Church meet to boost peace efforts post-Kandhamal

A major church conference in Bhubaneshwar next week will look into the causes and aftermath of Kandhamal violence to facilitate healing and restoration of peace, justice and reconciliation.

The Jan 17-22 event will shed light on the 2008 conflict, mainly the divide between the Panos who are Dalits and Khonds who are Tribals, to create a common platform and fellowship to address the diverse issues at hand.

The event, organised by the Council for World Mission in partnership with the National Council of Churches in India, will be attended by representatives of church organisations, activists and lay leaders.

"If issues like land, culture, identity, existence, reservation, elimination, inhuman violence against women and trafficking and religious conversion happen to be the core issues that have been oppressing, humiliating and even dividing the Tribal and Dalit community in the country especially in this region, then these issues need to be addressed on an indigenous table," stated a note from the organisers.

"In this situation a Dalit-Tribal interface is the need of the hour, so that the many hidden issues behind the religious aspects can be spelt out and addressed in order to educate the society and the church in general and the Dalit and Tribal community in particular for justice and peaceful co-existence," it added.

Such an interface, the organisers said, will enable both Dalits and Tribals be partners in building communities of peace, especially in the "Red Corridor" comprising states such as Chhattisgarh, Orissa, Jharkhand, and northern Andra Pradesh that are rich in mineral deposits.

The conference, besides bringing together both the Dalit and Tribal movements, will reflect the gospel from the perspective of the oppressed and marginalized and will help the church to re-affirm its mission mandate in the light of Dalit and Tribal struggles post-Kandhamal.

In addition to that, it will also strive to "make the Civil Society, the NGOs, the Government, the inter-faith communities, the media, the law experts, etc. to come together in order to raise our voices in unity for justice of the Tribal-Dalit community of the Kandhamal region."

Kandhamal witnessed widespread violence after the murder of Saraswati and four of his aides at his ashram Aug 23, 2008. More than 50,000 Christians were forced to flee their homes after their houses were attacked by rampaging mobs.