22nd February 2008:
Christian participating in a lent meeting were attacked in the Kosmi area
of Balaghat district of MP by Bajrang Dal people who then dragged Christians
to the police station to lodge an FIR against them.
The Bajrang Dal people attacked without provocation and they were
constantly shouting, "Dharmantaran Band Karo." (Stop Conversions).
Mr. Sunil Marawi and Brother Tom George from Kerala are the ones who have
suffered physical injuries the most.
The police took complaints from both the parties and FIR's were lodged the
next day but no one has been arrested till now.
24th February 2008
Masihi Mandir Church in Chawni area Indore was vandalized by a group of
around 125 RSS people who kept shouting "Jo Hindu hit ki baat karega woh desh
par raj karega." (The one who will talk of Hindu favor will rule India).
Since the Church was not having any service that time and was locked they
damage though extensive did not include any human casualties apart from one
Christian boy who was roughed up by 5 Hindutva goons.
The police has arrested 7 people so far.
The Masihi Mandir Church is under litigation for some time now with 4
parties laying claim to the property of the Church. Pray that this incident
will unite them and they see sense in standing together at this time.
In another incident in MP, Father Joseph Kappilparampil from Ujjain diocese
was arrested following complaint from the students and was allegedly beaten
up by a mob.
HE is heading the AMBODIYA parish, under which the Sanjeevan girls hostel
at Ujjain is also being run.
He was released on bail on February 14th after his lawyer argued that the
charges did not warrant remand.
Christians to march against attacks
Express news service
Posted: Feb 19, 2008 at 2341 hrs IST
Pune, February 18
Christian leaders from different
denominations will take out a silent protest rally on Monday from YMCA, Quarter
Gate, to condemn the attacks on Christian institutions in Orissa and Gujarat.
They have urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to take steps to ensure the safety
of the community.
Disrupting church services and burning churches is deplorable,
especially during the festive time, and the community fears a repeat of an
infamous spate of violence in Gujarat's Dangs district in 1998.
Dangs witnessed violence for ten days in December 1998.
More than 14 churches, four convents, three houses of priests and eight
hostels were fully or partially destroyed besides injuries sustained by
Christians in Kandhamal district's Baliguda sub-division, Orissa, they said.
Shocked at the violent incidents during Christmas, Christians in Pune
will meet on Monday to take out a silent protest rally, Father Sebastian Mony of
St. Patrick's Church said. There are at least 1.5 lakh Christians residing in
Pune.
The rally is being organised by the Catholic Association of Pune and
the Indian Christian Movement to condemn the violent attack on churches in
Orissa and Gujarat, Father Mony said. The rally will begin from YMCA at 3.30 pm
and wind its way via Hotel Shantai, Narpatgir Chowk, Pudumjee park, Babajan
Chowk and culminate at City Church. Bishop of Pune Valerian D'Souza and Bishop
of the Church of North India Vijay Sathe will participate and hand over the
memorandum of their demands to Suresh Kalmadi MP and district collector
Prabhakar Deshmukh at the City Church.
Courtesy:
http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/Christians-to-march-against-attacks/274450/
The cross they bear
Feb 7th 2008 | BOTHALI
From The Economist print edition
Politics fuels religious violence
THE blackened shell of a burnt car lies in the yard of Radha Bai's farm in
this bucolic village of whitewashed houses and unhurried bullock carts in the
central Indian state of Chhattisgarh. On January 16th, as she prayed with a
large group of Christians, a mob of Hindu extremists arrived. They chased
worshippers away, set fire to a car and ten motorcycles and, says Mrs Bai,
threatened to cut her “into pieces”.
AP
Marching as to war
In recent weeks Hindu extremists in India's “tribal belt”—where missionaries
have long sought to convert traditionally animist forest-dwellers—have stepped
up a vicious anti-Christian campaign. Over Christmas in neighbouring Orissa mobs
set fire to 55 churches and 600 houses. Asghar Ali Engineer, of the Centre for
Study of Society and Secularism, a Mumbai think-tank, calls it the worst
anti-Christian violence independent India has seen.
Ramesh Modi, Chhattisgarh state president of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, or
World Hindu Council, which propagates “Hindutva”, or “Hinduness”, says that
Christians are “responsible for the violence themselves”. Missionaries in the
area, he says, are converting Hindus illegally. Chhattisgarh and Orissa are
among several Indian states to have laws banning forced conversions.
It is true that an expansionist evangelist movement is in full swing in
India's tribal belt. Its targets are tribal people, Hindus, even Christians,
many of whom say they have switched churches to join independent Pentecostal
groups. Officially, fewer than 3% of Indians are Christian. But Arun Pannalal,
of the Chhattisgarh Christian Forum, reckons the true proportion may be twice
that. Christian converts often claim to be Hindus to keep access to government
jobs and college places “reserved” for Hinduism's lower castes. Most Indian
Christians are dalits, at the bottom of the caste system, once known as
“untouchables”.
Mr Pannalal, whose own church belongs to the Anglican Communion, regrets the
proselytising style of some pastors, and their habit of ripping into Hindu gods
from the pulpit. They lay themselves open to accusations of illegal conversion.
More than 230 people have been arrested on conversion charges in the state in
the past two years. But Mr Pannalal says very few cases go to court “because the
conversions are not forced and there is no case”.
As in other religious conflicts in India, the trouble between Christians and
Hindus in the tribal belt has more to do with politics than theology. In Orissa,
the Christmas violence was mostly directed at Catholics, who tend not to
proselytise. But identifying religious minorities as a common enemy has proved
an effective rallying cry for right-wing Hindu groups.
In December the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)
won elections in the western state of Gujarat, where it has had a
well-documented hand in the persecution of Muslims. Christians in the tribal
belt believe Hindu extremists have been emboldened by its success. Later this
year, Chhattisgarh itself goes to the polls. Christians fear more violence.
Courtesy:
http://www.economist.com/world/asia/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10651857
India's
Terrorized Christians
|
|
Thursday , 07 February 2008
CAIRO — Indian Christians are feeling the heat of the rising Hindu nationalism
in the South Asian giant.
"They came into my house waving sticks and chanting," Radha Bai, a Christian
resident of Bothali village in the central state of Chhattisgarh, told The
Christian Science Monitors in an interview published on Wednesday, February 6.
"They were looking for me, saying they would cut me into pieces," he added,
referring to 50 Hindu extremists.
The attackers, members of a group calling itself Dharma Sena (Army of
Religion), assaulted several men and set fire to 10 motorcycles and a car on
January 16.
It was the latest attack by Hindu extremists against Christians in India's
eastern states.
Hindu mobs destroyed 55 churches and 600 houses on Christmas in the state of
Orissa.
"It is getting worse all the time," lamented Arun Pannalal, the general
secretary of the Chhattisgarh Christian Forum.
"Few of those cases go to court.
"But by then the extremists have done their job, which is to terrify people."
He said Christians often conceal their faith for fears of losing rights to
government jobs and university posts.
Christians make up less than 3 percent of India's 1.1 billion population.
Dirty Politics
Many blame the rising attacks against Christians on political goals, citing a
rise in attacks in Chhattisgarh, ruled by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya
Janata Party, a few months before the state went to polls.
"This is a movement that stirs the religious sentiments of Hindus and then
makes political capital out of it," maintains Lalit Surjan, editor-in-chief of
a group of newspapers in Chhattisgarh.
Hindu leaders argue, however, that Christians have only themselves to blame
for tying to proselytize people in the predominantly-Hindu nation.
"They are converting Hindus by all means possible," charged Ramesh Modi, the
president of Chhattisgarh's branch of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (World Hindu
Council).
"We cannot wear bangles [an expression meaning we cannot be feminine, gentle]
all the time."
With the rise of Hindu nationalism, Hindu extremists have stepped up efforts
to enact legislation to curb conversions from Hinduism.
At least seven states – including Chhattisgarh and Orissa – already have laws
stipulating that Hindus must inform the authorities before changing religions.
The Hindu ideology holds that India is a Hindu nation and religious minorities
are outsiders.
Indian Muslims, estimated to number 160 million, have had their share of Hindu
attacks.
In 2002, at least 2,000 Muslims were hacked or burned to death by Hindu mobs
in Gujarat after 59 Hindu pilgrims died in a train fire first blamed on
Muslims but which a later inquiry concluded was accidental.
Recent videotapes showed the massacre was backed by Hindu nationalist leader
Narendra Modi, recently reelected as chief minister of Gujarat, a post he has
kept since 2002.
Courtesy:
http://www.turkishweekly.net/news.php?id=52166