’Good News of Kandhamal’ by Anto Akkara for 15th anniversary of Kandhamal’ bloodshed on 23 Aug 2023

#antoakkara #Anto_Akkara Is Forgiveness a Powerful Weapon’? Would you believe - assailants embracing the faith they tried to banish? Can Catastrophe be transformed into Good News? The documentary illustrates how the terrible persecution of Kandhamal in Odisha state in eastern India has been turned into ‘Good News’ by the valiant Christians by their forgiving response to the assailants who are now embracing the faith they tried to banish from Kandhamal. Following the 2008 ‘contract’ killing of the 81-year-old Swami Lakshmanananda Saraswati, Hindu nationalist outfits promptly blamed Christians and ‘banned’ Christianity in remote Kandhamal jungles of Odisha and brutalized the Christians. Those who refused to forsake their faith were burnt alive, buried alive and chopped into pieces with nearly 100 martyrs, over 300 churches and 6,000 Christian houses plundered, rendering 56,000 homeless for years. 15 years later, Kandhamal is no more a tragedy but GOOD NEWS for the Christian world to rejoice as the mighty Sangh Parivar could not force any Christian to recant the faith in Christ. On the contrary, hundreds of Hindus including Sangh Parivar leaders have embraced the Christian faith in Kandhamal.