NEW DELHI (UCAN) -- Some Church institutions have incurred right-wing Hindu groups' wrath for closing to protest anti-Christian violence in Orissa, eastern India.

More than 40,000 Christian educational institutions spread over India closed on Aug. 29 in a nationwide protest against Hindu groups targeting Christians in Orissa.

Violence began on Aug. 24, a day after suspected Maoists killed an 85-year-old Hindu religious leader, Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati, and five of his associates in Orissa's Kandhamal district. Hindu groups blame Christians for the killings.

The anti-Christian violence has now spread to 13 of Orissa's 30 districts. As of Sept. 1, Church sources in the state confirmed the deaths of 25 people, mostly Christians, and said another four deaths were being verified.

On the Christian protest day, Hindu radical groups demonstrated in front of a Catholic church of Gwalior diocese, in Madhya Pradesh state, central India. They also demonstrated in front of four Christian schools in Gwalior town, 320 kilometers south of New Delhi.

On the same day, the government of Karnataka announced its decision to take action against Christian schools in that southern state for closing without prior permission.

The pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP, Indian people's party) rules both states.

Speaking to UCA News on Sept. 1, Father John Xavier, vicar general of Gwalior diocese, said more than 50 men had tried unsuccessfully to enter the campus of the diocese's St. Paul school after shouting anti-Christian slogans at the gates.

The demonstrators, some holding Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP, world council of Hindus) banners, destroyed lights near the gate. Police were called in and they prevented miscreants from entering the campus, the priest said.

The group then moved to St. Paul Lutheran School, threw stones at it and damaged a couple of buses parked inside the campus, he continued. Next they went to St. Teresa School and barged onto the campus, where they destroyed the two main doors and broke flower pots. They also threw stones at the Carmel convent school.

In Khandwa diocese, also in Madhya Pradesh, some VHP men issued threats of violence against St. Jude School. They reached the school on Aug. 28 and demanded it cancel its closure order, threatening to destroy the school if its administrators failed to comply with the demand.

Joseph Christuraj, spokesperson for another diocese in the state, Jabalpur, told UCA News on Sept. 1 that VHP activists burned effigies of Pope Benedict XVI in front of diocesan-run St. Joseph school on Aug. 30, while shouting anti-Christian slogans.

The spokesperson for the Catholic Church in Madhya Pradesh, Father Anand Muttungal, told UCA News that activists tried to plant the VHP flag on the campus of a school in Satna diocese.

In all these places, VHP slogans asked Christians to explain why they killed Saraswati.

Vishweshar Hegde Kageri, Karnataka's minister for primary and secondary education, said he was "upset" at Christians closing their more than 2,000 schools in the state without getting permission from the government. He told reporters on Aug. 29 in the state capital of Bangalore that he has directed his officials to take action against the institutions that closed on Aug. 29.

"Educational institutions should not be made tools for such issues. This will impact the sentiments of young minds and affect educational activities," the minister asserted.

However, Sister Ann Teresa, national president of the All India Association of Catholic Schools, told UCA News the educational institutions have the freedom to declare any five working days as holidays for their own reasons. "This freedom is enshrined in the education policy of the state, which the minister is unaware of," the Bethany nun said.

According to her, the BJP government is looking for opportunities to harass Christian institutions in the state.

Archbishop Bernard Moras of Bangalore told UCA News on Sept. 1 that the state government was "only bothered about creating more trouble for Christian schools and colleges, and not solving their problems."

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