Weeks after two Catholic nuns, and two young women who want to study to be nuns, were harassed, intimidated at Jhansi in Uttar Pradesh, marched to a police station on false accusations by a big Hindutva mob, the police have arrested two men in connection with the crime. According to a report in the Telegraph, the two men arrested are both members of Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) and Bajrang Dal, groups that fall under the broader Sangh Parivar, and were a part of the massive mob that was seen on a video clip harassing the four women in the train, and at the Jhansi station.

According to the report, the GRP “hurriedly registered a case against Jhansi district VHP general secretary Anchal Adjaria and district Bajrang Dal vice-president Purukesh Amarya and arrested them.” Adjaria and Amarya had rushed to Jhansi Junction after receiving calls from the ABVP youths and allegedly “told the GRP they had confirmed information that the women were involved in conversions,” stated news reports.

The Hindutva mob was said to have consisted of men, reportedly from the Bajrang Dal forced their way into a train and harassed the nuns and the young women passengers travelling together. The senior nuns were in their ‘habit’ or traditional nun’s uniform that identified them as members of a  congregation, the young women, who were soon to join a convent were in regular salwar kameez. The mob harassed the women, accused the nuns of conversion and demanded that the police remove them from the train. The police complied. The nuns were marched to a police station, even as the mob continued heckling them. They were later released when they ‘proved their innocence’ as it were and showed the relevant papers that were sent from their headquarters in Delhi. 

However, the March 19 crime was widely reported and became a talking point in poll-bound Kerala. The video clip went viral and the message reached the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) loud and clear. At an election rally in Kerala Union Home Minister Amit Shah assured “strong action” soon after Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan wrote to him and raised the issue. He had said, “I want to assure the people of Kerala that the culprits behind this incident will be brought to justice at the earliest”.  Shah had been alerted on the matter BJP’s Kanjirappally Assembly candidate K J Alphonse who had submitted a memorandum addressed to Shah stating, “Such incidents perpetrated by fringe elements and groups create a sense of insecurity in our minority community.” According to a report in the Indian Express, Kerala BJP general secretary George Kurian had written to UP CM Yogi Adityanath on the issue. 

In a speech, Wayanad MP Rahul Gandhi, had said the harassment of the nuns was due to “the vicious propaganda run by the Sangh Parivar to pitch one community against another and trample the minorities”. 

Meanwhile, Bharatiya Janata Party politician, the Union Railway Minister Piyush Goyal had “dismissed” the allegations that the nuns and the postulants had been attacked in the train journey when it had halted at Jhansi, recently and alleged that Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan was “making false statements” on the issue. Goyal told a press conference in Kochi, Kerala that “There was no attack on any nun whatsoever…the Chief Minister of the state (Kerala) is completely lying and making false statements when he says that.” Goyal told the media that the local police acted after receiving a complaint against the nuns, “There was an allegation. Some people made a complaint (against the nuns). It is the duty of the police to find out whether the complaint is correct or wrong. Police made enquiries. Checked all their documents, made enquiries (to ensure) that they are genuine passengers going for the correct purpose and then immediately let them go.” He had also dismissed the allegations that the accused were student activists associated with the Sangh Parivar, saying, “That is absolutely wrong.”

Now, according to news reports only two persons have been arrested so far and the main accused — four ABVP members have not even been booked yet. The Telegraph reported that the Government Railway Police (GRP) force “eventually acted on Thursday night after a prod from Shah’s ministry to the state government.”

It was reported that the GRP had forced the four women off the Utkal Express and detained them for four hours at Jhansi Junction on March 19 on the false complaint from the four ABVP members, who were travelling on the same coach as the women. However the GRP are yet to explain why the four ABVP members who had allegedly bullied the women on the train, levelled the false allegation of conversions, and got the GRP to detain the quartet have not been arrested yet. 

According to Telegraph, senior officials on conditions of anonymity have admitted that the ABVP youths should “be booked for promoting hatred between religious groups — punishable by up to three years in jail” and added that the GRP officers who had acted “in haste” on their false complaint should face departmental action.

Related: 

Freedom of Religion and Christian minorities in India

Nuns’ matter, no small matter: an open letter to Amit Shah

Harassment of nuns in train at Jhansi  can become a major poll issue in Kerala 

Nuns harassment case: Catholic Union demands action against vigilantes, cops

UP’s Hindutva goons harass Catholic nuns, teens on Delhi-Orissa train

The post Nun harassment: Two Sangh Parivar members arrested, main accused still at large appeared first on SabrangIndia.

In the recently released report, Freedom House downgraded India from free to partly free due to the atmosphere of intolerance, treatment of journalists, protestors and religious minorities. The events of March 19, at Jhansi station more than reflect this fact. On March 19, two nuns belonging to Sacred Heart congregation, who were travelling from Delhi to Odisha with two postulants, were forced to de-board the train. Some Bajrang Dal/ABVP types alleged that the nuns, who were in their usual habit (nun’s uniform), were taking the girls for conversion. These vigilantes asked for Identity cards and religion of the teenaged postulants and the circulating video shows they were aggressive in their tone all through.

The postulants said that they are Christians and intend to become nuns. The police were brought in and four of these women were taken away by police, they were forced to de-board the train. They were permitted to travel again the next day after the intervention from the Bishop’s House. The frightening incident where the women had to face the male vigilantes and the male police personnel has sent the shock wave all around. A statement issued by Kerala Catholic Bishops Conference (KCBC) stated that nuns were taken into custody without any reason and humiliated. The KCBC also demanded suitable action against those who harassed the women. As the nuns are from his state, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan wrote to the Home Minister Amit Shah demanding intervention from him. Shah, who is incidentally facing elections in Kerala, has promised to look into the matter.

The ABVP/Bajrang Dal activists were quoting the UP anti conversion law and intimidating the women. Instances of ‘activists’ indulging in such actions have been increasing over the last few years. The sense of impunity is seeping in deep into these groups as they have seen that those indulging in such crimes are not only treated with kid gloves but often catch the eye of top leaders and are duly rewarded. While this incident has come to light; many priests have been facing similar problems for quite some time. ‘Persecution Relief’ report (2019) points out “The frequency of attacks on Christian’s gatherings is escalating to heights especially during Sunday morning worship service and house prayer meetings. Pastors and congregation members are beaten, sometimes so badly that they break their legs, vandalise the churches and the Hindu fundamentalists make reports to the police that these Christians are converting the people to Christ. Hundreds of Christians are being imprisoned on false charges of converting Hindus to Christianity.”

The ‘Freedom House’ report mentions the attacks on Muslims prominently, as the attacks on Muslims are very glaring, while those on Christians are generally sub-radar and reported less often. The very nature of anti-Christian violence in India beginning in the decades of 1990s has been a bit different. The first major act of anti Christian violence was the brutal burning of Pastor Graham Stewart Staines in 1999. Bajrang Dal’s Dara Singh (Rajendra Pal) who is currently in jail was the one who mobilised people saying Pastor Staines was a threat to Hinduism as he was allegedly converting the people on the pretext of treating Leprosy patients.

That time it was the NDA government led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee with Lal Krishna Advani as Home Minister. Initially Advani stated that it can’t be the work of a Bajrang Dal worker as he knows them well. The incident was so horrific that the President of India K.R. Narayanan lamented that the “Killings belong to World’s inventory of Black deeds.” Shaken by this, the NDA Government sent a top level ministerial team with Murli Manohar Joshi, George Fernandez and Navin Patnaik. The team opined that the killings were part of the International conspiracy to destabilise the NDA Government. At the same time Advani appointed Wadhava Commission to investigate the incident. Wadhava Commission concluded that Bajrang Dal Activist Dara Sing, who was also participating in other Vanavasi Kalyan Ashram, Vishwa Hindu Parishad type activities, was the culprit and that there is no statistical increase in the number of Christians in the area where Pastor Staines was working.

Later, we witnessed the regular occurrence of anti Christian violence in Adivasi areas of Dangs (Gujarat), Jhabua (Madhya Pradesh) and Odisha. Every year around Christmas time the anti Christian violence used to take place and the peak of this was the August 2008 Kandhamal Violence in which nearly hundred Christian lost their lives, hundreds of Churches were damaged or burnt and thousands of Christians were displaced. National People’s Tribunal headed by retired Chief Justice of Delhi High Court Justice A.P. Shah opined that “What happened in Kandhamal was a national shame, a complete defacement of humanity. …Survivors continue to be intimidated, denied protection and access to justice” .

The anti Christian violence has been preceded by a ceaseless propaganda that Christian Missionaries are getting huge foreign funding, and is doing the conversion work through fraud and allurement. All Christian denominations don’t operate on similar ground. There may be few who proclaim conversion to be their goal, but majority of the denominations are not out for canvassing for conversion or allurement. Indian Christianity is very old. One version telling us its beginning from AD 52, when St. Thomas arrived on Malabar Coast  and set up churches. Since then many missions are working in remote areas and also cities. Their primary work being in the sectors of health and education. Incidentally many leading lights of Hindutva nationalists like Advani and Jaitley have been products of Christian mission schools.

The major reason for this propaganda is to pose obstacles to the activities of missionaries in Adivasi areas in particular, where these activities are giving succor to the sick on one hand and empowering Adivasis through the work of education on the other. From the decades of 1980s the VHP/Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram has been focusing on the Adivasi belt where Swamis belonging to these organisations have been active, Aseemanand in Dangs, Gujarat, Laxmananand in Orissa, followers of Asaram Bapu in Jhabua, MP.

In these areas Shabri and Hanuman are also being promoted as icons of Adivasis and religiosity is being promoted along with anti-Christian propaganda. It is this propaganda which forms the root of violence and it is the electoral power at Center from last few years which encourages the vigilantes to do such acts as witnessed in Jhansi.

* 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:

Bid Curb Inter-faith marriages: Ruse to Restrict Women’s Freedom

Charlie Hebdo Cartoons and Blasphemy Laws in Contemporary Times

Was Mughal Rule the period of India’s Slavery?

Kashi- Mathura: Will temple politics be revived?

The post Freedom of Religion and Christian minorities in India appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Senior Journalist AJ Philip has written to Home Minister Amit Shah to draw his attention to the continued inaction from the authorities who are yet to share what action has been taken against the group of men, reportedly belonging to Hindutva groups who had forced their way into a train, harassed two Catholic nuns and two other young women travelling together, near Jhansi in Uttar Pradesh. The nuns were in their ‘habit’ or tradition nun’s dress with a headgear that identifies them as members of a congregation, the young women, who were going to join a convent were in regular salwar kameez. However at the sight of the Nuns, one of whom hails from Kerala, a group of men started hurling rude questions at them. The men alleged that this was a case of “forcible conversion” even though the young women said they were already Chritian, they and the nuns were all forced to deboard the train and the police took them to the police station for questioning. All the allegations made by the Hindutva mom were proven false and the nuns produced the paperwork and identifications they were asked to. 

This harassment and inaction has been condemned strongly by Christian rights’ and human rights’ activists, and by civil society at large.  The All India Catholic Union (AICU), 101 year old Laity movement in the country, called upon Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and Union Home Minister Amit Shah to take exemplary action against the vigilante group and the police personnel involved in the incident. The Chief minister of Kerala has also written to the Central government on the issue. The issue has also been raised in poll bound Kerala where Union Home Minister, Amit Shah, during his campaign said the criminals, “will be brought to justice.”

However, it has not been shared what action has been taken against the accused so far. No arrests have been reported yet. “As Union Home Minister, your job is also to ensure that every law-abiding person and his property is protected,” wrote Phitlip in his open letter to the HM. He explained who the two young passengers were: “Postulancy and Novitiates are periods of training and preparation that a prospective monastic, apostolic  or member of a religious order undergoes prior to taking vows in order to discern whether they are called to a vowed religious life. The nuns wanted the two postulants to be dropped at their homes in Odisha.”

He told the HM: “Since you do not travel by train, you may not be able to understand the agony they had when they were forced to break the journey. Come to think of it, the incident happened in a state ruled by a person who wears his religious dress. And it is his policemen who harassed the nuns for wearing their habit. Perhaps, they would not have earned the attention of your young cadres, if they had not worn their religious garb. Does it imply that Catholic nuns and priests should not, hereafter, wear their cassocks and habits when they are in public?”

He also called out BJP MP, KJ Alphons, “meekly submitting a memorandum to you to demand action when you visited his constituency to campaign for him” and asked if “the situation come to such a pass that a BJP MP has to ask the Union Home Minister to take action against the miscreants involved in the attack on the nuns.”

The letter which was first posted on the author’s Facebook page may be read here:

Dear Shri Amit Shah Ji, 

You are arguably, the busiest person in the country. 

With elections happening in states like Assam, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and Kerala, every minute of yours is invaluable. 

I read recently a graphic account of journalist Manoj Menon’s travel with you, while you were on your campaign trail. I was amazed by the meticulousness with which your journeys are planned and executed.

Two days ago, I went to Jhajjar in Haryana and returned to the Capital the same day. I know how tired I felt after the journey. I do not know how you keep yourself fit while hopping from one constituency in one state to another constituency in another state.

Now, imagine for a moment a group of people intercepting you and disrupting your schedule by forcibly taking you to a place you had not planned to visit. Let me use a simpler word. Assume that you are kidnapped.

My readers will laugh at me for even suggesting that you could be intercepted or kidnapped. You are easily the most well-protected person in the country. There are millions of policemen, paramilitary forces, and armed forces to ensure that no harm is ever done to you. 

Yes, that is how you should always be, the most protected person in the country. However, as Union Home Minister, your job is also to ensure that every law-abiding person and his property is protected. Just as you have your busy schedule, every person has also her own schedule.

This week, two Catholic nuns in their habits were accompanying two girls from Odisha, who are being trained to become nuns in a three-tier air-conditioned compartment. They were postulants. 

Postulancy and Novitiates are periods of training and preparation that a prospective monastic, apostolic  or member of a religious order undergoes prior to taking vows in order to discern whether they are called to a vowed religious life. The nuns wanted the two postulants to be dropped at their homes in Odisha.

Alas, a group of the saffron brigade, who were travelling by the same train, created a hue and cry when the train reached Jhansi. Yes, it was the same place where a queen unleashed her sword against the British in what is known as the First War of Independence.

Of course, she died fighting but the wounds the Rani of Jhansi inflicted on the British were never healed. Her memory continued to haunt them, until they left packing when the Union Jack was lowered and the tricolour hoisted at the Red Fort on August 15, 1947. 

I do not claim that the two incidents are similar. What happened is that the hoodlums accused the Sister’s of forcibly converting the postulants. I have seen the videos of the police also turning into their tormentors. They were forced to accompany the policemen to the police station, where they were questioned for hours. 

They were released only after they received the documents from the congregation showing that the two postulants were born in Christian families and had received baptism as infants. They were advised not to wear their habit while continuing their journey, first to Odisha and then back to Delhi. 

Since you do not travel by train, you may not be able to understand the agony they had when they were forced to break the journey. Come to think of it, the incident happened in a state ruled by a person who wears his religious dress.

And it is his policemen who harassed the nuns for wearing their habit. Perhaps, they would not have earned the attention of your young cadres, if they had not worn their religious garb. Does it imply that Catholic nuns and priests should not, hereafter, wear their cassocks and habits when they are in public.

I am sure that as Home Minister you are aware of the freedom Indians enjoy to travel anywhere in the country, wear any dress and even preach their religion. We are so liberal that even *Digambar Jains are allowed to travel without any piece of cloth on them.* As a Jain yourself, how will you feel if a Jain Muni is forced to cover his genitals.

I can’t even think of such an incident happening in the country when one such monk was invited to the Haryana Assembly and asked to address the MLAs, soon after your party came to power in the state. It was, perhaps, the first time that a naked person ever addressed a legislative House anywhere in the world. 

I saw the video of your party MP, Shri KJ Alphons, meekly submitting a memorandum to you to demand action when you visited his constituency to campaign for him. Has the situation come to such a pass that a BJP MP has to ask the Union Home Minister to take action against the miscreants involved in the attack on the nuns

Is not Shri Alphons’ memorandum clear proof that he does not have faith in the UP Police

If anyone takes the law into his own hands, the police have the power to arrest him and subject himself to the laws of the land. The MP knows this as he wielded the law against the encroachers on DDA land in Delhi in the nineties. 

Alas, what we saw in Jhansi are the policemen dancing to the whimsical tunes of your young party workers. They are a bigger threat to the rule of law than the bigots who claim to be the defenders of the Hindu faith. If you have the guts, you should ensure that they are punished for harassing the nuns when their job should have been to fight the criminals. 

Of course, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and your party have empowered them to harass anyone of their choice like the innocent nuns by enacting notorious laws like the anti-conversion law and the anti-love jihad law. 

Recently, a friend sent me a video that showed a group of hoodlums attacking a poor Christian pastor. He was ruthlessly handled. When he fell down as he could no longer withstand the kicking on his groins, I saw one of them jumping on his chest from a distance. They left him groaning.

I am sure his ribs would have broken and pierced vital organs like the liver and the lungs. I was in tears seeing this. No, it was not just because he was a pastor. 

When a Muslim boy was beaten up for entering a temple to drink water, I felt the same emotion. Which Hindu God will be unhappy if a poor Muslim boy quenches his thirst from the temple well or hydrant?  Have you punished that RSScal.

The greatness of a Home Minister is not when he travels in style but when he ensures that even the weakest of the nation feels safe. His job is to ensure that nobody is harassed. Yes, I know that you have promised action against the harassers in Jhansi.

You desperately need Christian votes to win a few seats in Kerala. So you may do something in this particular case, but the fact of the matter is that Christians are scared of worshipping their God in many villages in the country. 

I used the word “scared”. Actually, who are scared of the Christians?

They constitute less than 3 per cent of the population. They are the most law-abiding in the country. If you have any doubt, please check the census figures. It is in fear of them that you enact laws like the anti-conversion law in state after state. Why is Yogi scared of Christians?

I can tell you a story I heard from the horse’s mouth. Soon after Yogi became Chief Minister, a group of Christian clergy led by a Saffron-wearing Christian scholar and former IAF officer called on him at his official residence. They had a cold reception there. To break the ice, one of them said that peace was the need of the hour.

Immediately, the CM retorted: “You should teach Christians and Muslims about peace and co-existence. We Hindus believe in Vasudaiva Kudumbakam (the world is one family). You can do whatever but if you convert even one person, I will break your legs”. Crudeness could not have been bolder. It is the same mindset that you have created which is responsible for what happened at Jhansi.

Are nuns treated like this everywhere? Once while travelling in Jharkhand, I visited a house of nuns. There was a nun who had just returned from war-torn Baghdad. I did not know that the Missionaries of Charity of Saint Teresa of Kolkata fame had a functioning nunnery at Baghdad when war was raging there.

She told me about the life there. Their job was to take care of infants, orphaned by the war. The Iraq Government did not have a facility to handle children below three. Such children were given to the nuns, who looked after them till they reached the age of three when they would be shifted to a government facility.

No, they did not get any government support. Instead, the common Iraqis would visit the centre with clothes, food, toiletries etc. On Fridays, a larger number of people visited the centre. The nuns did not have to buy anything. The people provided them with everything they wanted. 

What’s more, they respected the nuns, though they professed a faith different from theirs.

But in secular India, turning fast into a Hindu Rashtra, nuns are advised to hide their identity to save themselves. If you can spare a few minutes to understand the kind of work that nuns do, I would advise you to visit a Catholic facility near Bijnor in UP where the nuns take care of children born with deformities and are, therefore, abandoned by their parents.

Most of those children are unlikely to live long but they are given a dignified life till God calls them back. Taking care of such children is easier said than done. 

You have lakhs of policemen under your command but they will not be able to look after such children even for a day, forget day after day.

Once I visited the Principal of St. John’s Medical College, Bengaluru. It is a Catholic institution where some seats are reserved for nuns, not priests. I asked the principal whether it was proper to reserve seats for them.

Then he drew my attention to a large map of India on his office wall. He showed me the markings on the map. Those marks denoted the places where the nuns who did their MBBS from St. John’s worked. They were working in remote villages where no doctor likes to work.

Next time you visit Kashmir, which you have converted into a Union Territory, please visit the Catholic hospital at Baramulla. When I visited the hospital a decade ago, I found a large crowd at the Gynaecology department. It was headed by a nun, who has helped in the birth of thousands of babies. She was like a mother for the local people.

The nuns are persons who find solace in comforting the needy, feeding the hungry, treating the injured and helping those who need support to stand up. I asked a nun in Bijnor how she was able to do the seemingly dirty job of cleaning nearly 150 children who can’t get up from their beds. She said that even she would not be able to do the job if it was for money.

She saw in each child the little baby in the manger that the world saw nearly two thousand years ago. That is why she was able to keep them clean and adorable day after day. You and your ilk will see the service as an attempt to convert.

If you also believe so, you are totally mistaken. You should consider the nuns as a blessing to this nation. They are about a lakh and they serve millions of people as teachers, nurses, doctors, social workers and even lawyers. Theirs is a service in silence. 

Even if you and your party are not gracious enough to admire their service, at least don’t harass them when they travel. They do not crave for any public recognition of their service. At least let them enjoy the freedom the Constitution grants to every citizen. That is the minimum you should do. Lest you should invite the wrath of God, as had happened at the Kaurava court when Draupadi was disrobed

Yours etc… 

Related

Harassment of nuns in train at Jhansi  can become a major poll issue in Kerala 

Nuns harassment case: Catholic Union demands action against vigilantes, cops

UP’s Hindutva goons harass Catholic nuns, teens on Delhi-Orissa train

The post Nuns’ matter, no small matter: an open letter to Amit Shah appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Friday, September 25, 1998

Precious Sisters,

The men that raped you tried to dishonour you, but somehow your tragedy has filled me with a deep sense of honour and respect for you. I honour your faith. We are told that all faiths are the same. But the faith of your rapists is clearly the antithesis of yours. Their faith has never allowed ordinary families in the history of our nation to send their daughters to live in remote villages and serve those who would abuse them.

You are indeed model followers of the Lord Jesus Christ who allowed his body to be violated for the salvation of his enemies. May your love for God inspire millions more to follow Christ at personal cost.

Through your medical service you have been seeking to heal the sick bodies. Why did then these "brave and powerful" men rape you? Indeed they ought to have been leading a procession to honour you. But they knew that their culture – the culture of Hindutva – would consider them great, not if they served you, but only if they attacked and raped you. Their act is irrefutable evidence that it is the soul of our nation that is sick. Our social history shows that our culture has always oppressed and exploited the weak – the "Dalits", including women.

Your lives, dear sisters, are glorious evidence that healing is possible for our nation through the blood of Jesus Christ. You are a proof that it has the power to transform us so radically that we would see humility and service as the route to honour. May I, therefore, urge you to be strong in your faith! Keep following the one who shed his blood to bless all the nations of the earth.

I honour you because you remind me of Abraham – your father in faith. Like yourselves, he too offered costly sacrifices to God, but God seemed absent. It was the vultures who pounced upon the flesh of his holy sacrifice, just as they did on your bodies that had been sacrificed to God. Abraham tried to chase the predators away, but proved to be too weak. He fell into a "deep and dreadful sleep". It was in the midst of that "dreadful darkness" that he finally saw the fire of God accept his sacrifice, and heard the voice of God promising to bless him and all the nations through his Descendants (Genesis 15). The vultures and the darkness are not the final realities. God is. He will use your sacrifice to bless our nation. ‘The soul of India is sick’, but you have strengthened my resolve to sacrifice my body for her healing.

Thank you.
Your brother,
Vishal Mangalwadi
Ivy Cottage, Landour
Mussoorie (U.P.), India 248 179
 

The post ‘The soul of India is sick’: Open letter to the raped nuns of Jhabua appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Graphic: Times of India

Police had announced an award of Rs 10,000 for the arrest of Singaria, Superintendent of Police Mahesh Chand Jain news agencies reported.He said that Singaria was involved in committing armed robbery at the nun's house in Navapada in Kalyanpur police station area, apart from rape and attempt to murder.

The convict was re-arrested after locals in Runkheda complained to police about a person creating a ruckus in public. His subsequent questioning revealed he was absconding for the last 11 years after conviction in the nun's rape case, the police officer said.
 
 

The post It took 11 Years, But Man who Raped Nun Finally Arrested: Jhabua appeared first on SabrangIndia.