Zenaira Bakhsh

Under Indian law, changing one’s religion does not change one’s tribal identity. Whether an Adivasi practises Hinduism, Christianity or any other faith, they remain members of their tribe, with their Scheduled Tribe status and protections intact.

The gap between faith and paperwork is not a technicality. It is the ground on which burial disputes, social boycotts and ultimatums are fought across Chhattisgarh's villages - and beyond. Read the full report by @Zenairaaa and @mrinalinidhyani on our website: himalmag.com/india-christian…

Yet activists and community members say this is rarely explained clearly by government officials, allowing suspicion and misinformation to flourish. In the absence of clarity, many Christians have found themselves accused of fraud or deception for practising a faith that is not reflected in their official documents. #india #violenceagainstChristians #anticonversionlaws

Many Hindus, including local leaders in Bastar, hold the belief that Christians who do not formally record their religion continue to unfairly receive benefits meant for the Scheduled Tribes under the Forest Rights Act. This legislation recognises the rights of forest-dwelling communities to forest land and produce, and to protect and manage traditional forests. The Supreme Court of India has ruled that conversion does not lead to the automatic loss of Scheduled Tribe status or protections. #SupremeCourt #ForestRights

Savita Kawde said her family are Adivasis who had converted to Christianity generations ago in order to escape the burden of #caste discrimination. Adivasis – officially classed as the Scheduled Tribes – are considered to fall outside the varna hierarchy, and suffer severe discrimination under the caste system. #antiChristianviolence

The Kawdes are not an exception. @himalsouthasian’s 5500-word report travels across BJP-ruled states to document a pattern: denied burials, boycotts, assaults, and officials who look away, or join in. Read the full story: himalmag.com/india-christian… @zenairaaa @mrinalinidhyani #india #violenceagainstChristians #anticonversionlaws

The Kawdes had become people of no land: not Christian enough for a cemetery, and not Hindu enough for a cremation ground. Their ordeal had begun at a Christian cemetery in a neighbouring village, where, the family said, they were refused permission to bury the old woman. To those guarding the cemetery, she was not “entirely Christian” as they said she was a convert, and not born into the faith.

Wrapped in blankets, face fully covered, only streaks of grey hair from a loose braid visible, the body lay in the back of a rugged Tata Sumo parked outside a house in Bhanupratappur, a small village in Kanker district, in the Bastar region of the Indian state of Chattisgarh. In life, it had belonged to an elderly woman who had died suddenly from a cardiac arrest. Reportage by Zenaira Bakhsh (@zenairaaa) and Mrinalini Dhyani (@mrinalinidhyani) Read the full story here: himalmag.com/india-christian… #india #violenceagainstChristians #anticonversionlaws