(November 06, 2010) Pradeep Nayak, a young Catholic from Orissa does not want a repeat
of what his people underwent two years ago. “I am a victim of communal violence and
know what it is to be poor and voiceless,” said Nayak, who is among 12 students of
journalism from Orissa in a Church-run National Institute of Social Communication,
Research and Training, near New Delhi. He said the 12 were among survivors of anti-Christian
violence in Kandhamal, a tribal district in Orissa. What pained him most, Nayak added,
was the silence in the secular media about the Orissa Christians’ sufferings. “Nobody
wanted to tell the truth,” said Nayak, a master’s student, recalling that his people’s
plight came to light only after The Hindu newspaper highlighted their case on October
1, 2008. Violence began after an alleged Maoist group gunned down a Hindu religious
leader on August 23, 2008. Hindu radicals blamed the crime on Christians, and torched
churches and Christian homes. Nayak narrated how he ran with family members to the
forest as marauding Hindu mobs descended on his Raikia village. They remained in the
forest for three days without proper clothes, food and water, he explained. Nayak
said their Cuttack-Bhubaneswar archdiocese took the initiative to enrol Kandhamal
youth for media studies in the New Delhi Social Communication Institute, managed by
the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India. Nayak expressed his wish to promote justice
through his writings and projects after his study. His companions too expressed their
gratitude to the church for the funding and said that they wish to repay the Church
by working for the people of their state.