Hindutva combats christianity in Orissa

This paper explores why and how Hindutva has been successful in its mission against Christianity in Orissa. First, it shows how Christianity began its journey in Hindu-dominated Orissa during the colonial rule by labelling Hindus as “heathens”, popular Hindu deity Lord Jagannath as “evil” and endorsing the colonial government’s perception of Adivasis, particularly the Kandhas of Kandhamal, as “savages”, thereby germinating the seeds of an anti-Christian “mindset” which got further crystallized as Christian missionaries zealously carried out their agenda of conversion. Secondly, it discusses how conversion became the main plank of Hindutva’s anti-Christian discourse during the regime of M.S. Golwalkar (1906-1973), the second chief of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), which later concretised in the forms of virulent campaigns and violent attacks undertaken by the Sangh Parivar during the BJP rule in New Delhi. Then it contextualises this discourse and aggressive mobilisation in postcolonial Kandhamal, the epicentre of anti-Christian violence, explaining how conversion of Dalit Panas to Christianity has communalised the long-standing Kandha-Pana ethnic divide and how Hindutva instigated the Kandhas by portraying the Christian Panas as their economic and political exploiters, thereby triggering anti-Christian animosity which culminated in the 2008 riots. Then it attempts to understand why and how new Christian denominations like the Pentecostals have proliferated in Kandhamal, attracting new converts and widening communal cleavage. Finally, it shows how Christians have confronted Hindutva’s challenge by building alliances with various progressive and secular civil society organisations as well as with the “Maoists”.Cet article explore les raisons du succès qu’a connu l’Hindutva dans sa mission contre le christianisme en Orissa. Premièrement, il montre comment le christianisme a commencé à séjourner dans un Orissa dominé par l’hindouisme à l’époque du pouvoir colonial en classant les hindous en tant que « païens », le dieu populaire hindou Lord Jagannath en tant que « force maléfique » et en approuvant la perception qu’avait le gouvernement colonial des Adivasi, en particulier les Kandha de Kandhamal, considérés comme « sauvages », semant ainsi les germes d’une mentalité anti-chrétienne qui se cristallisa à mesure que les missionnaires chrétiens zélés appliquaient leur programme de conversion. Deuxièmement, l’article examine comment la conversion est devenue le point principal du discours anti-chrétien de l’Hindutva pendant le régime de M.S. Golwakar (1906-1973), second chef du Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sang (RSS), qui s’est plus tard matérialisé sous forme de campagnes virulentes et de violentes attaques entreprises par le Sangh Parivar sous le gouvernement du BJP à New Delhi. Puis, l’article contextualise ce discours et la mobilisation agressive dans le Khandamal postcolonial, épicentre d’une violence anti-chrétienne, expliquant comment la conversion des Dalit Pana au christianisme a communalisé la division ethnique Kandha-Pana, et comment l’Hindutva a provoqué les Kandha en présentant les chrétiens Pana comme leurs exploiteurs économiques et politiques, déclenchant ainsi une animosité anti-chrétienne qui a culminé durant les émeutes de 2008. Ensuite, cette étude tente de comprendre les raisons pour lesquelles de nouvelles confessions chrétiennes, à l’instar des pentecôtistes, se sont multipliées au Kandhamal, attirant de nouveaux convertis et élargissant de plus en plus un clivage communautaire. Et pour finir, il montre comment les chrétiens ont relevé le défi en construisant des alliances avec des organisations progressistes diverses et des sociétés civiles laïques aussi bien qu’avec les maoïstes

Preface

International audience

Ethnicity in the Margins: Experiments and Experiences

International audience

Preface

International audience

The politics of ethnicity in India, Nepal and China

Contributions issues d'une conférence internationale conjointement organisée à New Delhi par le Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS), la Fondation Maison des sciences de l'homme (FMSH) et l'Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR)International audienceThe indigenous population, with their rich culture and heritage, represent an important component of Indian and Himalayan civilizations. Politics of Ethnicity in India, Neapal and China reviews the social, cultural and political processes that have shaped these indigenous societies in India, Nepal and China in recent years. The ethnic minorities, legally recognized in India and Nepal have emerged as powerful groups influencing the political imagery in both these countries. In Nepal, the staggering diversity of the Himalayan population poses a problem for the authorities. They include economically and culturally diverse groups, spread throughout the region. The state, partially inspired by India is now looking at institutionalizing procedures to integrate the indigenous people as citizens. In India, the threat of ethnic conflict has driven the Indian state to recognize new states and form autonomous district councils, paving way for an asymmetrical federalism where federal units are being devolved special powers. The acknowledgement of indigenous languages and scripts by the Constitution of India has offered the possibility for janjatis/adivasis to assert themselves. Likewise, the recent policies in favour of ethnic minority groups and their culture in Nepal have generated various initiatives from local communities to develop their often endangered culture. Both in India and Nepal, these changes impact the discourse held by leaders who are now claiming a history and culture for their own group. The construction of an identity through narratives, village theatre and other cultural expressions have become part of the subtle process of reinventing tradition. The Politics of Ethnicity in India, Nepal and China analyzes the reshaping of ethnic boundaries through acculturation, conversion, education, and religious movements, in times of conflict as well as in times of peace, highlighting how the indigenous people of India and Nepal frame a new sense of identity informed by 'reinvented' custom. This may offer a way to conciliate self‐governance and democracy. In India, development programmes launched in different regions by the states have led to further deprivation of indigenous people and conflicts over environmental issues. This volume enables the reader to grasp the reformulation of identities influenced by cultural strategies of empowerment. As mentioned earlier, in both India and Nepal, the tribal has been considered a political agent in the national imagination. Besides, it is not by chance that current concern over biodiversity in a globalizing world has in many ways laid hope in tribal practices which are regarded as sustainable. Yet biodiversity also comes with the promise of a different lifestyle contrasting with the homogenized consumerism which dominates today's capitalist economy. Adivasi/janajati societies have often developed a policy of resisting global, capital, savage and corrupt industrial exploitation. For instance, they maintain 'sacred groves' as religious emblems of indigenous knowledge in central India and in the Khasi and Garo hills. This volume also discusses the progressive discovery of tribal art and its present status in the national context. It traces the story of how these art forms came to be recognized as such, underlining factors such as state patronage, which played an important role in this process. Retracing the path these artefacts took from local workshops to craft‐exhibitions, museums and shops in the capital of Orissa State and on to those of the Indian Union capital city (New Delhi

Cultural entrenchment of Hindutva: local mediations and forms of convergence

DOInternational audience

The City in the History of Religion

This collection of articles is written in the face of far-reaching processes of urbanization, drawing more and more people into the administrative web of cities and their density, diversity, and inequalities, balancing feelings of individual freedom and aspirations with those of loss and exposure. Thus, it joins works related to the spatial turn that since the 1990s has affected several disciplines, including Religious Studies. Particularly relevant are the study of religion in the field of Geography on the one hand and Kim Knott’s analysis of the spatial dimension of contemporary religion in the United Kingdom, on the other one. Yet, our focus is more particular as it aims to explore the urban as a cultural trait rather than an indication of city-space, and much broader the longitudinal interest in the urban as a factor for religious change since the start of urbanization in the valleys of Mesopotamia, the Nile, Chinese flood plains, and the Harappa culture

Politique et religions en Asie du Sud

L’Asie du Sud – l’Inde en tête – a réinventé le sécularisme, en l’adaptant à l’immense diversité religieuse de la région. Mais les dernières décennies ont vu cette réinvention subir, dans chaque pays, de sérieux coups de boutoir – indépendamment de la religion dominante (hindouisme, islam ou bouddhisme) et des régimes politiques (démocratiques ou autoritaires). C’est ce processus que ce volume entend analyser à travers l’étude des dynamiques à l’œuvre dans chacun des pays concernés, de l’Inde à l’Afghanistan, en passant par le Pakistan, le Bangladesh, Sri Lanka et le Népal. Partout, la tendance est à une identification de l’Etat à la religion majoritaire qui, certes, varie beaucoup selon les pays. Les minorités religieuses sont naturellement les premières à ressentir l’influence de ce déclin du sécularisme ; là encore, certaines convergences apparaissent, se lisant en tout premier lieu dans la morphologie de la violence. Mais si le constat de cette évolution fait l’objet d’un consensus, sa nature et son ampleur restent largement débattues, comme le montrent les différentes tonalités des contributions ici réunies. Au-delà du sécularisme, ce numéro s’attache aussi à déconstruire le couple religion-politique à travers des études de cas où le lien de causalité est loin d’être systématique, même lorsqu’il est attendu, et où la relation entre les champs connaît des transformations inédites