Hindu Violence
A Year of
Violence Against India's Catholics
Nirmala Carvalho
Compass Direct
As Catholic
believers across India gather to celebrate the birth of Jesus, many will carry
physical or emotional scars as a result of attacks launched by Hindu extremists
over the past year.
Many
incidents of violence against both Catholics and Protestants went unreported,
since the police often refused to record the victims' complaints, but by last
June the number of violent attacks recorded by Christian organizations had
reached over 200. This number was expected to double by year's end. Catholics,
who make up about 29 percent of Christians in India according to Operation
World, were often targeted in these attacks.
"This
year Hindu extremists have beaten our priests, assaulted our nuns, broken
crosses and urinated on sacred vessels," said Dr. John Dayal, president of
the All India Catholic Union. "These acts of desecration show the true
nature of the attackers."
Attacks were
reported in Haryana, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and the states
of tribal central India.
"We
also have reports of attacks on Catholic clergy from West Bengal in the east to
Andhra Pradesh in south central India," Dayal said.
Desecration
of religious objects is common in such attacks. Police, however, often ignore
the religious aspects of a complaint because of the legal implications.
"Indian
law has specific provisions against actions that sow seeds of hatred between
communities," Dayal explained. "We also have laws against violence
directed at a specific religious or other minority group. Still other laws come
into operation if the victims are Dalits."
In several
cases of religiously-motivated violence this year, police have refused to
record a "First Information Report," leaving the victims with no
legal means to pursue their complaints. In other cases, desecration of
religious objects is recorded only as petty crime or theft.
Rajasthan
has the highest number of recorded incidents. In February, Rajasthan's state
government announced plans to adopt anti-conversion legislation, echoing laws
already in force in Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh and Arunachal Pradesh.
Gujarat
state passed a similar law in March 2003, but the law has not yet been
enforced.
The Rev. Dr.
Babu Joseph, director of communications and spokesperson for the Catholic
Bishops' Conference of India, told Compass the total number of violent
incidents reported had declined over the past year.
"This
is partly due to the change of government in 2004, and its policies of
inclusiveness ... which have given a better sense of security to those who
suffered harassment," Joseph claimed.
Other
Christian leaders rejected Joseph's claim of decreasing religious violence, but
all agree that anti-Christian violence surged after the pro-Hindu Bharatiya
Janata Party (BJP) won federal elections held in 1998. The BJP government was
ousted by a Congress Party-led coalition in new elections held in April 2004.
Joseph
admitted that the situation is still far from ideal.
"As the
spokesperson of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of India, I ardently hope that
the new year will see a positive change in the social scenario of India, [so
that] people of all religions, cultures and castes can find an honorable place
to live and develop as equal citizens of our beloved India."
For his
part, Dayal has issued a call for all church groups to work together in
combating violence.
"We
must not accuse each other of attracting violence from extremist groups,"
he told Compass. "Instead we must teach our groups, both Catholics and
Protestant, to be more culturally sensitive and to exercise common sense."
But once an
attack has taken place, he said, it must be recognized as a crime that should
be denounced and punished.
The most
recent attack occurred on December 12, when Hindu extremists forced more than
40 Dalit Catholic families in Raipur district of Chattisgarh state to convert
to Hinduism.
The
villagers were threatened with loss of employment and Dalit social benefits if
they refused.
Other
examples of persecution of Catholic churches or individuals in 2005 include
(alphabetically, by state):
In Assam
state on September 2, armed assailants murdered Mgr. Nellickal, vicar-general
of Tejpur diocese, on church premises.
In Delhi on
May 23, vandals set fire to St. Mary's church complex in Sabhapur, 150
kilometers (about 93 miles) outside Delhi. They set fire to records in the
director's office and destroyed 200 textbooks and 1,000 new diaries intended
for students. "There was nothing left in the rooms except the
tables," said one tribal sister who taught at the school.
In Jharkhand
state on September 13, a tribal Catholic priest identified only as Father Agnos
was murdered during a peaceful demonstration for tribal rights. A mob of some
40 Hindu extremists armed with knives, arrows and swords stormed the rally and
attempted to disperse the 3,500 demonstrators. Fr. Agnos was stabbed in the
back and bled to death.
In Kerala
state on October 17, four unidentified men armed with wooden sticks attacked
the home of Bishop Vincent Samuel in Neyyatinkara. Attackers had destroyed the
windows and were about to break in when a police patrol arrived. A security
guard was injured in the attack, and three vehicles were damaged.
In Maharashtra
on January 23, armed extremists attacked the Teresian Carmelites Convent, which
runs a home for the elderly in a suburb of Mumbai. The door and cross were
smashed. Pamphlets left by the attackers encouraged the nuns to "Run away
- or we will come back. This country is ours. Now it is the cross; the next
time it will be your heads."
In Manipur
on April 19, a mob of 200 extremists armed with sickles and torches set fire to
a Catholic church in Lamding village.
In Rajasthan
on June 9, mobs of extremists attacked two Catholic convents; on June 11, a mob
attacked a third convent and held the nuns captive overnight; on June 12,
extremists broke into the Holy Trinity Church in Jaipur, capital of Rajasthan,
and threw rotten eggs and blue-colored water at a shrine dedicated to the
infant Jesus.
October 16
in Rajasthan state, members of the Hindu extremist group Rashtriya Swayamsevak
Sangh (RSS) accused Catholics holding a procession of planning forced
conversions among tribal people in Udaipur district. Bishop Joseph Pathalil's
car was pelted with stones as he left the procession, but he escaped unharmed.
Also in Udaipur
district, on October 25 five nuns waiting at a bus stop were beaten with
sticks.
In West
Bengal on February 12, police arrested 81-year-old Father. Luciano Colussi,
vicar-general of Krishnagar, giving no reason or explanation for his arrest.
Air ban on
Indian holy man's staff sparks violence
07
Dec 2005
Reuters
NEW DELHI,
Dec 7 (Reuters) - Indian police have used canes to beat back hundreds of angry
followers of a Hindu seer when they took to the streets of two cities after the
guru was barred from carrying his staff on board a commercial flight.
Police used
canes, or lathis, to break up a protest outside Mumbai airport on Tuesday night
and again at the airport in the nearby city of Aurangabad on Wednesday, an
official said.
At least 30
people, including reporters and other passengers, were hurt in the Mumbai
incident, local media reported. TV showed some people with thick red welts on
their backs after being hit.
Narendra
Maharaj, a little-known holy man was barred from taking his staff on a flight
from Lucknow to Mumbai on Tuesday because of security rules, an officer of the
Central Industrial Security Force, which is charged with protecting airports,
said.
"When
he arrived in Mumbai, the officials tried to pacify him and requested him to talk
to his supporters but he refused," he said. About 500 of the guru's
supporters protested.
"The
unruly mob refused to let passengers in or out of the building. The security
personnel tried to pacify them but they didn't listen."
The seer,
clad in saffron robes, was shown on television demanding the sacking of the
policemen who caned his supporters.
On
Wednesday, a similar mob rallied at the Aurangabad airport, near Mumbai,
believed to be his base. By early afternoon, another crowd had begun gathering
at Mumbai airport.
Hindu
Vandals send out a message of violence on V Day eve
REUTERS
- TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2006
MUMBAI: Hardline Hindu activists
burned Valentine’s Day cards on the eve of the year’s most romantic day and
warned couples across India against getting too amorous over a ‘foreign’
festival that corrupts traditional values.
Saint Valentine’s Day has become
increasingly popular in India in recent years, a trend led by retailers who do
healthy business selling heart-shaped balloons and fluffy teddy bears.
But
the growing popularity of the day has also sparked protests, which have
sometimes turned violent.On Monday, dozens of sword-wielding Hindu activists
used loudspeakers in the central city of Bhopal to ask couples to stay indoors
on V-Day.
In Mumbai activists of the Shiv Sena, on Sunday, vandalised a gift
shop and set fire to bundles of cards in a warning to shop owners and young
lovers, a police official said.
The
activists said that they would also target hotels and restaurants that offered
special romantic deals on the occasion of Valentine’s Day. In Jharkhand, Hindu
radicals have announced that they would patrol the streets of the capital, and
force any couple found cozying up in public to get married.
Groups like the
Bajrang Dal and Shiv Sena have in the past stopped screening of some
controversial films, saying they denigrated India’s ancient traditions.
India riot
police dispatched to prevent violence to Christians
2/8/2006
UCAN
AHMEDABAD,
India – The federal government has decided to deploy paramilitary forces in
western India after Church groups charged that an upcoming Hindu
"religious fair" targets Christian tribal people.
Hindu groups
plan to hold the fair Feb. 11-13 in Gujarat state's Dangs district, about 1,500
kilometers (about 930 miles) southwest of New Delhi.
Christian
leaders and secular groups in India say the fair threatens peace in the region,
since its leaders previously announced the goal of "reconverting"
Christian tribal people to Hinduism.
Gujarat
state Home Secretary Shivanad Jha, in a Feb. 6 statement, said the
administration plans to deploy the Rapid Action Force and several teams of the
state Reserve Police in the fair area to tackle potential sectarian violence.
Members of the Rapid Action Force, India's riot police, are expected to reach
the fair site by Feb. 10 at the latest.
Christian
and secular leaders have petitioned federal agencies to act, and human rights
groups have accused the Hindu groups of conducting a hate campaign against
Christians. Dangs was the site of anti-Christian violence in 1998, when Hindu
activists burned churches and bibles, and attacked schools, nuns and priests.
Complaints
against the fair led the Supreme Court as well as the Federal National Human
Rights Commission to ask the fair organizers to clarify their motives for
holding the fair.
Suresh
Raolji, head of the fair's organizing committee, denied they had planned a
reconversion campaign. Speaking with UCA News, the Hindu leader dismissed the
reconversion program as a media creation. "This is a holy occasion and
some vested interests are hell-bent on maligning it," he said.
It is billed
as a religious gathering "towards awakening the Hindus in general and the
'vanavasi' (tribal) Hindus in the Dang region of Gujarat in particular,"
according to the Hindu fair organizers' Web site.
Father
Ishwan Gamit, superior of the Jesuits working in Dangs district, says pressure
from the media and international agencies has forced the Hindu groups to
backtrack on their reconversion campaign.
Father
Gamit, a tribal priest, told UCA News the Hindu groups planned the fair in the
area with the sole aim of converting tribal Christians. "Otherwise, why
should they have it here? This is not a Hindu holy place," he remarked.
Some state
government officials clarified that state support is purely
"administrative." However, following the Supreme Court notice, the
government redrafted its permission for holding the fair, according to media
reports. A clause was added in the permission saying the event should not be
construed as a Hindu rite of reconversion. The pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party
(Indian people's party) rules the state now.
Jesuit
Father Xavier Manjooran, a lawyer, maintains that the state government is
involved in the hate campaign as well as in organizing the fair. The priest
directs a free legal aid center in central Gujarat's tribal area.
Pankaj
Kumar, additional principal secretary in the chief minister's office, says the
administration has "arranged everything for the smooth running of the fair
but also for the safety and security of those who fear they might be
targeted."
Kumar told
UCA News that the administration decided to station riot police there to make
the Christian minority feel secure. The state government has also arranged
communication systems and crowd control vehicles to help people in the forest
area, he added.
Catholics
and Christians of at least 16 other Churches and denominations live in Dangs
district, forming about 15 percent of its 186,000 people.
Motilal
Gaikwad, a tribal resident and former village head, said right-wing Hindu
activists equipped with walkie-talkies now roam the area despite government
assurances.
Press
conference on anti-Christian violence disrupted by Hindu activists
A group
of men forced their way into the conference room shouting and thrashing the
place. The two women raped on May 28 for not abjuring Christianity were present
at the press conference.
by Nirmala
Carvalho
7 June, 2006
Bhopal (AsiaNews) – A group of Hindu activists stormed their way into the
room where the Madhya Pradesh Christian Association (MPCA) had organised a
press conference. The two women raped a few days ago for not abjuring
Christianity were also present.
The incident began when the head of the MPCA, Indira Iyengar, was
presenting an analysis of the role religion plays in Indian society as well as
describing the suffering Christians have to endure. She was interrupted by a
group of Hindu activists from the Bajrang Dal who stormed
their way into press conference shouting that attempts to discredit their
religion should stop. “I will not allow anyone to sully the name of Hindu
nationalist organisations,” the group’s leader, Devendra Singh Rawat, was heard
saying out loud. Ms Iyenger who tried to reply was prevented from saying or doing
anything when the activists began thrashing the place.
When the police later arrived, both activists and Ms Iyenger were told to
leave the premises.
Madhya Pradesh state government issued a press release expressing its
disapproval of the conduct of the group of Hindu activists. “Nobody has the
right to disturb the press meet if such an incident took place”, Public
Relations Minister Narendra Singh Tomar told reporters. “Such incident should
not have happened”, he said.
“They are favoured by the state,” Fr Anand Muttungal told AsiaNews. “They behave
with arrogance and it is really bad that they dared stop a press conference
organised by Christians,” said the clergyman, who is also spokesman for the
state Bishops’ Conference.
“They want to intimidate me, get me to give up,” Ms Iyengar told AsiaNews. “They are
really serious in their attitude. They shouted at me in public. It is not only
a lack of respect towards Christians but also towards the basic rights of every
woman.”
John Dayal, head of the All India Catholic Union, issued a press release
also touching on religious intolerance and violence against women.
“We call on the government,” the statement said, “not to close its eyes
but to arrest those who commit acts of violence. We call on the police to hear
complaints and investigate violent acts against the Christian community.”
On May 28, two Madhya Pradesh women raped for refusing to abjure
Christianity tried to press charges at a police station but local officers
refused to hear them since the accusations involved men powerful in state
politics and close to the current state government. Only after higher
authorities such as the political superintendent intervened did local police
allow the victims to formally file charges.
“Women are the weakest segment of our society,” Mr Dayal’s statement
reads. “Conviction in case of violence [against them] should be clear.”
“Official data show that in India a woman is raped every 30 minutes,
murdered every 75. In most cases, women are burnt for failing to bring enough dowry
money,” he noted. “What is more, the number of female feticide has doubled
since 2004 according to Police National Crime Records Bureau.”
“The capital New Delhi is the least safe place for women in the country
with one third of all rape cases. Some of the women are Christian but religion
does not play any significant role in a majority of cases. But the case of the
two women in Madhya Pradesh is different. It is reminiscent of a similar case
of gang violence against nuns in Jhabua some years ago.”
“The two women were singled out for brutal treatment,” Mr Dayal said.
“The gang attacked the Christians at 10 pm on May 28, beat up the men, took
away and raped their wives. Who did it is known. They are called Lulla, Nandla,
Kalu, Rewal Singh, and Sakaram, and they are from the same village”.
For Mr Dayal this should be sufficient to get both state and Union
(federal) authorities to adopt and implement laws that stop violence against
religious minorities and protect them.
Women raped in Madhya Pradesh for converting to Christianity
Indira Iyengar, a member of the Madhya Pradesh State Minority
Commission, explains that the May 28 attack was the act by Hindu fanatics who
wanted to punish Tribals from Nadia village, guilty in their eyes of leaving
Hinduism for Christianity.
Bhopal (AsiaNews/ICNS) – Women from the village of Nadia “were raped as
punishment for changing religion and converting to Christianity”. The
authorities, “whether civil, police or the courts failed to listen to the women
and give them justice,” said Indira Iyengar, a member of the Madhya Pradesh
State Minority Commission.
In an interview she said that the “horrendous crime perpetrated against
Christians in Nadia” started last May 28, around 10 pm, when a group of Hindu
nationalist fanatics attacked five Christians—two women and three men—and held
them for a whole day. The two women were raped and the three men suffered
serious gunshot wounds.
The women, Baishi Pokharia and Rekha Gyarsiya, were able to identify
their aggressors, Lulla, Nandla, Kalu, Rewal Singh and Sakaram, all of whom,
like their victims, are from the same village.
Next morning local leaders from India’s largest party, the Bharatiya
Janata Party or BJP, a party that espouses a Hindu nationalist-fundamentalist
ideology, reported alleged “mass conversions to Christianity” to the local
police due to Christian missionaries coming from neighbouring Maharashtra
state.
Even though no clergyman was named in the report, in the charges filed
they claimed as proof of their allegations the names of the five who had been
attacked the previous day. When the latter eventually made it to the
Bhagwanpura police station to press charges against their aggressors they were
arrested by Inspector Thakur.
“All this happened because they converted from Hinduism to Christianity,”
said Ms Iyengar. “The attack should be punished because, in addition to the
violence it entailed, it destroys a fundamental human right. But no one wants
to listen to us”.
“We want Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister to know what is going on here. We
want this inequality to end. We want to live in safety,” she said.
“We got justice no where,” lamented the five victims, who are from a
local tribal community. For her part, one of the two women said that the
“police told us that our charges were false. They refused to listen. Now, we
have no where to go”.
*****
Posted by
Parmjit Singh Sekhon (Dakha)
President Dal Khalsa Alliance
Hindus-Brahmins-Terrorism
in India,
INDIAN Hindus-Brahmins-TERRORIST,
AND INDIA TERRORIST
COUNTRY
***********************************
IT IS TIME TO DECLARE
INDIA AS A TERRORIST COUNTRY
**********************************
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