Pathalgadi movement: BJP's attempts to reap political dividends from ongoing rebellion fuel tribal ire

MLA from Surguja’s Chandrapur Yuddhvir Singh with tribals. Image courtesy Neeraj Agrawal[/caption]Election year and tribal benefitsChhattisgarh's Jashpur district has a large percentage of Christian voters (22.6 percent), the majority of whom are converts. This has for long been a flashpoint for the Hindutva brigade, whose leaders like the late Dilip Singh Judeo led 'Ghar Wapsi' campaigns to reconvert the Christian Adivasis and demanded that converted Adivasis shouldn't get the benefits of reservations.The Pathalgadi movement, which focused on the violation of the PESA Act, has recently shifted focus to reservations for the tribals. It has also earned a bad name after the Kunti gangrape in June, in which the police identified a local pastor and "Pathalgadi supporters" as accused.The BJP has jumped into the fray, with party president and election strategist Amit Shah visiting Chhattisgarh in the last few months – along with RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat – to understand the tribals' resentment and the Pathalgadi issue.The party is keeping a close eye on Surguja and Jashpur to pre-empt a decline in its tribal vote base, as Pathalgadi hits out at the state government. The BJP knows it had a meagre vote difference with the Congress in the last polls and tribal indignation can cause difficulties this election year.A question of conversionSince the mid-19th century, Christian missionaries have been operating schools and hospitals in tribal-dominated areas. Later, the local tribals began adopting Christianity. The 2011 Census showed 64.61 percent of Jashpur's total population as tribal, and 22.26 percent of the people as Christians.In 1952, seeing the increasing population of Christians, the RSS opened its first Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram in the area. As political activities started taking place rapidly, Judeo took the command of the Hindu organisations there.Judeo soon became known for his efforts to bring back converted tribals to the Hindu religion with his 'Ghar Wapsi' campaign. After his death, his family kept on his work.When the Pathalgadi movement started, Judeo's son Prabal Pratap Singh, also the vice-president of Bhartiya Janata Yuva Morcha from Chhattisgarh, was the first to come to the forefront. Prabal, carrying on with Operation Ghar Wapsi, is working to bring back the converted tribals to the Hindu religion by washing their feet.In such a scenario, Pathalgadi is proving to be a challenge as the tribals are demanding their rights. Their resentment forced the ruling BJP to take out a "Sadbhavna Yatra" in late April, which resulted in a ruckus and the leaders commanding the Pathalgadi movement were jailed.While Chhattisgarh home minister Ram Sewek Paikra has alleged that "behind the Pathalgadi movement are forces associated with religious conversion and hell-bent on dividing the tribals, according to the information we have", there are others who lay the same charges on the door of right-wing outfits.Once a tribal, always a tribalSenior journalist and political analyst Alok Putul is one such person. "Six of 14 seats in north Chhattisgarh are such where Christian voters are important. The Congress occupies seven of the 14 seats and the BJP is now engaged in the polarisation of Hindu votes in this area on the pretext of Pathalgadi," he said.He added that the Pathalgadi movement may have its drawbacks, but the biggest reason for its rise was the PESA law being marginalised in some areas.In June, Judeo's younger son and MLA from Surguja's Chandrapur Yuddhvir Singh wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, calling for ending reservation benefits to converted tribals in the country.