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Tribal Christians denied burial land in Chhattisgarh village as panchayat bars pastors

  • The Gram Sabha invoked PESA, arguing that it gives tribal communities the right to safeguard their cultural identity, customs, traditions and social heritage, while the villagers maintained that religious conversion through inducement, pressure or other means could undermine tribal culture, social unity and identity.

The tribal Christian community at Punpalli, a village in Chhattisgarh’s Sukma district, will not get land for burial under a number of diktats adopted by the village panchayat in the name of protecting tribal culture and tradition, although the denial of burial space does not figure on the banner put up in the village.

The resolution has caused growing concern among the village’s Christian families, even as the panchayat maintains that its decisions are rooted in the provisions of the Panchayats (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act, 1996, or PESA, according to The Indian Express report.

The TIE report claimed the eruption of a banner in Punpalli prohibiting pastors from entering the village for religious activities and declares that no event intended to facilitate religious conversion, or any other religious activity, will be permitted.

The notice follows 12 resolutions adopted by the Gram Sabha on October 2, but it is one of the resolutions not displayed on the banner that has caused the greatest anxiety among the Christian community.

“The village will not give any land for burials to tribals who follow Christianity, " declared Madkam Bhima, a Janpat member elected from Punpalli.

Punpalli, which has around 2,000 residents, has 21 Christian families comprising 75 people, and if the resolution is enforced, families would have to travel more than 13 kilometres to Dhornapal for burials, or over 40 kilometres to Sukma headquarters.

Bhima said similar resolutions had already been adopted by at least four villages in Sukma, beginning with Errabore and followed by Polampalli, and he claimed that the practice would gradually spread to other villages.

The Gram Sabha invoked PESA, arguing that it gives tribal communities the right to safeguard their cultural identity, customs, traditions and social heritage, while the villagers maintained that religious conversion through inducement, pressure or other means could undermine tribal culture, social unity and identity.

However, advocate Sudeep Shrivastava said the resolution could not override constitutional rights, arguing that an Indian citizen could not be barred from entering a village or professing his religion there. He also said that denying burial land to villagers solely because they profess Christianity would be unconstitutional.

Nukesh Baghel, vice-president of the Bastar District Rural Christian Service Committee, said Punpalli was at least the tenth village in Bastar where such restrictions had emerged. He alleged that some groups were exploiting a split Supreme Court verdict in a burial-rights case to persuade villages to adopt such resolutions.

The case involved Ramesh Baghel, who sought to bury his Christian pastor father in his native village. While Justice B V Nagarathna permitted burial on private agricultural land, Justice S C Sharma held that the burial should take place at a designated Christian burial ground in Karkapal, and the rites were eventually conducted there under heavy security.

Officials, meanwhile, have yet to determine the legality of the Punpalli resolution. Mukund Thakur, CEO of the Sukma Zilla Panchayat, said the matter had not been on the official agenda, but promised appropriate action if a written complaint was received.