Title: Faith by Force
Author: Uday Mahurkar
Publication: News Today
Specials
Date: March 13, 2000
It was an unsuspecting,
calm morning in Bandhghar village of Dahanu taluk in Thane. Devram Raut
and his family were about to finish their siesta when a 200 men-strong
horde armed with lathis marched on to their hut and ordered them to remove
the tulsi-bead necklaces they were wearing. Dissent was met with fish curry
forced down their throats. Their ordeal ended only after the mob had thrashed
them up and extracted 400 rupees from Raut as a kind of punitive tax. Six
months later, apprehending a second attack, the family fled into the jungle.
"Even today we simply shiver at the slightest noise during night. But we
will die rather than submit" Says Raut, who's now back in his village.
Raut's case is not an
isolated incident. The couple Sukri and Madhu Mahale have gone through
traumatic experience as well. The Mahales have been thrashed twice in the
past two years in a brutal manner. In the latest attack in their village
Shensari around Diwali last year, Mahale was beaten so badly that he had
to be hospitalised. His mother too wasn't spared as she tried to protect
her son.
The attackers in both
the cases were local tribals led by the followers of Kashtkari Sanghathan,
a Leftist organisation, and those on the receiving end were the tribal
followers of the Vaishnav sect called Mahanubhaav Panth.
In this region of Gujarat-Maharashtra
border there have been a series of attacks in the past two years by the
tribal activists of the Sanghathan on the Panth followers-better known
as Maalkaris for the Vaishnav mala (necklace of tulsi beads) they wear.
Formed in 1978 by Christian missionaries-turned-Leftists, the Sanghathan
finds its authority threatened by the inroads made lately by the Panth
in the tribal community in Dahanu, Thane.
Only a few of these attacks,
many of which are brutal like forcing meat and liquor down the throat of
the strictly vegetarian and teetotaller tribals, figure in the police files.
According to the police,
the non-Maalkaris have the direct support of the Sanghathan. "Like the
Naxalites, the Sanghathan is known for instigating the tribals against
the establishment. It has a clear missionary connection since it was founded
by them," says inspector I.S. Patil of Kasa police station, who has investigated
some of the attacks.
The Sanghathan, on the
other hand, blames the non-Maalkari tribals, who are unhappy with the Maalkaris
for discarding their old faith, for the violence.
Founder of the Sanghathan
Pradip Prabhu, earlier a Jesuit priest known as Peter De'Mello, said: "The
Maalkaris insult the ancient gods of the tribals. Besides, some of the
incidents of violence have been blown out of proportion by the Maalkaris,
who are definitely not apolitical." Prabhu, who claims himself to be a
staunch Marxist and an atheist, also charges the Panth with introducing
the caste system amongst the tribals and communalising them.
The BJP, which has come
to the Maalkaris' rescue despite its minimal presence in the area, accuses
the Sanghathan of being involved in the Roman Catholic Church's conversion
game. Manisha Chaudhary, president of Dahanu municipality and a BJP leader,
says: "The Sanghathan prepares the harvest for the Church. Once the crop
is ready the Sanghathan withdraws and the Church steps in." What particularly
vitiated the atmosphere in the tribal pocket was a pamphlet put out by
a band of Sanghthanis accusing the Maalkaris of destroying the tribal culture,
insulting the tribal gods and introducing untouchability amongst the tribals
by telling the Maalkaris not to drink water from the pots of the non-Maalkaris.
But Sukhdevmuni counters
these charges: "Many Vaishnav and Jain Banias don't drink water at the
house of a non-vegetarian Rajput. Can you call it untouchability?" Another
Sanghathan leader Siraz Balsar chips in: "That the BJP and the RSS have
no presence here is the very reason they are making these charges. They
are trying to build their presence." On the flipside, however, the Sanghathan's
permanent anti-establishment posture has been one of the main reasons why
the tribals have been dependent on them.
It is this stranglehold
of the Sanghathan that is threatened by the spread of the Mahanubhaav Panth.
The Maalkaris' strength in the 20 villages of Dahanu is today 5,000 and
is growing fast. The Sanghathan followers are between 10,000 and 15,000
in these villages. For the moment, the Maalkaris are going by the tenets
of their faith and haven't hit back. But if the atmosphere of terror prevails,
retaliation is the only answer as the Maalkaris are tribals too and the
same blood runs in their veins.
