Why an Adivasi community in Madurai is in the middle of a Hindu-Christian conflict

Kattunayakan Christians say, they’re being ostracised; Kattunayakan Hindus say, their children were posed as orphans to collect funds; and in the middle of all this, is Hindu Munnani.

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As we enter the Kattunayakan street of Sathyamoorthy Nagar in Madurai’s Samayanallur town, we notice a small building right next to a Hindu temple’s archway. Two Communist flags flank the building, while an Indian tricolour, an AIADMK flag, and a DMK one are right in front of its entrance. A saffron Hindu Munnani flag flutters in the evening breeze, placed on the platform in between the temple and the building. Just above it, on the building’s facade hangs a poster with a Hindu god’s picture, with the following words: “Religious conversion prohibited in this area. Those who break this rule will be handed over to the police. – Hindu Kattunayakan members.” To one side, in red paint, it reads: “Leaving your mother’s religion (thaai matham) is a shame, returning back to it is your pride.”

And this – religion – is at the centre of a conflict in the Sathyamoorthy Nagar village, specifically, among its Hindu and Christian Kattunayakan residents – an Adivasi community. So much so, that one woman was made to prostate in front of the entire village for the “crime” of practicing her religion recently. And in the middle of the chaos in the village is the Hindu Munnani – a fast-growing, controversial outfit in Tamil Nadu, whose tagline claims it will argue for, struggle for, and speak up for Hindus.

In Sathyamoorthy Nagar, the Hindu Munnani is allegedly involved in a social experiment to ‘re convert’ the Christian residents. If it is fashionable for right wing Hindus to accuse those who convert to Christianity of being ‘rice bag converts’, in this village, the Munnani and its supporters allegedly use the age old methods of social ostracisation, illegal fines, and boycotts for ‘ghar waapsi’.

Alagumeenakshi’s ordeal

Born into the Kattunayakan community – which falls under the Scheduled Tribe categorisation in Tamil Nadu – 29-year-old Alagumeenakshi took up Christianity as her faith a little over a decade ago. Of the 450 families in her village – almost all of whom are related to one another – close to 150 families converted to Christianity over a period of 25 years, she says.

For over a year and a half, Alagumeenakshi has been living a life wrought with restrictions, harassed by none other than her own extended kin. A few weeks ago, newspapers carried reports about how she was forced to prostrate in front of the entire village for practicing Christianity.

It all started in 2017, Alagumeenakshi tells TNM, when the Hindu Munnani managed to plant their flag in Sathyamoorthy Nagar. The president of the unelected panchayat in the village – the Katta Panchayat – is NS Mani; he allowed the Hindu Munnani to enter the village in November that year, she says. This is after they were stopped from planting their flag in the village in 2016. And ever since, influenced by the Hindu Munnani’s ideology, the Katta Panchayat has been imposing communal diktats and illegal fines in the village against Hindus who speak to or mingle with Christians, minority community members allege.

“Kattunayakan Christians are forcefully separated from the rest of the village and are restricted from speaking to or visiting our Kattunayakan Hindu relatives,” Alagumeenakshi tells TNM, “Hindus who are seen talking to us, too, face similar ostracisation. Christians are fined for praying, or for mingling with our Hindu relatives. Sometimes, we are also forced to apologise by prostrating in front of the entire village.”

Today, in Sathyamoorthy Nagar, 30 Christian families and 40 Hindu families have allegedly been separated from the rest of the village for not following the rules laid down during the Katta Panchayat sessions. They are not allowed to speak to Hindus, not allowed to shop in local grocery stores and not allowed to enter the common ground that has the freshwater supply tap. “If I dare to go there or walk on their streets, people hurl abuses either loudly or snidely, under their breath,” says Alagumeenakshi.

“I was not even allowed to attend the funeral of my own aunt. And when I mustered the courage to not stand down, those who walked into the funeral house along with me were fined Rs 5,000 each. Almost 40 of them were fined by the panchayat. Won’t they fear talking to me now?” she asks.

From 150 families in 2010, there are less than 30 Christian families in the village today. Many of them have allegedly been forced to practice Hinduism. Alagumeenakshi connects us with one such relative on the phone.

“I stopped attending prayers with Alagumeenakshi ever since they made us pay fines. My husband forbids it too. I have a daughter and I need everyone’s support,” says her relative who wishes to remain unnamed. The woman further adds that her neighbours act like spies, telling on her if she’s seen or heard talking to Alagumeenakshi and her other Christian relatives. “I will have to pay the avaradham (fine) if they decide so in the panchayat,” she rues.

“Kattunayakans are not born with any religion,” an angry Alagumeenakshi asserts, “We are nature worshippers. No one has the right to tell us what god we should worship. I was a Hindu ten years ago, but today I pray to Jesus. I may also become a Muslim. They have no right to tell me which god I should pray to. It is my freedom.”

Who are Katthunayakans?

Kattunayakan is an Adivasi community in southern India, and were traditionally hunters and fortune tellers. In Sathyamoorthy Nagar, most Kattunayakans practice astrology – josiyam – for a living.

"Adults spend six months in the village and six months traveling around,” says Peter Krishnan, one of the first members of the community to convert to Christianity, back in 1982.

“Since we’re all related, children are left in the care of adults who stay back. Sometimes children travel along with their parents, which means that they don’t get the education they need,” Peter says.

The settlement itself was earmarked for Kattunayakans around the time of Independence, and five families moved in here. Today, there are 450 Kattunayakan families in the settlement. Like Sathyamoorthy Nagar, there are around 120 other Kattunayakan settlements in the state, villagers tell us. “We are all oru thaai makkal (one mother’s children),” says Peter.

But in the past, those who took up jobs other than josiyam were shunned by the rest of the community, Peter says. And therefore, when he became a Christian preacher in 1988, he moved out of the village.

Peter’s story

In the early 2000s, Peter Krishnan returned to his village. “I wanted to help my people get proper education,” he says. Today, Peter runs a prayer house in the village.

“About 25 years ago, I was among the people from the Kattunayakan community who visited the then-Chief Minister, Kalaignar Karunanidhi, to appeal for community certificates for Kattunayakans,” Peter says.

After a long battle, the Kattunayakans were given Community Certificates a little over a decade ago by the Tamil Nadu government, during Karunanidhi’s rule. Alagumeenakshi’s husband Muthu (name changed), who holds an MPhil, is one of the first graduates from the community. “There was a lack of importance for education in the community,” he says, “and that’s one reason why many people chose to become Christians.”

“Usually, Kattunayakans do not believe in sending children to school, since josiyars are mostly on the road. Those who took up Christianity had the opportunity to stay back and study,” he shares.

But now, prayer gatherings have become rare in Sathyamoorthy Nagar, Peter says, ever since a Hindu Munnani group arrived at their doorstep in July this year, demanding that they stop praying. “On July 21, scores of men came, threatening to beat us up. The police intervened and violence was averted. They’ve filed cases on all of us and no one gathers in large numbers. For my grand daughter’s birthday function a week later that month, 250 police personnel came down, fearing communal clashes,” he says.

“Now I’m building a tuition centre so more children can receive proper education,” Peter says, pointing to an unfinished building just outside his prayer hall.

A centre that, Hindus in the village allege, has been using their children to collect funds for Peter’s NGO.

‘They posed our kids as orphans’

Allegations fly thick and fast between families in Sathyamoorthy Nagar. While the Christians allege they’re being harassed and ostracised, the Hindus tell a completely different story.

Denying that there was any ostracisation, Alagarpandi, the president of the village’s elected Panchayat, tells TNM that they’re angry with Christians in the village for trying to convert their children, and for posing their children as orphans to receive funding from international NGOs.

“We found out that the Christians have been gathering our children in their tuition centres to make money from foreign investors, claiming that they are orphans,” Alagarpandi says, “We want them to stop converting all the Hindus in the village.”

As for NS Mani – the president of the Katta Panchayat – he denies every allegation levelled against him.

What are Mani’s loyalties?

NS Mani hails from the neighbouring village of Oormachikulam, and is a dominant caste Hindu. Peter and the others accuse him of trying to spread communal hatred because of a clash he had with Christians in the village in 2005, because of which he was forced to step down as the ‘Honorary President’ of the Panchayat.

They also allege that while Mani was earlier with the DMK, he has joined the Hindu Munnani now, and helped them plant their flag in the village, back in November 2017.

However, Mani denies these allegations completely.

“People come to me for justice,” NS Mani tells TNM, “and I never voluntarily interfere in any of the Kattunayakan’s problems. I treat all religions the same. I do not threaten Christians to pay fines nor do I order for them to be separated from the rest of the village. I have no connection with Hindu Munnani and I have for long been associated with DMK.”

Meanwhile Peter, Alagumeenakshi and others say they want freedom to practise their religion, and want Hindu Munnani to be sent out of their village.

“Many of our youngsters are educated today and are employed in Government jobs. We want to make sure communal issues don’t get in the way of our development,” says Muthu.

Also Read: ‘My children won’t know about the forests’: The fight for Adivasi rights in Bandipur