religion is enshrined in the Constitution of India. India’s Adivasis have their own indigenous way of life, and as citizens, they too enjoy the constitutional freedom to practice the religion of their choice. “These barbarous acts are a slap on the face of Chhattisgarh and indeed bring disrepute to the nation,” the report said. 

The fact-finding team had visited several relief camps and villages and interacted with the victims, as well as the non-Christian Adivasis including village sarpanches and residents. They interacted with district administration officials of Narayanpur including the District Collector, Deputy Superintendent of Police, Additional Superintendent of Police apart from members of political and cultural outfits. 

The team focused on the affected villages as well as the district headquarters of Narayanpur and Kondagaon. They visited several relief camps and villages and interacted with the victims, as well as the non-Christian Adivasis including village sarpanch and residents.

They interacted with district administration officials of Narayanpur including the District Collector, Deputy Superintendent of Police, Additional Superintendent of Police apart from members of political and cultural outfits. 

The report says that from December 9 to 18, 2022, there were a series of attacks in about 18 villages in Narayanpur, and 15 villages in Kondagaon, displacing about 1,000 Christian Adivasis from their homes. Those displaced were threatened that unless they denounced their Christian faith, and converted to the Hindu religion, they would have to leave their village or face dire consequences, even death. Many Christian Adivasis were gravely assaulted and beaten with bamboo canes, rods, etc. At least two dozen people had to be hospitalised with broken bones and other wounds. A few were forcibly converted to Hinduism. 

Mr. Engineer, introducing the report said: “Early warnings of the campaign to forcibly convert Christians manifested as early as October 2022. However, the District Administration ignored the intimidation of Christian Adivasis. The administration was lackadaisical even after an escalated and violent campaign against Christian Adivasis commenced around December 9. No action was taken even then. In fact, no FIR was registered even though the survivors of this attack filed their complaints with Benur police station and other police stations in Narayanpur.”

Most tellingly, in Temrugaon, three Christian Adivasis were beaten in the presence of 10 to 15 policemen. The policemen neither stopped the attack nor filed any FIRs. With the perpetrators enjoying such impunity, the violence against Christians Adivasis continued to escalate. There are even instances of police excess against the Adivasis outlined in the report.

There was even an instance of police excess against the Adivasis who had gathered in the District Collectorate at 2:30 a.m. on December 19, 2022, in the presence and at the instance of the Superintendent of Police, Narayanpur. Even though the District Collector claimed that an FIR has been filed, but no such information can be found on the government website. The District Collector could not give any detail about the sections under which FIRs were filed nor specified the number of people accused or arrested. 

The administration is functioning on the proposition that both sides are guilty in the scuffle or conflict. However, when the fact-finding team asked the Collector what wrong the Christian Adivasis had committed, he could not specify anything. When the fact-finding team interacted with the non-Christian Adivasis, even they did not allege that the victims were wrong, their only grievance was that the Christian Adivasis had now disowned their previous faith. 

Mr. Manglu Koram from Madamnar village told the fact-finding team that he and members of 21 Christian families of his village were taken to the village tihad (temple) where the priest forcibly conducted some rituals and declared them to be Hindus. They also confiscated copies of the Bible from their homes. 

Likewise, 18 families from Udidgaon village and three families from Fulhadgaon village, and three families from Putanchandagaon village were also forcibly converted. Even persons with disabilities, pregnant women and children were not spared of the brutal violence. 

Mr.  Dhantaraj Tandon of Sarva Anusuchit Jati Samaj told the fact-finding team that “RSS’s divisive campaigns should be held responsible for attacks on Christian Adivasis”. He further emphasised that there is an attempt to create a Manuwadi mindset to undermine the rule of law. Bangaram Sodi, President of Sarva Adivasi Samaj, Kondagaon district, said that Adivasis should be free to choose their religion. He felt RSS was running a campaign to communalise the Adivasis causing unnecessary disturbances in the area.