People in the Dangs wary of 'outsiders'

By Manas Dasgupta

AHWA (Dangs District), JAN. 28. Prohibitory orders have been lifted and police withdrawn except from a few strategic points. A month after the Christmas celebrations ``under the shadows of gun,'' life in the tribal-dominated Dangs district in south Gujarat goes on without an iota of tension in the air.

Most of the saffron flags that dotted Ahwa, headquarters of the Dangs district, during the celebrations have disappeared as also the artificial barrier the Hindu fundamentalists had sought to create between the two communities.

The ``conversion controversy'' does not seem to have affected the people in the villages where both the Hindus and Christians interact freely unconcerned about each other's religion. Narakhadi village, where a church and a temple stand side by side is not an exceptional case, as this is a common feature in most of the villages in the district.

Like the case of Bhindubhai Madhubhai Gaekwad, whose younger brother, Laxmanbhai, converted to Christianity, there are many families in the district where a Hindu father and a Christian son or Hindu and Christian brothers live together, their social relations remaining unchanged. Soniben Gathiya of Narakhadi village has not been ``banished'' by her Hindu mother-in-law because her husband embraced Christianity. The Hindu and Christian family members participate in each other's religious ceremonies, etc.

None of the local Hindus blame the Christian missionaries for conversions under pressure or allurement. Like Laxmanbhai, most of the tribals suffering from diseases have taken Christianity after being cured by the missionaries or being helped during difficulty. They admit that the missionaries were exploiting the poverty and backwardness of the tribals, but they blamed the Government for ignoring the development of the backward region.

The relations between the two communities had always been very cordial in this hilly district where the illiterate people knew little about religion, till the Hindu Jagran Manch and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad started organising rallies in the Christian- dominated areas. The Sangh outfits deliberately chose Christmas for holding the rallies to disrupt the celebrations.The stoning of a HJM-sponsored rally on Christmas in 1998 brought the situation to a flash point and the State Government authorities had to force the Sangh outfits to postpone a similar public rally during last Christmas. The visit of the Shankaracharya of Karveer Peeth to a temple in Ahwa the same day created tension, but the presence of armed policemen kept the situation under control.

``But there will be no more such tense Christmas in Dangs. We have realised our folly of fighting among ourselves and we will not allow either the VHP activists or the Christian missionaries to enter our villages any more,'' assures Hitesh Patel, an educated tribal youth of Narakhadi village. He was present at the 1998 HJM rally at Ahwa but has since refrained from participating in any of the Sangh activities.

Sister Nirmala, vice-principal of the Deep Darshan school, which was targeted that year, however, is not reassured. ``We do not know whether we will be able to celebrate the next Christmas peacefully, but the fact that three policemen are still posted at the school prove that there is tension in the area,'' she said.

But the district resident Deputy Collector, Mr. D. J. Varanda, denied that police presence was a sign of tension. The prohibitory orders banning assembly of more than four people imposed during Christmas have been lifted and the armed State Reserve Police withdrawn. But a few policemen were still posted at the school and a few other strategic points because ``we are not taking chances.'' Except for Ahwa town, most of the villages had remained unguarded even on Christmas and ``the fact that not a single untoward incident was reported from any part of the district proved that the local people are not interested in communal strife,'' he claimed.

According to Mr. Varanda, more than the police presence it was the efforts of the district administration to create awareness among the local tribals of the dangers of ``falling into the trap of religious fundamentalists'' and the strict vigil kept on the entry of the outsiders that has paid dividends. The attempt to stir up communal passion among the tribals was politically motivated but ``they will not be allowed to succeed in their designs,'' Mr. Varanda asserted.

Besides taking steps for the tribals' social welfare, the State administration is also taking several measures to bring the two communities together. To get assistance from the Government for farming projects, the tribals would have to form village-level co-operatives in which no one should be discriminated against on religious grounds.

The district, with 311 far-flung villages and having a population of a mere 1.40 lakhs, has as many as 215 temples and 132 Christian prayer halls. As in Narakhadi village, many of the converts have started returning to Hinduism because of social pressures and the ``conversion hype'' created by the VHP.

The VHP is bent on keeping the Christians and the district administration on the tenterhooks during Christmas. It plans to set up at least one temple in each village and to begin with aims to build 40 temples before December this year. It will also ensure that the occasions were used to highlight ``forced conversions''.

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