Mr. Satyapal Singh, the BJP MP, while speaking in Lok Sabha on amendments to FCRA, had gone on to support the forthcoming restrictions to the foreign contributions. While making his arguments, to buttress his point, he put forward the case of Pastor Graham Stewart Staines. In the process, he poured venom on the late pastor by saying that he had raped 30 Tribal women and was involved in the work of conversion to Christianity with the help of funds from abroad!

This blatant lie should have been countered in the Parliament. The brutal murder of Pastor Staines was described by the then President of India, Dr. K.R. Narayanan by saying “It belonged to the world’s inventory of black deeds”. The pastor, who came from Australia to work among Leprosy patients in Orissa, was sleeping in an open jeep in the village on the night of January 22-23, 1999. He was working in Keonjhar, Manoharpur, in Odisha. On that fateful night he was burnt alive with his two minor sons, Timothy and Philip. The whole country was aghast with the brutal nature of the crime. The brutality was committed by Rajendra Singh Pal aka Dara Singh, a worker of Bajrang Dal.

LK Advani was the home minister at that time. He stated that Bajrang Dal has nothing to do with this act; he knows this organisation well. As the immediate measure he sent a three-member ministerial team comprising Murli Manohar Joshi, Navin Patnayak and George Fernandez to Odisha. In a single day, the team concluded that this grave crime is an international conspiracy to destabilise the ruling NDA government. Then the Wadhwa Commission was appointed. The commission concluded that Dara Singh, who was working with Bajrang Dal with the help of organisations like Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram, VHP etc. propagated that the pastor is doing the work of conversion and is a threat to Hinduism. He did mobilise people, poured Kerosene on the vehicle and set fire.

The Commission in its report further stated that Pastor had not been doing the work of conversion; he was involved in serving the leprosy patients. Dara Singh was awarded death penalty by Courts, which was later reduced to life imprisonment; currently he is undergoing the jail sentence. What is remarkable is that as per the report there was no substantial increase in the percentage of Christians in the area. The report states, “Keonjar district had a total population of 15.30 lakh. Out of them, 14.93 lakh were Hindus. Christians, mostly tribals, were 4,707. According to the 1991 census, there were already 4,112 Christians in the district. Thus, there was an increase of only 595 in the Christian population.” One can say that this is not due to conversion but is due to the natural biological process. Propaganda of Dara Singh and the organisations was purely guided by their political agenda.

The propaganda that Christian missionaries have been converting is the dominant social perception all around, and it is the ground for ‘Hatred against the Christians’, who have been facing the violence for over two decades. We witnessed violence against Christians, mainly in Adivasi areas, Dangs, Jhabua, and large parts of Odisha. After this gruesome murder, there was regular violence against Christian community, the peak of which was seen in the Kandhamal violence (August 2008) in which nearly hundred Christians were killed, close to four hundred women raped and many Churches attacked and destroyed.

That was not the end. The violence against this community is going on in a regular manner. It is mostly in remote areas, in a scattered manner and many-a-times below the radar. The prayer meetings are attacked and missionaries distributing religious literature are apprehended. The organisation ‘Persecution Relief’, in its recent report points out, “Hate crimes against Christians in India have risen by an alarming 40.87 percent. That increase came despite a complete nationwide lockdown that lasted three months to stem the spread of Covid-19 infections.”

While the attacks on Muslim minority have been glaring, those against Christians are scattered and low intensity, the murder of Pastor Staines and Kandhamal violence stand out. The core ideology behind this violence which has been spread is that Islam and Christianity are ‘foreign religions’ and are a threat to Hinduism. This is so much in contrast to what Indian nationalists like Gandhi and Nehru, who regarded that religion is no basis of nationality; Christianity is as much a religion of this land as any other.

As a matter of fact, as per one version Christianity entered this land in AD 52, With St Thomas setting up a Church in Malabar area. For the last nearly 19 centuries, many missionaries have been coming and working in the remote areas, setting up health and education facilities in particular. They have also set up the schools and colleges, and hospitals in urban areas, which are known for their good standards, and people in these areas do vie to avail of these facilities with gay abandon.

Today the percentage of Christians, as per census figures is 2.30 (2011 census), this is again a climb down from 1971 when it was 2.60 percent. In the last six decades it has shown a constant decline, 2.60 (1971), 2.44 (1981) 2.34 (1991), 2.30 (2001) and 2.30 again in 2011. The organisations like Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram, VHP and Bajrang dal are active more in remote places to spread the misconception of the conversion. This is an assault on ‘Freedom of Religion’ and the repressive laws against freedom of religion have been coming up in state after state. While Indian Constitution stands for an individual’s right to practice and preach one’s religion, the anti-Christian violence on the pretext of religion is becoming endemic as sectarianism is growing in a frightening manner.

Recently on August 25, it was 12 years since Kandhamal violence had shaken the country. The need is to restore peace, amity and harmony. By speaking unsubstantiated charges Mr. Satyapal Singh has just gone on to add to the anti Christian propaganda, which dents our values of fraternity.

* The writer is a human rights defender and a former professor at the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay (IIT Bombay). 

Other pieces by Dr. Puniyani:

Was Mughal Rule the period of India’s Slavery?
Kashi- Mathura: Will temple politics be revived?
Scapegoats and Holy Cows
Freedom of Religion: Indian Scenario

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During a September 2018 nuns’ protest against Malakkal in Kochi

Pointing towards the reason, NCR quotes Jesuit Fr Stanislaus Alla, theologian and professor at the Vidyajyoti College of Theology in Delhi, to say  that the Church in India is “paying the price for standing up for human rights.” Alla said this on a recent trip to the United States to present a paper on public health in South Asia.

At the same time, the top Christian media site notes, “The Catholic community in India is also besieged by internal issues that have rocked the church in the past few years”, citing the public protest by nuns in Kerala against Bishop Franco Mulakkal, accused of raping a nun.

The Missionaries of Jesus “flouted” the country’s anti-rape laws and publicly released the picture of the survivor, causing a massive public uproar. The church was criticized for its inaction against Mulakkal, despite a “written complaint by the survivor”.

Regretting that though many within the Church consider such issues as “internal matters” and choose to resolve it without going to the police, Alla says, “We also suffer from ‘minority persecution syndrome.’ Since we are a minority in India, we tend to not let issues blow up. And that has backfired badly.”
 

Fr Alla

Asserting that it’s this attitude that has “caused problems” for the Church, the report says, “When India’s Hindu nationalist party, the BJP, declared victory for the second time in the general elections this year, a sense of unease engulfed the country’s minority communities, who make up 18.2% of the country’s population. Since 2014, under Modi’s watch, religious persecution rose.

“Christians in India have been active contributors to its education system. But in an atmosphere of growing right-wing fundamentalism, Catholic educational institutions have come under attack. They often face criticism and are accused of proselytism”, Salvadore believes.

“State level anti-conversion laws have been enacted to regulate conversions to other religions. These laws are now used to harass Christians, and divide and polarize people”, the report says, adding, “Studies have shown that the number of Christians in India has gone down from 2.5% to 2.3%. There is absolutely no truth to the claim of forced proselytization.” It claims, “Some people convert on their own accord, but there’s no forced proselytization.”

According to the report, “In the past few years, Christians in the country’s Hindi heartland have been facing a series of attacks from Hindu extremists. More recently, outright violence has taken a backseat, and coordinated efforts are in place to shut down institutions.”

“A recent example is the police raid conducted at the home of Jesuit Fr Stan Swamy, a prominent human rights activist. Swamy, a critic of the government, has been an advocate of indigenous people undergoing trials who he said were falsely accused and imprisoned for protesting violations of their constitutional rights”, it underlines.

However, Salvadore quotes Alla to dismiss the idea that the current BJP government is particularly harsh on Christian minorities. “To be fair, Christians have suffered under other political parties as well. And it’s not just this government BJP.” Citing examples of missionaries being deported from India during the 1960s and 1970s under “secular” Congress, Alla adds, however, that the present situation is a lot “different and difficult.”

“With the BJP government’s implicit support of its fringe elements, lynchings against minorities in India, especially Muslims, have increased drastically since Modi came into power for the second time. Data shows that 90% of religious hate crimes in India in the past decade have occurred under the Modi government. In most cases, despite overwhelming evidence, the accused have walked free”, the article says.

Lamenting that Church leaders have been “measured in their response”, Salvadore says, “They’ve often reached out to Modi in an effort to build bridges”, even though BJP has been accusing the Church for being anti-Modi and encouraging Catholics to vote along communal lines. “Though the church is supposed to be apolitical, there are times when priests do make their political leanings public.”

Courtesy: Counter View

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The controversial statement of the BJP legislator of UP State Sangeet Som denigrating Taj Mahal should not surprise us. ‘History’ propounded by the Hindu supremacists is stranger than fiction. It is a tool in the hands Hindutva to justify their ideology which considers Muslims and Christians, whose holy lands are outside India (land mass from River Sindhu to Arabian Sea) as foreign religions. Indian Constitution may qualify Muslims and Christians as Indian citizens but Hindutva political ideology (HPI) views them as foreigners to be gotten rid off or subdued to the status of non-citizens or second class citizens. Hindutva calls upon all Hindus to wage war on what they consider foreign religions. Hindutva ideologue Vinayak Damodar Savarkar called upon Hindus to “Hinduize all politics and militarize Hindudom”. Hinduizing politics meant to establish political and cultural hegemony of upper-caste Hindus.

The war that HPI wants to wage on the ‘foreign’ religions needs justification and convincing and mobilizing the lower caste sections of Hindus, without whom the war is impossible. They need to convince the lower castes that the Hindu religion, which practices oppressive caste system and treats a section as untouchables and sub-humans, is superior to the foreign religions – viz. Islam and Christianity. Demonization of Muslims and Christians was crucial to build militarized Hindudom that Savarkar called upon. One of the instruments used to demonize the Muslims and Christians was History. The political ideologues of Hidndutva fictionalized History and historicized fiction without having any intention to respect the science of History.

‘History’ propounded by HPI has basically borrowed from the colonial historiography of Henry Miers Eliot and John Dowson, both British civil servants. Eliot and Dowson periodized the Indian past according to the religion of the rulers – Hindu period and Muslim period. Though Eliot and Dowson periodized pre-Islamic history as Hindu period supposedly on the basis of religion of the rulers, but the rulers did not see themselves as followers of Hindu religion for most period. The word ‘Hindu’ was used more to denote inhabitants of the geographical region on the Eastern bank of river Sindhu. The Persians pronounced Sindhu as ‘Hindu’. “The term ‘Hindu’ was coined in opposition to other religions, but this self-definition through otherness began centuries before there was contact with Europeans (or indeed, with Muslim).” (Doniger 2013, 5) “Our word ‘Hindu’ originates in the geographical feature of the Indus River. It comes from a word for ‘river’ (Sindhu) that Herodutus (in the fifth century BCE), the Persian (in the fourth century BCE), and the Arabs (after the eighth century CE) used to refer to everyone who lived beyond the great river of the northwest of the subcontinent, still known locally as the Sindhu and in Europe as the Indus.” (Doniger 2013, 6-7)

The rulers before the Muslim rule did not identify their religion as Hinduism, it the outsiders who referred to all the inhabitants of the region as Hindus. It is Colonial masters who used the geographical term ‘Hindu’ to mean religion. The Britishers in their census enumeration used Hinduism to denote religion of those who were neither Muslims, Christians or other known religions. Besides the fact that many historians would question periodization of history on the basis of religion of the ruler, Eliot and Dowson called ‘pre-Muslim period’ as Hindu period, even though the different rulers followed diverse religious faith including Jainism and Buddhism.

Without critiquing the colonial historiography of Eliot and Dowson, HPI endorsed it and built upon it. HPI glorified the Hindu period to be golden period of Indian History and considered the Muslim period as a period during which there was a decline. Communal Muslims or Muslim nationalists glorify the Muslim period. Both viewed history from their respective ideological perspective to determine their future. Romila Thapar writes that historical interpretation can become a two-way process, where the needs of the present are read into the past, and where the image of the past is sought to be imposed upon the present; and the image of the past is the historian’s contribution to the future (1993; pp. 1). E H Carr reaches same conclusion and writes, “When we attempt to answer the question ‘What is history?’ our answer, consciously or unconsciously, reflects our own position in time, and forms part of our answer to the broader question what view we take of the society in which we live.” (Carr 1987).

Hindutva ideologues differ in their narratives of history as is evident from the different stances taken by different leaders on Taj Mahal. Yogi Adityanath once said Taj Mahal had no connection with India’s culture or heritage (Manish and Sanyal 2017) and omitted it from the booklet of tourism department of UP. Sangeet Som, BJP MLA called it a cultural blot on India and which was built by traitors (Sharma 2017). BJP MP Vinay Katiyar opined that Taj Mahal was originally a Shiv Temple (PTI 2017). Later Adityanath called it pride of India after visiting it and that sweat and toil of Indian people had built it.

However, their instrumentalist view of history is that the golden period of ‘Hindu’ history was over after invasion by the Muslim aggressors from the Northwest. Thereafter the social structure crumbled and ‘Hindus’ and ‘Hindu’ culture suppressed which caused their economic decline. The Muslim aggressors were despotic and their religious fanaticism required them to destroy every symbol of ‘Hindu’ culture and forcibly impose ‘Islamic’ culture and convert all ‘Hindus’ to Islam. ‘Hindus’ resisted the aggression which led to permanent war between the two communities or two nations – Muslim and ‘Hindu’ – not between two kings who happen to be Muslim or ‘Hindu’. The Muslim community through their Emperors enslaved and humiliated the Hindus and with the intention of completely destroying their culture. Muslims demolished their temples and constructed their mosques over it. Presently they claim there were 3,000 such temples which were destroyed and mosques built over them, including the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya, and the mosques in Mathura and Varanasi. The HP ideologues have never presented a list of all 3,000 structures which were destroyed and mosques constructed in its place.

The objective of writing such a history is primarily to stigmatize entire Muslim community and represent them as oppressors against whom all Hindus should be united and wage a war to seek revenge of historical wrongs done to them. There was little chance for the caste based hierarchically structured society to unite and for those on the lower rungs of the structure to defend the birth based social privileges of those on upper rungs when they themselves suffered inhuman oppression from the upper castes. One of the strategies to achieve this was to demonize other communities, historicise conflicts with it, pose it as an existing threat and call upon all Hindus to unite against them.

The second objective is to reclaim, own and control the land, institutions and structures owned by the ‘enemy’ communities. If you can’t build it, grab from others. The third objective is to create a case for expansionism – Akhand Bharat with not only capturing Pakistan and Bangladesh, but also South China in the North, Myanmar in the East, Sri Lanka in the South and entire West Asia as we shall see shortly. The fourth objective was to construct an image of glorious past in which all technological and scientific achievements that we see today was already achieved by the ‘Hindus’ thousands of years ago during the Vedic period, including aircraft (pushpak viman), plastic surgery (implanting Elephant head on to a human body), most advanced nuclear tipped missiles and used during the war in Mahabharat, genetic engineering etc. Pride in the past is one tool to not only unite the community, but also claim it to be superior to all other communities and therefore right to rule the world and to create a militarized and authoritarian state to achieve that objective. Claiming a glorious ‘Hindu’ past was also to deny glorious past of any other community. For example, if Taj Mahal and even Kaaba is a glorious structure, it must be a Hindu structure as no such glory belongs to ‘enemy’ community.

Purushottam Nagesh Oak was one of the HP Ideologue who established ‘Institute for Rewriting Indian History’ and wrote several books. The historical wisdom of HPI is largely informed by Oak’s writing. Broadly and Briefly, Oak’s claims are as under:
 

1. Islam and Christianity derived from Vedic Religion. Christianity was Krishna nitee. Vatican is corruption of ‘Vatika Nagri’ and Papacy was originally Vedic priesthood. ‘Abraham’ comes from Brahma; ‘church’ is corruption of Sanskrit word ‘vichar-vimarsh”; Jesus or Yahveh was Rig Vedic God. The word disciple is derived from Sanskrit word ‘dikshapal’. Krishna puja was prevalent in the whole world.
2. Arabia had a Vedic past and Kabaa was a Hindu Temple – a Shiv Ling based on an inscription mentioning Indian King Vikramaditya on a dish found inside Kabaa. Mohammad was Hindu and Arabs worshiped Mahadev and performed their pilgrimage to Kashi and Haridwar. Allah was a Hindu God.
3. The foreign Muslims were wrongly credited for construction of Indian monuments. Muslims were destroyers of Indian monuments and not constructors. Amongst the monuments wrongly attributed to the ‘foreign’ Muslims include Red Fort, Qutub Minar, Humayun Ka Maqbara, Taj Mahal, Agra Fort and many others. These were all ‘Hindu’ structures misappropriated by the Rulers of the time. The evidence to claim so could be as meagre as some carving on any wall which could not be of Muslim origin, or some similar sounding Sanskrit name. Taj Mahal e.g. was, according to Oak, an ancient Shiva Tempel Tejo Mahalaya which was commandeered by Emperor Shajahan from the Maharaja of Jaipur. Oak argues that the words ‘Taj’ and ‘Mahal’ are both of Sanskrit origin. Mahal means mansion and Taj is corruption of word ‘Tej’ which means splendour. Oak gives such explanations for all his claims.
4. To summarise, his other sweeping claims include that one should not believe in Medieval records; Mughal arts and art of Mughal gardens is a myth; Development of Indian Music during Mughal period is a myth; all the monuments built by Mughals (which Oak describes as ‘jihadi’) and the narratives behind the monuments are false; That the Medieval period (when ‘foreigners’ ruled) was golden age is a myth; Indian king Porus did not lose to Alexander in the battle of Hydaspes fought in 326 BC; Indian borders extended from Bali to Baltic Sea and from Kerala to Kaba; Sanskrit was the world language in ancient times etc.

These assertions would be and should be normally questioned by not only students of history but also people with ordinary intelligence. Hindutva’s historical wisdoms are doled out to their cadres and followers who have been mobilized and recruited by touching their religious sentiments and amenable to orientation of a strong unitary collective that would act as their support network and give them a sense of belonging. The strong unitary collective is built around shared common objective and common hatred of those whom they call foreigners. Hindutva ‘history’ is an ideological tool to deepen the conviction of the mobilized cadres and imagine a past where the enemy ‘foreigners’ were oppressors even in the past. It induces them with hatred of the ‘foreigner’ and motivates them to commit worst crime against them. HPI built on imagined past in which the ‘foreigners’ are projected as having committed inhuman atrocities on them brings forth the need to exorcise the agony of having suffered such atrocities by inflicting it on the ‘foreigners’ around them. Such imagination of the past first suppresses the human within before they become cadre of Hindu supremacists.

The cadre convinced of such an imagined past is rarely able to stand up to rational scrutiny of his/her belief. They keep repeating their belief. They follow their leader who too keeps repeating his/her belief of what the past was and hope that it would be accepted as unassailable truth if enough number of people repeat it enough number of times. It is through this prism that Tipu Sultan is also looked from. That Tipu Sultan died fighting the Britishers notwithstanding, Tipu being a ‘foreigner’ should necessarily mean he was oppressor of ‘Hindus’.

Mobilized cadres of HPI need empathy and help to restore their rationality and humanity. However, they have demonstrated the destructive potential once by demolishing Babri Masjid. Other historical heritage of the country needs to be protected. Our education system should be strengthened to inculcate human values and equip students to explore past in order to understand it and learn lessons of history to shape our future.

The views expressed here are the author’s personal views, and do not necessarily represent the views of Sabrangindia.
 

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The letter written by Bishop Theodore Mascarenhas, SFX, Secretary General,CBCI speaks passionately of the venom and hate politics being directed at the Church in the state. An effigy of the Cardinal Telesphore P. Toppo, Archbishop of Ranchi was recently burned in Ranchi prompting the CBCI to send the letter. The letter also refers to an advertisement in Dainik Bhaskar, a prominent Daily, where a “spurious quote of Mahatma Gandhi without naming the source, to vilify the Christian Community. The advertisement accuses the Christian Missionaries of converting poor Dalits and Tribals (Vanvasis), a term, we think Mahatma Gandhi never used for Tribals), whom the quote describes as innocent and ignorant. The Tribals and Dalits are described as “simple and mute as cows”.
 
The text of the letter is below and the entire letter may be seen here: 
 
An Open Appeal to Prime Minister Narendra Modi 
to intervene to stop hatred in Jharkhand
 
Honourable Prime Minister,
 
I am making this appeal to you with much sorrow and anguish but also with hope. You must be aware of the recent happenings in Jharkhand, a State ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party. You might be aware that there is spiralling hatred being created by the Chief Minister belonging to your Party, which if not controlled immediately, could take the State and its people down the streets of violence and hate.
 
Till now I had refrained from making a comment on the tragic happenings in the State. But last night as I was about to go to bed, I received this frightening, disquieting and scary photo. A Christian youth from Jharkhand had sent it to me with this quotation from Jesus in Hindi, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they are doing”. 
 
Burning of effigy of Cardinal Telesphore P. Toppo, Archbishop of Ranchi
 
As I went to bed, I could not sleep.  Yes, perhaps those leading this ideological hatred, targeting the Christian Community do not know what they are doing, where they are leading the people to: on the road of hatred and division. As I tossed in bed, I thought there is one person to whom I could appeal – You, Honourable Prime Minister. Because time and again you have told us “sabh ka sath, sabh ka vikas”. If I am not mistaken, it was on this slogan that you personally
campaigned in Jharkhand for the State elections, which made Mr. Raghubar Das, the Chief Minister of the State.
 
Jharkhand is a State where despite abject poverty and miserable living conditions, people of all faiths and confessions, Tribals and non-Tribals, Dalits and others have been living in peace with each other. This was till the Chief Minister embarked on a different agenda. He began some months ago with vitriolic attacks against the Christian Community. Then in a first for any Chief Minister he came out with this particular full front page advertisement in the prominent dailies of the State. 
 
Advertisement in Dainik Bhaskar, a prominent Daily
 
I do not know if you are aware of this advertisement. It contains a spurious quote of Mahatma Gandhi without naming the source, to vilify the Christian Community. The advertisement accuses the Christian Missionaries of converting poor Dalits and Tribals (Vanvasis, a term, we think Mahatma Gandhi never used for Tribals), whom the quote describes as innocent and ignorant. The Tribals and Dalits are described as “simple and mute as cows”. 
 
All sane minds in Jharkhand and the Tribals at large are aghast at such a description. People are asking whether the State deserves a Chief Minister, who allows an advertisement with his photo and that of “Bappu” reducing the Tribals and Dalits to the level of cows. Many are wondering whether, Mr. Raghubar Das became Chief Minister by getting votes from Tribals and Dalits, because in the words of the advertisement they are “as mute and simple as cows”. Less than two weeks after the advertisement, while the Jharkhandis were still shocked over the hate filled advertisement, the ruling party brought into the State Assembly and passed two important Bills: The Freedom of Religion Bill and the Amendments to Land Acquisition Act 2013, in record time practically without discussion. One wonders whether the hatred filled advertisement and the “Freedom of Religion Bill” were smoke screens for the real act of the amendment to Land Acquisition Act. Is there something more than meets the eye specially since the Governor had earlier refused to sign Amendments to the CNTPT Act. Was the Chief Minister creating a diversionary tactic of mounting hatred.
 
Dear Prime Minister, the Catholic Church has time and again reiterated that it strongly opposes forced conversions. But, at the same time, it stands by its rights to ‘preach, practice and propagate’ its faith as per Articles 25-28 of the Constitution. Coming back to that advertisement against the Christian community to hastily pass Amendments to the Land Acquisition Bill, which we feel will threaten the livelihood and the very existence of the Tribals, specially when there is still so much unused Government land.
 
Dear Prime Minister, coming back to that picture which is haunting me. Here is the burning of effigy of probably the most prominent and respected religious leader in Jharkhand. Cardinal Telesphore P. Toppo, as you would be aware, is a non-controversial leader, respected not only in Christian circles but also in civil society and by Tribals and non-Tribals. He is also the ambassador of the Swatch Bharat Abhiyan. History shows us that hatred which begins as a tiny spark can engulf into an unstoppable fire. As you know the burning of effigies can very well turn into physical violence. 
 
We are a peace loving community as the whole country knows. Our Missionaries have sacrificed and many have died of Malaria and Tuberculosis at a young age striving to serve the deprived sections of society in remote areas. We have not done it for political or selfish motives. We will continue to work for the neglected sections of society through education, health care and other uplifting activities. We are not doing this to “milk the poverty” to make them Christians – we are doing it because our religion teaches us to serve the poorest of the poor.
 
Dear Prime Minister, the Church has as usual not responded to the provocations of the Chief Minister. It is not because we are afraid, it is not because we are weak. That the Christians have not responded should not be taken as a sign of weakness. We are not speaking about ourselves, we are speaking about the people of Jharkhand. It is not possible that so much money is spent by the Constitutional authority of the State on front page advertisements sowing hate, when health facilities are so poor that stories of parents carrying children on foot for 10-12 kms. to arrive at the nearest hospital makes news. 
 
It is not possible that the constitutional authority of a State, actively involves itself in promoting hate as the advertisement does.
 
Dear Prime Minister, we were touched when on 29 May, 2017, you told the nation, “we Indians are lucky that our ancestors have created such a tradition today. India and its 1.25 billion people can take pride in the fact that people from all communities and faiths are available here.”
 
We were moved when you told the nation on October 31, 2015, “we have to move forward with the mantra of unity, peace and harmony”.
 
The whole nation applauded you when on Independence Day this year you gave a clarion call from the ramparts of Red Fort, “in the name of faith, violence cannot be allowed”.
 
Mr. Raghubar Das and his advisors at least in the past few months have not shown affiliation to the ideology you are proclaiming.
 
I appeal to you, honourable Prime Minister, with trust and hope to intervene and curb the spread of hate created by the Chief Minister of Jharkhand. Jharkhandis and Jharkhand deserves better. If the Chief Minister is unable to control his ideological hatred, then it is time for him to go. Your party has many leaders who can do a better job on all fronts.
 
Thank you and God bless you.
 
Yours Sincerely,
 
Bishop Theodore Mascarenhas, SFX
Secretary General, 
Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India

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The priest had come to Rourkela apparently to meet the Ranchi Bishop, a meeting fixed for the next day. He had not been robbed, and his mobile phone helped establish his identity. 

The body was buried in his home village of Kadma in the Jharkhand’s Kunti district, where Christians number more than a  fifth of the population of half a million. The Catholic news agency UCAN quoted the investigating police officer, Mr. Ranveer Singh, who had examined the body, saying that the pastor was probably a victim of a conspiracy. 

One would not be surprised that the state governments now come out with some theory pinning the murder on Muslims, or even Christians. That is par for the course for Jharkhand, and the three other central Indian states of Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, all three ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and Orissa where a former BJP ally, the  Biju Janata Dal, has been in power for a decade and a half. 

The four states, which form the core of the Tribal homeland in the heart of the Indian subcontinent, have had more than their share of violence targeting the Christian community in rural areas and forest villages. Itinerant pastors leading them in worship or working with them in development activities are particular targets, as are small home churches where local families come together in prayer. 

Community leaders of Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh in particular, are agreed that there has been a perceptible intensification of targeting of the community, though it does not always end up in murder.  There has been a flexing of muscle by aggressive  members of local organisations which claim allegiance to the Sangh Parivar. And part of the strategy is to polarise the various tribal segments, rousing local youth in particular against the Christians who may be first generation converts or older communities. 

Mourners attend the funeral service of the Rev. Abraham Soreng, who was found murdered May 6, at Goosner Evangelical Lutheran Church on May 7 in Kadma village of Jharkhand state.   Image: ucanews.com

The pastor’s murder has got a sharp response from the Catholic Bishop’s conference secretary general, Bishop Theodore Mascarenhas, who is also an Auxiliary Bishop of Ranchi under Cardinal Telesphore Toppo, one of the four Catholic Cardinals in India. “Any act of violence is condemnable, when it comes to a religious person, it is more condemnable. Efforts are underway to polarise the population in the state, which is not going to help anybody,” Bishop Mascarenhas has said. 

The police response across the tribal belt can be unpredictable. In some areas, often, posses of policemen have accompanied local political thugs hell-bent on “teaching the Christians a lesson”. Often enough, also, the gangs come accompanied also by local stringers of the print and television media. Such has been the case in the earlier violent disruption of a marriage ceremony in a church in Madhya Pradesh.

Equally disturbing is the manner in which the police register what are called cross cases against the victim Christians and the members of the aggressive group attacking them. This effectively puts the small Christian community of the area under great duress, ultimately making them withdraw the complaints against those who beat them up and stopped their worship service,

Recently, the local media made much of how two persons, allegedly of the local Hindutva groups who had vandalised a church in Chhattisgarh's Bastar in April and attempted  to set its pastor and his pregnant wife afire, were granted bail by a local court “because the pastor said he had forgiven them.”

Mriyam Borai, 32, and Akash Singh, 27, were arrested setting fire to the small church in Karanji Matagudi Para village and pouring petrol on the pastor and his seven month pregnant wife on April 17. The couple was fortunately unhurt and managed to escape. In march last year, the state had seen several villages pass orders banning the entry of Christians after a sustained campaign against “missionaries” by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad.  The state had remained a mute spectator to these unconstitutional methods.

This is not the first such bizarre cased of the lower judiciary attempting to minimise or to trivialise serious crimes, including attempted murder.

Chhatisgarh indeed has multiple layers of violence, targeting the tribals and Dalits in general, but also lawyers trying to come to their aid, and the local media which is terrorised into silence. The State inaction has aggravated the situation. The on-going confrontation between the state security forces and the Maoists in Bastar provides the backdrop for state impunity and the lack of interest shown by national media to cover violence against the Christian community and other marginalised groups. 

The Evangelical Fellowship of India in its recent reports of targeted anti Christian violence in 2015 has noted that “topping the list of 177 cases are the States of Madhya Pradesh with 36 cases, and its neighbour, Chhattisgarh, 20 cases, , and Uttar Pradesh, with 22 cases.  The first three months of 2016 registered 55 verified incidents of hate crimes targeting Christians in 16 states throughout the country. Uttar Pradesh topped the list with 10 incidents, followed by Maharashtra with 7 incidents. Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Jharkhand followed this with 5 each, and by Chhattisgarh, Telangana, and Uttarakhand with 4 each.”  

The actual volume of violent persecution is not known, the EFI said. “State agencies are reluctant to speak on this matter and governments do not keep records unless local police register formal cases under the Indian Penal and Criminal Procedure codes.”

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The terrorising attack on a pastor and his wife who were doused with fuel oil in Chhattisgarh, followed by the stopping of a church wedding in Madhya Pradesh, within weeks of each other in April speak of the immunity that Sangh Parivar cadres enjoy in these two sibling states.  Both states have been under Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP) rule – with both Mr. Shivraj Chauhan and Dr. Raman Singh as chief ministers now well into their third five year terms, but the advent of the party in the Union government has given a new edge to the aggression against religious minorities in the small towns and villages of this central Indian region.

The region was hostile to the Christian community, and specially its clergy, even when the Congress was in power. It was under the then chief minister Mr. Ravi Shankar Shukla of the Central Provinces, as it was then known, that set up the notorious Justice Niyogi Commission in 1956, which is now a handbook for the Sangh Parivar in targetting churches, institutions and pastors. Madhya Pradesh was also among the first states to also enact the so-called Freedom of Religion Acts, which have been indicted by UN Special Rapporteurs as violating international freedom of religion covenants.

While Madhya Pradesh remains a state causing great concern for the hostility against the Christian minority, it is Chhattisgarh that has emerged as the next worst in line, now topping the list of regions where the Christian community in India, is persecuted. There were four cases in the first three months of 2016, before the latest incident. 

In 2015, Chhattisgarh recorded 20 cases, third highest after Madhya Pradesh with 36 cases, Uttar Pradesh with 22 cases, according to Reverend Vijayesh Lal, Executive Director of the Evangelical Fellowship of India who publishes the annual report persecution in the country, the main report on Freedom of Religion from the perspective of the Christian community.  

In the latest case reported from Karanji village in the Tokapal area of the Bastar district in the state, Pastor Dinbanhu Sameli, 30, and his wife, Meena, 26, who is seven months pregnant, were assaulted and their church set on fire on Sunday, April 17, after they refused the mob’s demand that they shout Jai Shri Ram. 

Witnesses told reporters that two young men approached the pastor outside his home next to his church at around 7 pm, initially asking for prayer, claiming they were from a nearby Methodist church. But they later brought out a sword which they held to the pastor’s neck, and demanded the couple shout “Jai Shri Ram” and kick a copy of the Bible. The couple did not obey. The two men threw petrol on the couple and on their small church and set it ablaze. The young couple broke free and ran away before the flames could reach them.

According to the couple, last year a Bajrang Dal group came on two tractors, shouted “Jai Shri Ram” in front of the church, and wrote the same slogan on both the sides of the main door. 

Alliance Defending Freedom, a law and legal assistance group headquartered in the national capital, has in 2014 successfully challenged  anti-Christian resolutions passed by several village councils which had banned “non-Hindu” religious activities in their  territories, effectively criminalising the presence or entry of evangelists and pastors, and prayers in house churches. 

The region was hostile to the Christian community, and specially its clergy, even when the Congress was in power. It was under the then chief minister Mr. Ravi Shankar Shukla of the Central Provinces, as it was then known, that set up the notorious Justice Niyogi Commission in 1956

Not that the government and its agencies do not target Christians whenever possible, despite the assurances given by the chief minister when delegations meet him to apprise him of the latest incident.  In one such particularly blatant case, a church in Raipur was vandalised during a Sunday worship in March this year. A protest was sent to the government. Ten days later, on March 17, the Municipal Corporation gave a demolition notice to a Pentecostal church alleging had been built illegally and was an encroachment on land to which it had no right. The Chhatisgarh Christian groups collected over a thousand Christians for a sit-in protest, forcing the government to withdraw the order. 

In February, a pastor was beaten during a prayer meeting, while two months earlier a group of activists from Bajrang Dal demolished a new church in Korba. 

In neighbouring Madhya Pradesh, which has topped the list of anti-Christian violence two years in a row now, the latest incident is of  Bajrang Dal members bringing the police with them to stop church wedding in Satna alleging that the bride and the groom had been unlawfully converted to Christianity. As the Indian Express reported,  the Kolgawan police constables entered the Church of God in India and arrested 10 people, including pastor Sam Samuel and the groom’s parents.  CSP (Satna) Sitaram Yadav alleged that the bride was a minor as she was 10 days short of turning 18. Satna SP Mithilesh Shukla also agreed with Bajrang Dal claiming that the girl was “Hindu.” The groom, 24-year-old Ajay Kushwaha, works with a private firm. Besides Sections 3 and 4 of the Madhya Pradesh Freedom of Religion Act, police have invoked IPC Section 295 (A) (deliberate and malicious act intended to outrage religious feelings) and Section 14 of the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act. 

Mr.  Mariyosh Joseph, speaking on behalf of the church congregation,  denied the charges rubbishing them as false. He said the bride and groom were Christians adding that the Bajrang Dal and the RSS were behind the complaint.
(The author is a journalist, occasional documentary film maker and social activist)

See also
1. Diversity Threatened: 177 Cases of Violence against Christians in 2015
2. Dialogue with the deaf?

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A recent news report (‘Now, RSS plans to launch a Christian outfit’; The Times of India, January 4, 2016) has taken the Christian community in India by storm. The report quotes Indresh Kumar, senior pracharak, member of the national executive and margdarshak (guide) of the Muslim Rashtriya Manch as saying: “On December 17, 4-5 Archbishops, 40-50 Reverend Bishops from across 10 to 12 states met and it was decided to build a movement. This is preparing the ground to lay the seeds for an organisation.” According to the report, the proposed organisation, likely to be named Rashtriya Isai Manch, is to work along the lines of the Rashtriya Muslim Manch. The supposed aim is to build “goodwill” among India’s Christians.
 
The report also mentions that while addressing a Christmas celebration organised by the Catholic Bishops Conference of India in December, Union home minister, Rajnath Singh assured Christians that he would not let any "injustice" happen to them. Singh added that he was deeply hurt by the attacks on churches in the year before. This was followed a few days later by Union finance minister Arun Jaitley hosting clergy and professionals from the Christian community at a gathering which was attended, among others, by Cardinal Oswal Gracias, who is a member of Pope Francis' advisory council.

In short, Indian Christians are being wooed simultaneously by the RSS and top ministers in the government led by Narendra Modi, the sangh parivar’s preferred candidate for the the prime ministerial chair. It is curious, to say the least, that the man chosen by the RSS to be the face of the proposed Christian outfit, Kumar, is the same person who stands accused of instigating the most widespread and vicious anti-Christian violence in 300 years – Kandhamal, Odisha during 2007-08 and whose name has also figured in ‘saffron terror’ cases.
 
What’s going on here? Why this sudden love and affection for a community which has been demonised and repetedly targeted, especially since the late 1990s? Is this a fresh RSS hoax or a case of naivete among a few church members? How does RSS propose “to build bridges of goodwill with the Christian community”? What, if any, was the outcome of the several dialogues with the Church in the recent past? Does RSS have some hidden agenda behind such dialogues? How does the Church respond to the idea of an RSS-inspired Christian outfit? While the top Church leadership is yet to respond to the proposal of launching an RSS-friendly Christian outfit, let us try to understand what is behind the proposed launching of this outfit and the possible options before the Church.

The series of attacks on adivasi Christians in Gujarat in 1998 rattled and unnerved the peace-loving Christian community in India. The Church leadership did not know how to respond to these diabolical attacks. The Church leaders’ prime concern for the protection of the members forced them to have direct talks with the leaders of the perpetrators rather than the state actors (the latter, in many cases, were hand-in-glove with the former).

 
Talking peace with the bully
The Church in India has and continues to contribute to nation building, especially in the sphere of education and health care of the marginalised groups. The Church’s humanitarian response to all disasters, whether man-made or natural, remains unparallelled. Yet, in recent years the sangh parivar has repeatedly targeted the community with hate campaigns, physical attacks and intimidation, questioned the intention behind the services provided by the Church for the marginalised groups as never before.
 
The series of attacks on adivasi Christians in Gujarat in 1998 rattled and unnerved the peace-loving Christian community in India. The Church leadership did not know how to respond to these diabolical attacks. The Church leaders’ prime concern for the protection of the members forced them to have direct talks with the leaders of the perpetrators rather than the state actors (the latter, in many cases, were hand-in-glove with the former).
 
Thus began the story of dialogue between Church groups and the sangh parivar in December 1998. Those who participated in the first conference included the then BJP president Shashikant 'Kushabhau' Thakre, RSS joint general secretary KS Sudershan, BJP general secretary Narendra Modi on one hand and Catholic Bishops Conference of India president Archbishop Alan de Lastic of Delhi, Archbishop Aruldas James of Madras, Evangelical Fellowship of India general secretary Richard Howell, the Church of North India's Sushma Ramaswamy, All-India Association of Christian Higher Education director Mani Jacob, Indian Social Institute director Father Ambrose Pinto and All-India Catholic Union national secretary John Dayal on the other.
 
A vicious cycle
Archbishop Alan De Lastic who led the first dialogue with the BJP-RSS for the protection of the community was quick to realise the futility of the talks. At a meeting immediately after the dialogue, he told the then home minister LK Advani: “The dialogues with the sangh parivar would serve no purpose unless there was an immediate end to the physical and verbal violence against the community, particularly in Gujurat”. “What I have noticed is that ever since this government (BJP-led NDA) came to power at the Centre, the attacks on the Christians and Christian missionaries have increased,” he added.
 
Of equal concern was the NDA government's wilful refusal to condemn the violence, the fact that as home minister Advani was not living up to his oath of office (do right to all manner of people in accordance with the Constitution and the law without fear or favour, affection or ill-will). But the official response was: “There is no law and order problem in Gujarat”. Alan de Lastic’s untimely car accident in Poland in June 2000 left a void.
 
The chart below clearly shows how dialogues between the Church and the sangh parivar have not resulted in any let up in the attacks against Christians:
 

 
As indicated above, dialogue after dialogue continued over the years at different levels. But it meant nothing for the Christian community which was under relentless attack even, as the RSS laid claim to ongoing dialogues with the Church. Chaos was evident among the Church groups as some unknown faces with varied interest holding dialogues with the RSS and claiming positive outcomes. But for the RSS, it was simply a joy ride. Meeting a few self-serving individuals/fronts and Church associates at different locations, billing them as Church-RSS meets were too part of their strategies. The only use of these dialogues was to lend credence to the pretence of BJP leaders in government that the attacks on Christians were the handiwork of anti-social elements unrelated to the sangh parivar. As the dialogue drama unfolded, Christians who had participated in them despite their reluctance and apprehensions realised that the RSS was not at all serious and that it could not meet the community expectations.
 
In 2002, the Kerala Council of Churches, affiliated to the National Council of Churches of India (NCCI), urged its parent body to reassess the process of dialogue. “The strategy adopted by the RSS for a dialogue with churches, the committee observed, “appeared to be intended to divide the churches”.
 
A year earlier, Bishop Thomas Mar Athanasius, president, Ecumenical Study and Dialogue Centre flayed the move for a dialogue between the CBCI-NCCI and the RSS arguing that those entering into a dialogue with the RSS were only weakening their credibility to speak on behalf of the Christian community.
 
Seeing through the hidden agenda
Fr. Ambrose Pinto, former director of Indian Social Institute, New Delhi, one of the delegates for the first-ever meeting between top Church and RSS leaders held in 1998 sees the future of any further Church-RSS meet thus: “First of all, we need to know:  a) what RSS stands for, b) why is the RSS saying what it is saying? c) the difference between its propaganda and facts, and d) in case Christians join them, do those Christians represent us? Understanding the nature of the fascist organisation, we should resist them as a community in solidarity with the prople of goodwill”. Would he like to be part of any future dialogue? “I was a reluctant participant. I did not want to be there. Even at that meet, I was one of those who spoke against their designs. I shall never join any kind of dailogue with RSS. You cannot dialogue with fascists”.
 
Says John Dayal, one of the delegates for the first Church-RSS dialogue: “To the parivar, there is only one mantra. Stop Conversions, and everything will end. To the sangh parivar, a dialogue is a monologue in which it speaks its mind, and the other has to take it or lump it. After all, Christianity is all about dialogue, both within the church and outside. Parivar spokespersons keep on repeating the same old manufactured lies like a Goebblesian zombie. If any single community, Sikh or Christian or Muslim, thinks it can reach a bilateral peace with the sangh parivar, it is only deceiving itself, and allowing the parivar to buy time”.
 
As the above chart shows for the RSS dialogue was mere pretense. The dialogues were punctuated with increasing violence year after year. The worst ever violence against Christians in India in 300 years was in Orissa in 2007-08 which continued unabated for over four months. It took nearly four years for the displaced adivasi and dalit Christians to return to their homes; even today there are several villagers where the forcibly displaced are not able to return eight years after the carnage.

The only use of these dialogues was to lend credence to the pretence of BJP leaders in government that the attacks on Christians were the handiwork of anti-social elements unrelated to the sangh parivar. As the dialogue drama unfolded, Christians who had participated in them despite their reluctance and apprehensions realised that the RSS was not at all serious and that it could not meet the community expectations.
 
While the dialogue was underway, the sangh parivar stepped up its hate campaign and violence against the Christian community. It is important to reflect why the earlier dialogues have failed to yield results. What are the issues that the RSS and the Church bring to the table? The RSS is quite clear about its agenda as has been articulated both in words (media) and actions (violence). As for the Church, it is still debatable whether it does or does not want any further dialogue. If yes, for what purpose and towards what end?
 
No one should be confused about what the RSS stands. There are certain key issues on which the sangh parivar’s stand is consistent and clear. The real agenda behind the so-called dialogue it seeks with Christians is to browbeat the community into meekly concurring with its ‘non-negotiable’ stands on these issues. These are repeatedly articulated through its mouthpiece, the Organiser. Here below are just a few examples:
 
Hindutva on conversions: ‘anti-national’ act
 

• Ram Madhav, spokesperson of RSS and general secretary of BJP calls for dismantling the evangelical establishment in the Organiser, November 2, 2008)

 
“Evangelists are subverting Indian culture… conversion, especially in tribal areas, leads to demographic disturbances which in turn lead to resentment and violence.”

• (Late) MV Kamath, sangh parivar ideologue in the Organiser, November 2, 2008.

 
“Conversion is an act of violence… Religious conversion destroys centuries-old communities and incites communal violence. It is violence and it breeds violence.”

• Swami Dayanand Saraswati in an ‘Open Letter’ to Pope John Paul II in the Organiser, October 1999.

 
“Conversions ban [are] a national necessity… Conversions are resorted to for political reasons and not for faith. There is, therefore, absolute justification for imposing a ban on free conversions. Lawlessness in India has taken place whenever the governments have failed the people to satisfy their legitimate feelings”.

• Swami Asangananda Bharati, director, Himalayan International Institute of Yoga Science and Philosophy, in the Organiser, January 9, 2005.

 
“They went away (to other religion) because of some allurement and thus there is nothing wrong in bringing them back to original fold… It is like a thief who steals our valuables. The thief is caught and we will get our valuables back. They are ours.”

• RSS Supremo Mohan Bhagwat, in The Hindu, December 21, 2014.

 
“Is conversion necessary? Will any country allow changes in its demographic character?”

•  Union home minister, Rajnath Singh signalling the central government’s willingness for an anti-conversion law, PIB release, March 23, 2015.

 
“An aggressive campaign is required for ghar wapsi of those Hindus who had converted to other religions in the past.”

• BJP’s Lok Sabha MP, Yogi Adityanath, at a conference ‘Dharmantaran Rashtranataran Hai’ (Religious conversion is the same as change of nationality) at Gorakhnath Temple in Gorakhpur. It was announced that BJP MPs Yogi Adityanath and Tarun Vijay will introduce private member bills in the the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha respectively to stop religious conversions and debate the issue in next session of the Parliament, in The Indian Express, September 27, 2015.

 
Hindutva on affirmative action for minorities: vehement opposition
 
The denial of justice to the Dalit Christians and Muslims goes against the letter and spirit of Articles 14, 15, 16 and 25 of the Constitution of India on equal justice, equal opportunities and freedom of religion. Both Ranganath Mishra Commission and Sachar Committee reports address the anamoly in denying reservation meant for Scheduled Castes to Christian and Muslim Dalits. The sangh parivar however remains vehemently opposed to any affirmative action, as is evident from the writings and statements of its leaders, spokespersons and ideologues:
 
“The Ranganath Misra Commission’s report is… a sinister, treasonous conspiracy… it is the UPA’s gift to the Vatican and the Pakistani-Arab sponsors of jehad. It is on the verge of capitulating to a notorious paedophile organisation, masquerading as a religious dispensation and the licentious, Islamist criminals enthroned by the British… For quite sometime now Christian evangelists and Islamist jehadis have been working overtime to subvert the Indian judiciary. They want to disempower it and for real decision-making authority to reside with suborned politicians ready to facilitate the rapid ensnaring of Indian society… If reservations (for Scheduled Castes) are extended to Christians and Muslims a no-holds-barred campaign of bribery and chicanery will commence to entice underprivileged Hindus into their political fold. At present Hindus are harder to lure because Hindu society legislated reservations to help them overcome historic disadvantages. The Islamo-Christian calculation is that an extraordinary opportunity to finish Hindus off is at hand”.

• Dr. Gautam Sen, member, steering committee, World Hindu Economics Forum; president, World Association of Hindu Academicians in the Organiser, January 31, 2010.

 
“If perverted reports like those of Justices like Sachar and Ranganath Misra indulge in travesty of justice, who will save the law of the motherland? Ours is a nation governed by the will of the people. These justices may come and go, the nation is inexorably an essential unity, adhering to only one global ethic – dharma.  Sachar and Ranganath Misra have done a signal disservice to the integrity and unity of the nation by promoting a sectarian view, which will not achieve an integrally developed Bharat with equal opportunities for everyone to realise his or her full potential”.

• Dr S Kalyanaraman, in the Organiser, January 31, 2010.

 
“Minorities cannot ask for caste quotas. If either Christians or Muslims accept and practice caste discrimination amongst themselves, the conversion process among such groups or individuals should be legally declared to be inadequate and incomplete. In other words, they may be declared as non-Christians and non-Muslims and asked to either complete the process of their transformation to the new faith, or return to the Hindu fold. There can be no half-way house in this matter”.

• Sandhya Jain, Hindutva ideologue, in the Organiser, July 23, 2006.

 
“The need to strip converts of quota regime: The Kendriya Sarna Samiti (KSS) asserts that tribal converts no longer belong to the Scheduled Tribe as they have renounced their traditional identity as a sine qua non of the conversion process”.

•  Sandhya Jain, Hindutva ideologue, in the Organiser, September 3, 2006.

 
Cannibalizing Hindu society: Evangelicals have jealously sought access to the caste-based reservation benefits of Hindu depressed classes. They saw their chance when the Mandal Commission listed some ‘Muslim castes’ among the OBCs. Political parties were too short-sighted to challenge this dangerous opening, and Christians began to lobby for SC/ST benefits for ‘Dalit Christians’.”

• Sandhya Jain, Hindutva ideologue, in the Organiser, June 3, 2007.

 
“Enough is enough! Stop looting! Don’t try patience of Hindus: Why should Hindu tax-payers pay for vicious design by Islamic fanatics? Why should Hindu SCs, OBCs and STs and other meritorious Hindus allow Muslims and Christians to snatch their school/college seats, jobs, loans, lands and political rights?… STs converted to Christianity should not be allowed to retain and enjoy their ST reservations. Articles 25 to 30, minority privileges should be cancelled”.

• Pravin Togadia, VHP leader, in the Organiser, January 31, 2010.

 
“It is the story of another anti-Hindu policy of Orissa government, which is going to create an explosive situation… Levinus Kindo, IAS, the member of state board of revenue, has issued a circular to all the collectors that during his last tour of the tribal areas, he found that the tribal Christians (tribal converted to Christianity) are being deprived of getting proper benefit as they are being recorded as only Christians in the government records and in their respective Record of Rights (RoR) too… ‘Such an illegal and anti-national circular of Orissa government will encourage the missionary to undertake more conversions in the tribal areas. Christians will enjoy double privilege as tribals along with their present religion, says Sarat Chandra Sarangi, state general secretary of VHP, Orissa while expressing his reaction on the issue’.”

• Debasis Tripathy, in the Organiser, May 15, 2005.

Hindutva on secularism: ‘a façade for anti-Hinduism’
 
For the ideologues and votaries of Hindutva, secularism is a dirty word:
 
“Secularism has degenerated as the backbone of terrorists & evangelists: This India had to be a Hindu India. The ideology of Indian secularism, misconceived from the very outset, has become the backbone of Islamic jihad and fundamentalist evangelism. The one is committing mass murder, the other attempting to transform India’s cultural and political landscape in order to reimpose foreign rule over it”.

• Dr.Gautam Sen, president, World Association of Hindu Academicians, in the Organiser, November 2, 2008.

 
“Secularism: A facade for anti-Hinduism: We became enamoured of the word secular because of our contact with the Britishers during their 150 years rule or because of our association and appreciation of the British polity… Why are not Pakistan and Bangladesh secular states?”

• MG Vaidya, all-India Prachar Pramukh, RSS, in the Organiser, October 12, 2008.

 
“For RSS, secularism is irrelevant in India: The perversion of the concept of secularism has resulted in the terming of nationalists as communal and people with communal thinking being hailed as secular. Saffron should have been the only colour on the national flag as other colours represented a communal thought.”

• MG Vaidya, all-India Prachar Pramukh, RSS, in The Indian Express, September 20, 2015.

 
“Rajnath is right. Secularism has become communal”.

• Shyam Khosla, on the then BJP president, Rajnath Singh calling for  a national debate on secularism, in the Organiser, June 15, 2008.

 
“Secularism is the most misused word in the country…This must stop. Because of the rampant misuse of the word, there have been instances of tension in society.”

• Rajnath Singh, Union home minister, NDTV, November 26, 2015.

 
Issue after issue of the Organiser is splashed with headlines such as ‘Secularism as insulting Hindus’, ‘Obnoxious application of secularism’. The media and secular groups who ‘dare’ to spoke out against anti-Christian or anti-Muslim atrocities are severely castigated for alleged “minority appeasement” and “pseudo-secularism”.
 
 
Hindutva on India’s minorities: ‘Your Safety lies in our goodwill’
 
“Hindutva is facing severe jolts all over the world. Muslim fundamentalists and Christian missionaries are the age old enemies of Hinduism. Next to them the communists have come forward to squeeze the throat of this great way of life. They have also walked a long way in this deadly mission”

• Jagadguru Swami Sri Nischalananda Saraswatiji of Puri (Odisha) Govardhan Peetham, one of the four Sankaracharyas, in the Organiser, June 18, 2006.

 
“Minorities must have good relations with the majority for their safety”.

• (Former) RSS Chief KC Sudarshan, talking to the media after a dialogue with Christian leaders, in The Times of India, March 22, 2002.

 
“Unravelling the poisonous power of discourse: The UPA government made a great communal leap when it formed the Ministry of Minority Affairs… The creation of National Commission for Minorities is another instance of communalism… The Sachar Committee’s functioning needs to be probed… it has violated not only its terms and references but created a poisonous atmosphere. The recommendations are not [only] communal and divisive [but] a complete retreat to hey days of the Muslim Leagues’ politics”.

• Rakesh Sinha, RSS ideologue, in the Organiser, January 31, 2010. 

 
Hindutva on the Vatican: Pope a ‘dacoit’
 
“Conversion to Christianity in the pretext of service, health, education and co-operation is an insult and devaluation to the service itself and a crime against humanity… It proves that your services are selfish motivated and expansionist as well as intolerant… In all the states, districts, areas where the Christian missionaries are active and powerful, the hatred, crime, social unrest, separatism, addiction are on the increase and the environment of peace, harmony, brotherhood and happiness are fading away”.

• Indresh Kumar, in an open letter addressed by him to Pope Benedict XVI, reported by the Organiser, October 19, 2008.

 
“The pontiff, who is a dacoit, cannot be India’s guest”.

• VHP vice-president Acharya Giriraj Kishore in a scathing attack on Pope John Paul II, in The Telegraph, October 29, 1999.

 
“Christianity inherited this [Roman] instinct of cruelty. The Pope wants to convert us Hindus into Christianity. The West wants to have control over our destiny. Can we allow these things to happen?”

• MSN Menon, in the Organiser, March 20, 2005.

. 
Hindutva’s advise to Christians: set up Indian nationalistic churches 
 
“Indian Christians must free themselves from from the stranglehold of foreign countries by setting up Indian nationalistic churches."

• KS Sudarshan, RSS sarsanghchalak (chief), at an RSS rally in Agra. A few days earlier, Sudarshan had argued that this was essential in the interests of national security; in The Washington Times, October 18, 2000.

 
“Church is an arm of the West's defence forces. It has been used to guide Christians into domestic as well as international politics”.

• KS Sudarshan, RSS sarsanghchalak (chief), at an RSS rally in Agra, in the Fontline.

 
“An Indian Christianity not just desirable, it is a must: Indian Christians must purge their faith of… imperial distortions… Indian Christians must leave this tradition of violence. They are legatees of the Indian (Vedic) tradition of love (of humanity as a family) and the Buddhist tradition of compassion. But this also happens to be the tradition of Jesus. Christianity was born as a religion of love. Today it is a religion of hatred. This must be a matter of concern to Indian Christians. Only the guidance of a lofty world view such as that of Vedanta can release them from their predicament. Only they can save Christianity’.

• MSN Menon, in the Organiser, July 29, 2007.

 
The above quotes are just a few examples, taken mostly from the RSS mouthpiece, Organiser, which clearly shows the hostility of the sangh parivar towards the principles and values enshrined in the Indian Constitution, demonisation of Christianity and Islam, animosity and hostility towards’s the country’s Christians and Muslims. There is nothing new here.
 
The term Hindutva was coined by Vikram D Savarkar leader of the Hindu Mahasabha a century ago. In his book with the same title, he had argued that India belongs only to those for whom the country was both a pitrubhoomi (fatherland) and punya bhoomi (holy land). Madhav S Golwalker, the second and the longest serving sarsanghchalak (chief) of the RSS (1940-1973) in its 90-year-old history, till date remains the most revered ‘Guru’ of the sangh privar. In his book We, or our nationhood defined first published in 1939, had also asserted that non-Hindus may at best aspire to continue living in his imagined Hindu Rashtra as second class citizens. In the early 1960s, he had identified Muslims, Christians and communists as the three “internal enemies” who are far more dangerous than external enemies and Hindus must guard against them.  
 
Thus, what the leadership and the ideologues argue of the sangh parivar argue today, as may be seen from statements and writings such as those referred to above lie spring from the core ideas of Hindutva formulated a century ago. Even today, the sangh parivar remains committed to turning secular-democratic India in to a Hindu Rashtra.
 
As in case of the Rashtriya Muslim Manch, through the institution of the proposed Rashtriya Isai Manch, the sangh parivar wants to create a forum of RSS-friendly Christians to legitimise its anti-Constitution, anti-secular democratic, anti-minorities world views. It is important to recall that the Rashtriya Muslim Manch was floated in the aftermath of the anti-Muslim pogrom of 2002 in Gujarat under the watch of then chief minister Narendra Modi and the proclamation by the RSS top leadership that Muslims must have cordial relations with Hindus in the interests of their own safety. It is no less important to remember who Indresh Kumar, the man who is being projected as the RSS face for the proposed Christian front, is. For the Survivors Association of Kandhamal (SAK), Odisha, he along with VHP leader, PravinTogadia are the masterminds of the 2008 mass crimes against the state’s Christians. 
 
Church for combating Fanaticism and fundamentalism
Contrary to the sangh parivar’s baseless allegations of forced or induced conversions, the Church promotes the idea of “building bridges of friendship with the followers of all religions, in order to seek the true good of every person and of society as a whole”. But it also warns against the dangers of religious intolerance, fundamentalism and extremism.
 
In 2013, Cardinal Tauran, president of Justice and Peace Commission affirmed that religious freedom was a sacred and inalienable right, convinced that to deny or limit religious freedom in an arbitrary fashion means cultivating a reductive vision of the human person and rendering impossible the affirmation of an authentic and lasting peace for the whole human family.
 
During his visit to Turkey in 2014, Pope Francis stated: “Fanaticism and fundamentalism, as well as irrational fears which foster misunderstanding and discrimination, need to be countered by the solidarity of all believers. Inter-religious and inter-cultural dialogue can make an important contribution to attaining this lofty and urgent goal, so that there will be an end to all forms of fundamentalism and terrorism which gravely demean the dignity of every man and woman and exploit religion.
 
Cardinal Parolin, Vatican’s secretary of state is not quite optimistic about the dialogue with fundamentalists: “I don’t think that it’s possible to dialogue with fundamentalists. One can offer to dialogue, but I don’t see many opportunities of establishing a dialogue”.
 
Final Comments
Should the Church join hands with those who believe in a just, equitable and diverse world or should they seek security from communal, hate-filled and violent groups that demonise other religious traditions? This is a very important moment in history when the Church could and should join eminent writers, thinkers, academicians, film makers and civil society who speak for the overwhelming majority of all Indians and who believe in a secular democratic polity which protects and promotes the equal rights and freedoms of all citizens, including the right to freedom of religion. Of course, the Church could and should also engage in dialogue with Hindu religious leaders too. But nothing is to be gained in cozying up with the wolves of the sangh privar parading about in sheep’s clothing.
 
ajaysingho@gmail.com

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Fr.Cedric Prakash, Director, PRASHANT – Centre for human rights, justice and peace Spokesperson – Gujarat United Christian Forum for Human Rights
 
For almost a week now, the Gujarat Police have been knocking on the doors of Christian institutions and families all over the State asking a series of high objectionable questions.

In almost every case, thae police have been coming without any authorization and are at a loss to say who has sent them and for what the answers are required.

In the single instance (in Modasa, Sabarkantha District), the police with great difficulty furnished in writing (Gujarati – rather illegible) their questionnaire as follows : To: All Thana Amaldhar In DPO, CPI, Himatnagar No. L1B/M/03 dated 2/3/2003 Send information (between 1998 and 2003) about Christians of your area to this information centre or the State Government as per the paper (Patrak) by 3/3/2003 4.00 p.m.

1.
2  Year
3. No. of Christians at the beginning of the year.
4. Change of religion, area or village.
5. No. of people increased during the year.
6. No. of natural births (No. of increase)
8. Marriage of Christians with people from other religion.
9. Reasons for people migrating to – from your district or area.
10. Total No. of Christians (approx. from A to B)
11. Special note. “

The police (special branch, Ahmedabad) also visited our centre PRASHANT. Among the questions asked were :
a) who is the head of the institution ?
b) what are the activities of the institution ?
c) from where does the money come ? etc.

The police have also visited several Christian families all over and the questions related specifically to conversionand whether they were forcibly converted. In some families the police arrived there almost at midnight. Many of these families feel absolutely intimidated and harassed and are afraid even to speak about the trauma that they have gone through. In Modasa, a tribal Christian was called to the police station for long hours of interrogation.

Reports which keep coming in are from all parts of Gujarat…Sabarkantha, Banaskantha, Kutch, Rajkot, Ahmedabad, Baroda, Panchmahals and different parts of South Gujarat. This activity of the police is not merely discriminatory but highly unlawful and unconstitutional. In 1999, when the State Government decided to do a census on the Muslims and Christians, a suo moto order by Justice M. R. Calla of the Gujarat High Court very clearly stated that there cannot be a religion-wise or community-wise targeting of a particular group.

The Home Minister of Gujarat, Mr. Amit Shah in an interview to NDTV on March 10, 03 admitted that such a survey is taking place in Gujarat. This discriminatory survey of the police on the Christians is just another sign of the way minorities and other vulnerable communities in this State are being targeted and victimized. It needs to be condemned by all sections of civil society.            

10th March 2003

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The recent decision of the government of Gujarat to lift the long–standing ban on government servants being members of the RSS has aroused much controversy. Many, already distressed by the policies of the state government of encouraging extremist Hindu parties, have seen it as yet another instance of a fanatical fascist group using its power to destroy the secular basis of our country. Others see nothing wrong in the decision; why not let civil servants belong to a party, they say, particularly as several ministers belong to, or are sympathetic to that very party?

A dispassionate discussion of this issue is called for. The issues involve a consideration of our Constitution, and the basic underlying principles of our parliamentary democracy.

Our Constitution declares that India is to be a secular republic. The Supreme Court has held that secularism is a basic feature of the Constitution which cannot be amended. What secularism means has been the discussed by the Supreme Court in the famous Bommai Case, when a large bench of the Supreme Court upheld the dismissal of several BJP–controlled state governments after the demolition of the Babri Masjid. Some observations in the judgements delivered in that case deserve to be quoted:

"Under our Constitution … religion cannot be mixed with any secular activities of the state. In fact, the encroachment of religion into secular activities is strictly prohibited."

"In matters of State, religion has no place."

"The Constitution does not recognise, does not permit, mixing religion and state power. Both must be kept apart."

The Constitution contains fundamental rights which include the right to freedom of speech and the right to freedom of association. These rights are not absolute, and can be curtailed in appropriate cases in the interests of public order or the integrity of India. The Constitution also contains Article 25 which confers on all citizens the right to profess, practice and propagate the religion of their choice, and it is settled law that whilst conversions from one religion to another by threats or inducement can be prohibited, voluntary conversions cannot be restricted.

Our Constitution also contains a chapter on fundamental duties under which all citizens are under a duty to abide by the Constitution and respect its ideals and institutions, to uphold and protect the sovereignty, integrity and unity of India, and to promote the harmony and spirit of common brotherhood among the people of India transcending differences of religion, language, etc. These fundamental duties cannot be directly enforced, but are relevant in determining the legality and constitutionality of laws and restrictions on fundamental rights.

Government servants do not cease to be citizens, and have the right to enjoy fundamental rights, but restrictions can be imposed on their enjoyment of such rights which are necessary in the interests of the sovereignty or integrity of India.

We are a parliamentary democracy. This is also a basic feature of our Constitution. In a parliamentary democracy, power is enjoyed by a council of ministers which commands the majority support in the legislature. The ministers run the country with the assistance of the vast civil service which is permanent; the civil service does not change with a change in the government. It is expected to conscientiously discharge its duties, and execute the policies determined by the ministers. Parliamentary democracy cannot function efficiently unless the civil service is, and remains, wholly independent or impartial. The whole system would break down if members of the civil service get identified with political parties as they could not possibly execute the policies of another, rival, political party. Any identification of the civil service with a political party is also dangerous as there is then every likelihood of the politically inclined civil service using the machinery of the State, and its vast resources, to favour that political party.

A compromise has generally been struck between ensuring, on the one hand, an independent and impartial civil service, and ensuring that the civil servants themselves can enjoy the basic rights of citizens such as the right to vote, and the right even to belong to political parties. The right to belong to a political party enjoyed by civil servants is not, however, absolute, and must be restricted in the interests of parliamentary democracy and secularism.

The position in England is instructive. Civil servants generally cannot belong to organisations which are committed to overthrow or undermine parliamentary democracy. Even as far as ordinary and democratic parties are concerned, a civil servant cannot publicly support any political party or its policies.

As we also are a parliamentary democracy, the principles followed in England are instructive. We also have to constantly bear in mind the basic principles of our Constitution and the fundamental duties imposed on all citizens. Obviously, government servants must discharge the same duties, and the obligation on them to do so is greater, as they occupy a pivotal position in the State.

Whilst government servants in India can undoubtedly belong to political parties which are committed to parliamentary democracy, and secularism, they cannot be allowed to belong to a political party which is committed to the very opposite. Let me give an illustration. Would the government of Gujarat allow its government servants to belong to an organisation, which recommends that Junagadh should be handed over to Pakistan, or the government of India allow its government servants to belong to organisations which recommend an independent Nagaland? Clearly not.

In fact any such political parties would be working against the integrity of India which it is the duties of all citizens, including government servants, to uphold. Any government which does not prohibit government servants from being in any way associated with such parties would be failing in its duty.

Suppose we have a political party, which proclaims that Hindus are bigoted and full of superstition, and should not be employed in public service. Surely, propagation of that point of view does the very opposite of what the Constitution enjoins as a fundamental duty on all citizens; not only does it not promote harmony amongst people belonging to different religions, it does its best to bring about discord and disharmony. If ordinary citizens do this, it is, to say the least, unfortunate. If, however, a government servant does it, it may well have calamitous consequences, as whatever he says would, at least in the minds of very many people, particularly those who are not well-educated, and live in rural areas, carry behind it the weight of official approval. Government servants must, like Caesar’s wife, be above suspicion. That is why there has to be imposed a much higher standard of care and circumspection on all government servants than on ordinary citizens. They cannot be permitted to be associated with any political party which is associated with any policy which destroys or threatens the integrity or unity of India or inter–religious harmony.

What is the RSS? It is not like other political parties. Historically, let us not forget, people of the RSS–mindset were responsible for the heinous murder of the greatest Indian of modern times, Mahatma Gandhi. Gandhiji has been, and is, revered all over the world, but many members of the RSS are still full of praise for those who murdered him. The RSS is a group of people who are fascist in their thinking, and openly recommend the substitution of our parliamentary democracy and secular republic. Many of their policies are violently anti–Muslim, and, of late, particularly in the state of Gujarat, viciously anti–Christian. It is impossible to be a member of the RSS and also abide by the fundamental duty of every citizen, that is, to abide by the Constitution, or to respect its ideals and institutions, or to promote harmony and brotherhood between Hindus and Muslims or Hindus and Christians. Further, a member of the RSS, if also a government servant, cannot by reason of the very tenets of the RSS keep the Hindu religion and state power apart. The long-standing ban on membership of the RSS and other communal organisations, was, therefore, right.

For any state government to allow government servants to belong to the RSS or, indeed, to any communal or secessionist organisation, would be wrong. The ban has been in force for many years. For a government run by the BJP, which has close links with the RSS, to revoke the ban is doubly wrong. It is favouring its own party, and jeopardising the impartiality and independence of the civil service. It is sending a message to the whole State, and in particular, to the citizens belonging to the minorities, that the whole State government will be run as the RSS wants.

Archived from Communalism Combat, February 2000. Year 7  No, 56, Controversy
 

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