On 23 August 2008, Hindu leader Swami Laxmananda Saraswati and four of his disciples were killed in Kandhamal district, Orissa state, India. Hindu leaders accused Christians and violence soon engulfed Kandhamal plus 13 more districts of Orissa leaving more than a hundred people dead, hundreds more injured and thousands homeless. The violence continued unabated for more than two-and-a half months.
Although it is almost a year now since Swami Saraswati has been killed, still many Christians are suffering.
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I am Nika from Orissa, India. This is my story...
Around 7pm some extremists came to my house. They started destroying everything they saw and beat us. At about 8:30pm, some of the young people from our village cam to my aid and took me to the hospital.
The next morning, they attacked those who had rescued me and forced them to bow down and worship the Hindu gods and eat the food offered to those gods. The attackers shaved their heads and marked thier forehads as a sign that they had become Hindus.
Some of the extremists came to the hospital looking for me, but I had left earlier as I was not feeling safe. Then a group of about 20 cam to my house with sticks and rods and threatened to forcibly convert me to Hinduism; I told them, "I know my Lord, He has saved me and I will not change my faith!"
They then shaved my head and tried to make me drink cow urine mixed with dung! The people watching became scared and ran away - nobody stayed to help! The extremists then started beating me brutally and told me to leave the village.
They took all that we had, even our animals. We are helpless. We live in constant fear. But we are determined not to forsake our faith. Please pray for us.
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| On 23 August 2008, Hindu extremist leader Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati and four of his disciples were killed. |
| Hindus claimed that Christians were behind the killing of their leader and called for revenge. |
| The outburst of religiously motivated violence that followed the call for retaliation has claimed the lives of least 120 people. More than 54,000 Christians were rendered homeless, hundreds were injured, and 315 villages were completely destroyed. According to government estimates 252 churches were destroyed. Reportedly 50,000 people fled the violence; an estimated number of 13,000 people found shelter in 9 refugee camps in the region. |
| The government made some security arrangements to safeguard churches and places of worship. But the angry mobs were reportedly too much for them, and inadequate government forces were not able to prevent damage to Christians and their properties. |
| According to a Compass Direct News release of 1 September, a Maoist group claimed responsibility for killing Saraswati, saying that fanatical Hindu’s claims that Christians murdered him were “lies”. |
| Christians are a small minority (approx. 2 per cent) in Orissa. |
| Saraswati, who had run a campaign against Christian missionaries for several decades in Orissa, was allegedly behind a spate of anti-Christian attacks in Kandhamal district in December 2007. The 2007 violence lasted for more than a week beginning 24 December, and killed at least four Christians and burned 730 houses and 95 churches. |
| Almost one year later, more than 4,000 people are still living in relief camps and thousands have been unable to return to the villages and their properties for fear of death or of forcible conversion to Hinduism. |
| There is an ethnic component to this violence. Villages where Hindus and Christians once lived side-by-side are now identified as Hindu-only areas. More than 4,000 people are still living in refugee camps; thousands more have not returned to their villages because they fear for their lives or fear the threat of forced conversion to Hinduism. Many have left for other parts of Orissa or further afield. Small towns now have temporary encampments, Christians living in makeshift tents of plastic sheets. |
