PRATIBAD

Dancing and Celebrating Peace: Dhauli Kalinga Mahotsav

2011-12-14T09:34:00.000-08:00

Dancing and Celebrating Peace: Dhauli Kalinga Mahotsav

Konark Festival 2011 – Some Delight, Some Disappointment

2011-12-11T10:30:00.000-08:00

My review on Konark Festiva-2011 in www.odisha360.com

Konark Festival 2011 – Some Delight, Some Disappointment

15th Gunjan Dance and Music Festival: A Festival with Meera and Radha

2011-12-08T10:07:00.000-08:00

15th Gunjan Dance and Music Festival: A Festival with Meera and Radha

In Search of Mystic Silence: Suresh Balbantroy’s ‘Tattwa’

2011-12-08T10:06:00.000-08:00

In Search of Mystic Silence: Suresh Balbantroy’s ‘Tattwa’

A Slap on the Face of Odissi, Staged on the Backdrop of Konark!

2011-12-08T10:05:00.000-08:00

A Slap on the Face of Odissi, Staged on the Backdrop of Konark!

On the imprisonment of Dr.Binayak Sen

2011-01-04T23:25:00.000-08:00

Law of sedition and the right to freedom of expression

2010-11-02T00:02:00.001-07:00

Sesa Sparsa-My sunday column in The Anupam Bharat-15.08.2010

2010-08-19T00:06:00.000-07:00

Sesasparsa - my weekly column in The Anupam Bharat

2010-08-10T04:44:00.000-07:00

Seas Sparsa-18.07.2010

2010-07-19T05:38:00.001-07:00

few pages from my regular column pubkished in the Anupam bharat on every sunday.

2010-06-22T05:15:00.000-07:00

Ascetic, Layman, or Rebellious Guru ? Bhima Bhoi and his Female Consorts

2010-01-28T02:25:00.000-08:00

Ascetic, Layman, or Rebellious Guru ? Bhima Bhoi and his Female Consorts

JOHANNES BELTZ , KEDAR MISHRA

Introduction
The rise of Mahima Dharma in the mid-nineteenth century spread a new wave in the social and religious life of Orissa. It is said that by the end of the nineteenth century, one-sixth of the population of the Orissa-Chhattisgarh garjhat division, especially farmer? And low castes, got initiated to this new religion. From Jepofk to Sambalpur, a major portion of Orissa was populated by the devotees of Lord Mahima. Mahima Dharma attracted the downtrodden segments of the population. It conferred on subordinate people— women and untouchables—a new sense of dignity that enabled them to question the discrimination inherent in Brahmarncal Hinduism. Bhima Bhoi affirms in his Stuticintamani that 'men and women . . . with no discrimination of high and low take refuge in the Name' (Stuticintamani, 92). This was an exalted saying appealing to women and men: 'When the Kumbhipatias came, they made men and women mad.'1 In other words, those who were excluded from rituals and worship, to whom the entry to temples was previously denied, got free access to Mahima Dharma. Bhima Bhoi was the hero propagating the glory of Mahima Svami among the villagers to such an extent that many believed that Bhima Bhoi was the expounder of Mahima Dharma.2

Indeed, several women received initiation directly from Mahima Svami and it is said that Malbiharpur, which was one of the principal seats of Mahima Dharma, had even a matha (monastery) for women. In an interview conducted in 2001, we were told that a Karana girl came to the Malabiharpur asrama (sanctuary) for the darsana (sight) of Mahima Svami and was later ostracised by her family. It is further stated that this girl took refuge at the feet of the Guru. Apparently the Lord himself commanded her to stay in this asrama. Her son Brindaban Das became an enlightened sannyasi. The matha for women exists till today.3 Reports in the newspaper Mukura also indicate that Mahima Svami had women disciples among his companions: 'The sannyasis who wear loin cloth are found having their wives with them but they do not stay in their houses.' The Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal confirms in 1882 that there were babas (sannyasis) and matas (sannyasins) in both the ascetic groups of kumbhipatias and kanapatias.

The apparent free access of women to both the lay (grhastha) and monastic (sannyasa) orders of Mahima Dharma led to its social maligning by the rest of Oriya society. It was common for many writers of that time to ridicule the kumbhipatias' cohabitation with their wives and their eating of dry salty fish (Mukura, 1907-8). The spread of Mahima Dharma seems tc have enraged the elites, that is high castes and conservative Hindis. Mahima Dharma was resented as anti-Brahman, heathen and anti-royal (Utkala Sahitya, 1883: 66-7). Consequently, writings extremely critical of Mahima Dharma, Mahima Svami and Bhima Bhoi appeared in several magazines and newspapers of the time, with certain writers going to the extent of demanding the prosecution of Mahima Svami for causing social indiscipline (Utkal Detpika, 1871). The British government considered these demands and directed the district magistrates to keep vigilance on Mahime Dharmis (idem).

Let us now turn to the official report of the Superintendent of Police, Puri, regarding the famous attack on Jagannatha Temple on 1 March 1881. It states that among the attackers were three women, and eleven women from another group of attackers were arrested near Sakshigopal.4 There were also women who had entered the premises of the temple of Lord Jagannatha holding babies in their arms to burn down the wooden idol of Jagannatha (Utkal Deepika, 1881). This incident, in our opinion, added a new chapter to the history of Orissa. Did Mahima Dharma allow women to play a vital role as rebels in the attack on the symbol of orthodox religion in Orissa, Lord Jagannatha's idol? In traditional Oriya society, the role of woman was confined only to the house. Though there had been female ascetics in the Oriya Vaisnava tradition, the social positions assumed by them is unknown. Is it far-fetched to assume that the liberal call of Mahima Dharma made a lot of women leave their homes and inspired them to become the disciples of Mahima Svami and Bhima Bhoi?
Bhima Bhoi in the Company of Women
We know little about Bhima Bhoi, the great poet of Mahima Dharma, as a person. 'Authentic' historical sources are almost non-existent and Bhima Bhoi did not reveal much in his poetry. The few instances where he talked about himself are open to diverse interpretations (Banerjee-Dube, 1993 and 2001; Eschmann, 1978; Mahapatra, 1983; Mishra, 1998; Nath, 1990; Nepak, 1997), as are the large number of stories and legends surrounding Bhima Bhoi, which were transmitted orally and saved in administrative reports. Themes like Bhima Bhoi's origin or his blindness have been a matter of scholarly and polemical discussion, and there has been no easy solution to these debates. In this paper, we would like to address another, but no less important controversy: Bhima Bhoi/s relation to women.
This is a crucial, if not controversial, issue which helps to put Bhima Bhoi's works as well as his hagiography in proper perspective. It is widely accepted that Bhima Bhoi lived with four women, two 'worldly' and two 'spiritual' consorts. To understand what this means, we need to go beyond his posthumous deification and look into the many instances where Bhima Bhoi deals and interacts with women. This thematic choice might seem to be a little unorthodox, since most books on Bhima Bhoi mention only the fact that he had female consorts without indicating its background and implications. However, most of the stories relating to his life touch upon the question of whether Bhima Bhoi had a sexual life. Mahima Dharma is open to both ascetics and householders. Was Bhima Bhoi a sannyasi It does not seem so. But he was definitely not an ordinary householder who married and had children. He stayed in an asrama and had the status of a religious leader. Let us turn to the oral tradition and quote some stories which highlight the controversy.
It is said that Bhima Bhoi moved to Gurunda, a place situated near the small town of Binka in today's Sonepur district. It was there that a certain Vaisnava, Moian Das, accepted Bhima Bhoi as his guru and offered his daughter Sumedha at the feet of Bhima Bhoi as a sign of his devotion.5 Following this example, Mohan Das's brother-in-law Narayan Das also gave his daughter, Rohini to Bhima Bhoi. Rohini, therefore, also comes from a Vaisnava background.6 The third woman associated with Bhima Bhoi, Annapurnarwas not offered but joined the asrama herself. Some people say that she was originally the maidservant of Lord Mahima and that she joined Bhima Bhoi's sanctuary after his death. According to another story, she followed the order of Mahima Gosain who asked her to leave Dhenkanal in order to get darsana of Bhima Bhoi. Once she had reached Bhrusrapali, she decided to stay with him. Her decision was based on her sole desire to offer her service at Bhima Bhoi's feet (padaseva).7 It was in the asrama of Khaliapali that the fourth women appeared on scene: Iswar Das of Rampela village handed over his daughter Sarasvati to Bhima Bhoi.8
So far we have mentioned three women who were offered to Bhima Bhoi, and another, Annapurna, who joined of her own volition. This raises the thorny issue of the nature of relationship between Bhima Bhoi and these women. Did he adopt an ascetic lifestyle in his asrama? Hagiographies generally tend to depict saints as ascetics who led a chaste life (Bouez, 1992; Gross, 1992). But with regard to Bhima Bhoi, it is widely accepted that he was a householder, and a householder can have wives. Some followers of the faith, however, suggest that he was never married and that his relations with women were oily 'spiritual'. It is said that Annapurna, Rohini and Sarasvati lived a life of austerity and moral purity. As a final statement on the tricky question, Mahima Dharmis argue that Bhima Bhoi was neither male nor female and that these women were in fact goddesses. But the repeated depiction of Bhima Bhoi's celibacy gives a one-sided picture. Before we approach this question again, let us quote Bhima Bhoi from his Brahma Nirupana Gita. Where he says: 'The door of the Guru equally welcomes all; Man and Woman, high and low, big or small.'
Bhima Bhoi, the first and foremost writer of Mahima Dharma, declared that one who discriminates between male and female gets damned in hell. Both men and women are born out of one and the same Brahma. Although he did stress the Hindu idea of a wife's devotion to her husband and her feminine qualities, yet he never made any distinction of superiority and inferiority among men and women.9 One could conclude that Bhima Bhoi urged women to break out of the limits of domestic life and sensual pleasure and to take up spiritual and religious activities. Did he advise women to walk on the path of Brahma? Would it be an exaggeration to conclude that he strongly sympathized with the sufferings of exploited women?
Annapurna
It is often told by devotees that Annapurna had been attracted to Mahima Dharma since her childhood. Some identify her as the youngest daughter of Bhagabana Dash of the village Maddhi of Dhenkanal district. Bhima Dash, Nirakara Dash and Arjun Dash were her brothers and also devotees of Mahima Dharma. But many questions remain. One has to note here that in the village of Khaliapali, people regard Annapurna as the divine sister (guru bhagini) of Bhima Bhoi, because they were both the direct disciples of Mahima Svami. Was Annapurna really Mahima Svami's fond disciple? The two loving disciples of Mahima Svami are buried at one place, and their padukas (wooden sandals), are still worshipped.10
If one believes Daya Sagar Das, Annapurna was the daughter of a farmer from Badhigan; she came from an aristocratic family and her brothers wore sandals made of silver. Others think that she came from a Brahman family. Her aristocratic and upper-caste background makes her liaison with an illiterate tribal even more scandalous. Baishya Charan Thakur, from the village Haldipali near Sonepur recounted:
Annapurna was Bhima Bhoi's disciple and follower. This was considered as a sin in the society. A saint could not have the company of a Brahman girl, not even as a disciple. So, Bhima Bhoi had had to bear a lot of reproof in Khaliapali."
This is confirmed by many narratives. After Annapurna left her village, the family accused Bhima Bhoi of abducting her. The brother of Annapurna, misunderstanding the spiritual relationship, attacked Bhima Bhoi at Gulunda village. Let us quote a passage from another interview:
Annapurna, a Brahman girl, devoted her life to Bhima Bhoi and came with him to Khaliapali. Annapuma's relatives were not happy with that. They spread the rumour that Bhima Bhoi had absconded with a Brahman girl. Furious as they were, they went to see Bhima Bhoi. They disrobed him. But what did they discover? They saw that he had no penis. After that they understood that his relationship with Annapurna was only spiritual.
These accounts point to the controversy indicated above. Bhima Bhoi is suspected of having abducted women for his sensual pleasure. This accusation is negated with the indication that Bhima Bhoi had no genitals. In other words, there was no possibility of an illicit relationship between the two. One can easily conclude that the presence of women in the asrama was opposed by certain people. From a rather different perspective, but nevertheless arguing in the same direction, the following statement is interesting—Maheswar Das Baba, 70 years old, originating from the village Banjani told us:
Annapurna was the wife of Bhima Bhoi. But Bhima Bhoi did not want to get married. His marriage with her was against his own will. Annapurna was in love with Bhima Bhoi. But she was punished for that. Her family vanished. Nobody should stay with Bhima Bhoi to testify his credibility as a saint and poet.
Here, Annapurna appears in a slightly negative perspective. It is she who forces Bhima Bhoi to marry and renounce his celibacy. It is said that their wedding was performed on the full moon day of the Magha month. In other words, they were a couple. But irrespective of her mysterious origin and her contested relations to Bhima, all accounts state that Annapurna began playing a decisive role in the daily activities of the asrama soon after she began residing theirs. It is stated again and again that she was very kind and gave saoopadesa (good advice) to the bhaktas. The bhaktas also offered puja to her. The story also goes that both of them were worshipped on an altar with 108 kalasas and a sacred flame at the Khaliapali asrama (Nayak 2001: 105). Annapurna is also credited with many supernatural powers. She could bless childless couples with children and cure diseased persons. One should also note that after the death of Bhima Bhoi, the management of the asrama came into her hands.
Let us quote an interesting passage from a letter written by the Assistant Secretary to the Chief Commissioner of the Central Provinces, dated 17 August 1881. In the sixth paragraph of the letter, of which a copy is kept at the Orissa Archive in Heidelberg's South Asia Institute, the author writes about Bhima Bhoi:
He has erected an altar over which he and his wife sit in the morning. His followers worship them and move round the altar until the time for their morning meal arrives.
Here, it is confirmed that Bhima Bhoi was worshipped along with his wife. But what was the relationship between Bhima Bhoi and her? A common understanding among the bhaktas of Khaliapali is that their relationship was purely spiritual. It is said that Bhima Bhoi had accepted Annapurna as his 'guru sister'. She is also called adimdta (lit. the first goddess). Others identify her with the Hindu goddess of grain, Annapurna, and call her Adi Annapurna. After all, there is little doubt that she is the most important of Bhima Bhoi's disciples, be it women or men. She was his principal spiritual consort. Annapurna and Bhima Bhoi together accepted the adoration and services of the devotees. Her paduka (shoes) are still kept win those of Bhima Bhoi's and worshipped in a specific shrine every evening before sunset. She was the head of Khaliapali asrama. Giving due respect to her divine power, devotees of Mahima Dharma got initiated and received mahima bana from her. Great also was her contribution to the construction of the Samadhi-Mandira (memorial) of Bhima Bhoi at Khaliapali.
As a souvenir, on the death of Annapurna, Bhima Bhoi's scribe Hari Panda wrote a long poem entitled Matru Biccheda (Departure of the Mother) in which he praised the role of Annapurna in detail. On the divine glory of Mother Annapurna, he had this to say:
In kindness, you are Alekha. Yet you never see my sorrow for a moment. Who will then narrate your charity and kindness? The world is beautified by you. You, the couple, brought down to earth the fountain of religiousness. Brahma, you are the Goddesses. Do pour nectar upon me. If not, definitely I will die.
In this unpublished poem of Hari Panda which is kept in the custody of the Bhima Bhoi Samadhi Pitha Trust at Khaliapali, Annapurna is described as the epitome of spirituality. Hari Panda used adjectives such as brahma svarupci (the true image of the Divine), mahamayi (greatness embodied) to characterize Annapurna, Bhima Bhoi's divine consort and the embodiment of divine energy. After the demise of Annapurna, the devotees of Mahima Dharma felt orphaned. Hari Panda wrote:
The throat chokes and
lamentations grow from the heart
and the body burns in the fire of anguish.
We have got such parents and the preceptor
as the result of good actions of innumerable births.
Though laughing uproarious, she speaks sweetly
and never separates us for a moment.
Now our hearts are cut into pieces
as she, the glory of the earth, departs.
The temple which was looking beautiful with her presence
is now dark like dense forest.
We are burning from within.
We, her children, are crying and rolling on the ground. The heat of sorrow in the limbs grow intense as we no more see your feet
beautiful like lightning.
Houses look ugly and our hearts dark,
Who will tell us about Brahma, the one-lettered and
the significance of the letters that constitute 'Om',
Who will then soothe us with delight?
The goddess beginning-less manifests all around
you departed.
Though you became invisible,
we are servants at your feet.
Let you not separate us for four ages.
In Matru Biccheda, Annapurna is portrayed as the leader of Mahima Dharma, but researchers and historians of Mahima Dharma have seldom focused on her life and ideals. Occasionally, her name finds mention as the wife or spiritual consort of Bhima Bhoi; it is often said that they were one and the same—one is Siva (Happiness) and the other is Sakti (Energy). Hence, it is impossible to write on Bhima Bhoi's life without the mention of Annapurna.
Our purpose here is not to write a new biography of Bhima Bhoi. Still, we wonder why there is not a single word about Annapurna in the history of Mahima Dharma, in spite of the fact that she was a woman gifted with spiritual power.
Keeping the Heritage Alive
The tradition of initiating women to Mahima Dharma prevailed at Bhima Bhoi's asrama in Khaliapali. After the death of Bhima Bhoi, Annapurna, and following her death, Labanyabati, and finally the granddaughter of Hari Panda and Basu Panda, Sriya Mata, conducted the affairs of the asrama as its chief (Mishra, 1998). Moreover, Annapurna and Labanyabati had inherited the extraordinary healing powers of Bhima Bhoi.12
Labanyabati, Bhima Bhoi's and Annapurna's daughter led the asrama at Khaliapali for some time after her mother's death. She was an extraordinary woman like her mother. Many legends circulate among the Mahima Dharmls about Labanyabati. She was a highly talented and knowledgeable woman. She knew a lot of medical sciences and wrote a book on Ayurveda titled Lata Mahjciri, in which she gave elaborate descriptions in Sanskrit of various medicinal plants. But history is silent about her achievements.
With Labanyabati, once again, we see the same trend of depicting saints as asexual beings. The hagiographic records of the life of Labanyabati reveal her as an djanmabrahmacdrini, a celibate all her life. Further, it is believed that her body had the holy marks of the conch, the wheel, the gada (club) and the lotus, the holy marks of Visnu. Thus, she clearly represented the ascetic ideal. Samantary (1976: 23-4) adds that she never spoke much. When she did, she uttered the name of Mahima Alekha, sang the bhajanas of Bhima Bhoi and explained their significance to devotees. She was very affectionate, and attracted devotees to the asrama. According to the tradition, she refused to talk about marriage. If somebody came to ask her for marriage, she would tell him: gurunkara ajna ndhin (there is no permission from the guru). She completed 54 years and was known in the area as narl (respected woman). Let us look at a story, collected in Khaliapali and current among the followers:
Once a prince . . . saw Labanyabati. She was very beautiful. He got interested in her. He wanted to many her. He sent a message to Bhima Bhoi to ask him for his daughter. And Bhima passed on the message to Labanyabati. She replied: 'Let the prince come personally.' As she had said it, the prince came. He was riding on an elephant. When he arrived he stood in front of her. She asked him: 'Can you marry me? Can you bear my holiness?' And then she lifted her clothes and made him see her vagina. But what the prince saw was a burning fire. Siva and Labanyabati were playing in it. Seeing this, the prince prostrated in front of her. He touched her feet and asked for her forgiveness. He went away afraid of what he had done. After some time, the prince died. And Labanyabati said that she wished his death. He had to die because in the kaliyuga he had wished to marry his own mother.

The motif is interesting; referring to the kaliyuga and sexual transgression.13 Labanyabati is identified as a manifestation of the devi, the great goddess. As the companion/wife of Siva, she is divine, the mother with whom an ordinary human being cannot have sexual intercourse. Surprisingly, we collected several variations of the same story in our interviews. One goes like this:
Bhima Bhoi's daughter was Labanyabati. Once the king's barber went to visit Khaliapali and he saw Labanyabati. Being impressed by her beauty he thought that the girl should be offered to the king. He thought: 'If I tell this to the king, he will surely reward me'. When the king heard the story of the beautiful daughter of Bhima Bhoi, he took his guard and went to Khaliapali to catch her. . . . They came, asked for his daughter and forced him to bring her to them. Labanyabati came. She took a branch with dry leaves and touched her vagina with it. Immediately the branch turned to ashes. Seeing this miracle, the king bowed down to Bhima Bhoi and renounced his idea of taking away Labanyabati with him.
It is also stated that the devotees of Bhima Bhoi worship his daughter Labanyabati as adisakti (primal energy).
These stories reinforce the belief of Labanyabati's holiness. In fact, after Bhima Bhoi's death, women such as Annapurna and Labanyabati were treated as demi-goddesses because they could perform miracles and heal people.
There is another woman to be talked about: Sriya Mata. Although she was not a child of Bhima Bhoi, her story fits very well into the framework of holy companionship depicted above. According to the narrative of Sriya Mata collected by Anncharlott Eschmann, she was offered by her parents to Mahima Svami. Her mother was Padmavati and her father Laranidara Panda who was the son of a certain Madhu, the brother of Hari Panda and Basu Panda. According to the story, her mother died when she was one year old. Hari Panda reached her village when Padmavati was in her deathbed, and showering upon her the seven nectars, delivered her to Lord Mahima. Annapurna, who had no child, nourished Sriya Mata with her own milk. When she was 28 years old, she started managing the temple and stayed there till her death. Many people still remember her. The late Anncharlott Eschmann (1978: 403) described her as a 'scintillating' woman 'with temperament'.
The Controversy about Bhima Bhoi's Procreation

The problem of Bhima Bhoi's sexuality seems resolved if one accepts the spiritual character of the relationship between Bhima Bhoi and his consorts. But trouble arose in Bhima Bhoi's life when the first children were born in Khaliapali. It is said that Kapilesvara was born of Sumedha. But devotees insist that his mother did not have any sexual intercourse with Bhima Bhoi. Labanyabati, the younger sister of Kapilesvara is also said to be the daughter of Rohini. But who is her father? Generally, there is no mention of a biological father. Very few admit that Labanyabati and Kapilesvara are the children of Bhima Bhoi. It is said that Sumedha's mother came once from Ragapali to Khaliapali to pray to Bhima Bhoi and have darsana. She prayed that her daughter should always be happy, and also that she should have a child. Bhima Bhoi smiled and promised to fulfil her desire. He smeared some mantraputa bibhuti (holy ashes) on Sumedha's forehead. And, of course, the result came immediately. After three days, she gave birth to Kapilesvara.
The same story exists about Labanyabati. It is believed that when Rohini was offered to Bhima Bhoi, her mother requested him that her daughter be blessed with a child. Bhima Bhoi put bibhuti on her forehead and after some days Labanyabati was born. It is interesting that the same stories exist about the birth of Labanyabati and Kapilesvara. In both instances, it was the mother who came to see Bhima Bhoi and asked him to give a child to her daughter. The request was that the daughter should not be barren; nevertheless, she should beget children while remaining a virgin. Sometimes the two stories are linked. Johannes was told that
Narayan Das and Mohan Das, fathers of Sumedha and Rohini, came to Bhima Bhoi and complained that they had gained nothing by delivering their daughters to him. Then Bhima Bhoi pasted vermilion on the forehead of Sumedha and Rohini. We have heard that as a result. Kapilesvara, a son and Labanyabati, a daughter were born of them.
We have an early indication of the problem in colonial administrative and police reports, drawn up after the attack on the Jagannatha temple to enquire into the Alekha religion of Orissa. Let us quote an interesting passage from a letter written by the Assistant Secretary to the Chief Commissioner of the Central Provinces. In the sixth paragraph of this text, the author writes this about Bhima Bhoi:

Formerly Bhima Kondh of Snepore (Sonepur) was the leader of the sect. Bhima was born blind, but he appears to have been endowed with natural talents of a superior order. Though unable to read and write, he had some Uriya religious books, such as Mahabharat and Srimat Bhagbat, read to him, and the education he thus received enabled him to compose two or three volumes of verses in praise of the Almighty, which, it is asserted, would do credit to any Uriya scholar of the present day. He exercised great influence over his followers. The relations existing between him and a female companion, however, excited suspicion among his adherents, who however, did not venture to question the purity of his conduct until the woman, became pregnant. Bhima endeavoured to deceive his followers by telling them that the woman would give birth to Arjun, who would root out all unbelievers. The(y) believed this story, and waited until the child was born, when to their great surprise, they found that the woman gave birth to a girl. Bhima accounted for this by saying that it had recently been revealed to him that the woman would give birth to a female, who would destroy all the unbelievers by means of her charms. The child, however, died a few days later, and Bhima then tried to mislead his followers still further by saying that the fairy had quitted (sic) this world because she had found it filled with vices of mankind. He was now deserted by most of his followers, who formed a separate fraction but he is still highly adored and honoured (. . .). (Report no. 3069-161, dated 17 August 1881)
Interesting here is the rather negative characterization of Bhima Bhoi: that he misguided and cheated his followers.
The same radical criticism is expressed by the authors of the Census of India, 1911, who repeated the same story in the fourth chapter. In the same year, B.C. Mazumdar wrote his famous article entitled ' Alekhism' as a part of his book Sonpur in the Sambalpur Tract (1911). In this article, we find the same statement that Bhima Bhoi begot children and that this fact created much dissent among his followers. However, his judgment is less harsh. Let us quote the passage:
Bhima Bhoi as a matter of fact did beget two children—one a son and another a daughter—on two women, who became nuns and lived at Khaliapalli in Bhima Bhoi's math. Both these women are still living at Khaliapalli with the children begotten upon them. It was nineteen years ago that first a daughter and then after two months a son were born having Bhima Bhoi for their father. The disciples were no doubt very much shocked at it, but Bhima Bhoi explained it to them that he brought one male and one female child into existence with a view to give to the world one ideal woman and one ideal man. How these two ideal beings are behaving now could not be ascertained by me. (Mazumdar, 1911: 134)
Apart from the dates of birth of the children, which differ, all texts mention the same problem. Bhima Bhoi had sired children when he was supposed to be a celibate. Let us cite B.C. Mazumdar from his paper:
Bhima Bhoi having, in the opinion of some Kumbhipatias, transgressed the rules regarding procreation, the Kumbhipatias of Dhenkanal and the disciples of Bhagavan Das and Kripasindhu Das regard the Sonpur (Sonepur) section as heretics. But the Sonpur section of the Kumbhipatias still continues to be strong having the greatest number of followers, (ibid: 134)
According to all texts, Bhima Bhoi was almost compelled to justify the birth of these children. He did this always in the same manner: by promoting the idea that the children were quasi-divine, ideal beings who were the saviours of humankind, or embodiments of the perfect man and the perfect woman. These texts make it clear that his followers, or at least a section of them, disapproved of his behaviour. As a matter of fact, the birth of the children caused scandal at the asrama. As mentioned above, two reactions can be analysed. Some devotees rejected Bhima Bhoi categorically and left him. Others justified his children by deifying him as well as his progeny. The following story collected in Khaliapali illustrates the second tendency clearly:
Once the villagers came to humiliate Bhima Bhoi because of his children. They scolded him to be a bhanda (cheater), an aberrant, a heretic. When they unclothed him, they noticed that he had no penis. They concluded that he was the incarnation of Radha.
This seems like a repetition of the story about Annapurna and Bhima Bhoi. As a holy man, Bhima Bhoi had no genitals. He could not, therefore, have illicit relations with women, nor sire children. This recurrent topic is mixed with another myth according to which Bhima Bhoi is the eternal Radha.
This is a new aspect. This identification probably goes back to the Pancasakha tradition.14 According to this idea, Bhima Bhoi's appearance was predicted by Achyutananda Das, the famous Oriya poet of the fifteenth century. In his Kalpa Samhita, he is quoted to have said that Radha would take birth again in the world, in the kali age, and would be called Bhima Bhoi. It is also said that he would be reborn in a Kandha family and that he would have poetic talent. Apart from that, the identification with Radha is a common feature of the bhckti movement. Radha is seen as the female counterpart of Krsna; she is deeply in love with him. In our case, Krishna is identified as Lord Mahima Swami himself.
It is difficult to prove how far Bhima Bhoi really identified himself with Radha. This may be a later interpretation. But interestingly, Bhima Bhoi is reported to have been seen wearing women's clothes on certain occasions. We have been told that Bhima Bhoi sometimes made himself up like a woman; this is again a phenomenon which is not uncommon among bhakti poets.
Indeed, a certain ambiguity of gender exists. Bhima Bhoi is imagined as neither male nor female, being in fact both or none. Should one follow Lisa Lassel Hallstrom (1999) in her monograph about Anandamayi Ma who expressed that same ambiguity about her sexuality? Hallstrom has rightly pointed out that there is ambiguity within the Hindu tradition about the gender of self- realized beings, as well about the gender of God. In fact, analysing Bhima Bhoi and his relation to woman seems to show how the frontiers between male and female are crossed and re-crossed many times.
The dominant perception of Bhima Bhoi upholds his celibacy and disregards the women in his life. The on-going deification of Bhima Bhoi as well as of his companions is the second interesting phenomenon, which needs our attention. The narratives about Bhima Bhoi and his female companions express competing concepts of holiness. Different ideas about him circulate among people who tell his story. He is simultaneously described as an ascetic, saint and social reformer, and sometimes as God. References are made to the Saiva and the Vaisnava traditions. Some narratives include topics which apparently oppose each other: Nirguna bhakti and saguna bhakti seem to go hand in hand in them. Generally, the ideal of a santa is compatible with nirguna bhakti, whereas a bhakta is a typical term for the saguna bhakti tradition. But the notions often overlap and intermingle in the narratives.
Challenging Joranda
As we have seen earlier, the presence of women at Khaliapali was right from the beginning a matter of discord. Later, monks at the new self-proclaimed monastic 'centre' of the Mahima Dharma movement at Joranda spoke vehemently against this. According to their spokesmen, asceticism is generally attributed to men, and not to women, female sexuality being perceived as dangerous. This is a general observation, which can be applied to other examples. Ascetic orders in India are indeed dominated by men. Kapileswar Das Baba from Joranda tells us more about this controversy:
Women are not allowed to take sannyasa. They are weak persons. Women are only allowed to stay at home. They cannot become wandering ascetics. Yes, it is said that there were eight matas with Mahima Svami. But there is a difference because they were goddesses. If women join the sannyasin order, there are possibilities of moral degradation.
It seems very clear that for the monks from Joranda, the propensity to procreate is the root of all evil. According to the ascetic ideal, a holy man has no sexual feelings; he dominates his body and gains full control over sexual desires. This is not a new development. Early on, S.P. Sharma (1942: 37) observed that the kumbhipatias were expected to contemplate on the organs of generation every morning without getting excited. According to him, they obtained complete detachment from sexual feelings. This idea still dominates. The female disciples of Lord Mahima who were staying with him were not ordinary women. They were all goddesses, sent by the gods to serve and worship Lord Mahima. If one follows this logic, only goddesses can be ascetics, but not ordinary women. This idea seems 'anti-women' and does not fit into the picture of an egalitarian community proclaimed by Bhima Bhoi who always emphasized that woman and men are equal. In fact, he never looked down upon women. Like no other fact, Bhima Bhoi's attitude towards women manifests clearly the differences between him and the Joranda faction of the Mahima Dharmls. One should note that this conflict is not only a matter of discussion.
Let us reiterate here that after Annapurna joined Bhima Bhoi's asrama, the balkaladhari sannyasis15 from Joranda came to Gurunda, quarrelled with Bhima Bhoi and burned down the asrama house. Therefore, this is not simply an expression of disagreement, but an act of heresy. In fact, the balkaladharis contest Bhima Bhoi's role as a leader. According to them, he is clearly inferior to Mahima Gosain and the monastic order at Joranda. But nowadays the opposition is expressed less violently and another strategy has been adopted. According to the babas from Joranda, Bhima Bhoi is certainly an important disciple of the guru, but he should not— under any circumstance—be compared with Mahima Svami. We were told that Bhima Bhoi was a simple devotee. He was not sannyasi, but a worldly poet and a grhastha. What matters is that he married and procreated, and thereby his religious authority has been undermined. Khaliapali is considered to be Bhima Bhoi's asrama and looked down upon. It is compared unfavourably with the veneration for Joranda among followers, which is regarded as Mahima S vault's holy place. Another interesting point mentioned in this interview is that Bhima Bhoi never came to Joranda and the story that he touched the grounds at the sacred centre is dismissed by Joranda monks. People from Khaliapali told us that Bhima Bhoi did go to Joranda after the death of Mahima Gosain but was horrified by the form of worship conducted there. He left Joranda swearing that he would never return and founded his own asrama in Khaliapali where he accepted women as disciples. The babas at Joranda reject such an event and claim that the guru himself, Mahima Svami, forbade Bhima to come ever to this sacred place. The reason he gave Bhima Bhoi was that this was the holy asrama of the guru, which had no place for a heretic like him.
The controversy is well documented by the news items published in Utkal Deepika criticizing the presence of women at the Khaliapali asrama (Utkal Deepika, 1881). Again, we have to review these accusations. Could we read between the lines to argue that Bhima Bhoi's asrama emerged as an important centre that rivalled Joranda? Was there a danger of his group becoming more prominent than the monastic order? The stories collected at Khaliapali clearly attribute a superior role to Bhima Bhoi. Let us illustrate this with an example. In one story it is told that Bhima Bhoi was once sitting with his four scribes when four sadhus from Joranda came to see him:
The sadhus were so proud of themselves and arrogant that they disregarded and underestimated Bhima Bhoi. They thought, 'How can a tribal and a blind fellow preach such a great religion'? This was their idea of him. But Bhima Bhoi was antaryami,16 he knew the inner thoughts of other people. He could already foresee their arrival and he ordered Basu Panda to get ready to welcome four bhaktas. Then the sadhus arrived at Khaliapali. The first sadhu saw Bhima Bhoi as Visnu with his conch, wheel, club and lotus. He touched Bhima's feet. The second saw Bhima Bhoi as an old man, not as Visnu and accused the first of seeing things. The third sadhu again saw Bhima Bhoi in form of the most beautiful Radha. He asked her: 'Ma, why did you leave Baikuntha?' And the fourth sadhu saw a child in Bhima Bhoi. Thus, these four sadhus each saw Bhima in a different form, and only after some time did they see the real Bhima Bhoi. The sadhus concluded that Bhima Bhoi and Mahima Svami were equal. They asked Bhima Bhoi to excuse their arrogance and their pride.
As we have already seen before, Bhima Bhoi is often seen as an incarnation of God, and here he is linked to Visnu. The relationship between Mahima Dharma and Vaisnava bhakti cannot be overestimated. When one adds to this other stories about his healing capacities and his fame, one can easily attribute either a superior role, or the role of the successor of Mahima Svami, to Bhima Bhoi. Interestingly, there are some voices which accord more importance to Bhima Bhoi then we might expect. S.P. Sharma (1942: 35) wrote that Bhima Bhoi was the next leader after the founder died: 'On the death of Mukunda Das (Mahima Svami), he became one of the important leaders of the sect. . . .' He states that Bhima Bhoi was initiated into Mahima Dharma at Joranda and that he appears to be the legitimate successor of his guru. Das also believes that it was Bhima Bhoi who was responsible for the sect's dissemination outside Dhenkanal. It becomes clear that Bhima Bhoi had a significant role in popularizing the tenets of the Dharma as well, a fact downplayed by the Joranda monks. The conflict, however, hinges not only on who or which centre is superior: we suggest that the tension between Bhima Bhoi and Joranda results from the fact that Bhima Bhoi made his own rules and protested against established norms of the sect. He accepted women from different caste backgrounds as disciples and initiated them into the new dharma. This was an act of revolt because it was not a usual practice for a religious leader.
Let us turn to another text that records Bhima Bhoi's conscious refusal to accept asceticism. Nagendra Nath Vasu (1911) reports that Lord Mahima Svaml had asked Bhima Bhoi to wear nothing but a kaupina, a red garment made of the bark of a tree and to adopt an ascetic lifestyle. Bhima Bhoi followed his order and wandered half-naked in the villages begging for alms. One day, Bhima Bhoi was ridiculed and beaten off a village. Vasu relates how Bhima Bhoi became enraged, cast off his kaupina and belt, and preceded towards Kapilas to meet with his Lord. The latter took him to Joranda in order to give him siddhi (sainthood). After that he freed him from wandering and Bhima Bhoi married in accordance with the wishes of his preceptor and attended to the household duties of a man. In other words, Bhima Bhoi was an ascetic and adopted the life of a householder after he had attained siddhi. However, one has to be very careful in reading this information, because Vasu's information is often contradictory and misguided.17
Based on the discussion, we may, therefore, conclude that Bhima Bhoi revolted against the discrimination of women, and the relationship between Annapurna and Bhima Bhoi can be interpreted as a protest against social sanctions. Even today an important number of sannyasins reside close, but not inside the asrama, and keep his legacy alive. Though they have to sleep outside the holy compound, they are present during the day. Bhima Bhoi's life may be contrasted with the ascetic life of the bdhcis at Joranda, and his asrama may be seen as a counterpart to the Joranda asrama. Bhima Bhoi has democratized the Dharma by accepting women as disciples and by allowing lay persons to play a crucial role in its functioning. In this sense, he is indeed a religious reformer.
Biswanath Baba
Biswanath Baba was one of the most prominent balkaladhdri leaders of Mahima Dharma in recent history. He was a reformer who reintegrated this heterodox dharma into the Hindu mainstream. What merits our attention is his Mahima Dharmara Itihdsa, in which he narrates the history of the Dharma without giving any information about Mahima Svamr's women disciples.18 It is difficult to accept the claim made by Biswanath Baba's followers that this book is an authentic and objective account. It is above all a religious narrative of its own. But one understands the silence with regard to Mahima Svami's women disciples better if one keeps in mind that only three pages out of 300 in the book have been devoted to Bhima Bhoi, not only the guru's first disciple but also the foremost writer of Mahima Dharma. Biswanath Baba's indifference towards Bhima Bhoi is clearly indicated. The exact reasons of the difference between Bhima Bhoi and the balkaladhdris of Joranda have not been investigated till today. It seems that the leadership of Mahima Dharma had been shifted to the great poet Bhima Bhoi after the demise of Mahima Svami. The wholehearted faith of the Mahima Dharmls in Bhima Bhoi, who considered wealth and servants, opulence of worldly life as the blessings of the guru (Stuticintamani, 67.16), might have created jealousy among the monks who had left their worldly life. For the monks of Joranda like Krupasindhu Dash and Bhagawan Dash, Bhima Bhoi was a heretic, despite the number of Bhima Bhoi's devotees being quite high.
There are numerous examples of Bhima Bhoi justifying the rights of women to take up the spiritual path and to become involved in spiritual activities. But the disciples of Biswanath Baba claim that 'women and creeper never survive without support'. Biswanath Baba repeatedly stressed that Mahima Dharma is nothing but sandtana (pristine) Hindu dharma and that there is no scope for women in it. Bhima Bhoi's slogan was that 'there is no division of big and small in man and woman'; but Biswanath Baba has defined the visuddha cidvaitavada as the root concept of Mahima Dharma.
There are certain differences between the two preachers. Bhima Bhoi was not an intellectual, but he was a passionate devotee and a poet of universal consciousness. His anger with the kings and Brahmans is not an expression of his jealousy and rivalry, but rather of his rebelliousness. On the other hand, Biswanath Baba was an intellectual and a sannyasl of the eternal (sanatana) Hindu dharma, which could be labelled here in comparison as 'orthodox' and 'conservative'. Biswanath Baba made categorical statements about the prohibition of female monks in Mahima Dharma: 'Earlier, some women were wandering as sannyasls by the command of the guru, leaving their homes. So Lord Abadhuta commanded the sannyasls Lord Alekha Sunya ordered, from this day no woman will be a sannyasinl leaving home.' (Biswanath Baba, 1991 [1935]: 232- 3). Was the command of Mahima SvamI or was it Biswanath Baba's own statement?
The new group of Biswanath Baba introduced several restrictions (1971: 338-9). Baba is said to have wholeheartedly supported Shankaracharya's opinion that 'women are the gateway to hell' (Biswanath Baba, 1971:490-2). Bhima Bhoi's Adi-Anta Glta was rejected as useless for devotees.19 At present, balkaladhari and kaupinadhari20 groups at Joranda consider each other as rivals, and the basic tenets of the Dharma appear to have been lost somwehere in this wrangle. At the same time, women continue to be initiated into the kaupinadhari group and do not accept anyone other than Bhima Bhoi as the writer of Mahima Dharma literature. Women argue that since Krupasindhu Baba had conferred the bana to Subarna Mata, there is no bar on women's initiation into Mahima Dharma.21 On the other hand, balkaladhari sannyasls taking recourse to the Vedas, Vedantas, Sastras and Puranas, praise orthodox Hindu sannyasa tradition. They regard Biswanath Baba's Mahima Dharma Pratipadaka and Mahima Darsana as the supreme books on Mahima Dharma.

Conclusion
The controversy on whether Bhima Bhoi was married or not reveals interesting facts. We see how Bhima Bhoi does not fit into the canonical picture of a saint who lives his life in devotion to God and practices celibacy. Bhima Bhoi probably had sexual relation with more than one woman. He also wrote Cautisa Madhu Cakra which includes a lot of erotic poems. There are further 'heretical' stories about Bhima Bhoi being a 'lady killer' in his youth. We came to listen to narratives about him as being fair with a strong, muscular and hairless body, in other words, being 'sexy'. He contested the ascetic ideal promoted by the monastic order of Joranda though this protest only partly survived.
It was our aim to explore the most interesting circulating stories we came across in our research. These stories tell us about religious values, power, hierarchies and authority. The stories promoted by the monastic order of Joranda culminate in declaring Bhima Bhoi a heretic while rejecting violently Bhima Bhoi's attitude towards women. Other stories narrated among the followers of Bhima Bhoi in Khaliapali attribute Bhima Bhoi as well as his women a quasi- divine character. Being god, Bhima Bhoi can emanate children, stay with women together without touching them. We also have seen that his companions are conceptualized as goddesses.
Let us recapitulate. Starting with the narratives about Bhima Bhoi's life we tried to explore the little historic reports and testimonies, which we possess today. What clearly came out of this enquiry is that at the end of the nineteenth century Mahima Dharma was objected to by many. For us this strong reaction indicates provocative ideas and a spirit of revolt. Since its reformative potential should indeed not be underestimated, one could consider Mahima Dharma as important as the Arya Samaj or Brahmo Samaj for Orissa. But there is no point to speculate why Mahima Swam! did not become so famous like Dayananda Saraswati or Rammohun Roy. One of the major differences between Mahima Dharma and the other reform movements is its non-intellectual basis. The voices heard at that time lamented that only lowly and uncivilized people followed Mahima Dharma and that therefore the glory of this religion could not last. In the language of Utkal Deepika these people were nudes, drug addicts, fools and barbarians. The then intelligentsia of Orissa, which was in contact with Western education and civilization had no courage to listen to the rebellious voice of the low castes and tribes. Mahima Dharma was a challenge to them and needed through its Brahmanized appearance in Joranda to be domesticated (see Beltz, 2006).
What remains? The balkaladhari sannyasis completely prohibited women from Mahima Dharma and Nrusingha Baba's asrama in Mahulpada is now an abandoned crematory ground and this revolutionary spirit of Mahima Dharma is difficult to trace nowadays. Even in Bhima Bhoi's asrama at Khaliapali only a few sannyasins live, though outside the actual compound of the monastery. Only the Satya Svadhln Mahima group, a recent offspring based in the Kardulla village near Chipilima of Sambalpur district continued Bhima Bhoi's tradition of giving rights to women. This branch went even one step further in demanding that all babas have to be married. It is said that because Bhima Bhoi was a grhastha, all have to be grhasthas. In other words, Mahima Dharma is seen as a lay religion or a garhasthya dharma. At present, its leadership is taken up by a Mata Jyanendri Das, a Scheduled Caste woman of more than 80 years of age. Being the widow of Satya Narayan Baba, the founder of that sect, she explained that she only initiates those devotees who lead a family life. According to her, the one who lives with his family is the real sannyasi. In fact, Mahima Dharma is the religion of the mother. That is why women get initiated first. We were also told that Mataji is considered as the adisakti (arch-mother). Interestingly, the Svadhln Mahima Dharmls justify their stand by arguing that they alone are the true followers of Bhima Bhoi. Satya Narayan Baba is seen as an incarnation of Bhima Bhoi and Jyanendri Das represents herself as the incarnation of Annapurna. Devotees worship this Scheduled Caste woman as the embodiment of the primal energy of Mahima Dharma, the gurumata and brahmavidya. Hundreds of devotees from Orissa, Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh assemble here every year.

Notes
1. Proverb, popular saying in western Orissa.
2. The Mahima Dharmls of the garhjats of western Orissa gave Bhima Bhoi the status of a guru. This was confirmed by Chandra Baba in an interview at Lachhipur, a village near Sonepur in March 2000.
3. Interview with Rabindra Nath Rana, Malbiharpur, March 2001.
4. From the A.S.P. in-charge of Pooree District to the Magistrate of Pooree, 11 March 1881, Board of Revenue, Orissa, document no. 438/2.
5. Samantary (1976: 21) states that Sumedha's father Mohan Das was attracted towards the Mahima cult. He came from a Vaisnava family of the village Ragapali of the present Bolangir district. Daya Sagar Das from Khaliapali confirms that when Bhima Bhoi was staying at the village Bhrusrapali, Mohan Das offered him piija, as if he was his guru. He also offered his daughter Sumedha, who was only seven years old, to Bhima Bhoi. She would have to serve him, providing seva to the guru. It is reported that Sumedha later cooked for the inmates of the asrama.
6. According to Ramesh Samantary (1976: 22), Narayana Das of the village Kudasingha (Bolangir district), the brother-in-law of Mohan Das, was the srestha mahima upasaka (greatest devotee of the Dharma). In other words, like his brother-in-law, he was very attracted towards Mahima Dharma. Narayana Das stayed in the Bhrusrapali asrama. Though he was a householder, he temporarily adopted an ascetic lifestyle. From time to time he went home to his village to see his wife. With the blessings of Bhima Bhoi, he had a daughter whom he called Rohini. When she grew up and did not want to marry, her father gave Rohini as a present to his guru Bhima Bhoi.
7. The notion of seva or venerated service is crucial in the relation between the guru and his disciple. It is the disciple who serves the guru at his feet.
8. Mazumdar (1911) confirms that story by saying that Bhima Bhoi left Dhenkanal, moved around preaching the new faith, and finally settled with his followers in the village Khaliapali around the year 1877.
9. Jlva parama vihara ye sama gali, eka asanare vasi ye veni miirti, quoted from Bhima Bhoi's Adi-Anta Glta (Sahu, 1992: 2); see also his Stuticintamani, verse 67, pp. 10-20 and verse 73, pp. 6-7.
10. Daya Sagara Das, interview in Khaliapali in March 2001.
11. Interview with Baishya Charan Thakur, Sonepur.
12. Daya Sagara Das, interview in Khaliapali in March 2001.
13. An interesting reference is given by the Brahmanirupana Glta: 'Satr bhagari ekcinta vasibeye mitra. Gurasta bharija hoijibe mata putra' (The enemies will become friends and the husband and wife will become mother and son), quoted from Sahu's edition (1992: 11).
14. Paricasakhas stands for 'Five Friends', the five mystics of Orissa of whom Achyutananda Das was one of the most important representatives.
15. They are called so because they wear nothing but a balkalabana, a piece of bark from the Kumbhi tree.
16. Antaryami means omniscient or designates the one who regulates the soul or internal feelings, the Supreme Spirit as guiding and regulating mankind, or the one who knows everything.
17. He claims, for example, that Bhima Bhoi was born at Joranda, a contention that is absurd and confusing because it is generally accepted that he originates from an area situated between Rairakhol and Sonepur.
18. However, a little information has indirectly been gives about the 'Brahmopasikas' at page 204 of Mahima Dharmara Itihasa.
19. This text narrates about Mahima Dharma through the description of man and woman, their physical relationship and the imagery of body culture.
20. The latter are also designated after their clothing, which consists of kauplnabana, a piece of loin cloth.
21. Interview with Dasarathi Das Baba of the kaupinadharl asrama from Julunda, Sonepur and Madan Das Baba of Joranda.
References
Banerjee-Dube, Ishita (1993), 'Religion and Society in Orissa: Mahima Dharma in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries', Ph.D. thesis, University of Calcutta.
----- (2001), 'Issues of Faith, Enactments of Contest: The Founding
of Mahima Dharma in Nineteenth Century Orissa', in Hermann Kulke and Burkhard Schnepel (eds.), Jagannath Revisited: Studying Society, Religion and the State in Orissa, New Delhi: Manohar, pp. 149-77.
Beltz, Johannes (2001), 'Healing Practices and Mahima Dharma: A Short Note from Recent Fieldwork in Western Orissa', Adivasi, vols. 40 and 41, pp. 92-102.
----- (2003), 'Bhima Bhoi: The Making of a Modern Saint', in A.
Copley (ed.), Hindu Nationalism and Religious Reform Movements, New Delhi: Oxford University Press, pp. 230-53.
—--- (2004), 'Devotion, Poetry and Healing: Exploring Bhima Bhoi's
Stuticintamani', in Johannes Beltz, Angelika Malinar and Heiko Frese (eds.), Text and Context in Orissa, New Delhi: Manohar, pp. 143-73.
----- (2006), 'Contested Authorities, Disputed Centers, and Rejected
Norms: Situating Mahima Dharma in its Regional Diversity', in G. Pfeffer (ed.), Periphery and Centre: Studies in Orissan History, Religion andAuthsopology, New Delhi: Manohar, pp. 79- 104.
Biswanath Baba, (1954), An Exposition of Satya Mahima Religion, Cuttack: L.N. Press.
------ (1971), Mahima Dharma Pradipa, Cuttack: Dharmagrantha Store.
------ (1935), Satya Mahima Dharmara Itihasa (Oriya), revised edn.
Mahimagadi Dhenkanal: Mahimadharma Granthakosa Samiti (1991).
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Callewaert, Winand M. and Rupert Snell (eds.) (1994), According to Tradition: Hagiographical Writing in India, Wiesbaden: Haras - sowitz.
Eschmann, Anncharlott (1975), 'Spread, Organization and Cult of Mahima Dharma', in Nilamani Senapati (ed.), Mahima Dharma, Cuttack, Dharmagrantha Store, pp. 9-22.
—— (1978), 'Mahima Dharma: An Autochthonous Hindu Reform Movement', in Anncharlott Eschmann, Hermann Kulke and G.C. Tripathy (eds.), The Cult of Jagannath and the Regional Tradition ofOrissa, New Delhi: Manohar, pp. 375-410.
Gross, Robert Lewis (1992), The Sadhus of India, New Delhi: Rawat Publications.
Guzy, Lidia (1998),'Brahma-Kumaris—Weibliche Askese und Globale Reform: Oder wie aus dem Tod des Weiblichen ein transzendenter Feminismus entsteht', in Manfred Hutter (ed.), Die Rolle des Weiblichen in der indischen und buddhistischen Kulturgeschichte, Graz: Leykam, pp. 56-74.
-—— (2000),' "On the Road with the Babas": Some Insights into Local Features of Mahima Dharma', in Journal of Social Sciences, 4 (4), pp. 323-30.
—-— (2001-2), 'Voices of Gods: Ecstatic Alekhs and Local Configurations of Mahima Dharma', in Adivasi, vols. 40-1, pp. 61-70.
Hallstrom, Lisa Lassell (1999), Mother of Bliss, Anandamayi Ma (1896- 1982), Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Mahapatra, Sitakant (1983), Bhima Bhoi, New Delhi: Sahitya Akademi.
Mazumdar, B.C. (1911), Sonepurin Sambalpur Tract, Calcutta: Brahmo Mission Press.
Mishra. Bibhuti Bhusan (1998), Religious Reform Movements in Orissa, Jaipur: Publication Scheme.
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Other Sources Cited
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Utkal Deepika, 20and26 August 1871; 'KumbhiapataBabaji', ^November 1911.

Kanchi Abhijan

2009-09-08T23:18:00.001-07:00

Kanchi Abhijan

Dukha Bisayare Gote rachana

2009-09-07T00:53:00.000-07:00

A new Odia Poem

A POEM ON A DROP OF MOONBEAM AND OTHER POEMS

2009-08-17T23:57:00.000-07:00

A POEM ON A DROP OF MOONBEAM

The boat melts and becomes a part of the stream.
With the boat melts the boatman
Who sells fish in the market.
With the melting boat flows the golden saliva
Of fish buyers.

The stream of saliva and river goes together,runs like a snake.
Let them imagine the river as a snake-goddess,
Those who are scared of snakes.

Let them build ghats and temples on its banks.
The river itself creates space to offer pinda.
One day a stranger reaches at the bank of the river
Carrying a drop of moonbeam in his purse.

To pick his purse a group follows him
Braying for his blood
To have that drop of moonbeam
More than fifty states of this planet
Are engaged in war and hatred.

To protect that one drop of moonbeam
There was only that safety boat in the river
The boatman looks like a beloved one to the stranger.

And the river reminds him
The forgotten face of his childhood love.
With that drop of moonbeam the stranger jumps in to the boat
To be safe from the rogues and from those war-loving states,
When the boat starts melting
When the boatman becomes a part of the stream
When the stream flows like a cobra
Where did the stranger go?

Did the river swallow him?
Did the time wither him out?
Did the moonbeam murder him with love?
Absolutely there is no news of that stranger in today’s newspaper.Nowhere on earth.

Translated from the Oriya by Rabindra K Swain

A TEMPLE FOR RAMA

The walls will be made ofThe half-burnt busts
Of those living human beings
Who have been chopped and burnt.

On the half-baked skin
Will be carved yakshas, nagas,Poses of sringara.
The sanctum sanctorumwill be born off raped women.
The chopped head of a pregnant womanwill adorn the crowning slab.

A temple will be built.
The roads from all the
Riot-torn villages and cities
Of this countryLead to this temple.

The houses are on fire, so also the hearts.
Only for this temple
All the sacred rivers turned red.
The maryada purusottam will be sanctified
With the sacrifice of human beings.

Your highness, please come,
Be enthroned.
The throne of ill-will and devastation,
Is waiting for you.

Blood-loving sanyasi
Chant the hymns of peace
From the Vedas.
You the assassin of people
Fly your saffron banner
Made of the chopped heads.
You the hoodwinked, the spineless,
Declare with pride,

You are the subject of ramarajya.

Translated from the Oriya by Rabindra K Swain

A SUMMER SONG
(1)
I am on the dias
To sing a song or two.

This song is like
A woodpecker’s pecking
At the trunk of a drumstick tree,
A pot of rice
On a cold hearth,
This song is made of
Many orphans who knew no breast feeding.
This song
A bundle of ribs
In the scorching sunshine.
I have filtered a few
Wonderful, rare breath
From amidst the corpses.
Come, listen to my song.
(2)
In it
Is the twang of a world of dry, barren land,
Is the yard of boulders of black-hills,
Is the long, sinewy hand of dead woods,
Is a tangle of millions of distended bellies
From the bottom of a dry pond
Is an half-open lotus.
In it lies
That rare wonderful song.
(3)
This song is not mine.
I am not singing this song.
The flame of this song burns me.
What you hear from me as a song
Is nothing but my smoldering soul.

Translated from the Oriya by Rabindra K Swain

A SONG FOR RICE

I salute those poets in whose poetry
The pain of empty belies
Is led bare
I salute
Those red banners which
Shout for hungry mass,
Those red-eyed rulers,

Those merchants of letters
Who survive on selling hunger
I salute
Those bards singing
On the village street, to the
Sermon preacher, the teacher
Who lecture on reading and writing
I salute
That woman who bartered her baby
The village headman, the officers

From the capital, the village deity
Who still hungers for blood
After a series of famine
I salute
The watchmen of store houses,
The destructive insects,
Those poets and film makers
Who are generous in selling hunger.
My salute is to those
Who knows nothing of hunger
And also to those who becomes
King in a democracy
Throwing light on hunger.

I salute, I mean it.

Translated from the Oriya by Rabindra K Swain

ROMANTICS

No one will be free from hunger
With the fragrance of flowers.
The gardens are wiped out
As per your order, your Highness.

The song of a cuckoo cannot wipe tears,
The susurrus of a spring cannot allay our pain.
Forget the eunuch’s song of the spring—
So thundered your Highness!

You said, let the poems be warm
Like blood and fire,
Let them be unfurled like banners,
Let them spread like wild fire in a forest.

As you said, poetry cannot be a pot-full of rice
Or a long stick.
Does the flower stop blooming
Just because hunger is there?
Don’t you think
Singing for the spring
Is a part of life?
Always you kicked me out
For my love and dream.
You say you sing for the human
But you leave them naked on the street.
I am a bard of love
Suffering hunger all the way.
I am a dreamer
And my dream blooms on my poverty.
Whatever you call me,
An escapist or a eunuch,
I don’t mind.
As I know, my love for life is more than yours.

Translated from the Oriya by Rabindra K Swain

WRATH

2009-08-17T23:54:00.000-07:00

WRATH

No, nothing happens.
The old leaf takes leave of the tree
The sweet water of the river
Runs into salt pit of the sea.

The god takes incarnations
Yet the number of the degraded,
Of the sinners, of the demons
Goes on increasing.
On the top of the temple
Still flutter the lord’s banner.
In the news are
The photographs
Of a village without its inhabitant,
An interview of a mother
Who has sold her newborn baby
And the manifesto
Of the leaders who play with the country
As if it were a football.
On the road stretches
The hands of a fireball
The poems are written in red letters
The parliament and assembly sessions
Are flushed with storms.

Everyone is silent in his place
The scenes, the events, the rebellions,
The calamities, everything is silent
The blood-sucking leeches are silent
The bleeding poor are silent.
Will you please shut up?
Don’t disturb this mystic silence
With your terror-filled words!

Translated from the Oriya by Rabindra K Swain

HISTORY OF ORISSA

2009-08-17T23:50:00.000-07:00

HISTORY OF ODISHA

Nobody knew when some
Kapila BhoiDisappeared in the dark
When we went on discussing about
The great king Kapilendradev.

Excavation revealed
Palace, temple, fort, vihara.
A palimpsest was created
Cleaning the bloody inscription
Of the royal glory.
From under the heavy buttocks
Of the kings were extracted
The past glory, the lost heritage.

From the distant lands came savants,
From some corners came the marauders.
The Lord Jagannath retreated
To the forest, where he was worshipped.

These royal words
Gave birth to effeminate words
Yes, I forget, where didKapila Bhoi get lost?
Carving the hips of dancing girls
On the walls of Konark
He lost his hands,
Carrying the palanquin of the pundits
He broke his soldiers,
Fighting for the nincompoop king
He shed much of his blood,
Working as a bonded labourer
His feet became a pair of torn slippers

The past and future
Of a race brim over
With Kapila’s blood.
The fool that he was
It did not occur to him
That letters and words are only too wily
And blood of human is being ephemeral.

Wiping the forehead of time
The drunken pen lay comfortablyBetween the thighs
Of a dancing girl.

Last nightI set fire to all my history books.
In my eyes, on my lips
In my soul, there isOnly one name
And that is Kapila Bhoi.

Translated from the Oriya by Rabindra K Swain

LETTERS

2009-08-17T23:46:00.000-07:00

LETTERS

You came so often
With the hands of the rain-Drona
To wipe out the moon from the sky
And the starlight.

Have you ever put out brightness?
You have pierced the heart
Of a bird who is fond of flying
With arrows, swords and missiles.
Have you ever stopped its mad flight?
Every time my breath has torn apart
Nets of your conspiracy.
Accessing your deadly secrets
I have sung in the centre of your heart.
Checking the flow
I have put on guard
The indestructible peepul of letters.

You have hacked me again and again
I have painted your room with my blood and wound.

Now your sword, supposed to chop me,
Turns into a lotus.
I stand nonchalantly
And watch how, wiping the rains,
The moonlit night is up
And the stars are back.
Too long you have been dark;
Too long you have been
The stonewall of hatred.Enough is enough.
Now what you see in my hands
Are jasmine letters of loveFor you, only for you.

Translated from the Oriya by Rabindra K Swain

2009-08-17T23:42:00.000-07:00

JUST SHUT UP!
Don’t disturb the poet.
He is meditating on fire.
Just keep quiet.

All right, the earth is flushed with wounds:
Blood, puss, and flies.Men are machine.
What can a poet do about it?
Let him sleep peacefully.
If he wishes
Give him the morning newspaper
In his newly built palace.
After a brief look he would know
That the world is hungry
And immediately he will compose
A great poem on hunger.

Writing on hunger in our time
Is not a small thing.
It is something only a poet can do!

Why are you so worried about the outside?
The city folks kill each other.
The tribal are being evicted from the forest.
The monsoon did not turn up this year.
All the villages are deserted.
What will the poet do
With all these trivial news?

Look at the poet:
He is coming out of meditation
And watching stars from the rooftop.
The sky is full with stars
He starts counting: one, two…
What can a poet do
Except just counting the stars!

You are worried
As to why he is so silent.
Do you expect him to be with you
On the road of blood and fire?
His words should sharpen the voices of your pain.
Once, at least once,His palms should touch
The wound of this earth.

Leave it.
Forgive the poet
For he knows not what does he do.

Translated from the Oriya by Rabindra K Swain

AN ANALYSIS OF MEDIA IN POST KANDHAMAL ODISHA

2009-08-10T05:20:00.000-07:00

I am now writing an analysis on the reportings of kandhamal violence in Odisha.the role of media is analysed here by an insider and its a criticism within media.

kedar mishra

PAKSHIRA NA' PRANA MITANI-AN ODIA POEM

2009-07-13T00:43:00.000-07:00

Published in Amrtayana, July 2009 in the Navaparva section edited by Haraprasad Das

ORIYA POEM

2009-07-09T04:42:00.000-07:00

A POEM IN ORIYA

CELEBRATING THE SPIRIT OF LETTERS

2009-06-17T00:17:00.000-07:00

CELEBRATING THE SPIRIT OF LETTERS (6 photos)
Fortnightly Oriya news magazine- 'The Sunday Indian' presents '100 Young Achievers of Orissa' in its second anniversary issue, June 2009. It covers 100 promising young faces of the state who lead their dreams and dynamic for the betterment of Oriya society.We are happy to note that Oriya literature is being placed prominently and the list includes poets Bharat Majhi and Kedar Mishra,fiction writers Paramita Satpathi,Debaprasad Dash,Saroj Bal and Nilambar Rath.Media treats literary carrere as an achievement-sounds great.

HUNGER REPORTER:A MEDIA ANALYSIS ON THE POVERTY REPORTING IN ORISSA

2009-05-12T23:45:00.000-07:00

Hunger Reporters
Kedar Mishra

What’s the trend of hunger in your localities? Would you be surprised at this question being posed to a man dying of hunger in a remote village of Kalahandi by anglicized Odia news anchor, in executive suits, from the State Capital’s glitzy news room? Or, questions like how is the mahol there and are they really happy with their hungry families? Really, I am not.(1)

In the age of infotainment, media houses treat everything including human crisis as selling objects. Present day’s media is more a corporate house than one of the powerful pillars of democracy. Greater concentration of corporate ownership of the media is cutting newsroom budgets and undermining journalistic integrity, giving advertisers and sponsor undue and unwarranted influence over news agenda. Confirming this trend, Dr. Carl Jehnsen, founder of project censored, which has been tracking press issues in US for twenty-five years writes, “the press has the power to stimulate people to clean up the environment, prevent nuclear proliferation, force crooked politicians out of office, reduce poverty, provide quality health care for all people, and even to save the lives of millions of people as it did in Ethiopia in 1984. But instead, we are using it to promote sex, violence, and sensationalism and to line the pockets of already wealthy media moguls.”(2) P. Sainath, another media activist and rural affairs editor of the Hindu, observes “One of the fundamental features of the media of our times is the growing disconnect between the mass media and the mass reality two, there is a structural shutout of the poor in the media. Three, there is a corporate hijack of media agendas. Four, of the so called four estates of our democracy, media is the most exclusive and the most elitist.”(3)

Hunger: The Cradle of Odia Journalism

These observations also hold good for the Odia media. See, the just concluded election. Four major media house owners contested election from various party symbols and (mis)utilised their news space for self propaganda and the ideas of their own party. The `mass media’ chose to forget the issues dogging the masses of Odisha: poverty, hunger, unemployment, displacement etc. Yes, Odia media shout Odisha as one of the poorer states and more than half of our population reeling below poverty line. In the process, very glibly also sell the idea that roll out red carpet for corporate houses, hand them over the mineral and Odisa would be flooded with ghee and honey. It does not prick the conscience of media when 27 journalists visit South Korea sponsored by POSCO and activities of POSCO published in the news papers treated as advertisements.(4) This tellingly shows where the Odia journalism stands today. Let us go back a little into its history here, if for not inspiration, at least for soul searching.

Odia newspapers came into existence in 1867 when the state was under the grip of an unprecedented famine, widely known as “Na’ Anka Durbhikshya”. Millons of people died of hunger and two third of the population of coastal Odisa were wiped out. Thus, hunger was the cradle where Odia journalism grew.

Utkal Deepika, the first true Odia news paper, was brought out in 1867 by Gauri Sankar Roy, a colonial clerk. Despite being a clerk in the British government, Roy brought to the Editors job to an all time high altitude of commitment, integrity, and fearlessness. The way Utkal Deepika grilled the erstwhile famine commissioner and colonial rulers is beyond the imagination of the contemporary, so called free press. Utkal Deepika’s reports on hunger could bring tears to the eyes of reader till today. Here I quote one-

Today we came to know that in the village Mahanga a hungry woman is walking around. Her condition is dangerously ill. She is eating flesh from the dead bodies. It has been said that she is digging out dead bodies under the earth and eating them out. Out of acute hunger she even dares to attack living beings to eat flesh.(5)

Deepika was fighting with almighty British rulers with an old letter press and simultaneously it was instrumental to build up a sense of nationality among Odia people. Deepika played a vital role to form the new Orissa state in 1936. Taking inspiration from Deepika, Gopabandhu Das started The Samaj which ultimately became the torchbearer of the freedom movement and national awakening in Odisha. Before founding The Samaj Gopabandhu Das was a regular contributor for Utkal Deepika. It would be worthwhile to quote a letter of Gopabanndhu Das published in Utkal Deepika on 11.04.1908. Das wrote, “With scorching summer hit, the famine condition in Orissa is likely to be worsened. At least one can survive without food if he had some water to drink and in this summer, water is a big scarcity. The life is becoming a burden for people. I am sorry to say that nobody is taking care of these facts. Even the news papers are callous and silent in this regard. People think that this famine is not so terrible. But the fact is utterly different.”(6)
The letter shows the anger and compassion of a young journalist who is very much concerned with people’s life and desperately trying to do something for the nation. Unfortunately, Deepika and Gopabandhu Das remain in the remotest darkness of history. Odia journalism never looks back at them for inspiration.

Taking a U-turn

The Odia media took a U-turn in the post-independence era.Journalists associated with popular media outlets emerged as theanchorpersons of Odisha politics. Radhanath Rath, the editor of The Samaj,Harekrishna Mahtab, the founder-editor of The Prajatantra, Rajendra Narayan Singhdeo, the founder of The Swarajya, Debendra Satpathy, Nandini Satpathy and Tathagat Satpathi of Dharitri, Biju Patnaik, the owner of Kalinga, and its editor, Surendra Mohanty, all utilised their newspapers to establish themselves in electoral politics. But curiously, nobody wants to discuss how these editors have used their papers to further their political interests. Popular perception of the media, however, bears this out.The owners or the editors of all the leading newspapers in Orissa havebeen in politics and have occupied seats of power. The editors of The Prajatantra and Dharitri are Members of Parliament from the ruling Biju Janata Dal(BJD) and seeking re-election to the fifteenth Lok Sabha. While the editor of The Sambad continues to be a prominent office-bearer of the Congress party and contesting election with a congress ticket to get his entry into assembly. Owner of another powerful media house running the biggest cable network and Orissa Television Ltd(O TV) Baijayant Panda is also one of the contestants for Lok Sabha from ruling Biju Janata Dal. Lately, Pyari Mohan Mahapatra, second- in- command of BJD, has entered the media business. The owners and editors of other small and mediumnewspapers present the news in keeping with their political interests. Thenews that is published and aired by these groups is always “politically motivated” and “pro-capitalist”.

To Tell the Tale of Hunger
Reams of paper and huge space of valuable news are devoted to subjects that concern the leaders and corporate bodies instead of the core problems that Odisha faces. Even though almost half of the population of Orissa is tribals and Dalits, the newspapers almost never highlight their problems and issues. Statistics reveal that newspaper owners, editors and journalists are pre-dominantly from the upper castes and classes. In the current scheme of things, tribals and dalits have no opportunity to raise their own concerns.”The proportion of rural population below 1800 calories, for example, had increased between 1993-94 and 2004-05 in Odisha from 16 to 27.5 percent, as against the corresponding all India figures of 20 and 25 percent respectively. More people in Odisha, in other words, have become intensely hungry in recent years” observes Prof. Prabhat Pattnaik, the renowned economist.(7) In late eighties and early nineties, media highlighted the poverty, starvation death and parents selling their own children for survival. The name Kalahandi became a synonym for hunger death and child selling. Political leaders and their brothers in media delivered eloquent speeches deploring the sad plight of the people surviving on poisonous roots (or kanda) and tamarind leaves. The state government even highlighted Odisha’s poverty before the central government to demand the status of special category state.

But, this apparently pro-people stance of media did not prompt it look deep into the reality: why the situation is like this. Who should be held responsible for this? Rather, it preferred to toe the line proposed by the proponents of New Economic Policy: extract the minerals, sell them. Odisa will develop. One thing, it knowingly or unknowingly did not ask who is going to benefit out of this development? Or who are the people going to pay for this? Even when the poorest of the poor of Orissa were resisting this so called development, media did forget to ask these basic questions, nor did it appeal for sanity amidst development-mania.

We are in the middle of a socio economic crisis. Numbers of hungry people and their plight is dangerously growing. Every year lakhs of people leave their villages from Kalahandi and Balangir Districts in search of job and coming back with deadly virus and horrible experiences of exploitation and torture. Our valuable green land and coastland are being sold out to MNCs and looting minerals becoming rampant. Do the media here work like a watchdog? What’s the job of a watchdog? Journalism is to find out, communicate accurately and be trusted. If it cannot be trusted, then it will neither be believed nor respected.

The internal administration of Odia newspaper establishments isappallingly weak. None of the employees gets adequate salaries; instead,newspaper owners exploit them as intellectual laborers. Journalists find itimpossible to publish in-depth and research-oriented studies. More oftenthan not, news about Koraput is written from the Bhubaneswar desk.Journalists working in interior areas share the ideology of theirowners and editors, and misuse their identity cards to achieve petty politicalgains and collect booty. They spend their time singing paeans to the Sarpanch, the block development officer and the collector, and by interviewing ministers and legislators instead of focusing on important issues. Trivia such as a marriage between dolls or something sensational like the sacrifice of male genitals to propitiate Shiva, the phallus god, gets prominent space in news papers and news channels.

Conclusion

In Odisa, every morning hundreds of rural people journey into urban centers or provinces in search of work. Where are their stories in the pages of printed media or on the monitor or electronic ones? What has stopped them telling those stories? Per capita availability of food grain in India has fallen from 510gm a day in 1991 to 422gm in 2005-a fall of 88gm for one billion people for 365 days a year! That means our average family is consuming 100kg less of food grain than it consumed a decade ago. Imagine, the condition of poor families in such a circumstance. But where is our outrage?(8) Outrage and sympathy make the language of journalism sharper and effective. The language used in The Utkal Dipika and The Samaj of Gopabandhu era was a creative blending of the two.

Odia journalism in its infancy stood up to the exploitation and apathy of British imperial power. Lamentably, the same journalism today is stooping to the money power of Corporate houses and caged in the political ambition of media owners. It is high time to pause seriously and to think about it!

Notes

1. This article was presented as a speech in a seminar organized by ODAF, Bhubaneswar on the role of media on poverty reporting. I am extremely grateful to Sri Nigamananda Sarangi for his critical suggestions and his help to translate the speech from Oriya to English.
2. Hargreaves Ian, Journalism; A very short introduction, OUP,2005
3. Sainath. P. Two things have died in the media, Outrage and Compassion, Times of India, 3rd Feb.2oo9
4. Mishra Kedar, Fifth Columnists?, Catterpillar and the Mahua Flower;tremors in India’s mining fields, Edited by-R.Kalshian,Panoss south Asia, 2007.
5. Utkal Deepika, 11, August, 1866, Volume -I
6. Mishra Gopal Chandra, Odishara Bikasare Patra Patrikara Pravaba(Oriya),Grantha Mandir,Cuttack.1979
7. Pattnaik Pravat, Food, Finance and Economics, Ama Odisha Lecture,28th April, 2009
8. Sainath. P. Two things have died in the media, Outrage and Compassion, Times of India, 3rd Feb.2oo9

New Book on Mahima Dharma

2009-04-23T00:05:00.000-07:00

Popular Religion and Ascetic PracticesNew Studies on Mahima Dharma
EDITED BY ISHITA BANERJEE-DUBE JOHANNES BELTZ
publishing company: MANOHAR

Recent years have seen important developments in the historical study of popular religions in India. Such developments have involved mutual interchanges between history and a variety of disciplines, including anthropology, literary criticism and religious studies. All of his has led to nuanced and new understandings of history and religion. This volume builds on such departures. It does so by taking up the case of Mahima Dharma. Bringing together philosophical, theological, ethnological, historical and sociological approaches, it attempts to understand the diverse dimensions of a religious order that emerged in the second half of the nineteenth century and exits till today.
Together, the essays in this volume raise pertinent questions regarding the nature of ‘popular’ religion and the way it is perceived and understood by its adherents. They also illustrate the different ways in which scholars approach and examine religion.
(IN this book i have an article)

2009-04-10T00:42:00.000-07:00

Fifth Columnists?

In the Oriya media, truth is often sacrificed at the altar of political
ambitions and advertisement revenues. Industrial houses that advertise
in newspapers are rewarded with laudatory reports as was evident after
the Kalinga Nagar firing. Newspapers that initially castigated the state
government as anti-tribal after the killings changed their tune to
brand the people’s agitation a Maoist-sponsored one. As a result, the
public impression is that the media is protecting the interests of
industrialists and mine owners instead of creating awareness about
displacement
he term ‘mass media’ once meant the state-owned national television
network Doordarshan and a handful of newspapers. In the 21st century,
thanks to globalisation, there has been a virtual explosion of media outlets
across the country. Orissa with its own share of newspapers and electronic
channels, is no exception to this phenomenon. But is quantity any indication
of quality? A review of the Oriya mass media makes it clear that there is in
fact no correlation between the two. As Gourahari Das, general manager
(news) of the leading Oriya newspaper Sambad, says, these days, a journalist
cannot afford to write confidently against the anti-people policies of the
government or corporate bodies because of the inner dynamics of the Oriya
print media. When an issue is covered with a certain amount of sensitivity,
it’s even interpreted as weakness on the part of the correspondent.
In the case of Orissa, it’s particularly important to remember that the
state has been subjected to both natural and manmade calamities. The
situation continues to be grim a good 60 years after India’s independence,
with the private sector intent on looting the natural resources of the state.
Worse still, they are being co-opted by none other than our own leaders and
bureaucrats, who are the ones who wield true power in the country’s socalled
‘democratic’ set-up.
The Kalinga Nagar killings of January 2, 2006, are a shocking instance of
how the government has chosen to stand by the industry and not by the
people who had voted them into power. On that fateful day, the police fired
on tribals protesting against the setting up of a Tata steel plant, killing 12.
Not only were the tribals gunned down in cold blood, but their dead bodies
were also cut into pieces. The private parts of the dead tribal women were
inhumanly mutilated as well. Jamsed J Irani, the Tata company chief, washed
his hands off the incident and cleverly put the blame on the government. In
a letter published in The Financial Express of January 6, 2006 Irani wrote,
“Last week’s unfortunate event was a consequence of the government’s action
in trying to get the land vacated. No officer of Tata Steel was present, nor was
there any other involvement from the company...”
In this context, what was the role of the mass media in Orissa, especially
the print media? What did the Oriya newspapers do to protect the interests
of the tribal people, who have been the inhabitants of the land? What did the
newspapers do to make the public aware of the plight of those who had been
displaced by various industrial projects? It’s imperative to answer these
questions, for newspapers continuously examine others. A discussion on their
role, therefore, is important from both a historical as well as a political point
of view.
The History of Oriya Newspapers

Oriya newspapers came into existence in 1865-66 when Orissa was in the
grip of an unprecedented famine, widely known as ‘Na’anka’. Lakhs of people
died in the famine, which was more manmade than natural. The
shortsightedness of the imperialist rulers and the native babus led to the
starvation deaths, as tonnes of food grains were available at that time. As a
reaction to this crisis, Utkal Deepika was brought out in 1867 as the first
newspaper from Orissa. Gauri Shankar Ray, an employee of the British
government, was its founder-editor. Despite being a clerk in the government,
Ray brought to the editor’s job an admirable degree of transparency, honesty
and fearlessness. The way Utkal Deepika took the erstwhile famine
commissioner to task is beyond the imagination of the contemporary, socalled
free mass media. Subsequently, The Samaj, a newspaper founded by
Gopabandhu Dash, became the torchbearer of the freedom movement and
national awakening.
The Oriya mass media took a U-turn in the post-independence era.
Journalists associated with popular media outlets emerged as the
anchorpersons of Orissa politics. Radhanath Rath, the editor of The Samaj,
Harekrishna Mahtab, the founder-editor of Prajatantra, Rajendra Narayan
Singhdeo, the founder of Swarajya, Debendra Satpathy and Nandini Satpathy
of Dharitri, Biju Patnaik, the owner of Kalinga, and its editor, Surendra
Mohanty, all utilised their newspapers to establish themselves in electoral
politics. But curiously, nobody wants to discuss how these editors have used
their papers to further their political interests. Popular perception of the media,
however, bears this out.
The owners or the editors of all the leading newspapers in Orissa have
been in politics and have occupied seats of power. The editors of Prajatantra
and Dharitri were Members of Parliament from the ruling Biju Janata Dal
(BJD) while the editor of Sambad continues to be a prominent office-bearer
of the Congress party. The owners and editors of other small and medium
newspapers present the news in keeping with their political interests. The
news that is published daily is “politically motivated” and “pro-capitalist”,
says Debendra Prusti, the editor of Sanchar, a weekly newspaper.
A non-political alternative newspaper has not come up so far. As a result,
reams of paper is devoted to subjects that concern the leaders and corporate
bodies instead of the core problems that Orissa faces. Even though one-fourth
of the population of Orissa are tribals and Dalits, the newspapers almost
never highlight their problems and issues. Statistics reveal that newspaper
owners, editors and journalists are predominantly from the upper castes and
classes. In the current scheme of things, tribals and Dalits have no opportunity
to raise their own concerns.
No Space for News
The internal administration of Oriya newspaper establishments is
appallingly weak. None of the employees get adequate salaries; instead,
newspaper owners exploit them as intellectual labourers. The staff finds it
impossible to publish in-depth and research-oriented studies. More often
than not, news about Koraput is written from the Bhubaneswar desk.
Journalists working in interior districts and blocks share the ideology of their
owners and editors, and misuse their identity cards to achieve petty political
gains and collect booty. They spend their time singing paeans to the sarpanch,
the block development officer and the collector, and by interviewing ministers
and legislators instead of focusing on important issues. Trivia such as a marriage
between dolls or something sensational like the sacrifice of male genitals to
propitiate Shiva, the phallus god, gets prominent space in newspapers.

In the nineties, newspapers created the impression that Orissa was a poor
state whose inhabitants were dying of starvation or who were selling their
own children for survival. The Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs)
delivered eloquent speeches deploring the sad plight of the people surviving
on poisonous roots (or kanda) and tamarind leaves. The state government
even highlighted Orissa’s poverty before the central government to demand a
special category status for the state.
Two former chief ministers of Orissa, Biju Patnaik and Janaki Ballav
Patnaik, hit upon massive industrialisation of the state as a solution to the
problem. While the former wanted to transform Orissa into a ‘Heaven of
Steel’, the latter came up with the slogan ‘One Thousand Industries in One
Thousand Days with an Investment of One Thousand Crores’. It was as if
industries and steel plants could eradicate the hunger and poverty in the
state. The state’s mineral riches were blindly sold to industrialists and mine
owners at throwaway prices. The present chief minister Navin Patnaik
continues that trend. The same chief minister who demanded a special
category status for the state five years ago is now aiming to attract an
investment of Rs 30,000 million. The unfortunate part is that the Oriya
mass media till now has not thought it fit to ask who stands to benefit from
this investment and in whose interest the land, water, forest, mines and human
resources of the state are being sacrificed. Instead, the newspapers are full of
news about the private lives of businessmen like Laxmi Niwas Mittal and the
Ambanis.
There is a vested interest — in the form of advertisement revenue —
behind such indifference. The Oriya newspapers prefer to thrive on
advertisements instead of banking on readers. When the coffers of these
newspapers are overflowing with the money generated as advertisement
revenue, how can they gather the moral courage to write against these same
companies? If we delve deep into the role of the Oriya mass media in the
aftermath of the Kalinga Nagar killings, it becomes clear that the newspapers
put their revenue over state interest. How else can one explain the change in
the media’s stance after the Kalinga Nagar incident? The newspapers initially
castigated the state government as anti-tribal but soon changed their tune
and branded the agitation a Maoist-sponsored one. It was from national
newspapers that the people of Orissa secured some news about displacement
and the plight of the displaced people. Oriya newspapers at that time were
publishing made-up news about the success stories of model villages that had
been sponsored by private companies.
The Kalinga Nagar incident is symptomatic of the problems of Orissa,
where the government itself is the chief perpetrator of the repression and
exploitation of the state’s tribals and Dalits. Take a look at the numbers.
About one-sixth of the inhabitants of Koraput district have been displaced
due to mining and industrialisation. Since 1940, over 25.50 lakh people
have been displaced by different mining projects across the country. Only
6.30 lakh have been rehabilitated. Among those displaced, the number of
tribals is about 13.30 lakh. Similarly, of the 16.40 lakh people displaced by
river-dam projects, only 4.30 lakh have been rehabilitated. We are further
constrained by the lack of accurate data about displacement and rehabilitation.
As far as these topics are concerned, the views of the government and nongovernment
organisations are in stark contrast to each other. In the
predominantly tribal districts of Koraput, Rayagada, Keonjhar, Jajpur,
Sambalpur, Jharsuguda, Mayurbhanj and others, no survey has been
conducted on the displacement resulting from mining projects.
It’s true that immediately after the Kalinga Nagar massacre, the media
did highlight some of these issues. But it pales in comparison to the coverage
given to political issues and celebrities. In the past five years, there has hardly
been any story on the health and environmental problems caused by the coal
mines in Jharsuguda district, where mine owners have been treating locals in
an inhumane manner. Instead of bringing out such elements, newspapers
support industrialisation and contribute to the view that it’s necessary for

economic growth. A state’s development is certainly important but just as
pertinent is the question as to who will pay the price for this growth. Why
should we treat our original inhabitants as sacrificial lambs for the development
of the state? Why is their consent not taken before their forests, water and
land are sold to companies? Have either the government or the industrialists
tried to gauge the opinion of the local population before drafting a
Memorandum of Understanding (MoU)? Who has given bureaucrats the
right to determine the fate of the people overnight in the secretariat? These
are questions that should ideally have been discussed in newspapers.

Dishonesty in Reporting

Soon after the Kalinga Nagar incident, the Oriya mass media was busy
determining the political arithmetic and future of the BJD-BJP (Bharatiya
Janata Party) government, and the ways in which the death of the tribals
would affect the combine’s standing. In a bid to appease the tribal community,
the BJP branded the government a “murderer of tribals”. The then state
president of the BJP indirectly threatened to withdraw the party’s support to
the government. The mass media covered this hullabaloo in an exaggerated
fashion. The political volatility across the state was not appropriately reflected
in the editorials of newspapers. Instead, the edits focused on subjects like the
demands for mobile phones in the world market. The only strong editorial
about the Kalinga Nagar incident came in the Dharitri newspaper on January
7, 2006, wherein its editor Tathagat Satpathy strongly condemned the
happenings in Kalinga Nagar and stated that no development project should
be undertaken without the consent of the people. It’s another story that soon
after, Dharitri started publishing imaginative stories about the involvement
of Maoists in the Kalinga Nagar movement. The editorial, however, was
written either because of genuine concern or political interest.
The daily Odisha Bhaskar, which was founded by a frontline leader of the
ruling BJD party and is hence sympathetic to the state government, published
colourful stories about the subsequent tribal demonstrations and road
blockades. A feature titled ‘Petty leaders take advantage of the displaced after
Kalinga Nagar incident’, published on February 12, 2006, carried vague
arguments. It stated that due to the pressure exerted by Opposition parties,
the government divested the administration and the police of its powers after
the Kalinga Nagar incident.
The same newspaper also carried another news item titled ‘The untold
stories behind the Kalinga Nagar incident’ just two days after the firing. The
report mentioned that the police-tribal conflict did not happen on the spur
of the moment, but was due to the irresponsibility of the district
administration. The conflict could have been averted through dialogue but
it had now blown up into a political conspiracy, with Leftists-Maoists being
involved, the report said.
The newspapers also published several statements by leaders of the ruling
party denigrating the Kalinga Nagar agitation. Damodar Rout, the then
secretary-general of BJD, and Prasanna Patsani, Member of Parliament from
the Bhubaneswar constituency, stated that the tribals who died in the police
firing were not locals but Bihari goons. The only paper to nail this lie was
Sambad. In an article titled ‘Is the government looking for identification?
Please find it here’, the paper reported that the state was trying to mask the
identities of those who died or were injured in the firing, so as to propagate
the lie that the dead did not belong to those families displaced by the Kalinga
Nagar units. Sambad presented an exhaustive report about the family members
of the dead and the injured, with their names and addresses. The report
exposed the concocted statements dished out by the state government and
the leaders of the ruling party.
However, this lone effort was largely overshadowed by the way in which
most of the media functioned as a mouthpiece for the government. Some
facts filtered in, but the residents of Kalinga Nagar disbelieved everything

that appeared in the papers as a matter of rule. A seven member fact-finding
team, which visited the site the day after the police firing, stated in its report:
“People had blockaded the National Highway. The dead bodies of the tribals
were lying on the main road. They were saying that the cremation would not
be done till their demands were met. Some young people also opposed a
Sahara TV cameraman shooting the proceedings because E-TV had already
gone on air stating that Maoists were behind the trouble. The agitators strongly
denied this allegation.”
Nevertheless, the media continued to cover the agitation in a negative
manner. As a result, the public’s impression that the media was protecting
the interests of industrialists and mine owners instead of creating awareness
about displacement rightfully persisted. Another development also took place
during this period; legislators from the tribal community, and tribal leaders,
maintained a studied silence on the subject.

Unanswered Questions

During the nineties, the tribals handed over their land in Kalinga Nagar
to the Industrial Development Corporation of Orissa (IDCO) at the rate of
Rs 50,000 (some media reports say the figure was Rs 35,000) per acre. But at
that time, the corporate houses were not in a position to build their factories,
and hence didn’t take possession of the land or construct a boundary wall.
Therefore, the locals continued to use the land that had been handed over to
IDCO.
As the steel prices soared in the international market in 2001, the rush to
set up factories began. Corporate houses such as MESCO, Neelachal Ispat
Nigam, Jindal, VISA, Maharastra Seamless and others reportedly paid IDCO
Rs 3.5 lakh per acre for purchasing the land. The dispossessed didn’t have
any opportunity to demand a share of the enhanced price. Instead the tribals
ended up as pawns in the hands of various vested interests. It’s worthwhile

mentioning here that during the nineties, when Swaraj Paul and other
industrialists explored the possibility of establishing units in Kalinga Nagar,
much of the land there had already been purchased by politicians and wealthy
people, from Jajpur and outside. It was possibly against this background that
some prominent personalities, leaders and labour leaders instigated the tribals.
Maoist Naxals had also arrived in Duburi and Sukinda areas by then. A report
on this subject was published in The Samaj on January 4, 2006.
No newspaper correspondent, incidentally, has been able to give any
concrete evidence of a Maoist hand in the Kalinga Nagar agitation. No proof
has been given establishing a connection between Maoist organisations and
the Visthapan Virodhi Janamanch (Anti-Displacement Platform) either.
Nevertheless, the newspapers unabashedly continued their propaganda of
branding the tribal movement a Maoist one. Even The Samaj could not keep
itself from making such misleading statements. On January 4, 2006, the
paper published an article titled ‘The government purchased land from tribals
at Rs 35,000, sold them at Rs 3.5 lakhs’, in which it was stated that the
Maoists were making full use of the dissatisfaction among the tribals. The
article claimed that even though Prafulla Ghadei, the state finance minister,
Sarat Rout, a former minister, and Mayadhar Nayak, a labour leader, had
considerable clout in that area, the administrative machinery did not discuss
the topic of displacement with them. As a result, they were not in a position
to make a commitment to the people, and this inaction suited the Maoists,
the report said. It also went on to state that from reliable sources, it had been
learnt that the Maoists were organising extremist tribals, and that in the
future, tribals could take to guns instead of bows!
All these comments fly in the face of ground reality. The tribals, led by
the Anti-Displacement Platform, organised a peaceful blockade of National
Highway 206 to express their resentment. Newspapers, however, called the
blockade ‘Naxal-sponsored’ and claimed that it went against the interest of

the state economy. The blockade was withdrawn on March 9, 2007. By calling
the 14-month, six-day long blockade Maoist-sponsored, the newspapers only
exposed their anti-tribal stance.
Traditionally, newspapers have also been more interested in blowing their
own trumpet than in discussing subjects such as the acquisition of tribal
land. The Samaj, for instance, doesn’t hesitate to brag about its relief operations
during natural calamities. Similarly, as a part of its publicity stunt, the officials
of The Samaj visited Kalinga Nagar to show their sympathy for the victims.
A report on this was published in the paper on January 8, 2006, in which it
was stated that ‘The Samaj Family’ had expressed their condolences by handing
over a cheque of Rs 25,000 to a woman named Jyotsna (identified only by
her first name in the report). The article stated that the tribal family had
mentioned that all they had got even after 10 days of the police firing were
promises, while The Samaj was the only institution that had rendered
assistance. Such a report was more a vulgar expression of self-glorification
than news.
After the High Court of Orissa issued directives to Kalinga Nagar residents
to lift the road blockade, negotiations started between the government and
the Anti-Displacement Platform. Three forest guards were killed in Maoist
firings in Dhenkanal district one day after the discussion started at the state
Secretariat. Some newspapers mischievously tried to co-relate the killings
with the negotiations. The local edition of The Indian Express carried a news
item saying that the government had demonstrated its impotence by launching
a discussion with tribals and that Maoists had become active by seizing upon
this weakness of the government.
Newspapers in Orissa have consistently published motivated reports with
a view to exacerbate the relationship between the district administration and
the tribals on one hand and to harden the stance of the agitating leaders on
the other. In reality, the respect for the tribal movement increased manifold
after the Anti-Displacement Platform withdrew its road blockade. If the
movement was violent and Maoist-sponsored, why would that have happened?
Predictably, newspapers chose to gloss over that point.

A Raw Deal for the Displaced

After the Kalinga Nagar firing, the mass media highlighted the people’s
unhappiness at the inadequate compensation for land, and the fact that the
government had made a profit by selling the land to companies at rates almost
15 times higher than the original price paid to the owners. According to
Sudhir Patnaik, social activist and editor of Samadrusti, 700 tribal families
were living in that area, out of whom only 250 families are to be found today.
The remaining 450 families have become untraceable. This has invariably
been the fate of all those displaced by various projects in Orissa. The people
displaced by the Hirakud river dam project of the forties have not yet been
rehabilitated fully. Engineer Karunakar Supkar gives a ludicrous example of
the rehabilitation and compensation policy of the government in connection
with the Hirakud project. “Twenty-four tribal and Harijan (Dalit) families
were living in the Harijan basti (hamlet) of Jamada village in Jajpur district.
They lived comfortably by tilling between half an acre to one acre of land,
fishing and cobbling but they were asked to make way for the reservoir. After
a bitter fight with the administration for nearly a year, they received a
compensation in April 1949, of 519 rupees and 3 annas at the rate of three
annas per decimal for a total of 27 acres and 76 decimals of land,” says Supkar.
Over 50 years later, the same story is being repeated in Kalinga Nagar.
It’s preposterous to pay compensation to the owners of land according to
the market rate at the time of acquisition of land for industrialisation and
mining purposes. The price of the land should be determined with an
understanding that industrialisation jacks up land prices, instead of relying
solely on prevailing market rates. The Orissa government has made repeated
attempts to illegitimately pocket the differential gains instead of passing it

on to the owners of the land. A detailed report on the subject, written by this
author, was published in Anupam Bharat in the first week of February 2007.

Epilogue
The Kalinga Nagar protest and firing highlighted to the world the perils
of pursuing industrialisation at the cost of people and the agitation’s impact
was felt in states such as Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh and West
Bengal. Yet, the Oriya media largely blacked out the events after January
2006. By February and March that year, when major companies like POSCO,
Vedanta, Reliance and Mittal arrived in succession to sign MoUs to set up
industries, the media had lost interest in the tribals’ concerns.
When Anil Agarwal, chairperson of Sterlite and founder-director of
Vedanta Resources, reached Orissa for signing a MoU for setting up the
Vedanta University, all the major newspapers of Orissa displayed full-page
colour advertisements on the same day about his company’s plans. The media
did not bother to ask why the project required a whopping 10,000 acres of
land. The university, which is proposed to be established in a coastal area,
will convert significant tracts of land into private property. No questions
were raised about this in the media, possibly because of the fat revenue earned
from Agarwal’s advertisements. Later, with the Mittal group and Ambanis
announcing major investment plans in Orissa, the media had no time or
space for tribals. There were no effective interventions by the so-called
intellectuals, writers, administrators and journalists.
In The Hindu dated February 18, 2007, senior journalist HK Dua
expressed his anguish over the way in which corporate houses were increasingly
hijacking the mass media, resulting in the concerns of the common people
being ignored. It’s clear that the media has violated the seven golden rules
prescribed by Lord Nolan for the four pillars of democracy — selflessness,
transparency, integrity, commitment, dedication, responsibility and leadership.
Instead of being a watchdog of freedom and human rights, the mass media
has taken upon itself the task of safeguarding the interests of a few capitalists.
Little wonder then that in the public eye, the media is condemned for its
propensity towards dishonesty, its tendency to put business motives and gains
from advertisement revenue over truth, and its dilution of its commitment
towards the country and its citizens. The Kalinga Nagar incident is a clearcut
case of how in the absence of values, the media has failed in its duties,
and has thereby rendered itself irrelevant.

(The article Fifth columnist was being included in a book named the caterpillar and mahua flower,published by Panoss south asia)

- Kedar Mishra
Feature Editor, Anupam Bharat
Type-6, DS 2/1
Unit-2, Bhubaneswar
Email : kedarmishra@yahoo.com
Cell : 9437154445

2009-04-10T00:39:00.000-07:00

Kandhamal Riot and Mass Media

“To be true to my faith, therefore, I may not write in anger or malice, I may not write idly. I may not write merely to excite passion”
- Mahatma Gandhi, Young India

“Khondmal is Burning,” “Church Torched in Khondmal”, “Khondmal is Simmering Again”, etc. made headlines in the newspapers of Orissa. Here I make an attempt to study the way the mass media has depicted the life devastated in the Khondmal riot of December 2007 and analyse it and the role it has played in the state politics centring the riot-affected people. In trying to make an analysis of it I have taken into consideration the news and articles on Khondmal riot, the interviews with the journalists involved in it, clippings of electronic media, the news on the net and reports of fact-finding groups. The mass media unanimously agree that the riot affecting the Christmas in last December is out and out communal in nature and is based on intolerance.

Even if a dividing line was attempted to be drawn between international, national and local media, both electronic and in print, on the nature and cause of this riot, all of them had established it the same way. The Hindu fundamentalist Rastriya Syamsevak Sangh had made one such attempt in the local and national media. The report on January 3, 2008 in www.sanghaparivar.com ran:

“Many media, mostly the national and international, without a reality check – went overdrive to paint a wrong picture about the entire sequence of events. Very few investigated the reasons of the violence put the blame squarely on the Hindus. Only burning of churches and prayer houses were reported, not the lethal attack on the Hindu seer Laxmanananda Saraswati found due place in the newspapers. Not the death of a Hindu - which was immediate provocation for the communal clash – was properly highlighted. Even Maoists joining hands with Christians in attacking tribals was ignored by the international and national media.”

However, the vernacular press predominantly reflected what actually happened on the ground and found Christians being the initiator of the latest hostility between the communities. The followers of Christ faith wee in the forefront of attack and they attacked Hindu hamlets and attacked the police and even collaborated with Maoists in attacking the kondh tribals, they reported.

Warning for the Local Media

This news of RSS is untrue and motivated. Almost all the local newspapers and TV channels have clearly stated that the Christians were worst affected in this riot and that they were the victims of the hatred-based politics of RSS. Here are mentioned a few excerpts from the newspapers :

“The Brahmanigaon and Daringbadi are tense due to mutual distrust. There are clashes and house-burnings. No particular community can be blamed for this. The minority community had to face the wrath and violence of the majority. Even after getting the intelligence report the Administration did not take necessary steps. As a result of which the riot spread to nearby regions. The Viswa Hindu Parishad played a major role in the worst affected village, Brahmanigaon; so did the majority of Christians in Daringbadi. After its primary investigation the Samaj reported that the Viswa Hindu Parishad and the controversial Collector of the district, Bhabagrahi Mohapatra were solely responsible for the communal riot that began on the last twentyfourth. The Parishad says that the riot ensued after its leader Swami Laxmananda was attacked which is not true. Rather, it was the VHP which first initiated it in Brahmanigaon”.

(The Samaj, December 30, 2007)

On 25th evening more than 3000 supporters of VHP and RSS came to Barakhama with weapons and lathis. They began with looting and ended with damaging property. The houses of 285 Christians were burnt within an hour. 215 houses were half-burnt or damaged. Lakhs of rupees, golden ornaments and costly home appliances were looted. Even the pet animals were not spared.

These two reports have clearly held Sangha Parivar responsible for riot. Both the electronic media and mass media have firmly condemned the role of Sangha Parivar. There is yet a conspiracy in branding the local media as the sympathizer of the Sangha Parivar. A dividing line was also drawn regarding the true nature of the local and national media in the Gujarat riot. The Gujurati media was said to be the blind supporter of the Sangha Parivar. This divisive role of the Sangh Parivar is nothing new. The Sangh Parivar lauded the local media to have used local identity as a weapon.

THE MENTAL CONCLICT IN MASS MEDIA

If one looks at the reports of all the three TV channels from Orissa. i.e. ETV, OTV and Doordarshan and Oriya dailies it will be clear that the true causes of the riot have not been deeply analysed. Its one reason is the religious meanness and elite mind set. It is alleged by some Christian oranisations that as the local media is in the hands of the highcaste Hindus the Christian minority has not got its due. This allegation is not absolutely baseless. No doubt, the Sangha Parivar has been implicated in this riot. Yet at the same time the Christians have been held accused for their role in conversion. Another aspect of these reports is its lack of study and analysis. One can very well discern the mental conflicts of the reporting journalists. Even if they report that the Sangh Parivar is responsible for the riot they somehow entangle the Christian minority in it.

The purported attack on Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati on the 24th was grossly exaggerated in the media. The journalists took Swamiji’s words as the base of their reporting. The opinions of both the parties present there were not taken into consideration. The ETV report gave so much importance to it that the later incidents were ascribed to the ETV’s reporting. The mass media is equipped with the power to unearth the conspiracy of communalism and has the responsibility to abate it. The local media has failed in this role. Our journalists have made the maximum utilization of their imagination in describing the plight of the riot-affected people. All that the affected people said lacked the element of suffering in it. It is a matter of shame. The statements of Swami Laxmananda and the leaders at Sangh Parivar occupy prominent position in the news reports. The statements of the affected Christians have been deliberately ignored. Our local media seem to be totally ignorant of the sense of dignity and sympathy which is there for the minorities in a democracy.

On the other hand, all those national dailies which have local editions give importance to the statement of the government officials. The reportings for the Times of India, Indian Express, The Pioneer, The Hindu, etc. were done from the Secretariate in Bhubaneswar. By giving importance to what the Chief Minister, the Chief Secretary, the Home Secretary and Director General, Police said the national dailies overlooked the true nature of the incident. Very few journalists visited the riotaffected area.

Khondmal burnt from Christmas to new year. All the political parties and the Sangh Parivar tried to fish out of the troubled water. Ironically, the mass media boosted their image. It has been stated earlier that the local media lacked sensitivity to deal with communal feelings. No newspaper or electronic media tried to analyse the situation. Instead, their erroneous reporting stoked the riot.

THE CONSPIRACY OF THE SANGH PARIVAR

“There is no use burning tyres on the road. Tell me, how many houses of the Christians you have burnt? There will be no peace without revolution. Narendra Modi brought about revolution in Gujurat. That is why peace is there.”

In response to the so-called attack on him, the eighty-two-year-old Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati had made this statement from the Daringbari Health Centre in the very presence of the police and journalists. Surprisingly it was given more prominence in the national media than in the local ones. The reason is obvious. The local media did not want to displease the Swami and the Hindu majority reader as a whole. The proprietors of the Oriya dailies who are more interested in making profit than upholding ideals prefered indifference to neutrality in such a sensitive issue. The Fourth Estate had not come forward to give protection to the minority community. After the riot when it was compared with that of Gujarat at the rational and international level, the Sangh Parivar used the local media. They had argued that it was caste-based and that it was not communal in nature. Radhakant Nayak, the previous administrator and present Congress M. P., was implicated in it. Another matter of surprise was that his reaction was not sought in this regard. At the time of riot the Sangh Parivar demanded the arrest of Radhakant Nayak who was staying at Delhi. The local media seemed to give importance to the unjustified demand of the Sangh Parivar. The opinions of all the sections of the society were not taken into consideration at the time of the riot or after that. The local media did not bother as to why the Sangh Parivar was demanding the arrest of Radhakant Nayak. All of them comepeted to present their reports in a manner conduicive to the BJB-BJP coalation government. The ex-Minister Padmanav Behera who was made a scapegoat was not given adequate scope to express his opinion.

At the time Khondmal was burning The Samaj carried a report based on the interview with Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati, in which it was stated that conversion was the root cause of unrest at Khondmal. This report published from Cuttack rather than abating the Khondmal riot fuelled it. The report ran like this :

The Government as well as the missionaries engaged in conversion are responsible for the situation in Khondmal. They could be the trouble-shooter. The path-finder for the VHP, Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati has stated that the Hindus are only defending themselves. After the alleged attack by the Christians on 24th, Swami Laxmanananda being treated in Cabin No.3 of the Surgery Department gave an exclusive interview to The Samaj in which he said that the missionaries are trying to establish special Christian zones in the divided districts of Bhulbani, Koraput, Kalahandi, Bolangir and in Bhanjanagar of the district Ganjam, Khandapada of the district of Nayagarh and in Anugul and Athamalik. For this money flows from such Christian countries like the U.S. and the U.K. The Swami and his supporters are working towards the preservation of Hinduism. Their efforts have resulted in the drastic reduction in conversion and many converted Christians have come back to the Hindu fold. Infuriated at it, some people have attempted to kill him. Asked about the possible solution to this problem at Khondmal, Swamiji has said that this was the spontaneous protest of the Hindus. No government can stop this. The age-old dissatisfaction of the Hindus are now ventilated. In it he had no role to pay. After massive protest the missionaries desisted from conversion but after the Congress Party came to power they have become active. If the conversion comes to an end there will automatically be no unrest in the state. Giving information on the event of the 24th, Swamiji who does not want to reveal his past said that day he along with his five supporters set out by a Marshal Jeep from Jalespeta to Brahmanigaon. At Daringbari which is five kilometers from Daringbari there stood a bus obstructing traffic. Despite repeated horns when the bus did not move the driver of Marshal jeep Naresh Kanhr and Kishore Pradhan accosted the bus driver. That was when they were attacked by the people in the bus along with the villagers who rushed there. It was by his presence of mind that Naresh had a narrow escape. Out of three hundred families in that village only one was a Hindu family. From this figure one can realize the grave situation in Khondmal, says the Swamiji who has been active against conversion in Khondmal.

The language and tone of this report must have suited the Hindu fundamentalists. The local media has made tremendous effort to establish Laxmanananda Saraswati as the symbol of Hinduism. Praising him, The Organiser, the mouth piece of the Sangh Parivar wrote. “Four-decade-long sadhana at Chakapad has successfully awakened the spirit of Hindutva among the Vanavasis and drawn them away from the clutches of missionaries.” But this Sanyasi is more immersed in power politics than in meditation. It is due to his leadership at Chakapad that Khondmal is kept burning. No media has questioned Laxmanananda. All of them have been showing respect to this old sanyasi. There is no problem in showing respect to a religious man. But the role of Laxmanananda is that of a villain since in the name of stopping conversion and ensuing a process of purification he has only created an atmosphere of religious intolerance. We get the hint of it from the description of the turn of events. The media is agog in the description of events as it is laudatory in highlighting Laxmanananda. The mental inflict in media is due to this paradoxical stand.

Tehelka 19, January 2008 described Laxmanananda as belonging to washerman community and that he established an ashrama at Chakapad in 1969, from where he started propagating Hinduism. As the Hindu Sanyasis keeps his past a secret one could not have got to know anything about Laxmanananda from his own mouth. Laxmanananda Saraswati has been publicly saying that he has been trying since 1969 when he established an ashram at Chakapad to save Khondmal from being a totally Christian dominated area. Even as his statements are loaded with elements that is prone to creating tension the local media has been lionizing him. Before riot ensued at Brahmanigaon, Laxmanananda repeatedly held meetings there and provoked the public to attack the Christians. Although he has been directly or indirectly involved in stoking riot he has not been arrested. This old sage plays a clear role in speaking ill against the Christian missionaries and the Dalit Christians of Khondmal, in blocking roads and in staging hunger strikes and above all keeping Khondmal in unrest.

The 2007 Khondmal riot was not all unpremeditated. It was aimed at eliminating the minority Christians from Khondmal. Laxmanananda played a leading role in the agitation to establish a Hindu rashtra. On the occasion of the birth centenerary of one of the leaders of Sangha Parivar on April 2006 the Sangh parivar organized Astamatruka Rath Yatra in Khondmal. Indians are suffering yet from the poisonous reaction of Lal Krishna Advani’s Rath Yatra in the context of Ram Janmabhumi. There has been repeated Ratha Yatras in Khondmal. The anti-christian slogans are kept alive through Yajna, Yatra and Purification process. The Sangh Parivar rose in protest against the breaking of Rama Setu in Tamil Nadu. Regular conspiracies were hatched in Chakapad Ashram. The local Administration was aware of it yet no perceptible steps were taken. Instead of projecting Hindu Sameelan of April 2006 as communal in nature it was showcased as a religious jamborree. The local minority had to face its consequences in December 2007. It was not an end in itself. Even today Khondmal remains an insecure place for the minorities. On July 8, 2008 there was tension in Khondmal which centred round the slaughter of a low.

The Dharitri, July 10, 2008 writes on it

“Again Khondmal is burning. No sooner the people of Khondmal have forgotten the trauma of the riot of December 2007 than there has risen tension in Tumuribandh. That to, it centres around the slaughter of a cow. The conflict within the communities is simmering in Mattipara of Tamudibandh Block. At this time due to the opposition of a Baba in Jalespeta to the slaughter of a cow he has been attacked. Opposing this incident the VHP has called for a strike in Khondmal. So far the Bandh is peaceful.”

In another report The Samaj says,

“It has been noticed that Tumudibandh Block of Khondmal district is going to be a site of another riot. Only one kilometer away from the headquarters of this Block, where the cow was slaughtered and against which there was protest, Bulubaba alias Brundaban Nanda who is the chief disciple of Laxmanananda Saraswati was attacked. It had a state-wide reaction. With the spread of the news of Bulubaba’s camera being snatched away, the blood of the slaughtered cow being smeared on him and the attack on him, the Bandh was observed in G. Udaygiri, Raikia, Baliguda and Tumudibandh and VHP called for a twelve-hour Bandh throughout the State.

As in previous riots, the media did not play a neutral role in this riot. The allegations that Swami Laxmanananda and his disciples brought forward were blown out of proportion. The non-Hindus eat beef; no Hindu has any right to snatch away that right from them. The motif beheind Laxmanananda’s and his brigand’s protest is only to create tension. In a secular state it is a matter of irony that sanyasi should be encouraged in mass media to indulge in mean activities like blocking the road by cutting down trees, holding hunger strike abusing the minority and blaming the Administration if it is not supportive of his activities.

EDITORIAL IRRESPONSIBILITY

The local media has failed utterly to analyse and evaluate the Khondmal riot. So did the Administration, civic society, political parties, local leadership and the police. If one analyses the reports and editorials of the local papers it will show clearly how they have failed to hint at the failure of others. The Khondmal riot started on 24th. The Samaj in its 30th and 31st December 2007 and 1st January 2008 editions carried three reports under the title “Postmortem”. Those three reports were full of contradictions, and were misleading. While The Samaj blamed in its first report the VHP, it blamed the Christians in the second and the Naxals in the third report for the riot at Khondmal. One thing that is clear from it that The Samaj was not sure about its stand in this issue. The most interesting thing was that there was not even a single statement of any affected person in their one thousand and five hundred-word article. Nor were the opinions or reactions of the minority community placed in it. The report on 31.12.2007 ran like this :

Getting foreign fund, support of two retired IAS Officers and encouragement of local MPs the Christians in the sensitive district of Kondhmal are said to be getting more and more strengthened. As a consequence, the caste-based conflict of Kondhmal has taken the shape of communal riot. The Kondh-Paan conflict was the main conflict in Kondhmal but two retired IAS Officers and the local MP have started encouraging the Christians. The pouring of foreign fund has acted like ghee in fire. In no circumstances the tribals of Kondhmal fall victim to the allurements of the Christians to get converted. The two retired IAS officers are exercising their power and contact to get funds for tempting the tribals. It has come to such a stage that if there are five wards in a village there are five churches or prayer halls in that village. With their blessing from those officers and MPs the Paans try to show off their affluence to the tribals and poor Hindus. This has resulted in a large scale dissatisfaction even among the tribal Christians. While the tribals are Baptists the Paans are Roman Chatholics. Only in Siarigaon of Katingia Panchayat and in Saraguda some tribals are Roman Catholics. Baliguda, Ghumusar, Udayagiri, Nuagaon and Daringbadi Blocks have a large number of Christians in comparison to other Blocks of the district.

What could be the purpose of this report ? It is childish to claim that riots become frequent with the increase of numbers of prayer halls and organizations of the minority community. It is still more ridiculous to make issues out of it in prominent newspapers. Due to baseless and misleading reports people become biased. It is surprising that the journalist who was asks the minority community people about their foreign funding does not ask the same question to the Hindu fundamentalists. Nobody asks whose assistance has helped the Chakapad Ashram grow in the last twenty years. Where from do crores of rupees come to support the Hindu organization and its movement ? Before bringing Radhakant Naik, John Naik and Issac Behera to the witness box our journalists should not forget to ask the same question to the Orissa branch of BJP. While Kondhmal was bruning how did the newspaper publish in bold letters the BJP’s irresponsible statement “Kandhmal Riot is the creation of Christian NGOs?” The BJP leaders have not been questioned further about this statement in press conferences. The Prajatantra on 17.1.2008 ran the following report :

The BJP has alleged that some organizations run by the Christians are responsible for the present riot at Khondmal. For this purpose the names of some organizations and NGOs operating there have been published. Jewel Oram, a senior leader of BJP, in a press conference on Wendesday said that a deceptive news is given currency. It is said that the Christians there are a minority. The Hindus have been oppressing them and that this not is created by VHP and BJP. But this is absolutely false. The truth is that the Hindus are a minority there and they are being oppressed instead. In Brahmanigaon Christians numbering about 5000 attacked the Hindus. Their houses were burnt. Visiting that area Jewel Oram came to know that those Christians were armed and supported by such NGOs as Action Aid, NISWAS, SFDC, Aama Gaon, CPSW and Alok Grama.

The communal politics operates on baseless and misleading facts. We get to hear such a voice from Jewel Oram. Here the question is whether the journalists should have quoted him in verbatim ? He has only lied. He is not supported by facts when he is alleging anybody. It is nothing but political motivation to bring changes against any organization without facts and proofs. By encouraging such sick mentality the mass media is setting a dangerous trend.

On January 10, 2008 The Sambad carried an editorial essay by Banabihari Panda, the former Director General of Police. Such type of editorial page articles are supposed to be based on facts and analysis of those facts. But it was nothing but a collage of reports, rumours and so-called news. Banabihari Panda wrote :

The event following it is attack on Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati. It was reported in the newspapers that about 200 people armed with lathis, sticks and spears stopped his vehicle and attacked him. This incident is solely responsible for the riot in Khondmal. Many opine that had this incident not happened the riot would not have spread so rapidly. Therefore those who attacked him should be booked and punished. Some churches were burnt. That is to be condemned. Church is a prayer hall, where God is worshipped. Those who committed this crime should be punished. Likewise it is reported that five temples have been razed. Those who did it should be equally punished. Burning a church or breaking a temple is unpardonable. All those miscreants should punished.”

It was never considered whether such an article should be carried as an editorial piece. There is no official report that any temple was razed in Khondmal. The media did not report from this angle either. Some leaders like Jewel Oram have shamelessly claimed that the Christians are not a minority in Khondmal. The population of the district of Khondmal is 6,48,201. Out of that while 5,27,757 are Hindu 1,17,950 are Christian. Instead of refuting misleading facts of the leaders the media has highlighted them. Excepting a few stray villages in Khondmal the rest of the villages have a minority of Christian population. The Sangh Parivar claimed that it is a caste-based conflict not a communal riot : so did the mass media.

The Sangh Parivar have repeatedly changed its role in the context of the Kondhmal riot. If now it claims that Kondhmal unrest is due to conversion then it would say that it is merely caste-related conflict. In order to suppress the event the spokes person of the Sangh parivar, Ram Madhab had written in rediff.com on January 8, 2008, “We must not ignore the fact that Kondhmal is for that matter many such incidents have been a localized incident; not a phenomenon as the candlelightwalas should want us to believe.”

The Sangh Parivar had advised the civilized society to take it lightly. Further, that it was not a communal riot; rather there are many political reasons involved in it. And the local media knowingly or unknowingly acted as a facilitator. Within a week only three persons died while hundreds went missing. 71 churches, 48 prayer halls, 5 convent schools, 7 hostels, 2 vocational centres, more than 500 houses and 126 shops were burnt. Fire was the greatest weapon in it. In this heinous attempt to wipe out the minority the media did not even play a neutral, not to speak of a deterrent role.

WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE RIOT?

The wound of the riot of December 2007 is yet to heal. Finding ever other excuse the Hindu fundamentalist organizations and the organizations at the district level at Khondmal, supported by them have been blocking roads and staging demonstrations. Trying to analyse their causes the media have only misled the public opinion. They lack data. Even if they might have it they do not analyse it. In preparing this project I have collected and analysed more than 200 reports, articles, editorials and interviews. Some of the reports have already been analysed. The reports I have analysed have clearly reflected the mental conflict of the journalists and how they have confused the general public. The journalists never concentrated on certain required points. Those reports repeatedly blamed conversion and appropriation of land as main causes of riots. In its article, “Behind the Unrest of the Kondhmal” on July 11, 2008 The Sambad wrote :

“Appropriation of land of the Adivasis is one of the major reasons which contribute towards conflict in Kondhmal. It is for years that deceptive methods have been taken to appropriate the lands of the Adivasis, thereby displacing them. As a result, they are like refugees in their own native place. The provision has it that a non-Adivasi cannot buy an Adivasi’s land. As per the Regulation II, 3 and 4, 1956 a special court has been created under the Sub-Collectors of Phulbani and Baliguda. Such cases are to be tried on priority basis in these courts while many cases of appropriation of Adivasi Lands by non-Adivasis are pending in this court. There are many instances when the Adivasis who won the decree have not been able to get back their lands due to lack of assistance of Administration and police. As there is a dearth of household and cultivable lands in Kondhmal its inhabitants are facing a lot of difficulty. If they get their household land and cultivation land much of their problems could be solved. In Kondhmal the loss of caste is another root cause of unrest.”

Reports of this kind have created a wrong idea among the people that it is caste-related conflict and not due to communal feeling. There is an attempt to draw a divisive line among the Paans and the Kondhs. Seventeen percent of the population of the district is of Dalit caste. Ninety percent of them are Christians. Eighty percent of them are landless. Without mentioning concrete cases our journalists have built a context. According to 2001 Census, of the total population of the district, i.e. 6,48,201, 3,36,809 are Adivasis. They constitute 52% of the total population. Another section has created conflict between 52% Adivasi and 17% Dalits. The mass media is precisely silent about them. It is a worth-mentioning fact that majority of the journalists of this district represent that third section. They are not the original inhabitants of the district. Coming from other districts they have bought the lands of the Adivasis and are settling there. Another strange fact is that in Kondhmal there are not much lands under the ownership of the raiyats. 88% of the land of the district is in the ownership of the government. Out of that 71% is reserved forest and 17% un-reserved forest. There is only 12% of the ownership of the land by the individuals. Those who benefit most from the 12% of the land are the ones who have come to and settled in Khondmal. If an analysis of population growth of this district from 1961 to 2001 is made it will be like this : Adivasis 70%, Dalits 60%, whereas non-Adivasi and non-Dalit Hindus are 134%. This unnatural growth is the root of all problems. The Adivasis and Dalits are exploited; their lands are snatched away from them. In this regard both are victims of exploitation. The mass media has never given importance to it.

As there is no cordial relationship between the Khonds and Paans a fictitious history about them has been spread by the local Hindu fundamentalist organizations and political parties. Regarding it L. S. S. O’Malley says in his Bengal District Gazetteer, which was published in 1908 :

In the Khondmals, the Paans were the serfs of the Khonds. They worked on their farms and wove cloth for them, in return for which they obtained a small area of land, grain for food and all their marriage expenses; they used also to procure victims for the Meriah sacrifices. Their serfdom was so well recognized that if a Paan left his master and worked for another, it caused serious dissensions among the Khond community. To this day there is a settlement of Paans – a kind of Ghetto – attached to every large khond village, where they weave the cloth the Khonds require and work as farm labourers. The picture remains more or less the same today except for the Meriah sacrifice. In lieu of Meriah, buffaloes are being procured for sacrifice.

The Adivasis and the Dalits are having a long history of living together. After the emergence of the fundamentalist Hindu oranisations in the seventies there has been an ebb in their relationship. Consequentially there has been more than five riots in Khondmal since 90s. There have been repeated attempts to suppress the Christian organizations operating in this district. It has already been mentioned that there are more than five lakh Hindus in this district. Basically the Adivasis are not Hindus; they have their own customs and tradition. They have been constantly projected on the official as well as non-official levels as Hindus. When the Sangha Parivar started this programme in Orissa it chose Khondmal as it is dominated by the tribals. It tried to inculcate in the Adivasis a feeling through different ways that they too are Hindus. Some local leaders who used adivasis to gain political mileage joined the Sangh parivar. The nexus between the Sangh parivar and the leaders of the Adivasis came to light during the riot. The joint efforts of the Kui society and the Sangh Parivar made the riot more complicated. That complication is yet to be untangled. Even today Khondmal is tense and the lives of the minority community is threatened.

CONCLUSION

An internal feud has already been noticed between Khondmal and mass media. The life story of the tribals and Dalits has rarely been rightfully portrayed in the local newspapers owned by high caste and higher class people. Different political parties have used the media very often to further their interest. The first newspaper to be published from Orissa, which was one hundred and fifty years ago and run by Christian missionaries was Prabodh Chandrika. It had carried news of the conflict between the Kondhs and the administrators of the colonizers. It ran like this :

“The news has reached us that in Khondmal early at dawn on December 6, many Kondhs armed with arrows attacked the Agent Sahib. The Agent had with him the Laskars. As the Kondhs shot arrows at him he ordered the Laskars to fire at them. One of the Kondhs died on the spot. Frightened, they retreated and are gathering at a distance. The reason as to why the Kondhs are acting like this is not yet clear.”

At that time the Christian Missionaries could not lay a finger at the problems of Kondhs. They could dare to mention the incident clearly because they could not understand their problems. At a later period the missionaries had remarkably joined the colonizers in helping them in the field of health and education. That is why the number of Christians increased in Khondmal. It was not just the Dalits who were converted. The Adivasis also followed the Dalits’ footsteps. It was possible due to the selfless service of the missionaries. There was no communal tension in Khondmal till 70s of twentieth century. It was only after the appearance of the Sangh Parivar at Kondhmal that the poisonous seed was sown there, which has later sprouted into riots.

The Editorial Guild of India has laid out categorical rules which should be followed while reporting the riots. I have already discussed how the media has failed to follow those rules in reporting riots from Khondmal. Finally here I sum up some pertinent points regarding the reports of the media on riot at Khondmal :

1. In the context of the Khondmal riot, the media committed a major mistake by doing a wrong analysis of the basic facts regarding the district.

2. The language used in the media for the minority was one of disdain and pity, which is to be condemned.

3. No importance was attached to the opinion of the minority community. On the contrary, the statements of the fundamentalist Hindus and their organisations were dealt with in a great detail.

4. The intellectuals and experts in the field were not asked about their opinions on the riot. Whatever articles by the eminent persons that came out in the newspapers were by the retired IAS or IPS officers.

5. The opinions of the ones affected in the riot were never published. Another matter of regret is that the hearts of the journalists did not melt to present the sad tale of the victims. Very often the journalists wrote as per their whim. There was not much effort by the editors to look into it.

6. By mentioning the involvement of the Naxals in the movement against the industrialization and globalization the journalists have been only showing their true colours. There is no proof of the Naxal’s involvement in the religious or communal conflicts. The media unnecessarily tried to show the involvement of Naxals in the Khondmal riot. In that ignoble effort they also tried to rope in some voluntary organizations and secular intellectuals.

7. In stead of following the journalistic norms, most of the reports were driven by political compulsions. It seems every newspaper reflected a particular party’s stand or an ism. In this case the tendency was more towards achieving political benefits rather maintaining high standard of humanitarianism. It has only left a stigma on the morality of the local media.

Kedar Mishra