Just two and half years ago, Kandhamal was India’s shame as a communal violence triggered by the killing of a Hindu seer left 38 people dead, thousands of houses and hundreds of churches burnt and vandalised and several thousand people scurrying to relief camps for safety. As Christian were slayed and attacked by VHP and RSS goons across the district, it forced Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to call it a...

Nearly 2,000 Adivasis and activists demanding forest rights in Nandurbar are under arrest since December 14 in various jails in Maharashtra, but their crime was not that they protested in support of their demands. “When we asked for some corrections in the written reply to our demands, the Collector objected and said we were not withdrawing our agitation. Finally our demand that the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and the SIMI [Students Islamic...

KANDHAMAL: The administration, the Sal trees in the hills, vast stretches of barren fields and nondescript hamlets of this Orissa district give an impression that everything is alright with the people living here. But the reality on the ground is different. A visit to some villages where Christian families were attacked in the aftermath of the killing of VHP leader Lakshmanananda Saraswati showed that rehabilitation of the riot-hit population was nowhere...