Mangaluru: On April 13, when 65-year-old Raimati Gond succumbed to a prolonged illness, her family faced more than just the pain of losing a loved one. They soon had to confront the harsher reality of finding a place to bury her body.
This Gond tribal family, which had converted to Christianity several years ago, knew all too well the challenge that lay ahead. Like many other Christian families in Dumurimunda, a tribal village under Devgaon panchayat in the Raighar block of Nabarangpur district, they have no access to a village cemetery. Local Hindus, also belonging to the Gond tribe, had issued a stark ultimatum: reconvert to Hinduism, or lose access to burial space in the village.
It took three full days of negotiations with local Hindu community leaders and constant petitions to the police and administration before Gond’s body could finally be buried, and only after the family agreed to carry out the burial on their personal land.
Gond’s family has alleged that the district administration and the local police colluded with the Hindu groups in the village, further disrupting the burial process.
On the same day, a few hours later, just 40 kilometres away in Andri village of Umerkote block in Nabarangpur district, another woman died. Manika Santa, around 56 years old, had been on dialysis for her kidney ailment for several years. “She was to undergo another round of dialysis just a day later,” her son Jagli Santa told The Wire.
Jagli, who works as a farmer, shared that the situation in the village tensed up as soon as his mother passed away. “Her body was kept inside the house and we were told that we would be able to carry out the final rites only if we reconverted to Hinduism,” he added.
Andri village has several paras (hamlets). In the para where the Santa family lives, there are eight more families who converted to Christianity around 22 years ago. When they converted, Jagli said, things were peaceful. “We belong to the Kondha Adivasi community. The village has both Kondhas and Gonds, along with a few families from Scheduled Castes and Other Backward Classes. But religious practice was never an issue here. We coexisted peacefully and even participated in each other’s celebrations.”
“Everything,” he claims, “began only a year ago.”
This story was originally published in thewire.in. Read the full story here.