DM Monitoring
New Delhi: Four tribal Christians were forced to convert to Hinduism to be able to bury the head of their family members in Siunaguda village of Nabarangpur district, Odisha, a six-member fact-finding team of lawyers found while interacting with community leaders and villagers in Balasore, Odisha. “In a bizarre tale of events, four Christians were forced to become Hindus to bury the head of their family members, Mr Kesab Santa, 70; a condition the hindu villagers insisted on allowing burial in Siunaguda village in Nabarangpur district of Odisha. The man had died on 2nd March 2025. There were 3 Christian families among 30 Hindu families in the village,” the fact-finding report stated.
The team, consisting Clara D’Souza, Sujata Jena, Gitanjali Senapati, Sophia Mariam, Balthazar and Ajaya Kumar Singh collected the testimonies from the villagers on March 15 who spoke on a range of allegations including burial denial, religious functions and intimidation of boycott from the village community under Raibania police station in Balasore district. According to the fact-finding team, the developments followed an unrest triggered by an incident on December 18, 2024, when a mob under the banner of Sarna Majhi/Majhi Pargana stopped the burial of Budhia Murmu, a local santal tribal Christian.
“It took over 12 hours to bury the dead amidst tensions and arguments. The tribal Christians were shocked to discover for the first time such threats and intimidations from their fellow tribals over the burial of their relatives. The burial issue further escalated to a series of threats and boycotts,” the report stated. Subsequently, on December 23, the local police visited the Parish Church and searched for the priest who conducted the burial rites, based on complaints against him. The police asked the priest to produce a caste certificate and visit the police station. Without revealing to him the contents of complaints. “The priest is yet to know the contents of the complaints nor received any complaints,” the report stated.
A series of incidents followed including summons by the police and a magistrate court to the two groups involved in the clashes that resulted in no resolution. The groups also met on directions of the tahsildar where the Majhi Pargana insisted that “Christian Adivasi have no burial ground rights as per the Constitution”. As a result, no common ground was found and the issue remained unresolved.
Amidst this, the shudhi rituals (requiem mass) of Budhia Murmu were held on December 28 amid police presence as miscreants tried to disrupt it. Meanwhile, prayer services in a neighbouring village were disrupted by a Majhi Pargana group. Dudhia Khali villagers filed a complaint under Raibania police station in Balasore district.
Highlighting the role of media in escalating the hate campaign, the report stated, “A few certain local newspaper dailies played a villain role in escalating the Hate Campaign against Christians Tribal. Adivasi Christians obliged to meet the officials summoned by local police, Tahsildar and Executive Magistrate each time; however, the miscreant elements of Majhi Paragan did not join any meeting to sort out the differences except for one ordered by the Executive Magistrate.
However, the group got emboldened with a couple of local daily newspapers with misrepresentation of facts in a series of articles over two months alleging the Christian Adivasi destroying the traditional Adivasi culture by embracing a certain religion.”
“The Adivasi Christians had embraced Christianity over third generations; yet certain newspapers are regularly stoking controversies as new people being converted each time a prayer service is held in the region,” it added.
Further, the team observed that the spurt of conflicts against Christian minority in Odisha’s Balasore district could be attributed to a split verdict by the Supreme Court dated January 27, this year on the issue of burial of a converted Christian in Chhattigarh’s village Chhindwada.
While Justice B.V. Nagarathna held that the burial should take place on the privately owned land of the appellant in the native village, Justice Satish Chandra Sharma said that the deceased – who was a convert to Christianity from the Mahra caste – should be buried “within the limits of reason and rationality” at the burial ground of the Christian community i.e., at the designated Christian burial ground situated 20 kilometres away from the deceased’s native village.
The fact-finding team has urged the state to promote peace and communal harmony among all sections of the society and assure the religious minorities in particular of equality and non-discriminations. It has also urged the district administration to check for “anti-social elements creating division in the name of caste and creed”, keep an eye on local newspapers stoking misinformation and “creating ill-will among the communities publishing false information”, and asked for sustained dialogues among the communities to sort out the differences.
The state/district administration, it further stated, can undertake paralegal training to promote constitutional values and secularism.
