ABSTRACT
What modes of sovereign power are exercised through an (anti) conversion politics? How are they enabled? How may we understand the exercise of these modes of power through the relationship between sovereignty, biopolitics and necropolitics enabled through the complicities and differentiations between a postcolonial state and a postcolonial Hindu nationalism? I will address these questions through an examination of the violence against Christian communities in Kandhamal district in Orissa between 2007 and 2008. NGOs and human rights groups were able document this violence and the
collusion of state authorities with Hindutva organizations. Marking the second anniversary of the events of 2007-2008, the National People’s Tribunal (August 22-24, 2010) released its preliminary report on the violence, published by the South Asia Citizens Web (SACW). According to the report, government figures had stated that “in Kandhamal district alone more than 600 villages were ransacked, 5600 houses were looted and burnt, 54000 people were left homeless, 38 people were murdered” (SACW 2010). Human rights groups further estimated “that over 100 people were killed, including women, disabled and aged persons and children; and an unestimated number suffered severe physical injuries and mental trauma” (SACW 2010). The Tribunal also stated that there were “reports of four women being gang-raped,” but “many more victims of sexual assault are believed to have been intimidated into silence” (SACW 2010). Furthermore, “295 churches and other places of worship, big and small, were destroyed. 13 schools, colleges, and offices of 5 non-profit organizations damaged” (SACW 2010). These findings suggest that “thousands of dalits and tribals belonging to the Christian minorities in the Kandhamal region of Orissa were victims of organized violence starting in August 2007” (SACW 2010). Another report, From Kandhamal to Karavali: The Ugly Face of Sangh
Parivar (FKK), (produced by nine Human Rights Organizations who visited Orissa and Karnataka between September and October 2008), traces the reasons for this violence. A particular Pano organization, the Phulbani Kui Janakalyan Samiti, sought inclusion for the mostly Christian Panos into a Scheduled Tribe (ST) linguistic category, Kui, created in 2002 (FKK 2008: 18-20). This category had included only Kui-speaking Kondh communities.
However, Pano communities also speak Kui, and have been excluded from Scheduled Caste (SC) benefits due to their status as Christians, hence the move for inclusion into this category by the organization.1 In response to the High Court order “which directed” the State government to consider this inclusion, and the charge that Pano Christians were obtaining SC certificates illegally, the FKK report states that “a campaign was planned by the Sangh Parivar with the usual demand of stopping Christian Panos from obtaining SC certificates” (2008: 27).2
