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December 2, 2008

Christians welcome Orissa decision but warn on elections

by Anto Akkara
Ecumenical News International

BANGALORE, India — Christians in India’s troubled Orissa state have welcomed an announcement of compensation for places of worship damaged in recent communal violence but have criticized the state government’s refusal to postpone a municipal election scheduled for the beginning of December.

“We are certainly happy about this [compensation],” Roman Catholic Archbishop Raphael Cheenath of Bhubaneswar, Orissa’s capital, said of the announcement by the state government, which had initially opposed the Christian demand for recompense.

The Orissa government’s change of mind followed a mid-November decision by India’s federal supreme court, which directed the state to provide compensation, the archbishop noted. More than 200 churches and 40 religious institutions were damaged in the violence, said Cheenath.

Separately, another Christian leader, Bishop Samson Das of the Church of North India, has demanded that the Orissa government postpone municipal elections scheduled for Dec. 2 in Phulbani, the headquarters of the Kandhamal district where most of the violence took place.

Das said that many Christians had fled their homes because of the violence and “are still afraid of returning to their villages” but the Orissa government had refused to accept the postponement demand.

The violence in Orissa broke out following the killing of Hindu leader Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati in August. A Maoist leader is reported to have claimed responsibility for the killing but some Hindu groups have said it was a Christian conspiracy, as the 85-year-old slain monk had been campaigning against conversions to Christianity in Kandhamal, where he was based.

The violence has claimed the lives of 60 Christians, and more than 5,000 Christian houses have been looted or torched in the Kandhamal district.

On compensation, the Orissa government said on Nov. 17 that large places of worship and religious institutions that had been completely destroyed would receive compensation of $4,000, while partially damaged buildings would receive half that amount.

Smaller places of worship that had been destroyed would receive $1,000 while those that had been partially damaged would receive between $200 and $400.

Bishop Das told Ecumenical News International that there was a “catch” in the compensation as it would apply only to buildings situated on land owned by the religious group in question. Several village churches are built on land that is not registered to a religious organization.