A dalit believers’ family was brutally attacked on the 6th of October last in a remote village called Bendigere Sevanagara in Harappanahally Taluk of Dvavanagere District in Karnataka. It was a systematically planned attack on a recently converted Hindu family by the bigoted Hindu youth of the village. The reason for this ruthless attack seems to be their firm refusal to fall in line with the rest of the villagers, and continue to worship the village deity and pay obeisance to it, particularly during their annual festival, usually accompanied by, as we reliably learnt, all sorts of orgies like drinking, dancing etc. etc.

When we met the recovering badly wounded victims recently after their discharge from the hospital, we also discovered another important aspect, a terrible jealousy, nurtured against this family by the villagers, after their accepting Jesus and changing their way of life. Though they are working as labourers and earning their daily wages, they have been saving a part of their earnings by their frugal ways. They have changed their lives and they no more live like the rest of the villagers who are given to reckless ways of living with habits like drinking, dancing, gambling and living in promiscuous ways. With their limited income, they have been able to build a small decent house and also possess a few modern household items. Regular prayer and peace in the house as a result of a new way of life after their change of religion had also attracted the attention of the rest of the villagers. The angry and jealous villagers were waiting for an opportunity.

They seized upon the opportunity on October 6th when only two members of the family, the eldest brother, Ramesh Naik (28), and his younger sister Lalitha Bai (24), were at home. We understand that at about 10.30 a.m. they sent an elderly woman, one Gauri Bai, to their house fully drunk, to pick up a quarrel with them. She came near their house and started abusing them using very obscene language without any provocation. When they asked her why she was abusing them, she simply started shouting and screaming as if she was attacked and began calling for help. Suddenly about 20 youth barged into their house, caught hold of Ramesh Naik, began beating him and then forcibly dragged him out of the house and tied him to the nearby electric pole. Then, they also poured liquor into his mouth and all over the body and left him there till 3.30 pm, when the police came and released him. This seems to have been done to make it look like a drunken brawl started by Ramesh Naik himself. In the meantime his younger sister, Lalitha Bai, who somehow managed to escape from their clutches, ran to the nearby telephone booth and contacted her mother, who had gone for work, and whose name is also Gauri, and two of her younger brothers, Suresh Naik and Santhosh Naik who had gone for work at Shimoga about 80 Kms away. She hid herself till late in the evening when the rest of the members arrived at their residence.

Sometime after sunset at about 8.30 pm, when they were trying to take stock of the situation after coming out of their shock, they were attacked once again as suddenly the entire house was pelted with huge stones and about 70 people forcibly entered their house and began attacking them with sickles, stones and sticks and wounded whomever they could catch hold of . Their mother and the two brothers, Ramesh and the youngest brother, Santhosh managed to escape in the darkness, while the two victims, the sister Lalitha Bai, and her younger brother Suresh Naik, aged 22, started bleeding profusely and lost their consciousness. The attackers continued to vandalize the entire house with huge boulders, destroying, practically everything in the house, including the 3 doors and the tiled roof. The unconscious victims with head injuries and cuts all over their bodies were taken to the nearby C.G. Government Hospital in an ambulance and admitted there. The police from the Haluvagalu Police Station have arrested 15 persons in this connection. When we interviewed the victims, a little more than three weeks after the incident, they were still under the shock. Bendigere Sevanagara village has a total population of about 1,500 people among whom more than 80% belong to the Lambani Tribals, to which also this unfortunate Christian family belongs. A lot of political manouvering is going among a number of parties, obviously, with their eyes on the number of votes they can garner during the election time.