Faith Freedom International

[CRITICAL Singh]

Missionary, sons set afire
by Srimoy Kar & Bijay Chaki

BHUBANESWAR, Jan 23: The campaign against Christians, so far largely limited to Gujarat, took an ominous turn with an Australian missionary and his two sons being torched to death in Keonjhar district early this morning.

Based in Baripada since 1965, Graham Stewart Staines, 58, ran a leprosy hospital and was the secretary and treasurer of the Evangelical Missionaries Society in Mayurbhanj. Staines was sleeping in his jeep with his two sons, nine-year-old Philip and seven-year-old Timothy, when a group of 100 people allegedly poured petrol and set the vehicle ablaze. The incident occurred in Manoharpur under the Anandpur police station.

According to reports from Baripada, another Australian, Gilbert Venge, and a lecturer, Rajendra Swain, who accompanied Steins to Manoharpur, escaped as they were sleeping inside the village church. The attackers spared the church.

Subhas Chouhan, convenor of the state unit of Hindu Jagaran Samukhya, alleged that Staines was killed because he was ``proselytising.'' Sayingthat people may have killed him in a ``fit of rage,'' Chouhan said that the issue should not be communalised.

Janata Dal president Ashok Das has blamed the Bajrang Dal and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad for the incident. He also criticised prime minister A B Vajpayee for giving a call for a national debate on conversions.

The incident has sent shockwaves through the Government and the Congress party. While no official word came from either, both the Home Ministry and the Congress high command are keeping a close tab.

Home Ministry sources said a report from the Orissa Government would be sought. Vajpayee has also been alerted about the incident. Meanwhile, Australian High Commission officials told The Indian Express in New Delhi that they were still awaiting details. A consular official is planning to fly to Calcutta en route to Orissa tomorrow while the High Commissioner has spoken to Home Secretary B P Singh about the incident.

This is the second incident within the last two months when Christianshave been killed in Orissa. Two undertrial prisoners, both Christian, were dragged out from prison by a tribal mob and burnt to death in front of the police at R. Udaygiri on December 8. Besides, 111 houses belonging to the community were also burnt to ashes. Sources said some villagers tried to prevent the mob from setting Staines's jeep ablaze but were chased away. It was regular for Staines to spend the night in the jeep whenever he was on tour, sources said. Staines, described by local residents as ``popular and affable'' was well known for his charity work. He had gone to Monaharpur yesterday afternoon to attend a camp organised by the local church. He is survived by his wife Glades and daughter Easter, 13, both of whom were at Baripada.

Glades said she was ``greatly shocked but not angry.'' She is believed to have told the Australian High Commission that she and her daughter ``are not stranded in Baripada and the locals are sympathetic.'' The funeral is scheduled for tomorrow.

Prayer halls attacked

A group of about 25 persons attacked two prayer halls in tribal-dominated Doswada village under Songadh rural police station in Surat on Friday evening.

According to the police, the miscreants destroyed furniture, musical instruments and walls of the prayer halls managed by the governing bodies of the Indian National Gospel Churches Federation and Good News Ministries Churches of Northern India for the last one decade.

[CRITICAL Singh]

Catholic Priest Killed In India


NEW DELHI, India (CNSNews) -- A Catholic priest, Remis Karketta, has been shot dead in eastern Indian State of Bihar and left his body to be run over to appear as an accident, area police chief said on Friday. Karketta, a Jesuit and principal of St. Xavier School in Bundu in southern Bihar was shot while riding his motorbike near the town on Ranchi.

Gupteshwar Pandey, Ranchi Senior Superintendent of Police, said: "The post-mortem report also revealed that Karketta was shot dead. It appears that Karketta was forcibly stopped by the miscreants and killed. They left his body on the road. Later, some vehicle might have run over him giving the impression that he was the victim of an accident." Despite wearing a helmet, Karketta's head was completely crushed, he added.

It was not immediately clear if there was any religious motivation behind the killing. Local Church leaders said they believed the attack was religiously motivated and demanded better protection for minorities. India's Christian minority has been the target of a series of attacks in recent months.

The Catholic priests's murder comes a week after the Akhil Bharatiy Vidyarthi Parishad, the student wing of the ruling right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party, warned Christian missionaries to stop proselytizing. The warning was written on the wall outside the Ursaline Convent in Ranchi.

Church leaders say the community and places of worship have been the target of more than 150 attacks over the past two years. Among the more serious incidents, Australian missionary Graham Stains and his two young sons were burned to death in a jeep in January last, and a Roman Catholic priest, Arul Doss, was shot with arrows and beaten.

In another incident, a nun was abducted, stripped and forced to drink urine by two men who objected to her religion. Several church buildings and Christian homes also were targeted by Hindu fundamentalists.

The federal government says all the attacks on Christians have been investigated, and were linked to local land and property disputes. About 2.3 percent of India's nearly one billion people are Christians.

Meanwhile, Indian Government said a little- known sect headed by a Pakistani was behind the blasts targeting churches in South India during the past two months. "It is now revealed that a little-known small sect called `Deendar Anjuman' was involved in the blasts in religious institutions in Andhra Pradesh, Goa and Karnataka,'' a Home Ministry statement said. The sect is headed by a Pakistani Zia-Ul-Hassan.

The involvement of the group came to limelight when a vehicle was damaged in an explosion in Bangalore in which two of its occupants Mohammed Fida alias Rehaman Siddique and Zakir died while the third Syed Ibrahim was seriously injured. "Ibrahim has since confessed his involvement," the statement said. The explosives recovered from the van have the same composition as those used in the blasts in religious institutions.

http://www.mcjonline.com/news/00b/20000717d.htm

[CRITICAL Singh]

Two More India Christians Killed As Thousands Protest Violence

NEW DELHI (CWNews.com) - While more than 5,000 Indian Christians staged silent marches on Saturday in Bhubaneswar -- the capital of eastern Orissa state -- to protest the murder of Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two sons and the rape of a nun last week, two more Christians were brutally murdered.

Two young Christians -- a girl and her brother -- were murdered on the protest day when they resisted a rape attempt in Kondhmal district in the same state that made international headlines with the murder of Staines last month. Thousands had attended the funeral of Staines and his sons in Baripada where Staines had served leprosy patients from his Leprosy Mission Center for 34 years. Last week, a Catholic nun was raped near Baripada by two men disguised as women who had given her a lift.

"The present belligerent attacks where religious militants take the law into their own hands and impose their ideologies with force must be stopped immediately otherwise we will experience a rapid disintegration of our civilization," the archbishop warned.

http://www.cwnews.com/news/viewstory.cfm?recnum=9571

[CRITICAL Singh]

NY Times,
Mob Kills a Catholic Priest in India

NEW DELHI -- A Roman Catholic priest, asleep in a remote eastern hamlet where he had been counseling the poor, was slain by a mob early Thursday morning, cut down by bows and arrows as he tried to escape an attack, the police said.

The killing was in Jamabani, a village in Orissa, not far from where a Christian missionary and his two sons were killed in January. Few details were known about the new incident as authorities from the district capital, Baripada, had to travel a long distance through rough terrain to go to the scene.

The priest, who used the single name Aruldoss, made weekly visits to the village from his church in Anandapur, said a fellow priest, the Rev. Jose Thundiyl. The journey required a 20-mile ride on a motor scooter followed by a 12-mile hike.

"He had been in our diocese for five years, and he was a very good missionary," Thundiyl said. "He led a simple life. All the time he wanted to be with the poor. His interest was not in conversions. It was in organizing poor people so they knew their rights, so they knew how to live their lives better."

A companion of the priest fled from the attackers. His statement to the police said 15 or 20 men set upon them at 2 a.m., the Press Trust of India reported. Aruldoss was felled by arrows as he ran away, and he was then beaten.

Neither the attackers' identities nor their motive was known. The president of the Conference of Catholic Bishops of India, Archbishop Henry D'Souza of Calcutta, blamed a hate campaign by Hindu extremists. "The poor priest and his associate," D'Souza said, "seem to have been attacked for the only reason that they are Christians."

[thinklogic]

Death penalty for the Hindu who killed Christian missionary

An Indian court has handed down a death sentence to the ringleader (Dara Singh) of a group of men convicted of murdering an Australian missionary and his two young sons. Twelve others received life imprisonment for burning Graham Staines alive, along with his sons - Philip, who was 10, and Timothy, eight. The court found them guilty last week of rioting, arson and culpable homicide amounting to murder. Hundreds of police were deployed outside churches in Orissa ahead of sentencing. The prosecutors had pushed for the death sentence but defence lawyers had asked for a lenient sentence on the grounds that the men were poor tribesmen and the sole earners in their families. All 13 are expected to appeal against the sentence. The death penalty is used rarely in India and is reserved for the most serious crimes.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/3127848.stm
_________________
Think like a child... keep an open mind.

[Jessy]

http://www.hindunet.com/home/social_contemporary_issues/hinduwoman/mislies.htm

NAILING THE LIES OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONARIES IN INDIA



In recent years certain Christian Churches have carried out villification campaigns that Christian missionaries in India are being persecuted for their attempts to spread the gospel and that Christians are regularly victimized by Hindu fascists. The Churches themselves had been very vocal about their oppression painting themselves as innocent noble servants of God. The English press in India had gone into hysterics about the religious angle and mourned that the secular fabric of India, of which they alone are the guardian, are being destroyed. The international media has simply run with the stories so that newspapers, magazines and Internet are filled with them. Yet what is remarkable is that very few of them, certainly not the Western journalists, had ever bothered to follow-up their sources and find out what has actually transpired. This page shows how the Church systematically distorted and even manufactured stories out of thin air; it also contains a list of atrocities the Church inflicts on non-Christians in India in order to convert them, none of which, gets international attention.

Charges refuted.

Missionary Atrocities

Some More Observations.



CHARGES REFUTED

One of the most emotional charges is that hundreds of nuns have been raped. They have not been. The first case was that of nuns raped in Jhabua in Madhya Pradesh. There was no reason to believe that they were raped specifically because they were Christians. Yet the local Church immediately denounced it as the handiwork of local Hindu activists. This event was splashed everywhere on TV and newspapers and soon international media too was full of it. Without the slighest proof, except on the sayso of local missionaries, it was accepted as a foregone conclusion that Hindus had raped Christians in order to stop conversions. Political parties also jumped into the fray hoping that the Hindu political party BJP would be embarassed. After investigations, the criminals were captured. They were a band of petty criminals. Even more tellingly, 12 out of the 24 turned out to be Christians. Though Indian media mentioned briefly this circumstance, this time there were no editorials saying that obviously religious angle do not come into this at all. The international media seems to be unaware of the religious identity of the perprators. The Catholic Organization have however denied that there were Christians involved. Though the police report definitely establishes that they were Christians, according to the Catholic church there, none of the captured criminals identified by the nuns were so. It is entirely possible of course, that the State admininstration had engaged in an elaborate coverup. Then who better to spot it than the Catholic church which has years of practice in protecting child-molesters? Moreover, it is strange that neither the church nor the newspapers have shown further interest in the case; they have not attempted to agitate for a speedy trial or debated the proper punishment for the guilty. In other words, ever since the religious identity of the criminals have been revealed, they have shown no interest in bringing the matter to further public attention.

The next incident happened in Orissa. Again, the Church pastor declared that he suspected the hand of fundamentalist Hindu organizations; immediately the English media branded it as a communal outrage. According to First Information Report (FIR) filed by Sister Jacqueline Mary, she was waiting in the bus-stand when she was told that an old lady wanted to speak to her. So she got into an waiting ambassador. There two men in saris drove off the car and raped her. However, the discrepancies in her case soon came out. According to the FIR, she went to Baripada Municipal Bus Stand from the Saratchandra Vidyapeeth by ricksaw, from where she was picked up by the car. It's strange why she did not think of taking a bus from a stop within 50 m of Saratchandra Vidyapeeth. More importantly, a witness, one Maheshawar Ojha, saw her getting up on the bus and getting off it near the Church as well. He knew her personally and asserts he could not have been mistaken. Therefore according to the only eye-witness, the nun did not get into any car but proceeded normally by bus as she did every day. The FIR was filed 24 hours after the alleged assault. Medical examinations concluded that the injuries on her body were self-inflicted. Unfortunately she had also burnt her under-garments. This meant that they could not be examined for semen and other marks that could lead to the capture of the guilty. Even if die-hard Christians might declare that all reports submitted by the police are untrustworthy, they must question why the under-garments were burned; at the very least the Church could have arranged for independent testings. The incident have created lack of respect and bad feelings among the local residents toward the church, since they believe the accusation to be deliberately manufactured to embarass the BJP.

Another such incident took place at Bihar. One Sister Ruby accused that she was abducted; her abductors tried to rape her but failed. Then they forced her to drink a bottle of their urine and fled. The attackers asked the nun why she and other nuns were in the area; threatened to teach her a lesson for converting Hindus and that this could even cost her her life. They even said that they had raped and murdered many people like her. The Stateman in its editorial thundered against the growth of religious intolerance. When the paper The Pioneer went to interview her they found out several discrepancies. In the first place the FIR was filed three days after the incident. The excuse given by the Church was that she was too shocked to do it at first. But the church officilas themselves could have done it; after all in three days the criminals could escape easily and all physical evidence fade. Secondly she could not identify the place where the incident took place. Though it had happened about 10 a.m and she remembered graphically every detail of the event, she could not find out the place. When the newspaper conducted the interview the Sister spoke in Tamil and her words were translated by Father Catejan. Tamil is the only language she understood. Nevertheless she reported that her abductors spoke in Hindi and Bhojpuri, languages used in that part of India. If she knew neither Hindi nor English, then how could she have understood her abductors far less remembered what they told her? There is also one more thing to be considered. According to her the men could not rape her. Yet also according to her, she was tied down and forcibly stripped naked. No one came to disturb them. The men themselves had boasted that they had raped women like her before. So why did they become suddenly impotent in her case? Did God intervene to protect her?

An English daily reported that that nuns in Jhajjar, Haryana had been molested. The Observer of Business and Politics sent its correspondents. What they found out was this. The nuns had set up a sewing business for local girls. In a local election two groups vied for control of this profitable business. The nuns supported the candidate of one group. So the other group came, shouted at them, told them to leave local politics alone. No one was even touched. The conversation with the nuns was taped by the reporters. In other words, the story was a complete fabrication.

Nor is this the only example of false reporting. Associated Press, belonging to an American company, put out a story that Dr. John Sylvester an American working in Allahabad had been attacked by Hindu fundamentalists. His medical clinic had been broken up and he had to take shelter in near-by Baptist church to escape. However Sylvester is not a medical doctor, but has a PH.D in economics. He has no clinics. Instead he runs two schools. Neither he nor his schools had ever been attacked. It is not known what action AP press took to punish its correspondents for lying. Interestingly the AP report declared that Sylvester is an American. But he is not though his wife is. What is this except an attempt to make American public more sympathetic?

Now we come to the most henious case, the murder of Graham Staines and his children by fanatic Hindus. This in fact is the only case where Hindu chauvinism is actually responsible for murder of a Christian. Staines was a missionary and social worker who treated leprosy patients. A mob of Hindus and tribals led by one Dara Singh, set fire to a car containing Staines and his two minor sons and burned them to death. No one disputes that this is a shocking crime and the murderers need to be punished. But even here the church and so called secularists could not resist playing politics. The blame was immediately put on a Hindu organization called Bajrang Dal , which is active in resisting conversions, and has some connection with BJP. The First Information Report (FIR) was filed by a priest, an eye-witness. He declared that the attackers had shouted, "Jai Bajrang Dal"; however witness after witness testified that they had shouted, "Jai Bajrang Bali". This is certainly an important distinction, to the group involved! Even if it can be passed off as an aberration, another of his statement certainly cannot be. He declared that the Church had been burnt down totally. But the Church had not even been damaged slightly. Obviously he was trying to milk the persecution angle for all it is worth and drag politics into it as well. It was later established that Dara Singh was associated with the Bajrang Dal in freeing cows from tradesmen. However none of the others have anything to do with Bajrang Dal.

Why were the Staines murdered? The answer is very simple --- because his conversion activities were deeply resented by the locals. Staines certainly operated a leprosy hospital for the benefit of the poor, but he was not a selfless social worker as portrayed by newspapers. On the contrary his and his wife's dispatches reveal that their sole intention was to convert. In particular, the jungle camps he held where he would sell Christian literature and pray for the tribals to be 'saved' had created great tensions in the surrounding villages. Witness 35, Binod Kishore Das a doctor who worked at the leprosy centre testified, Staines had a great hatred for other religions. If there was a function in anybody's house, he would not eat there. "Staines was living a lavish life style. Though he would be simply dressed, he was having a modern gadgets in his house. Even for a minor disease he would go either to Jamshedpur or Calcutta". Gladys Staines contradicted that Staines hated other religions but admitted that he would not take prasad [consecrated food] because it went against the Bible. How strange! Hindus are pilloried for notions of impurity in food and from whose hands you can take it, but apparently if a Christian discriminates on basis of religion it is all right.

Witness 29, stated that Dara Singh is a very popular figure in the village as he forcibly "frees cows from the people who take them for selling" and slaughter. After freeing the cows, Darn Singh distributes the cows among the villagers. Thus in eyes of villagers he does pious deeds and is a Robin Hood. Many others testified that that villagers were becoming increasingly angry at destruction of their traditional socio-religious practices. Bidyadhar Mohanta of village Dalapaka in his statement under Section 161 Cr.P.C. recorded on 17th June, 1999 said that some boys from Gayalmunda and Bhalughera told Dara Singh in his presence that Christian missionaries were converting Hindus and that they were destroying Hindu religion. They asked Dara Singh to deal with the missionaries properly. It is obvious that conversions were deeply resented by locals, though it might be incomprehensible to ordinary Westerners. Nevertheless, the English newspapers in India went on declaring that all was peace and harmony until the Bajrang Dal deliberately created tensions a few months before.

There is also another angle to the aftermath. After it became widely known that Dara Singh was responsible for the murders, the tribals began to deify him. They declared he had miraculous powers which helped him to escape the police dragnet. The government announced huge sums of money to be given to the man who can give the police leads or can aid in capturing him. Though the tribals live at subsistence levels, not a single one came forward. In fact, an imposter, posing to be Dara Singh actually managed to get food and shelter in several villages, and again none of the villagers informed the police of his presence though they believed him to the genuine Dara Singh. The papers reported this but no explanations were forthcoming as to why these tribals would think a mere murderer is a hero. Obviously there was a deep rage against missionary activities and against Staines so that even the murder of children were overlooked. Pages have been dedicated to how Staines worked for social betterment of the tribals, but strangely none to the fascinating question of why Dara Singh had been apotheosised by villagers. There was no Hindu organizations to campaign for him. It happened spontenously. If as we were assured by the newspapers ordinary villagers wept for him lamenting they have lost a father , why did they think of his murderer as a deity and feed false Dara Singhs?

Certainly Staines did not deserve to be murdered; nothing can be worse than blaming the victim in this ghastly killing. But here is a warning for all Indian secularists. Respect for religions also mean respect for traditional religions, even if it happens to include animism. But the missionaries regularly traduce the local religions, promise that if they become Christians then they would be cured of their diseases and persuade the converts not to participate in the social life of the village thereby disrupting bonds between family and neighbours. If the missionaries would stick to their social work and inspire conversion by their character alone then there would be no problem.

Unfortunately, the murder of Staines and the resulting publicity --- which should have been a cause of mourning --- apparently made missionary organizations decide that if one murder can genrate so much limelight and profit, then more murders will generate more. Thereafter every violent incident in which a Christian was the victim was made out to be a case of Hindu fundamentalism and Christian persecution. In 1999, in Orissa two children, a girl and a boy were found murdered. Immediately, English newspapers, with the support of local politicians came up with provocative headings like "Christians killed!". However, the murderer one Ranjan Pradhan was also a Christian. The motive of the murder was found to be rape. He tried to rape the girl; he was recognized by both the girl and the boy, since he happened to be the boy's uncle. The eyewitness to the crime was a nine year old boy who testified that the accused is the man. He also confessed to the crime. (Hardly any paper bothered to report this conclusion. Indian Express, February 10, 1999 finally published the news. )

In December 1998, tribals stormed the police station at Udaygiri and lynched two undertrial prisoners of the Pana caste. Then they burned the houses of Pana caste. This was immediately projected as Hindu-Christian conflict. Yet this is purely a law-and-order problem. The tribals have been harassed for some time by criminals belonging to the Pana caste. They were angry because the police seemed to be doing nothing. On that day some criminals belonging to the Pana caste robbed them; then they became enraged and went on a rampage.

In March 1999, in Ranalai village in Orissa there was a clash between Hindus and Christians and immedately was seen as part of a pogrom begun by BJP. The investigators found that the root cause was economic. There was economic disparity between the two groups, which the Hindus resented. Then in Februray, 23 houses belonging to the Hindu community were burnt down by criminals from the Christian community. This incident was totally ignored by national and international media. Then Christians painted a large Cross on a hillock. The Hindus converted it into a Trishul. To avoid trouble representatives from both groups decided that there would be no signs at all. Next day the Hindus erased the sign; apparently while returning they shouted slogans proclaiming victory. Tensions mounted. When a police Inspector tried to control the situation he was apparently manhandled by Christians. The Hindus burned down some houses of the Christians. Both sides filed charges against one another. Obviously both communities are here at fault and religion had not much to do with it.

At Kosi, on 11th April, 2000 , Fr. K. K. Thomas and Miss Mary of St. Theresa's school were attacked. As usual this became rallying cry of oppression. When the Minority Commission went there, Fr. Thomas categorically stated that there was no communal angle to the incident. 8 or 9 criminals came to the school and attacked him, leaving him for dead. Then they took away about rupees one lakh in cash, a camera and two tape recorders from the various staff members. The motif behind this incident was clearly robbery. Thus even an ordinary crime is made out to be part of a wider conspiracy.

In Mathura, Fr Joseph Dabre, Principal of St. Dominic School was attacked. According to his report to the Minority Commission 2 young men came to his office and asked vaguely for admission in any of the class in the school. Some 4 young men were also waiting outside the principal's office. When the principal asked them about the nature of admission, they started beating him. Why they did this is not known, but clearly this was a personal matter.

In Mathura, another attack on Christians by Hindus was reported. The victims were the Principal and staff of Sacred Heart School. The principal told the Minority Commission that the children of two local leaders namely Mr. Sheetal Singh and Surya Kanth Prashar had failed in the examination. The fathers threatened them and brought a mob inside the campus which shouted slogans against the principal and management. The Principal had to hide till the staff managed to make the mob disperse. The DM and SSP stated that the parents of the children got worried since 80 children had failed in the examination. They wanted the principal to lower the pass percentage from 40 to 35. The principal very properly refused to compromise on this issue. The second contention was that steep hike in the fees from the existing Rs. 300 p.m. to Rs. 800 p.m.. Though the Principal had asked for police protection, the police were lax since it involved politicians. Evidently, Hindus had attacked Christians and the Christians are to be commended, but not for the motives that the missionaries would have their listerners believe.

Again attacks were reported in Rewari, where three nuns were injured. Sister Ludmila of the Order described the details of the accident. It became obvious that this was an accident and nothing else. This was fully corroborated by Fr. Philip Parmar and the two injured nuns who declared that there were no communal elements involved. They also said that the man responsible for the accident had later apologised to them. They said that the atmosphere in Rewari has all along been very peaceful and they did not understand why a simple accident had been given such publicity. They even said that some western forces were trying to give a political colour to the incident and create a wedge among the Hindus and Christians residing in the town.

However, it is not to be expected that vested interests among the Christians would take the findings of Minority Commission lying down. They have therefore demanded the removal of the Christian member from the panel! ( www.rediff.com/news/2000/jul/11nmc.htm ) Mr. John Joseph held that the attacks were isolated incidents. He said that Christian radicals were active in states like Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar and the north-east. He also bluntly stated that Western Churches are making such a fuss in order to get more money from their Western doners. United Christian Forum for Human Rights national convenor John Dayal, and Archbishop Cyril Mar Baselios have insisted that the MNC, and in particular its Christian member, had no business giving opinions that contradict what they are saying. Forum secretary Joe Vithayathil said, Mr. Joseph 'joined the commission to promote himself, deliberately derogating Christian churches and threatening them'. Most significantly, the All India Catholic Congress have accused him of acting against the community. This is what the missionary impulse have been reduced to --- a Christian's conscience must be subordinate to promoting what the Church superiors think would help them in their politicking. However, Mr. Josheph insisted that as a Pentescostal, he had been washed in blood of the lamb and therefore cannot lie. (Read interview with Mr. John Joseph! www.rediff.com/news/2000/jul/15inter.htm )

So much for Christian Churches wailing "We are martyrs! Please give us more money!"



MISSIONARY ATROCITIES.

While accusing Hindus of terrorising them, the missionaries are fully adept at using such tactics, collectively and individually, against those they want to convert.

In Tripua the Baptists are very active and their conversions cause deep tension. Not only that they deliberately use intimidation through the militant Christian outfits. There are several Christian terrorist groups operating who forbid Hindus, tribals and Buddhists to hold their religious festivals on pain of violence, who have burnt down their homes, and often ordered them to convert to Christianity or face death. Church officials are directly involved in terrorist acts as well. ( news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english...717775.stm ) The banned NLFT outfit has declared that it wants to expand the Kingdom of Christ in Tripura. There are roughly 500 instances of kidnapping every year, but not a single victim has been a Christian. In other words, this is nothing other than attempt to harass Hindus. Again, maximum kidnapping is of schoolteachers. This has led to the closure of several government schools. This means parents are forced to send their children to missionary run schools which never suffer from these problems. There the missionary teachers can brainwash the children to their heart's content. However American media seems to be ignorant of what is going on. (For fuller story, read www.rediff.com/news/2000/jun/23flip.htm )

Similarly Mizoram is mostly Christian. During election times placards appear saying "Vote for Christ" and in Sunday services, pastors reacast their sermons to favour their chosen candidates. With the enouragement of the priests, the non-Christians are treated hellishly. 45000 Mizoram Reangs have been forced to flee their home to other states and dozens of women had been raped. The Reangs are a minority tribe in Mizoram, and the majority tribe is different ethnically. However such naked violence has been inflicted after Christianity, the religion of love and brotherhood, has taken hold. President Saibunga of Bru National Union told The Observer, Date: February 8, 1999, "We are being persecuted by Mizos since we strongly opposed conversions. Mizoram is a Christian dominated State and they want everybody to become Christian. Even the Chakmas [a Buddhist tribe mainly] are facing persecution. Minorities are not at all safe in Mizoram. Since we raised our voice against the forcible conversions, we were driven away." The Indian Government is too busy fretting about its 'liberal' image abroad to crack down on such behaviour. The international media which cried itself hoarse about how Hindus are persecuting Chriatinas have nothing to say about how these poor tribals are being persecuted and raped by the Christians. After all, who cares for a bunch of Red Indian like people who refuse the benefits of civilization Christianity would have conferred on them?

The Asian Age, Date: January 29, 1999: A Baptist priest posted as secretary of Diphupan church in Nagaland was arrested by the Guwahati police for his involvement in a fake currency racket. Bendeng Temjen Jamir, secretary of the Diphupan Baptist mission, was arrested redhanded. The priest had confessed that he received the counterfeit currencies in his monthly salary.Police sources said they have information about the involvement of a church in the fake currency racket in Nagaon district of Assam and their work had led to arrest of the priest.

Obviously the Baptist Church is heavily involved in illegal rackets, particulary if they paid off their priests in counterfeit currency regularly. There is also in Nagaland a terrorist group calling themselves "Nagaland for Christ". Their avowed intention is to secede from Indian Union and set up a separate Christian state. Though they have insisted that Hindu, tribal and Buddhist Nagas would be welcome in this state, their very name indicates that they are aiming for the creation of a theocratic state.

Thus throughout the North-East part of India, Christian fundamentalists hope of regaining the political sovereignty that the secular liberal constitutions of Europe and USA had wrested away from them. To attain their ends, they use the tactics they have used in the past in the West.

The Indian Express, February 10, 1999 reported that an evangelical priest George David Manuel was arrested by Ambernath police following a complaint that he had burnt portraits of Hindu gods and goddesses, to exorcise evil. One villager had been very sick and he had been brought in to pray for him. Unable to effect a cure by praying, the priest had burned the pictures of deities. He showed no remorse stating that in burning the holy pictures he was driving out devils. The villagers beat him up before surrendering him to the police, (but no doubt it is unfair to say the victim brought it on himself). Incidentally, the priest seems to have identified himself with the ceremony of Mass too literally. The patient's sister said, "He would prick his fingers with a needle and let out blood from his fingers into a glass of water, which he would make us drink. He would then keep his hands on our heads and chant in Marathi, "In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost." There is no doubt this is a mentally unbalanced person and yet the Church ordained him! If this had happened in America this macabre touch would have been certainly been made much of; but the Indian English media seems to regard this as uninteresting news and Western media has ignored it.

In 1999, two highly respected Gandhian leaders, Mr Ghelubhai Nayak and Mr Chunnibhai Vaidya demanded a legal ban on conversions. There had been violence in Dang area in December of previous year. They told The Hindu, January 6, it was triggered off by attempts by missionaries to force a nephew of the Bhils' Raja to marry a Christian girl, in an attempt to convert him. The man was allegedly publicly beaten up for his refusal. A complaint had been filed with the police in this regard. On December 25 when Christians began stoning a Hindu Jagran Manch rally, violence erupted. They told The Pioneer , January 19, 1999, that the church has imported 500 missionaries in recent years to speed up conversions. They charge that "during the last five years, nearly two dozen idols of Lord Shiva and Hanuman, revered by all tribals, have been desecrated or broken. The ancient beliefs of the tribals have been mocked at openly and every effort has been done to browbeat and harass them into submission." They also accused the missionaries of using "unethical means". They give example of the missionary who came to Sabarmati Ashram carrying a book, Gandhiji's Favourite Bhajans, which was found to contain only Christian Psalms, and not a single Gandhian reference. In fact, the two Gandhians themselves had rebuffed conversion overtures from missionaries, after which the missionaries tried to forcibly evict them from their office in the Missionpada area of Ahwa.

Bombay Times, May 1, 1997 reported that in Dharavi, Christian henchmen of Jesuit missionaries had assualted one woman, and stabbed her nephew because they refused conversion. An FIR had been filed with the police.

The Eastern Age (The Asian Age) April 25, 2000, reported that a school for homeless tribal girls is on the verge of closing because its Christian backer had denied it funds. The founder of the school Swami Rameswarananda claims Mr Heinz Burtsch, a Swiss national who was the major contributor, got angry after being denied permission to convert 45 tribal girls to Christianity. Swamiji also alleges that local Christians too have stopped helping. Classes in the school have now been suspended.

The latest news of Christian shenanigans is that of a prison official. The jail superintendent of Pondicherry prison, P. David had long been accused of allowing Christian missionaries entry into jails and spreading their propaganda violating regulations. There had been frequent allegations that he is in the habit of forcibly converting prisoners and that Christian prisoners were given more favours. Though the authorities had long been aware of these allegations they hesitated to move against him since they did not want to be branded Hindu fascists. However when six prisoners went on hunger strike they were forced to intervene officially. The six had filed a formal complaint that David tortured them regularly after they refused to convert to Christianity. There is also another allegation against David --- that he had allowed a lifer to jump parole and that the criminal is now running a Christian NGO in another state. This Christian is twice guilty: he had violated the separation of Church and State which he as a government official was sworn to uphold, and he abused his authority . Hopefully even fanatic Christians will agree that he deserves to be punished no matter if he was doing the Lord's Work. (www.hindustantimes.com/nonfram/010402/detNAT14.asp )

The sadism of missionaries extend even to the children, on the grounds that physical well-being is nothing compared to spiritual welfare. Parents of nine Untouchable and Other Backward Caste school-going children aged between seven and 10 have registered a case with the police in Rajgarh against a priest, Father Abraham, on the charge of repeatedly assaulting their wards and denying them meals following their refusal to convert to the Christian faith. According to one child the Father would put the the holy rest-day of Sundays to good use by beating him with a cane. He was told that the beatings would stop only if he converted. This continued until the child overcame his fear and told his parents. The other children said the priest was in the habit of caning and slapping them. He told them that the beatings would stop and they would get lovely things to eat if they accepted Jesus as their saviour and reject Hanuman. Such indeed are the calibre of missionaries who have come to save souls and teach Hindus the mercy of Christian God! But naturally the politically correct media cannot be bothered with such things.



SOME MORE OBSERVATIONS

The problems with Christians are confined to Northeast and Northern India where Baptist and Roman Catholic missionaries are most active. It is they who shout of being oppressed by the heathens most. But India is also home to Protestant groups like Methodists,Greek Orthodox Church, Syrian Church, Independant Jacobites,Armenian Church, a sprinkling of Nestorians, Malabar Catholic church, Malankar Catholic Church (not to be confused with Roman/Latin Catholic Church of Europe) and other Churches. There have been no conflicts with these Eastern Churches, The Metropolitan of the Jacobite Syrian Orthodox Church, Joseph Mar Gregorios asserted that he did not believe in such stories of systematic persecution. The Catholic church had in a rage accused the Syrian church of being a fringe Church of no importance. This is undoubtedly due to frustration. The Syrian Church has about 3.5 million members in India; nor is it impressed by the RC's claim to be founded by ST. Peter, since they claim to be founded by St. Thomas the apostle and therefore can claim equality of lineage. Since the Catholic Church couldnot accuse the Metropolitan of being a government stooge or closet Hindu, it can only throw childish tantrums. (Historical note: one of the first actions of RC Church after arriving in India was to set up Inquisition and start torturing Syrian Christians to make them acknowledge Papal supremacy; and a few Jews thrown in for fun). Also, in South India where most of Indian Christians live, there had not been any reports of conflicts. There Christians keep to the practices of their Hindu forefathers and many go to the temples to make offerings to Hindu gods. Moreover, in spite of conflicts and underhanded means, many of the earlier Christian missionaries did some good with their formula of "soup, soap, soul" and educational institutions. It is the new aggressive missionaries who are responsible for the tensions.

The reason for such ferocious campaigns seem to be because of shrinking marketshare world-wide.In Europe and America, as society becomes more progressive and liberal people are moving away from organized Churches. Their power shrinks day by day. The Islamic countires are forbidden to them on pain of death and imprisonment. China does not allow them to proleteryze. Therefore they must turn to India to assure their own seats in Heaven. Who knows, if they did not manage to fill their quota, in heaven they might be given silver harps while others are playing on golden ones!

Missionaries deliberately create tensions. They tell their converts not to participate in social and religious functions of their tribe, to violate taboos, to break off ties with relatives. There are stories that new converts actually refuse to support their aged parents and even throw them out of the house if the latter does not convert. In particular, there have been several complaints about ploughing of land during prohibited periods, in Eastern India. The belief is that once a year earth menstruates and so cannot be ploughed.for some days. However the missionaries encourage the converts to deliberately violate such cherished customs. The aim is to produce, as Mr. Shourie points out, two-fold effect. One is to make the convert committ psychological violence on his old self so as to cement his allegiance to the new. The other is to enrage the community so that they would become his enemy; thus even if he later wishes to go back he cannot and therefore is forced to cling to his new brotherhood even more firmly.

One favourite way to convert illiterate tribals is to persuade them that Christ has the power to cure them.In the Staines case, Witness 8, Chaitanya Murmu, a pastor declared that in year 1980, he had a serious attack of fever and obtained medicines from the government dispensary. His fever was not cured in spite of taking medicines. While in a dying condition, his wife called five members of the Christian community who prayed for his betterment. Thereafter he continued to take same medicines and was cured. And hence, started believing in Christianity. Apprently, Staines did not bother to inform him that the medicines that he continued to take, might have contributed to his cure! Even more significantly, in poor tribal areas, many converts asserted that when they fell ill the priests/nuns offered them white powder and drinks as Jesus's prasad; when they were cured by taking them they realized that Christ's power is greater than local gods' and so converted. According to more sophisticated people who have seen these things, they are actually medicines like Crocin etc. If this is not fraud then what is? Yet we are to believe in the purity and truthfulness of evangelists!

However, it is to be noted that Christianity also occasionally loses its flock because it cannot deliver. Witness 45, Manika Gagrai, speaks about this. He was suffering from fever and converted to Christianity so that he could be cured. However his health worsened and he developed tuberculosis and blood pressure. As none of the Christians helped him and since he was not cured, he re-converted to Hinduism

Another nun projected as a saint is Mother Teresa. She had been given millions to do social work. Yet what did she actually do? Her hospitals are highly unhygienic, according to Dr. Robin Cox Editor of "Lancet". Mary Loudon, another English investigator found patients sleeping on the floor as many as 60 in a single room. She saw needles being used and reused after washing in tap water. Patients in need of simple surgery were left to die instead of being sent to other hospitals in Calcutta. Even health workers could not escape infection. Anne Shebba in her book, "Mother Teresa Beyond the Image", points out that several of the nurses caught TB and possibly AIDS. In all these, "the single remedy offered to the inmates regardless of their condition is prayer". However, apparently when saints themselves fall ill, mere prayers are insufficient. They need treatment. Mother Teresa therefore frequently got herself treated at Massachusetts General in Boston. When she was unable to travel, she was treated by specialists at the prestigious R. K. Birla Heart Research Centre, Calcutta, which is beyond the reach of many middle class Bengalis. So at least we now know what happend to some of the money she accepted! Nor is her hands clean when it comes to taking money. One Keating, according to the Californian Deputy District Attorney, who prosecuted him, stole more than 200 million dollars from investors. It was this man who gave more then a million dollars to Mother Teresa when his case was tried. She appealed to the Judge asking him to show clemency towards Keating because he had always been kind and generous to God's poor. She prayed to the Judge to "look into his heart and do what Jesus would have done in that circumstance." Learning of this appeal, The Deputy District Attorney wrote back that Jesus would have returned the stolen money. However the 'saint' could not return donations so lovingly given! For her the poor were nothing but souls to be added to her tally. Nevertheless, Mother Teresa thanks to advertising is considered to be a saint. Compare this with another nun, working in the same province as Mother Teresa. She also died recently but there was no hoopla about her funeral. No one had ever heard of her name and she hardly had much money from outside. She sought no publicity. Yet, she was able to get more done because she was genuinely interested in social service than in conversion.Of course it also meant that the Papacy was not interested in projecting her as their 'face'.

There is another reason why the Christian Churches have adopted this stance of being unjustly persecuted. Hindu organizations have finally woken up to the fact that many poor people convert because of material benefits. Therefore organizations like RSS and its associated groups have established schools, hospitals, welfare groups to set up wells, anti-drinking leagues etc. The advantage of this to tribals and untouchables is that they get the same benefits as converts get without having to give up their old ways and come into conflict with their neighbours.They have also offered money to new converts and old Christians to reconvert back into Hinduism, and succeeded in winning away Christians. Also in a brilliant stroke (which frankly surprises me to think they can be so clever), people belonging to traditionally untouchable castes and tribes have been appointed to posts like Treasurer and Chairman, and apparently in some regions the entire administrative machinery of the organizations have been handed over to them. The tribals and lower castes in such places --- prime targets of the evangelists --- therefore regard these Hindu organizations as theirs.

All this had brought tribals and mainstream Hindu society much closer. In South Bihar 600 tribals recently became Hindus. In a peculiar amalgam of tribal and Hindu practices, the animist priests of their tribe smeared the blood of white cocks (and I sincerely hope detractors would not see whiff of racism in viewing white cocks as sacred while non-white cocks are not) on them and then they took a dip in Ganges.

The missionaries have complained about the new laws restricting conversion passed by the Government. However it says that conversion should not be carried out by "force, fraud and allurement". Since these are the three tactics they employ no wonder they call it an intolerable hindrance to their right to propagate their religion!

At least one Indian Christian website actually labels itself secular! It promotes Christianity, it advertises about the Churches in India and asks the visitor to sponser a parish. Yet its name is Secular Citizen! A Christian can be a secular citizen, but a website involved in promoting a religion has no business calling itself secular. This is another example of how the word secularism has been perverted in Indian political parlance. This website can get away with such a name merely because it is a minority religion, but no one espousing hindutva ideology would ever be allowed to call oneself secular. www.secularcitizen.com

However the partiality shown by English Press towards Christian complaints,and its muted reporting of missionary misdeeds in the name of secularism has one bad effect. Ordinary middle-class people, who form their reading public, regard them as biased. The Hindu organizations has great success in persuading the ordinary Hindus that the English Press are anti-hindu. They point out, quite correctly, that the newspapers are quick to blame the organizations, but when the reports are proved to be false they never retract their accusations nor apologize. Consequently, whatever they now report about these organizations --- even if true --- is regarded with hostility and skepticism.

What can be concluded is that Christian evangelists have a very slick propaganda machine, while Hindus are inept in media warfare. Otherwise the missionary myth would have been exploded long ago. Also, Hindu organizations are hampered by lack of knowledge of good English. Consequently, the international media relies completely on English press in India and so projects the images the latter wishes to project. But the English media is not India --- it is only a small part of India! If Hindus overcome these barriers, there will be a much more positive image of Hinduism in International press.

[CRITICAL Singh]

Christians attacked in south India

By Omer Farooq in Hyderabad
At least 30 people have been injured in a bomb explosion during a Christian religious meeting in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh.

The incident comes amid reports of renewed attacks on Christians in different parts of the country.

The explosion took place at a religious meeting in Machlipatnam town, 330km east of Hyderabad.

Nearly 15,000 Christians had gathered as part of a four-day festival.

Police officials who rushed to the scene of the blast said that despite being a crude device, the explosion was so powerful that it had left a large crater.

The district superintendent of police, CV Anand, said several people were injured in a stampede that followed the blast.

Police sources said that five suspects had been detained for questioning.

Under attack

This is the first time that a religious congregation has come under attack in Andhra Pradesh.

The President of the Baptist Churches Association of India, Vijay Kumar, said the incident was similar to other attacks on Christians in different parts of the country.

Various Christian groups have alleged that the community has been targeted by Hindu hardliners, who have been encouraged by the presence of the Hindu nationalist BJP-led government in Delhi.

Such attacks began when the party took power in its previous term and continue unabated, they say.

In one of the worst attacks, an Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two sons were burnt to death by a mob in Orissa more than a year ago.

[CRITICAL Singh]

Hindutva attacks against the Christian minority in India
An index (1964-1998)

This index of attacks by the Hindu fundamentalist forces on the Christian minority community in India since 1964 reveals the startling frequency with which the attacks have suddenly increased since the assumption of power by the Hindu right wing party Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) nine months ago. The number of violent incidents between 1964 and 1997 is 53, which is quite marginal by Indian standards, but in the space of one single calendar year of 1998 more than 90 violent attacks have taken place in states as far apart as Gujarat and Karnataka, Haryana and Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, and Uttar Pradesh. The pattern of orchestrated violence by the organisations and outfits related to RSS is reminiscent of the large scale acts of sustained and continuing violence by the same forces against Muslims during and after the campaign for the demolition of Babri Masjid and the 1984 violence against Sikhs. The dedication with which the the militant wing of Hindu fascism—often called hardliners—is pursuing its goals is only matched by the studied innocence with which their political patrons in the ruling BJP are professing their ignorance of these incidents (the list includes the saffron Home Minister LK Advani) and denying any link with these.

The index has been circulated by Mr. John Dayal on behalf of the United Christian Forum for Human Rights. Further details can be obtained from there (Fax: 91-11- 3715146; e-mail: johndial@del2.vsnl.net.in)


INCIDENTS OF VIOLENCE AGAINST THE
CHRISTIAN COMMUNITY IN INDIA


The following is a list--still not comprehensive--of incidents of violence reported against the Christian community in India in the recent years, in particular, during 1997-98. All care has been taken to ensure the authenticity of the data. Wherever possible, the actual FIRs and complaints and reports of the National Minorities Commission and other government organizations have been used in this list. A more comprehensive list, with details of the incidents and the course of the investigations is currently under preparation. It is called the Unofficial White Paper because the Governments have so far refused to make public a detailed list of incidents of violence against the minorities, and particularly against the Christian community, and also the action taken by the police, district, state and central authorities on such complaints.


INCIDENTS OF VIOLENCE FROM 1964 TO DECEMBER 1998


EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

1964 TO 1996 Violent incidents against Christians: 38

1997 violent incidents against Christians: 15

1998 violent incidents against Christians: 90

Number of cases in State of Gujarat in 1998: 15

Number of churches/chapels destroyed: 11




--------------

Violence From 1964 to December 1996


1964

Bihar Father A. Goveas killed in Jehanabad.


1964

Bihar Fr. Herman Rasschaert killed in Kutungia (Simdega).



1978

Bihar Fr. Martinseck killed in Mokameh.


1978

Bihar Sr. Mukti Manhandled in Sasaram.



1980

Bihar Fr. Mathew Mannaparambil killed in Sasaram.


1980

Bihar Fr. Martin Mezhkunal killed in Gulni.



1987

Uttar Pradesh Fr. Adeoldalus killed in Sardana, Meerut.


1987

Bihar Fr. Thomas Chakkalackal kidnapped in West Champaran



1990

Manipur Fr. Mathew killed in Imphal.


1990

Maharastra Sr. Sylvia killed in Mumbai.


1990

Maharastra Sr. Priya killed in Mumbai.


1990

Uttar Pradesh Three nuns beaten and two raped in Gajraula.



1991

Manipur Fr. P. X. Francis manhandled



1992

M. P. A priest manhandled in Ujjain.


1992

M. P. Nuns manhandled in Ujjain.



1992

Uttar Pradesh Church building razed by a mob, worshippers and children beaten up in village Pahenia of Khatima Tehsil in Udham Singh Nagar district.


1992

Uttar Pradesh Christians in Pahenia, Khatima assaulted and brutalized.


1992

Uttar Pradesh Pastor Das murdered in Pahenia, Khatima.


1992

Punjab Fr. Angelus Anthony manhandled in Amloh, Fatehgarh Sahib.


1992

Punjab Nine nuns manhandled in Amritsar.



1993

Punjab Sr. Maria manhandled in Amloh, Fatehgarh Sahib.


1993

Punjab Sr. Almy killed in Amloh, Fatehgarh Sahib.


1993

Maharashtra Fr. Louis Moolaveetil killed in Nagpur.



1994

Bihar Fr. Lawrence Kujur killed in Gumla.


1994

Bihar Fr. Joseph Dungdung. killed in Gumla.


1994

Bihar Br. Anup Induvar killed in Gumla.


1994

Kerala Sr. Abhaya killed in Kottayam.



1995

Uttar Pradesh Nuns manhandled in Mariamnagar, Ghaziabad.


1995

Bihar Two priests killed in Gumla.


1995

West Bengal One priest killed in Raiganj.


1995

Madhya Pradesh Sr. Rani Maria killed in Indore.


1995

Uttar Pradesh Sr. Stanislaus killed in Suryanagar.


1995

Uttar Pradesh Sr. Effy manhandled in Suryanagar


1995

Uttar Pradesh Sr. Cecil manhandled in Suryanagar.


1995

Uttar Pradesh Sr. Stella manhandled in Suryanagar


1995

Uttar Pradesh Sr. Angeli manhandled in Suryanagar


1995

Assam Sr. Augustina killed in Assam.



1996

Madhya Pradesh Fr. L. Bridget and Sr. Vridhi Ekka jailed in Ambikapur, Sarguja district, charged with converting tribals.


1996

Assam Sr. Lily shot dead by Bodo militants in St. Joseph's Convent at Bansbari.



1996

Gujarat: Churches were damaged in Dona village



1996

Gujarat: Churches were damaged in Halmodi village




VIOLENCE IN 1 9 9 7

March 20

Uttar Pradesh: Annual Spiritual Convention of the Love of the Cross Team Fellowship interrupted and stopped by the police in Khatima.


July 30

Maharashtra: Shiv Sena corporator Neeta Naik rebukes and threatens principals of six leading Catholic schools for denying admissions to recommendations from Sena men.


September 2

Bihar: Fr. Christudas beaten and paraded naked publicly in Dumka


October 25

Punjab: VHP activists disrupt prayer meetings badly injuring six people in Ludhiana.



Uttar Pradesh: Fr. Devasia manhandled in Khera, Ghaziabad.


October 27

Bihar: Fr. A. T. Thomas killed in Hazaribagh


October 30

Gujarat: Tribal Christian families manhandled by armed miscreants in Ojada.


November

Gujarat: Christian convention at Lal Bahadur Shastri Stadium was disturbed in November 1997 when during the evening session, alleged VHP volunteers came up to the stage and snatched the mike, while the preacher was singing devotional songs. They shouted Hindu slogans through the mike. Cables were cut and a Matador van parked on the ground was damaged


November

Rajasthan: Christian houses attacked repeatedly in Banswara district.
VHP activists threaten the Christian to leave this district within 3 years.


November 13

Gujarat: Umerpada village. 24 Christians were harassed by the police inspector G. M. Damor of Dangs Police Station on November 13, 1997 on a false complaint allegedly made by a local VHP activist Kalu Chhibadia of Ghadavi village.


November 22

Manipur: The principal of Don Bosco School, Fr. Jose Nedumattathil murdered in Maran.


November 25

Gujarat: In Kudkas village, on November 25 1997, evangelist Premchand was going home on a cycle at 11 p.m. after finishing a prayer meeting when he was beaten by the police Patel.


December

Gujarat: The members of the Varanasi Kalyan Parishad attack the tribal Christians in Ahwa Dangs District.


December 26

Gujarat: Dagadpada village: On December 26 1997, a day after Christmas, adivasis celebrating the festival were stoned and harassed the entire night by CPI Damor and others and were put in jail for no reason at the height of their festival celebrations.


December 25

Gujarat: Pipalwada, Vyara taluka, Surat district: one group of 2,000 people of Hindu fundamentalists came to demolish churches and disrupt the Christmas celebrations, arranged in the churches there. Series of attacks on Christian tribals allegedly by Vanvasi Kalyan Parished.



VIOLENCE IN 1998

January

Bihar: Fr. William Topno seriously injured as the result of an attack on him in Bonsgaon.


January

Maharastra: Paul Nagendran and his team were beaten up in Hingoli. Nagendran lies paralysed.


February 2

A group of Christians in Ayyampalayam in Erode district were brutally attacked.


February

Haryana: A graveyard belonging to the Christian community was captured illegally and a grave desecrated and destroyed in Hansi.


February 14

Maharastra: A hospital run by the Indian Catholic Association ransacked by the RSS activists in Latur.


February

Gujarat: Divan Tembrum village. The heads of the village, police Patel Ramesh Avasu and Suresh Mahru, rushed to the prayer hall while prayers were taking place at 8 p.m. The Christians were beaten up with police sticks. A complaint was made to the police but no action has been taken.


February

Tamil Nadu: Bethany Fellowship Church was destroyed in Erode


March 2

Gujarat: Padra, Baroda District. A group of people were distributing handbills concerning an oncoming Christian meeting scheduled to be held on Baroda polo grounds during 4th to 7th March, 1998. VHP-Bajrang Dal, Durga Vahini young men came out in large numbers and started severely beating the group, which included a few foreign tourists. One woman, who was pregnant, was kicked with boots. Another woman's frock was torn. They were not only severely beaten but also forced them to chant the names of Hindu gods. Later the police came on the scene and took the victims to the Padra police station and detained them there for a long time.


March 4

Gujarat: Vadodara (Baroda), Attack in the Baroda polo ground on peaceful Christian minority group. Jesus Mahotsav meeting was scheduled to be conducted on the polo ground Baroda, during 4th to 7th March, 1998 with due permissions from the authorities. Necessary arrangements for this meeting were made including erection of a dais for the speakers and another pulpit for the singing team. A group of about 300 young volunteers allegedly of the VHP-Bajrang Dal descended on the stage and on the polo ground, where a large audience was patiently waiting for viewing the listening the programme.. The group began running among the audience, blowing whistles and bursting fire crackers, thereby creating great commotion and panic among the entire gathering. They resorted to severely and mercilessly beating the audience. On an earlier day they tried to set the stage on fire, when it was being erected. Some people in the audience received such severe injuries including fractured hands and head injuries. A Maruti 800 car (No GJ-6-AA 308) belonging to one of the participants was burnt. The trouble makers also destroyed musical instruments, the loss of which is estimated to be around Rs 2 lakh. The buses engaged for transporting the participants in the meeting were prevented from taking off. The stranded participants using public transport at the bus stands were singled out and were mercilessly beaten.


March 12

Tamil Nadu: M. Anandan of Kilapalaur village in Thirunelveli District was assaulted.


March 13

Maharastra: Pilgrims attacked by some religious fanatics in Khanvel.


March 25

Bihar: Luke Putaniyil of Missionaries of Charity murdered in Noeada, a place about 120kms. from Patna..


April

Maharashtra: A group of Christians in Brahamini Village in Nagpur District were assaulted and have been harassed over the last four months.


April 3

Gujarat: A Christian convention organized in the polo ground was attacked by the members of the

VHP and Bajrang Dal in Baroda.


April

A.P.: VHP activists threaten to destroy the Gibson Central Baptist Church in Kurnool.


April 9

Tamil Nadu: Bro. Paul Raj of Chidambarpur village in Tenkasi Tehsil was assaulted by the village headman.



April 11

Gujarat: Palanpur. Attack on Christian gathering during the Passion week on 11th April, 1998:. The united meeting of Christian communities of Palanpur at the Municipal hall during the passion week (Crucifixion of Jesus Christ) on 10,11 & 12th April, 1998 : was attacked on 11 April in the afternoon around 4 pm when some 30-35 members allegedly of the VHP/Bajrang Dal forcibly entered the Municipal hall from behind the climbing the compound wall, armed with hockey sticks, cricket bats, iron rods, etc. They destroyed the food being prepared for about 250 guests, damaged vessels, entered the next room where some women and children were resting, and beat them. They damaged a Tata bus of the mission which was parked on the ground near the hall. The damage is estimated at Rs 35,000/-.


April 16

Gujarat: NARODA (Ahmedabad). Church under construction razed to the ground by the Gram Panchayat The St Antony's Church, Prayer hall, Community hall and Medical Centre which were under different stages of construction, near the Murlidhar society in Naroda (Ahmedabad suburb) were destroyed in the presence of a large and armed gathering. There are many religious and other structures which are illegally constructed, in the Naroda Gram Panchayat area and AUDA area, and even in the Capital city of Gandhinagar, but only the Christian buildings were targeted.



Naroda: St. Mary's School, run by the Jacobites, was vandalized on the pretext that Sanskrit was not taught there. Among other religious articles, a statue of the Virgin Mary was badly damaged


May 5

Kerala: "Little Flower Church" attacked by armed miscreants in

Koshippily.


May 11

Maharashtra: Shiv Sena activists attacked Father Octavio Nevis with iron rods in Ambernath.


May 15

Bihar: Brother Modestus Tirkey, headmaster of a Catholic school attacked in Ranchi.


May 18

Gujarat: Miscreants attacked and stoned the jeep of a Catholic priest Xavier Amalraj at Pipalvada near Zankhvav breaking the windshield and injuring one of the occupants of the jeep.


June 1

Maharastra: Christians beaten and 6 houses destroyed.


June 12

Gujarat: Prayer hall was broken into and robbed in Dhavlidod.



June 16

Maharastra: Christians of Friends Missionary Prayer Band were beaten by Sarpanch and their houses destroyed.


June 16

Maharastra: St. Savariyar Church at Srilankapada, Malad in Mumbai was demolished by the Municipal Corporation.


June 17

Gujarat: The principal of St Xaviers's School, Deputy Collector with the express orders of the Collector, Surat, and with police came to search and confiscate records of admissions and students who had applied. Another school, Lourdes Convent, was also humiliated with such orders-to-search-and-confiscate. The principal complained that the district education officer too was constantly harassing with threats of derecognition and cutting off of grants. The principal alleged that the collector's office was involved in the attempt to implicate the two schools.


June 21

Gujarat: Singana village in Dangs Prayer hall burnt


June 26

Gujarat: Prayer hall burnt at 8:30 p.m. in Lahan Kadmad village in Dangs District.


June 29

Gujarat: Prayer hall in Umarpada attacked but assailants failed to set it on fire.


July 7

Gujarat: Churches were damaged in Dhavlijod village



July 8

Gujarat: Kapadwanj, Nadiad district (old Kheda district) : The body of Samuel Christian, a Methodist Christian, was exhumed allegedly by VHP activists from the cemetery at Kapadvanj and dumped near the Methodist church. A group of Vaghris, an OBC community, had encroached on the cemetery-land while the police and the administration have been allegedly not taking prompt action.


July 11

Maharashtra: Two Christian workers beaten in Bhind.


July 12

Gujarat: Christians gathered for Sunday worship when village Patel Baburao Gavit allegedly rushed in brandishing a bottle and threatened the Christians. The same day, the church lock was broken, and the Cross removed from the prayer hall in Dhavalidod.


July 16

Gujarat: Zankhav village of Mangrol taluka, Surat District: The Shantiniketan High School, run by the Jesuit priests of the Loyola Education Trust, was broken into and stoned on July 16. A tractor was driven into the premises and the playground for children was ploughed. Damage to the tune of Rs. 15,000 was caused. The land in question was the property of the late Shantilal Shah who handed it over to the Loyola Education Trust to build a school in 1984. The Fathers have been running the school which caters to the tribal students of neighbouring villages and the residents of Zankhav town (out of the 720 students enrolled, 152 are Christians and the rest belong to other religions). The "Gujarat Samachar" and the "Sandesh" dailies, had been systematically printing inflammatory and vicious articles in Gujarati that the priests were forcibly converting tribals to Christianity and that only Christian children were being admitted into the school. Two truck-loads of hooligans from the nearby Wadi village were let loose in Zankhvav market the next day . In the ensuing violence, the parents of three students were arrested. Rather than take punitive measures against the evil-doers, the Gujarat State Government (BJP), seems to be a tacit endorser of the destructive activities that have been carried out and are being carried out to create fear among the tribals and to paralyse the good work done by Christian groups.


July 17

Karnataka: Bajrang Dal conducts simultaneous raids all over Karnataka, forcing their way into Christian schools and Convents. Cluny convent, Bangalore; the Sacred Heart Convent, Keshwapur, Hubli; the St. Mary's Convent School, Christ the King Convent School, Nirmala Convent School, St. Joseph's Convent School and Carmel Convent School, all in Mysore; the St. Joseph's Convent School and St. John's Convent School in Mandya and the St. Joseph's Girl's High School in Bellary reported such raids.


July 17

Karnataka:. Bajrang Dal conducts simultaneous raids all over Karnataka, forcing their way into Christian schools and Convents



July 17

Karnataka, Cluny Convent in Bangalore attacked by Bajrang Dal activists



July 17

Karnataka, Sacred Heart Convent in Hubli attacked by Bajrang Dal activists.



July 17

Karnataka, St. Mary's Convent school in Mysore attacked by the Bajrang Dal activists.



July 17

Karnataka, Christ the King convent attacked in Mysore by Bajrang Dal activists.



July 17

Karnataka, Nirmala Convent in Mysore attacked by Bajrang Dal activists.



July 17

Karnataka, St. Joseph's Convent School in Mysore attacked by Bajrang Dal.



July 17

Karnataka, Carmel Convent in Mysore attacked by Bajrang Dal activists



July 17

Karnataka, St. Joseph's Convent in Mandya attacked by Bajrang Dal activists.



July 17

Karnataka, St. John's Convent in Mandya attacked by Bajrang Dal.



July 17

Karnataka, St. Joseph's Girl's school in Bellary attacked by Bajrang Dal activists.



July 17

Bajrang Dal activists forced their way into St. Mary's Convent School while the Assembly was on and spat on the face of a nun who protested.



July

Karnataka: Bajrang Dal activists forced their way into St. Mary's Convent School while the Assembly was on and spat on the face of a nun who protested.


July 18

Gujarat: In Bhapkal Village in Dangs District, a prayer hall was burnt and Christians harassed allegedly by one Bansha Bapu Pawar of the same village.


July 18

Tamil Nadu: Assemblies of God's church believers and workers beaten and materials looted in Anaaipalayam.


July 18

Gujarat: In Bhapkal Village in Dangs District, a prayer hall was burnt and Christians harassed allegedly by one Bansha Bapu Pawar of the same village.



July 18

Tamil Nadu: Assemblies of God's church believers and workers beaten and materials looted in Anaaipalayam.



July 20

Gujarat, Rajkot: Copies of the Holy Bible (New Testament) were burnt by alleged VHP and Bajrang Dal activists at the I.P. Mission School, Rajkot. The miscreants claimed that the school authorities, in connivance with the Gideon Society, were trying to forcibly convert the children into Christianity because on the last page of the New Testament, readers were expected to sign a note stating that they had accepted Jesus Christ as their Saviour.



July 20

Gujarat: Rajkot: Copies of the Holy Bible (New Testament) were burnt by alleged VHP and Bajrang Dal activists at the I.P. Mission School, Rajkot. The miscreants claimed that the school authorities, in connivance with the Gideon Society, were trying to forcibly convert the children into Christianity because on the last page of the New Testament, readers were expected to sign a note stating that they had accepted Jesus Christ as their Saviour.


July 23

Gujarat, Borkhal Village: revenue Thallathi (official) Kalu Mana Gaikwad allegedly connived with local Hindu activists and late at night attacked and injured Adivasis who were at prayer in the prayer hall. The adivasis were beaten up, and later false cases filed against them.



July 23

Gujarat: Borkhal Village: revenue Thallathi (official) Kalu Mana Gaikwad allegedly connived with local Hindu activists and late at night attacked and injured Adivasis who were at prayer in the prayer hall. The adivasis were beaten up, and later false cases filed against them.


July 23

New Delhi: Delhi Government attempts to close down churches because the serving of sacramental wine violates liquor laws.


July 23

New Delhi, Delhi Government attempts to close down churches because the serving of sacramental wine violates liquor laws.



July 24

Gujarat In Isar, a small village 10 kms. from Zankhav, where also the Catholic Priests are working, a group of RSS and Bajrang Dal activists attacked the Christians and terrorised them. They added insult to injury by filing a case against the Christians themselves resulting in the arrest of 14 Christians.



July 24

Gujarat: In Isar, a small village 10 kms. from Zankhav, where also the Catholic Priests are working, a group of RSS and Bajrang Dal activists attacked the Christians and terrorised them. They added insult to injury by filing a case against the Christians themselves resulting in the arrest of 14 Christians.


July 25

Gujarat, Hindu activists exhumed a buried body of a Christian in Gandhinagar



July 25

Gujarat: Hindu activists exhumed a buried body of a Christian in Gandhinagar.


July 27

Gujarat, Darapada village,, Christian believer Ulus Ramji Pawar was attacked and killed allegedly by one Dinesh Nana Bhoye of Darpada and other, and a false complaint lodged against the murdered man



July 27

Gujarat: Darapada village,, Christian believer Ulus Ramji Pawar was attacked and killed allegedly by one Dinesh Nana Bhoye of Darpada and other, and a false complaint lodged against the murdered man.


August 9

Gujarat, Church demolished by RSS people in Ahmedabad.



August 9

Gujarat: Church demolished by RSS people in Ahmedabad.


August 13

Manipur, Two Catholic priests manhandled by an Army Colonel.



August 13

Manipur: Two Catholic priests manhandled by an Army Colonel.


August 15

U.P.: O.M. workers distributing tracts in Robertsganj were brutally assaulted by youth belonging to the Bajrang Dal, Shiv Sena, and VHP.


August 15

Uttar Pradesh, O.M. workers distributing tracts in Robertsganj were brutally assaulted by youth belonging to the Bajrang Dal, Shiv Sena, and VHP.



August 25

West Bengal: Bikashdas of MCI assaulted by Trinamool MP Sudip Bandhpadhyay in Calcutta


August 25

West Bengal, Bikashdas of MCI assaulted by Trinamool MP Sudip Bandhpadhyay in Calcutta



August 31

Bihar, A Catholic church demolished in Kobatoli village in Gumla District.



August 31

Bihar: A Catholic church demolished in Kobatoli village in Gumla District.


September 2

Uttar Pradesh: Activists of Hindu Jagran Manch, Bajrang Dal and Rana Tharu Parishad broke into the Union Church in Amaun, two kilometers east of Khatima, in Udham Singh Nagar District. They put up an idol of Shiva in the church and worshipped it for about two hours.



September 23

M. P.: Father Edward Sarel attacked by a crowd led by BJP MLA Shailendra Pradhan in Jhamli, about 10 kms from Jhabua.


September 23

U. P. : Nuns in a Clarist Convent were attacked in Bhagpat.


September 23

M.P.: A Convent near Jhabua was broken into by armed miscreants, the Chapel disecrated and four nuns raped.


September 23

Madhya Pradesh, Father Edward Sarel attacked by a crowd led by BJP MLA Shailendra Pradhan in Jhamli, about 10 kms from Jhabua.



September 23

Uttar Pradesh, Nuns in a Clarist Convent were attacked in Bhagpat



September 25

Madhya Pradesh, Armed miscreants break into a Convent in Jhabua, desecrate the Chapel and brutally raped four nuns


September 26

Uttar Pradesh: The subdivisional magistrate, Mr. Yadav, along with the Police Station Officer, Mr. R. D. Rai and Sub-inspectors Mr. Girija Singh and Mr. Shri Ram Mishra along with seven policemen forced their way into the Jiwan Jyoti Christian Hospital Campus in Robertsganj. They threatened a group of about 32 seekers and misbehaved with the medical superintendent, Dr. (Mrs.) Monica Benjamin



September 26

U.P.: The subdivisional magistrate, Mr. Yadav, along with the Police Station Officer, Mr. R. D. Rai and Sub-inspectors Mr. Girija Singh and Mr. Shri Ram Mishra along with seven policemen forced their way into the Jiwan Jyoti Christian Hospital Campus in Robertsganj. They threatened a group of about 32 seekers and misbehaved with the medical superintendent, Dr. (Mrs.) Monica Benjamin.


September 26

New Delhi:. A Statue of St. Bernard was hacked and thrown out of the compound of Jesus and Mary College in New Delhi.



September 26

U.P.: Activists of Hindu Jagran Manch, Bajrang Dal and Rana Tharu Parishad broke into the Union Church in Amaun, two kilometers east of Khatima, in Udham Singh Nagar District. They put up an idol of Shiva in the church and worshipped it for about two hours.


September 26

New Delhi: A Statue of St. Bernard was hacked and thrown out of the compound of Jesus and Mary College in New Delhi.


September 30

Delhi: New. Acharya Giriraj Kishor, the Secretary-General of the VHP, warned Christian missionaries to leave India.



September 30

New Delhi: Acharya Giriraj Kishor, the Secretary-General of the VHP, warned Christian missionaries to leave India.



October 7

Uttar Pradesh : Christy Jyoti Convent Public School threatened by villagers of Baghpat and Meerut Districts.



October 7

U.P. : Christy Jyoti Convent Public School threatened by villagers of Baghpat and Meerut Districts.


October 9

Gujarat: Home Minister of Gujarat, Mr. Haren Pandya threatens evangelist Roger Houstma of legal action if he continues with his preaching and healing meetings in Gandhinagar.



October 9

Gujarat: Home Minister of Gujarat, Mr. Haren Pandya threatens evangelist Roger Houstma of legal action if he continues with his preaching and healing meetings in Gandhinagar.


October 10

Gujarat: Mr. Roger Houstma's meetings attacked in Rajkot.



October 10

Gujarat: Mr. Roger Houstma's meetings attacked in Rajkot.


October 16

Maharashtra: Armed miscreants attacked a gathering of men, women and children at Kumbale village, Nasik and the prayer house was demolished.



October 30

Gujarat: Attack on delegates attending the National Christian Conference in Baroda. Delegates beaten up brutally by belts, chains, and sticks.



October 30

Gujarat: Attack on delegates attending the National Christian Conference in Baroda. Delegates beaten up brutally by belts, chains, and sticks.


November 4

Gujarat: In village Borigautha near vaghai in Dangs district, miscreatns tried to burn down a chapel. The miscreants also set fire to some structures in the village and looted the people.



November 4

Gujarat: Churches were damaged in Nirgudmal village



November 5

Gujarat: Churches were burnt in Gadhavi village



November 9

Haryana: A Catholic convent was broken into in Jhajjar District in Kheda Khummar Village and two nuns, Sr. Daisy and Sr. Litsy were assaulted and asked to leave the place.



November 9

Haryana: A Catholic convent was broken into in Jhajjar District in Kheda Khummar Village and two nuns, Sr. Daisy and Sr. Litsy were assaulted and asked to leave the place.


November 11

Gujarat: In village Borigautha near vaghai in Dangs district, miscreatns tried to burn down a chapel. The miscreants also set fire to some structures in the village and looted the people.


November 11

(Gujarat) : In Daghunia village near the Saputara road in Dangs district, several Christian tribals were beaten up including a sickly lady. Several families were taken to Unai in forced to bathe in the hot springs as a kind of `purification.' The woman and her husband were again terrorised and assaulted. The elected sarpanch sided with the miscreatns and has now decreed that the Christians should not draw water from the village well, and should not send thier cattle with the animals of other villagers to the jungles to graze. In another decree, the village Sarpanch had said the Christians would no longer be given work in any government or government aided project.



November 12

Gujarat: Churches were burnt in Kamath village



November

Gujarat: In Daghunia village near the Saputara road in Dangs district, several Christian tribals were beaten up including a sickly lady. Several families were taken to Unai in forced to bathe in the hot springs as a kind of 'purification.' The woman and her husband were again terrorised and assaulted. The elected sarpanch sided with the miscreatns and has now decreed that the Christians should not draw water from the village well, and should not send thier cattle with the animals of other villagers to the jungles to graze. In another decree, the village Sarpanch had said the Christians would no longer be given work in any government or government aided project.



November

Continuing harassment and violence against Christians in Dharampur, South Gujarat:



November

Jamalpadam village: Adivasi Christians of the village were beaten up allegedly by VHP activists.


November

- Pipalyamal village. In complicity between police officer Damor and local VHP activist Gamaj Gavli, Christians have been routinely harassed and threatened.



November

- Jarsol Village; The Gujarat Samachar, against which the Christians have made several complaints, reported, falsely, that Adivasi Christians of the village had slaughtered and eaten a cow. False complaints were filed by the police officer, G. M. Damor, and many Christians were implicated and locked up.



November

Gujarat: Continuing harassment and violence against Christians in Dharampur, South Gujarat.




November

Gujarat: Jamalpadam village: Adivasi Christians of the village were beaten up allegedly by VHP activists.



November

Gujarat: Pipalyamal village. In complicity between police officer Damor and local VHP activist Gamaj Gavli, Christians have been routinely harassed and threatened.



November

Gujarat: Jarsol Village; The Gujarat Samachar, against which the Christians have made several complaints, reported, falsely, that Adivasi Christians of the village had slaughtered and eaten a cow. False complaints were filed by the police officer, G. M. Damor, and many Christians were implicated and locked up.


November 14

Gujarat: Churches were burnt in Lahanchariya village



November 18

Bihar: Mr. James Punnoose attacked by armed miscreants in village Boreya, Ranchi.

[CRITICAL Singh]

Violence Against Christian Minority in India

As violence against the Christian minority escalates in the province of Gujarat in India, the Prime Minister Mr. Atal Behari Vajpayee declares the need for a national debate on forced conversions in India. But what else can be expected of a man who is a member of the fascist organisation called the Rashtrya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) or the National Volunteers Corps. It is the same person who in 1995, writing about the demolition of the historic Babri Mosque in 1992 by people belonging to the RSS, VHP (Vishwa Hindu Parishad) and Bajrang Dal, two sister organisations of the RSS, commented that this (demolition) is a step towards cultural cleansing of minorities!

Twenty two churches were destroyed and burnt in 1998 in one district of Gujarat, 16 of them around Chrismas time, between December 25, 1998 and January 3, 1999. Dozens of other churches have been damaged, people have been killed and injured, including rape and murder of Nuns.

[CRITICAL Singh]

Study of India's Christian Minority Planned
Alexandra Alter, Religion News Service

A government-backed commission in India is planning to conduct the firstdetailed study of the country's Christian minority. Christians accountfor 2.3 percent of India's 1 billion people. More than 80 percent ofIndia's population is Hindu, while 13 percent is Muslim. Jains, Buddhists and Parsees are among the country's other religious minorities. "So far, there has been no proper study or documentation about the Christian community," said V.V. Augustine, the Christian representative on the National Commission for Minorities, which is planning the survey.

The commission hopes that the study will help remove "prejudices and misunderstandings" about the Christian minority and highlight their contributions to the nation, Augustine told a meeting of more than a hundred Christians in New Delhi. But some Christian leaders worry the study will ignore the difficulties Christians face in India, where religious minorities have experienced a resurgence of attacks. Some also worry the government-supported commission may act as an advocate for the ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party rather than pressing the government to address minority concerns. The BJP has been accused of limiting Christians' religious rights through such legislation as the Anti-Conversion Law, a law designed to limit Christian evangelical activity.

http://directionstoorthodoxy.org/mod/news/view.php?article_id=345

[thinklogic]

[CRITICAL Singh]

[CRITICAL Singh]

http://www.washington-report.org/backissues/0399/9903052.html

Hindu Extremists Now Focusing Violence Against India’s Christians
By M.M. Ali

The recent physical attacks on members of the Christian minority and the burning down of scores of churches in the state of Gujarat and other parts of India reflect the gospel of hatred on which the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its religious coalition partners are based. The otherwise staid and respected English language daily Times of India observed that after having targeted the Muslims and the Sikhs for a long time, Hindus have now turned toward the small, unprotected minority of Indian Christians.

BJP’s extensions, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), the Rashtriya Sewak Sangh (RSS) and Bajrang Dal, have openly incited their rank-and-file to demolish all vestiges of Christianity from India. The atmosphere of fear and hatred against Muslims whipped up at the time of the destruction of the Babri mosque in 1992, and against Sikhs in Delhi following the assassination of Indira Gandhi in 1984, now is focused on Indian Christians.

The establishment throughout India of Hindutva–land of the Hindus alone–is the objective of all of the right-wing Hindu religious parties that exist under the BJP umbrella. It is their declared policy to use all means, including violence, to reach that end.

Support for secularism comes only from a modest, educated, urban fringe. Recent events have shown that such voices of sanity are muted and drowned in a rising wave of Hindu fundamentalism that is sweeping India today.

Christians are a mere 26 million in a population of almost a billion, and they are scattered all over the country, particularly in remote villages and tribal areas. They do not constitute a force of any kind, and are traditionally peaceful and friendly people.

India’s dominant Hindu society is laden with class and caste distinctions. A small segment, the Brahmins, remain at the top. A vast majority, the Sudras, form the bottom that traditionally was considered “untouchable.” Through the centuries they have been treated as less than human.

In the past 200 years, some from this bottom tier have converted to Christianity. Hindus today accuse Christian missionaries of forcibly converting Hindus to Christianity. Such charges obscure the truth. It is the level of humanity and tolerance that draws people toward a dogma or a doctrine, just as discrimination and hatred turn them away.

It is being argued that Hindu extremists, after encountering effective resistance from the Sikhs and the Muslims, have turned on a softer target—the Christians. In fact, this is only partially true. No minority is safe in the BJP’s India.

Political analysts attribute the upsurge in anti-Christian ire to the fact that Congress leader Sonia Gandhi, who has recently become politically active in her role as highly respected widow of assassinated Congress leader Rajiv Gandhi, happens to be a Roman Catholic from Italy. The anti-Christian argument is that if the Congress Party returns to power, Christians will receive undue patronage from the government. This charge may instill fear among the uneducated masses, but it does not make any political sense.

By the same token, misgivings are being expressed by some Indians about the motives for awarding the Nobel Peace Prize to the late Mother Teresa and this year’s Nobel Prize for Economics to Amritya Sen, both of whom are Christians. For that matter, one might wonder why current Indian Defense Minister George Fernandez, a Christian, is unable to hold back the BJP goons?

The real issue, however, is that now that a Hindu party has come to power, some Hindu extremists have ambitions of re-converting the Muslims, the Sikhs and the Christians of India to Hinduism. Minorities in India should be braced for more to come under BJP governments, which have little sympathy for the secularism of India.

Prof. M.M. Ali is a consultant and a fellow with The Center for Planning & Policy Studies in the Washington, DC area.

[CRITICAL Singh]

Amnesty finds rights violations throughout India

WASHINGTON, MAY 31. Human rights violations occur throughout India, with socially and economically disadvantaged sections continuing to be particularly vulnerable, the Amnesty International has said in its latest annual report.

Inter-caste, communal, inter-religious and political violence has claimed many lives in several States, including Assam, Bihar, Gujarat, Jammu and Kashmir, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal, the report, released by the executive director of Amnesty International, U.S., Dr. William F. Schulz, said.

``The Government's continuing preoccupation with national security led it to pursue several initiatives for tackling `terrorism' throughout the country, including giving increased powers to a police force which continued to be identified with torture, corruption and other abuses'', Amnesty said.

Though international attention continued to focus on violence against Christian minorities, others including Muslims, Dalits and Adivasis also continued to be victims of ``apparently State-backed violence'' in several areas, the report said. Concerns about discrimination based on religion, particularly directed at Christians, were heightened by statements made by members of certain Hindu groups which appeared to encourage the use of violence, the report said, adding attacks on Christians and Church property also continued.

The report noted that the recommendations made by the Srikrishna Commission of Inquiry into the 1992-93 Mumbai riots remained unimplemented. The Amnesty report said abuses by armed groups, including hostage-taking, torture and deliberate killing of civilians, continued in many parts of India.

Making a special mention of Tripura, the report said hostage- taking, including that of children, continued at an alarming level in the State, where in November it was reported that members of an armed group had tortured a four-year-old hostage.

In Jammu and Kashmir, civilians continued to be targeted for attack, it said.

- PTI

http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/2001/06/01/stories/03010005.htm

[Jessy]

[CRITICAL Singh]

The image of India's future? By Radhika Desai



http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/2002/03/06/stories/2002030600111000.htm



Gujarat has become a byword for casteism and communalism. Violence against lower castes, tribals, Muslims and Christians has become routine over the past two decades, during which an entire generation has grown to maturity.

ONCE AGAIN, Gujarat will take the monstrous distinction of experiencing the worst communal violence in a nationwide campaign of the Sangh Parivar. Indeed, it promises to be a lot worse this time around with a BJP Government in Gandhinagar, the structures of the State, including the police forces, highly communalised, and with a BJP-led Government in power in New Delhi apparently unrestrained by its allies, and certainly pulled by the bloodthirsty forces it has nurtured for so long. The widely publicised image of a young Muslim begging for mercy haunts the mind relentlessly.

Gujarat has become a byword for casteism and communalism. Violence against lower castes, tribals, Muslims and Christians has become routine over the past two decades, during which an entire generation has grown to maturity, ignorant of the civility which Gujarat once boasted.. Expressions of contempt for the lower castes, Muslims, Christians, the poor and the tribals, hitherto beyond the pale of polite conversation, have become the common currency of drawing room conversations of the Gujarati well-to-do. Even the "I'm a liberal secularist, but..." type of qualifiers are dispensed with. As a Gujarati, it is tempting to just hang one's head in grief, shame and silence.

But surely it might be a little more useful to dwell on the underlying structures out of which this savage distinction springs. For, it may well be that this is where the country as a whole is rapidly heading. Gujarat is simply ahead in the form of capitalist development combined with upper and middle caste and class Hindu assertion which has become so widely accepted as the way for India. While the first large scale post-Independence communal riots took place in 1969, it was not until the 1980s that frequently violent political assertion of the upper castes and classes became routine in Gujarati politics. For, the 1970s had been a decade during which this assertion found more peaceful and "respectable" outlets: Gujarat was, after all, the western wing of the politically ambiguous JP movement and elected the country's first Janata Morcha Ministry under Babubhai Jasbhai Patel as the apogee of the non-Congressism of the upper and middle castes and classes which had been gathering force even before Indira Gandhi's populist phase, which they so came to hate, properly began.

The 1980s witnessed an acute class-caste polarisation as some of the worst anti-reservation riots in the country occurred in Gujarat. The OBC/SC/Tribal/Muslim-based (the famous KHAM strategy, remember?) Congress(I) Government under Madhavsinh Solanki, and other Congress(I) Governments which followed, foundered on the impossibility of a Government in contradiction with civil society: political power that did not reflect social and economic power was unsustainable. The upper and middle castes and classes registered their frustrations on the streets. As riots and agitations became the stuff of Gujarati politics, the Sangh Parivar and the BJP made accelerated gains. Gujarat shows few signs of looking back now. Its minorities are regularly cowed by violence. Its urban geography, reconfigured by riots with blatant connections with real estate transactions, now features "borders" between communities. As I write, Muslims, who managed to weather 1992-93 but for whom this has been the last straw (how much can anyone be expected to take?) are leaving the State, with wounds of betrayal. This horrifying reality is made up of certain traits of Gujarati society which set it apart from the rest of the country by degree, not fundamental difference. Gujarat is highly industrialised to the extent that the agrarian propertied have made some of the deepest inroads into urban sectors of the economy. More than in most States, the divides between the agrarian and industrial propertied have been blurred with the propertied groups sporting fairly uniform, if also competing, interests. The control of labour is chief among them and much of the worst "communal" violence occurs in south Gujarat. Among the 9 per cent Muslims of Gujarat, there is also a bourgeoisie and riots present their Hindu counterparts with plum opportunities to settle business scores.

Like Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat has a disproportionally high upper caste population, just under 15 per cent. Unlike Uttar Pradesh, however, over the last century the technically middle-caste patidars, who constitute 12 per cent of the population, have experienced a rise in their socio-economic position, such that in the late 20th century, no part of upper class/caste society could condescend to them. While, until recently, an important axis of Gujarati politics revolved around the political competition between upper castes and Patidars, the BJP succeeded in more or less uniting them. With the high rate of development, these upper and middle caste and class groups represent an immense concentration of socio-economic and political power.

A final factor contributing to the political dominance of Hindutva in Gujarat is the large numbers of emigres. In many ways Gujarat has long been something of a decapitated society — many of its most economically, socially and culturally advanced members living in Mumbai or Kolkata or other parts of the world. Today these emigres constitute a central bulwark of the NRI community, particularly in the U.S. and the U.K., and provide many of the chief personnel of the overseas organisations of the Sangh Parivar.

Gujarat may be merely in the vanguard of the overall trend of the development of the rest of the country. This is the reason why the problem of the hegemony of Hindutva in Gujarat needs to be taken very seriously. Pointing to the roots of Hindutva in our current model of development is not to say that it is an unstoppable force. Few things in history are inevitable, no matter how much they look like that in retrospect. Deepest among the political tragedies in India is that lower castes and classes who have the deepest investment in secularism as well as egalitarian economic development have only ever been offered populist and opportunistic forms of political mobilisation.

This cycle has surely run its course in Gujarat where the Congress(I)'s lamentable record in the 1980s seems to have more or less extinguished it as anything other than a protest vote repository. Even as the Congress(I), where it is successful today, is necessarily based among the lower socio-economic class/caste strata in the country, it is evading its vocation of being their authentic party, still hankering after being the party of the upper strata of the country.

The powerful can no longer be shamed into demonstrating a modicum of liberalism and secularism. It is only when secularism becomes more than the profession of one's good breeding, becomes the true property of those who could not care less about such snobbish distinctions, who are able to question the roots of communalism in inequality, that it can become the political force this country now badly needs. Only then will Indians have earned the privilege of looking back on Gujarat of the turn of the century as a horrific but also now past, peculiarity in the van of a road which the rest of India mercifully did not take. If this does not happen, Gujarat could well be the image of the country's future.

(The writer is Reader in Political Science, University of Victoria, British Columbia.)

[Jessy]

[Devon]

These are very sad things for the Christian community in India.....As a Christian in Canada, I must say that these Hindus are behaving no better then Radical Islam........

Thankfully, I am sure it is just a small tiny amount of Hindus that behave in such a hateful way.........

BTW.....is that really true about Amnesty?? Is it run by a Muslim???

Interesting...

Devonator

[Jessy]

[Jessy]

[CRITICAL Singh]

[Jessy]