Teen suicide: How a quaint village plunged into the vortex of religious conversion

The imposing facade of the 100-year-old St. Archangel Michael’s Church at the heart of Michaelpatti belies the recent political churn that has thrown the otherwise sleepy village and its inhabitants into a tizzy.

Guarded by policemen, the lanes leading to Sacred Heart Higher Secondary School wear an eerie look. Fifteen-year-old Dhivya (name changed), a student of the school at Thanjavur district’s Michaelpatti, looks every bit perturbed. The recent events that have engulfed her school in a major controversy over alleged forcible religious conversion by the school have “turned life upside down” for Dhivya and other students like her.

Ever since one of her schoolmates, Lavanya, a 17-year-old student of Class 12, died by suicide last month, Dhivya says, things have been pretty rough for them. “We don’t know what exactly happened with her but it’s scary to come and go to school watched by so many policemen,” she tells The Federal. “She was after all one of us,” adds the 15-year-old, who says she didn’t know Lavanya personally and came to know about her only after the incident.

With the third wave of the COVID pandemic on the wane and board exams approaching, teachers at the Sacred Heart Higher Secondary School were busy finishing their syllabus for students of classes 10 and 12 just like any other school. The students, on their part, were busy catching up. And so the death of Lavanya came as a huge setback to all.

The chain of events

On January 9, Lavanya allegedly tried to end her life by consuming some poisonous substance. When she started throwing up, the hostel authorities took her to a nearby medical facility where she was given some medicines. But since there was no improvement in her condition and she was still throwing up, the hostel authorities on January 11 called her father who took her home. There, she was taken to a local hospital and treated for “stomach ache”. But as her condition worsened, her father took her to the Thanjavur Government Medical College Hospital on January 15. While the girl didn’t reveal anything to the doctors, or her parents about consuming any poisonous substance, the reason behind the stomach ache and vomiting came out only after a thorough medical investigation.

As the medical authorities informed the police, the latter came and recorded her statement. Later, a judicial magistrate also took her statement. In both the statements, she alleged that the hostel warden, Saghaya Mary, had been harassing her and forced her to do chores in the hostel. Unable to bear the torture, she said she took the extreme step.

A case was filed based on her statement under Section 75 (punishment for cruelty to child), Section 82[1] (indulging in corporal punishment with the aim of disciplining a child), Section 305 (abetment to suicide of child or insane person) and Section 511 (punishment for attempting to commit offences punishable with imprisonment for life or other imprisonments) of the Juvenile Justice Act against the warden.

While Lavanya died in the hospital on January 19, the 67-year-old Catholic nun was arrested on January 20. (Saghaya Mary, a member of the Franciscan Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, has now been released on bail after 20 days of arrest.)

However, a huge uproar was kicked up after two video clips of the girl in her hospital bed surfaced and went viral on social media after her death. Recorded by Muthuvel, district general secretary of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) in Ariyalur, Lavanya is seen answering questions. In one of the videos, when asked if she was being harassed because of her refusal to convert [to Christianity], she purportedly replied “could be” the case. She also accused her warden of making her do extra chores in the hostel.

The police have now recovered the clips from Muthuvel’s phone. The VHP district general secretary, who claims to know the family through a distant relative, says he had gone to the hospital and recorded the videos on January 17 on the stepmother Saranya’s request. However, the videos were released on social media only on January 20.

Soon after, BJP members, led by the party’s state vice-president Karuppu Muruganandam, staged a protest near the hospital demanding action against the school authorities for attempting to forcibly convert the girl to Christianity.

Both her father Muruganantham and stepmother Saranya too claimed their daughter had been a victim of attempts at forcible conversion even as the Madras High Court has ordered a CBI probe into the case now – something that the state government has opposed and moved the Supreme Court for a stay.

Meanwhile, counter-allegations accusing the stepmother of torturing Lavanya and her brother have also surfaced. The grandmother of the Class 12 student told The Federal that the teenager had previously suffered physical abuse at the hands of her stepmother. (Read the detailed report by The Federal here.)

As a slew of murkier allegations and counter-allegations continue to make headlines, life in Michealpatti village and Sacred Heart Higher Secondary School seems to be struggling to limp back to normalcy.

Ground reality

“I go to school regularly and want to get good marks,” says Dhivya. The Class 10 student insists nobody in school ever forced her to offer Christian prayers. “So far, I have never faced anything of that sort personally,” says the 15-year-old girl, adding that her elder sister, too, studied in the same school.

“My sister is now married. And she is married to a Hindu man. Even she never said anything about the school’s insistence on religious conversion or anything.”

However, the 15-year-old is now scared to attend school because of the heavy police deployment outside.

“I come from Thirukattupalli. I used to take the government bus daily. Since a lot of police personnel have been deployed, I am a bit uncomfortable and did not go to school for a couple of days. But because board exams are nearing, my dad asked me to go to school and he is dropping me off every morning and I take the bus in the evening,” she says as The Federal caught up with her outside the school gate on her way home.

According to another former student, she, too, never faced such attempts at forcible conversion while studying at the school.

“I reside in Mela Theru and there are a lot of Christian families there. When I used to go to school, there were more Hindus than Christians in the school. And I did not feel any difference. It was the same when I was at the house and when I was at the school. I used to wear a bindi and even prayed in the exam hall and there were no restrictions on that,” says S Anitha, who is now pursuing BSc Computer Science at a private college in Thanjavur. Following the recent uproar, Anitha, along with other villagers, recently petitioned the district collector seeking action against the people disrupting the communal harmony in the village.

“You may not believe, I had even pasted a Vinayaga [Hindu god Ganesha] picture on my desk in the school and the teachers were okay with it,” Anitha adds.

The village, named after the 100-year-old St Archangel Michael Church, has over 500 Christian families, 200 Hindu families and fewer than 100 Muslim families.

What other villagers say

“Whether it was before this incident or after it, there has not been any disturbance in the village among the people following different faiths. We used to work together in the farms and have food together on the banks of the farms,” says Jebaraj, a workshop owner who is a second-generation Christian.

“Although my family is Christian, I go to the Vinayaga temple and light camphor and pray to the god every morning. I also go to church on Sundays without fail. It’s not because of compulsion or anything. I find peace in both and I do it out of my will,” he adds.

Jayakumar, former sarpanch of Michaelpatti, says no one in the Christian community had a problem with Jebaraj even after knowing that he goes to temple daily.

“It is not just him. Even I used to visit temples and wear vibhuti [sacred ash] on my forehead. It was not a problem for me or my family members. We have a cordial relationship with everybody in the village. The accusation of forcible conversion has tainted our village’s reputation,” Jayakumar says.

He, however, is hopeful. “We are aware of the heat this case has generated but people here also understand each other. There is no enmity between us and you can see it for yourself,” he claims.

Jayakumar then goes on to narrate a long-followed tradition in the village. “Hindu pilgrims undertaking padayatra to Samayapuram temple through this village often stop by to take rest at the St Michael Church since it falls on the way.”

“We offer them dinner and provide them accommodation. Even Hindu marriages have taken place in the hall belonging to the church. We never had a problem in giving the hall to them and they too did not have any hesitations in organising their marriage rituals there,” he says.

The same solidarity, retired principal Amirtharaj adds, is shown by the Hindus when Christian believers go to St Sebastian Church at Papanasam. They take rest at the Mariyamman temple in Velasingampatti village, which falls on the way to the church.

“The temple priest and the people treat us well. They provide us with mat, food and water. It has been a routine practice. We know the cycle when Hindus go on padayatra and they also know when we go,” he says.

Another teacher, Gurumurthy, who was part of the villagers who petitioned the district collector, tells The Federal that he has worked in the school for 33 years and had not come across even a single communal incident during his stint.

“Had they wanted to convert, they had all the opportunities to ask me. Initially, I thought they might ask me someday. But it never happened. I settled in the same village and my children also studied in the same school. They were never approached by anybody to convert,” Gurumurthy insists.

Since the BJP has taken up the issue of forced conversion, many villagers say they regret letting the party inside the village.

“I was warned by the villagers and by my friends. But I thought it is okay to support the BJP since people contesting on behalf of the party also happen to be our people. But now we are facing the consequences,” says Jayakumar, an AIADMK functionary, in the village.

He says the entire village supported David anna [Kottai David] who was contesting on the BJP ticket. “We all knew him and campaigned for the party in the rural local body election. But the BJP state unit doesn’t seem to have taken the local unit’s version into account and went ahead with whatever they heard,” says Jayakumar.

Kottai David also confirmed that he told the BJP head that there wasn’t any “forced conversion” happening in the school.

“As soon as I came to know about the incident, I visited the village and spoke to the people. I also met Hindu families in the village to know the ground reality, it was not the case. So, I conveyed the same to my state headquarters functionaries but I don’t know why they went ahead with protests,” he says, adding that whatever had to happen has happened and he now doesn’t want to say anything against his party.

The misgivings about the BJP seem to be the same among many other villagers, especially after the 17-year-old’s death.

“We have always had the feeling that the saffron party is an outsider. For us it’s always either the DMK or the AIADMK. You know, none of them protesting now for Lavanya’s death have visited our village. If not before, at least after this incident, they could have visited the village to know the facts. But they did not,” claims Punniyakodi, another villager in Michaelpatti.

The situation was much the same in Lavanya’s native village Vadugapatti in nearby Ariyalur district.

Voices from Vadugapatti

Last week, the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad’s (ABVP) national secretary Nidhi Tripathi met Lavanya’s father Muruganandham and her stepmother Sharanya. When asked about their views over the politicisation of the issue, Lavanya’s parents told this reporter to take whatever they told the BJP as their version on the issue. (The reporter was in the village when Tripathi was visiting the parents.)

After multiple attempts, relatives of Muruganandham asked The Federal to approach the family through three BJP members, including one Suresh. “Now it’s difficult to talk to them as they are completely controlled by the party people. Only if you come through them, they will talk to you,” a relative of the family says on condition of anonymity.

Muruganandham was a DMK member for over 20 years and he told Nidhi Tripathi that none of the DMK men visited his house to enquire about the incident. “From now onwards, my support is only for the BJP and I wouldn’t side with anybody.”

However, villagers like Arunachalam see it differently. He tells The Federal that the villagers neither saw BJP workers or their party flag inside the village until this incident. “You can see the walls in our village. Could you find a single lotus symbol on the wall? No, right?

“That speaks about the presence of the BJP here,” Arunachalam rests his case.