The National Solidarity Forum (NSF) is pleased to announce the call for 2022 nominations for Kandhamal Human Rights Awards: Kandhamal Human Rights Award for Individual category- It carries a cash award of INR 25,000 and a Plaque Kandhamal Human Rights Award for Institutional category- It carries a Plaque and Citation attesting the works. About KHR Awards: The National Solidarity Forum has instituted these[Read More…]
Ajaya Kumar Singh is one of the main strengths of the struggle for justice in Kandhamal. A well known human rights activist, Ajaya Kumar is a recipient of the Minority Rights Day Award from the National Commission for Minorities (NCM). Through this interview, Rashida Nazria is documenting some of his reflections. Rashida: I have heard that your grandparents were Adivasis[Read More…]
This year there was international outrage when a frail 84-year-old Jesuit priest with Parkinson’s disease, Stan Swamy, died after being held in an Indian jail in inhumane conditions, on flimsy charges. When he was eventually moved to hospital, he tested positive for Covid and went on to suffer a cardiac arrest. He had devotedly served the poor and defended their[Read More…]
Human beings have suppressed, oppressed, mutilated, humiliated and neglected their own fellow human beings due to many reasons throughout history. There are economic, cultural, social and political reason for such human rights violations. One of the reasons for such human rights violations in India is on the basis of identity. People have been killed, abused, lynched, molested, raped and burnt.[Read More…]
Preamble Every human being is born with intrinsic rights which recognise and protect her or his life and dignity. As civilization progressed, and specially with the formation of the United Nations after World War II, many international charters and covenants were formulated to define and codify these rights, and enjoin on member States to protect them. India with its plural[Read More…]
Kandhamal is now deeply seared into the collective memory of the Christian community in India. It is also now a part of Independent India’s tragic list of hate-driven mass violence targeting religious minorities, Adivasis and Dalits by non-state actors enjoying extraordinary impunity. The malevolent violence in the Kandhamal and adjoining districts of Odisha in 2007 and 2008 stands out for[Read More…]
Remembering victims of targeted violence against Christian Adivasis and Dalits, expressing solidarity with all victims of hate cand violence in India. NSF announces Kandhamal Human Rights awards for Activists and Groups The National Solidarity Forum has instituted two annual awards in honour of the victims and survivors of the mass violence against Adivasi and Dalit Christians of Kandhamal and several[Read More…]
Pedestrian pictures weekend screening VOICES FROM THE RUINS: Kandhamal In Search of Justice directed by K P Sasi from 25th September 2020 Friday , 6 PM onwards. Please follow this link to watch the film. https://vimeo.com/461484394 Link will be active from 25th 6pm The link for the webinar – Lessons and Reflections from Kandhamal is given below Synopsis: The state[Read More…]
National Solidarity Forum (NSF) Cordially Invites for National Webinar TWELVE YEARS OF KANDHAMAL MEMORIAL ‘RECLAIMING DEMOCRACY, DEFENDING DIVERSITY’ Date: 12th September 2020 Time: 4.30 pm to 7.30 pm Dear Friend, The National Solidarity Forum invites you to a National Webinar ‘Twelve Years of Kandhamal – Reclaiming Democracy, Defending Diversity’ on Saturday, 12th September 2020 to mark the 12th Anniversary of[Read More…]
We hope you remember the diabolic attacks on christians in Kandhamal/Odisha in two consecutive years 2007 & 2008. Barely after eight days after celebration of Independence Day, India witnessed the organized communal attacks on Christians, the biggest in the history of India during the last three centuries, that spread to different parts of Odisha and other states. Over 395 churches[Read More…]
The decision of the churches in India to declare the victims who were murdered during the genocide and persecution of the Christians in Kandhamal, needs to be recognised and welcomed. This decision is also giving strength to a community of persecuted Christians all over the country, especially after one decade of the largest attack on the Christian community in Kandhamal.[Read More…]
Fr. Manoj Nayak, 44 years old, is one of the main leaders of the Kandhamal Survivors’ Association. After the major communal violence in Kandhamal in 2008, he has been involved in relief, rehabilitation, peace building and assisting the victims and survivors in the justice delivery process. During the Kandhamal violence, his house also was attacked and burnt. His family was[Read More…]
I remember those days when the former prime minister of India late Atal Bihari Vajpayee had suggested for a national debate on conversion though our constitution, even then pointing that the practice of religion is a fundamental right. This was when, he was on an official visit to Dang, Gujarat on 10th January, 1999. Here,religious violence were taking place[Read More…]
Communal genocide in Kandhamal in Odisha, which happened in 2008. Barely after eight days after celebration of Independence day, India witnessed the biggest organized communal attack against the Christians in the last few centuries. This year is is the tenth anniversary of Kandhamal violence. During this brutal invasion on the Christian community, around 393 churches and worship places which belonged[Read More…]
We hope you remember the grave communal genocide in Kandhamal in Odisha, which happened in 2008. Barely after eight days after celebration of Independence day, India witnessed the biggest organized communal attack against the Christians in the last few centuries. Since 2009, people of Kandhamal and outside have been organizing 25th August as Kandhamal Day each year. This year on[Read More…]
It’s been ten years since the sheltered calmness of the plateaus of Kandhamal witnessed one of the bloodiest episodes of communal violence unleashed on Christian minorities in India; since Dalits and Tribals found themselves under siege from mobs led by Hindutva fanatics. Dismembered limbs, axed bodies, rape, arson, razed churches, loot and terror plagued the district for months while the[Read More…]
Dear Friends, We hope you remember the grave communal genocide in Kandhamal in Odisha, which happened in 2008. Barely after eight days after celebration of Independence day, India witnessed the biggest organized communal attack against the Christians in the last few centuries. Since 2009, people of Kandhamal and outside have been organizing 25th August as Kandhamal Day.each year This year[Read More…]
And when the dark clouds moved
In a sky that I could not reach
I took a shot
Of a sun
That has never risen.
While activists across India observed August 25 as Kandhmal Day in commemoration of the victims of anti Christian pogrom in 2008, a conversation was held at the University of British Columbia (UBC) on growing attacks on religious minorities under Modi government. Held at the CK Choi Building in UBC, the conversation was between visiting journalist from India Rana Ayyub and[Read More…]
70 years of freedom have passed. It is time for us to reflect on what it meant people of India – Dalits, Adivasis, minorities and other marginalised sections. Do we really have the moral strength to face another Kandhamal massacre in India? If not, it is too important that we remember and observe Kandhamal Day on August 25, 2017 and[Read More…]
Violence is the bane of Indian society and a manifest agenda of communal forces, which thrive on divisive politics and polarization. This is part of their political agenda. While Hindu-Muslim violence during British period had a particular beginning and characteristics, the same violence became anti-Muslim violence after Independence. The major brunt of communal violence has been borne by Muslim community[Read More…]
The events in Kandhamal in 2008 shook the entire country. The large number of tribal and Dalit Christians in this remote district of the then Orissa (now Odisha) state were subjected to months, even years of displacement, dispossession , death for a few and ‘forced conversion’ for those who remained, by the saffron forces which termed it ‘ghar wapsi’ or[Read More…]
Archbishop Raphael Cheenath who played pivotal role in bringing justice to the Kandhamal pogrom victims was remembered in a function in Delhi. Archbishop Emeritus Raphael Cheenath of Kandhamal passed away in Mumbai on 14th August 2016 after a brave struggle against cancer. He was 81. The Archbishop played major role in the people’s struggle for justice after the August 2008[Read More…]
Kandhamal Nyaya Shanti O Sadvabana Samaj , an organisation of Survivors of Kandhamal violence observed 8th Kandhamal Day at Balliguda on 27th August with participation of about 15000 people. On this occasion a peace rally marched from mini-stadium Balliguda to Sub-Collector office and gathered in PWD square to observe the Day. Viswa Hindu Parishat attempted to stop the march at some places. Yet, it did not deter people to hold the march peacefully.
Today is the 8th anniversary of Kandhamal pogrom. When we look back on one of the worst communal violence against Christian communities in the history of modern India, what lessons can be learnt? In 2015 August, I was in Kandhamal on the 7th anniversary of the Kandhamal pogrom. When I marched with a sea of people through the streets of[Read More…]
Today is 8th anniversary of Kandhamal pogrom, one of the worst communal violences against Christians in India. On this occasion we are publishing an interview with renowned film maker K.P Sasi who has completed a documentary on the pogrom “Voices from the Ruins: Kandhamal in Search of Justice” Voices from the Ruins: Kandhamal in Search of Justice, the latest documentary[Read More…]
Investigative book ‘Who killed Swami Laxmanananda?’ authored by senior journalist Anto Akkara, came in for wide acclaim at its release in Bangalore on July 23 with eminent jurist and former Advocate-General of Karnataka Ravivarma Kumar describing it as a ‘wake up call for the nation’. “The content of the book has grave implications for Indian democracy,’ remarked Kumar while releasing[Read More…]
Speech given by V.S Achuthanandan, former Chief Minister of Kerala, inaugurating K.P Sasi’s documentary “Voices From The Ruins, Kandhamal In Search Of Justice” in Trivandrum, Kerala on 19th July, 2016 K.P Sasi’s documentary “Voices From The Ruins, Kandhamal In Search Of Justice” raises some burning questions about the social reality of the present times. This documentary brings to us the[Read More…]
Kandhamal is not a new subject to me. Countercurrents.org had published an article on 2nd November 2003 by Angana Chatterjee “Orissa: A Gujarat In The making”. It was five years before the worst communal violence against Christians in modern India happened in Kandhamal in 2008 in which 93 people were killed, over 350 churches and worship places which belonged to[Read More…]
SOG personnel who participated in the killing on five civilians near Gumudumaha village on July 8 be booked under provisions of the IPC including murder as well as relevant sections of the SC, ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act and criminally prosecuted
This is not the first time that innocent blood is being spilled in Odisha or in India in the name of containing Maoism. PUCL has consistently alerted the public that in the name of ‘encounters’ often innocent people are being killed by the security forces, and innocent poor Adivasis are being arrested after branding them as ‘Maoists’.
In continuing war on its own people security forces in Kandhamal district of Odisha state in India killed six poor Adivasi and Dalit labourers. Four others have been seriously injured by CRPF firing in Malapanga forest under Tumudibandha police limits. They were returning from Balliguda ,( the block and Sub-Divisional head quarter of their village Gungudmaha under Parampanka G.P) with[Read More…]
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Binu Mathew, the editor of Countercurrents.org and the editorial team have been working selflessly with minimal funds and accepting no advertisements. Besides CC abhors foreign institutional funding, corporate funding or government aid. It has been in existence for about two decades and standing on the side of the people and taking an anti-establishment stance. To that extent it is like[Read More…]
