Author: Sachi Satpathy
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: October 8, 2008
The recent Kandhamal crisis in Orissa has
attracted international attention.. The media, activists and intellectuals
are trying to give the whole issue a communal colour. Nobody is trying to
understand that the violence has nothing to do with religion. The present
crisis is a manifestation of an age-old caste conflict between the Kui-speaking
tribals and the Schedule Caste Pana community. Kandhamal district comprises
52 per cent tribals and 19 per cent scheduled castes -- 90 per cent of the
population here lives below the poverty line.
The conflict between the Kui-speaking Kondh
tribals and the Pana community peaked when the latter initiated an agitation
to be included in the Schedule Tribes list, arguing that they too spoke the
same Kui language as the tribals of the district. But the Government of Orissa
did not approve of their demand. The Kui-speaking tribals too opposed this
move for obvious reasons.. This aggravated the conflict between the two communities.
Even a Pana Cabinet Minister of the present Government was allegedly sacked
because he supported his community's demand for inclusion in the ST list.
History informs us that there have always
been problems between the Panas and the tribals. After bifurication of Phulbani
district into two new districts, the tribals demanded that the district be
renamed as Kandhamal. Looking at the serious disturbances and the loss of
life this agitation involved, the State Government decided to give the tribals
what they wanted. However, this renaming of the district was not acceptable
to the Panas, who wanted to retain the original name Phulbani of their district.
The issue of religious Conversions has added
fuel to this simmering fire of enmity between the two communities. Most of
the Panas are Christian converts. But the tribals, who are mostly unaffected
by conversion activity in the area, could not digest the fact that people
in the region were being converted into another religion.
The solution to the present problem lies with
the arrest of those responsible for the murder of Swami Laxmanananda, the
incident that sparked the violence. Also, one cannot deny that the crisis
is intrinsicaly linked to the issue of poverty. It is because of this that
the two communities are fighting over the ST reservation pie. Kandhamal district
must be included in the KBK special package grant to uplift the socio-economic
standards of the people there.
