Kanker villagers block Christian convert Manish Nishad’s burial citing tribal customs & Fifth Schedule rights. Body shifted for 3 days; buried far away.
Newsroom (11/11/2025 Gaudium Press ) In a stark clash between religious conversion and tribal customary law, residents of Jewartala village in Chhattisgarh’s Kanker district prevented the burial of 50-year-old Christian convert Manish Nishad for three days, forcing his family to move the body from village to village before it was finally interred at Sankra burial ground, 35 kilometres away.
Nishad, who had converted to Christianity years ago, died on 4 November while undergoing treatment in Raipur. When the family attempted to bury him on private land near their home in Jewartala under Kodekurse police station limits, villagers physically blocked the body from entering, insisting that anyone who “abandons the traditional faith” forfeits the right to burial within village boundaries.
“Those who left the original religion cannot be buried here,” villager Raghunandan Goswami told local media. District panchayat member Devendra Tekam added, “This is a Fifth Schedule area. We follow our own customs. If burial is required, it must follow village tradition or be taken outside.”
Fearing violence, police shifted the body to Kodekurse hospital morgue. On Friday, when the family, escorted by police, attempted burial in neighboring Charama, members of a Hindu organisation intercepted the vehicle and threatened to disrupt the rites. The body was then taken back to Raipur.
The standoff ended only after the administration permitted burial at distant Sankra burial ground, far from the ancestral village.
Jewartala is inhabited by several scheduled tribes – Kalhar, Raut, Kumhar, Maria, Bhatra, Halba and Dhurva – along with Mahara Dalits. In February 2024, the gram sabha had unanimously resolved that any villager who converts from the “traditional religion” would lose rights to the community burial ground, citing the Panchayats (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act (PESA) and Fifth Schedule provisions.
The incident is the latest in a string of similar confrontations across Chhattisgarh’s tribal belt. In July 2025, violent clashes erupted in Jamgaon village, Kanker, when locals opposed another Christian burial, resulting in vandalism of churches and attacks on homes.
A parallel case from Bastar reached the Supreme Court earlier this year when Ramesh Baghel sought to bury his father, pastor Subhash Baghel, near ancestral graves. On 7 January 2025, a divided two-judge bench ordered burial 35 km away in a designated cemetery rather than the village, despite one justice favouring the family’s plea.
International Christian Concern (ICC) says the pattern is escalating. On 5 October 2025, around 400 residents from 22 villages in Kanker gathered to deliberate on “the growing number of conversions to Christianity” and its perceived threat to cultural identity and reservation benefits. The meeting concluded with a collective decision to resist Christian burial practices.
Rights groups allege that such actions violate Article 25 of the Indian Constitution guaranteeing freedom of religion. Local tribal leaders, however, maintain they are merely protecting constitutionally recognised customary laws in scheduled areas.
Balod District Police Chief Yogesh Patel confirmed the sequence of events and said the administration acted to prevent breach of peace. No FIR has been registered against the villagers for obstructing the funeral.
As Chhattisgarh’s tribal districts witness rising tensions over religious identity and land-burial rights, the Manish Nishad case underscores a deepening fault line between constitutional guarantees of religious freedom and the legal autonomy granted to scheduled areas under the Fifth Schedule and PESA – a conflict the Supreme Court has repeatedly been called upon to resolve, yet without a clear, uniform precedent.
- Raju Hasmukh with files form asianews.it
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