The recent provocative speech by Sunil Deodhar — an RSS member and founder of My Home India while speaking at an Indigenous Faith Conference in Pynter was unwarranted. The remarks were aimed at dividing the Khasi community based on their faith. Deodhar’s speech in Khasi was aimed at winning hearts and minds but the remarks he made were both divisive and offensive to Christians and riddled with falsehoods. That the state BJP has had to issue a clarification as a face-saving device also shows that the RSS does not work in tandem with the BJP. Deodhar’s speech was recorded and shared over social media. Naturally those who listened found the speech divisive and offensive and were based on falsehoods. Meghalaya’s politicians may have many faults but they have never overtly or covertly used religion as a ploy to garner votes. Nor have they ever used religion as an inducement as alleged by Deodhar.Political parties like the NPP have criticised Deodhar’s statements. So too some civil society groups who allege that Deodhar had indulged in hate speech with communal overtones. Stung by the remarks condemning his statements Deodhar later retracted his statements and said he respected Christians, but by then his speech had gone viral. Perhaps he was testing the waters to see how far he could go to establish the RSS footprints in Meghalaya and then help the BJP capture Meghalaya – something that the Party has failed to do thus far.
Ever since the BJP came to power at the Centre, Hindu nationalist voices tied to the ideological networks of the RSS have been selling the idea that the indigenous faiths and pre-Christian tribal cultures are part of India’s ancient heritage, which they believe has been diminished by Christianity through conversions that began in the 19th-20th centuries. Christianity is framed as a “foreign” or colonial influence that weakened local rituals and identity. What is being insidiously spread is a demand that Christians by virtue of adopting a foreign religion should no longer be treated as Scheduled Tribes which is clearly aimed at dividing the community along religious lines. Naturally the local community leaders and commentators see these statements as politically and socially divisive because they shift the conversation from shared tribal identity and cultural coexistence to religious differentiation and conflict. Linking indigenous identity exclusively with one belief system and contrasting it with Christianity risks alienating large sections of tribal society who are Christian yet culturally indigenous.
In Nagaland, Mizoram and Meghalaya), Christianity is a longstanding and major religion among the tribal communities. The RSS however, characterise this as conversion or loss of indigenous roots, which can be used rhetorically to separate indigenous culture from Christian identity. This kind of rhetoric can feed fears and misunderstandings, even if local Christians still maintain many indigenous cultural practices. Meghalaya has a large Christian population historically, and communal tensions are rare compared with other parts of India. Comments that frame one faith as superior or more authentic than another can disrupt that harmony and this is what should trigger discussions within the community. Also, the repeated attempts to equate the indigenous faith to Hinduism is fraught. It is unfortunate that people propagating religious extremism are allowed free rein.
