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Spate of violence against non-Hindus threatens Indian unity

Relations between Christians and rulers grow ever more strained
Spate of violence against non-Hindus threatens Indian unity
Published: September 05, 2014 08:43 AM GMT
Updated: September 04, 2014 10:51 PM GMT

A recent spate of incidents against smaller church groups and believers in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh have caught Church leadership by surprise.

The incidents, which followed a ban on Christian activity in several villages in the central state of Chhattisgarh, stunned church leadership into silence, at least for the moment. There has been no media statement by any senior religious leader, no demonstrations and protests, no memo to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Instead, the response has come from civil society whose members, veterans of long years of challenge to hyper-nationalist political religious groups collectively called the Sangh Parivar, see the anti-Christian violence as part of a larger conspiracy to create polarization and consolidate recent electoral gains.

Christians have been targeted in what is called ghar wapsi, or homecoming, which is a polite word for coercive conversion of tribal people. The process against Dalits, the former untouchable castes who profess the Christian faith, is called shuddhikaran, or purification, an ironic phrase, which holds “non-Indic” or Semitic religions to be polluting.

The popular rage against Muslims, especially in rural areas and small towns, is built upon the myth of "love jihad", an allegation that Islamic young men have been trained to seduce Hindu women, thus forcing a demographic change in India and reducing the Hindu population to a minority. Demographers, sociologists and gender activists have dismissed love jihad as political humbug. Yet many of the scores of incidents of violence against Muslims in Uttar Pradesh this year have been triggered by such rumors.

In the Greater Noida area in western Uttar Pradesh, a mob led by a local political leader thrashed 10 pastors and dragged them to the local police station on Saturday over allegations that they were “forcefully converting Hindus to Christianity”. The police also joined the group in beating the pastors. Days later, an inquiry by senior officers exonerated the pastors and said politicians had made a false allegation to incite the mob and rouse religious passions in the villages.

These incidents have deeply disturbed the community. Rural Christian pastors and persons who have been attacked are afraid to even file a complaint with the police as they feel totally isolated and surrounded.

The acts of violence also take away much from the reassurance that was sought by some leaders of the larger denominations, that Modi would control extremist Hindu elements and channel national energy into infrastructure development, social amenities and economic growth.

Civil society groups caution that the Christian community must not be lulled into a false sense of security presuming the focus of the Sangh Parivar is on neutralizing the political clout of the Muslim community, which is seen as an ally of the Samajwadi party and other groups. The BJP recently nominated the religious leader Adityanath, who is also a member of Parliament, to lead its election campaign in Uttar Pradesh. Adityanath has taken up his new task with a series of virulent verbal attacks on the Muslim community.

The well-known sociologist Shiv Visvanathan recently wrote: "The new majority wants to capture history and politics and rewrite culture to align it with its subconscious. The tyranny of an exploding subconscious, where the majority literally launders its repressions, creates clouds of uncertainty. There is fear, doubt and suspicion.The regime stays silent as little obscenities are enacted."

Civil society, which had organized a national campaign to educate the people about the "idea of India", a secular, plural and inclusive country, is planning a national convention to sensitize Indian citizens on the need for unity to thwart any conspiracy that threatens peace between religious communities and freedom of faith.

Religious minorities hope such efforts will bear fruit. In a country as large as India, with 600,000 villages and a grossly inadequate, ill-equipped and ill-trained police force, succor lies in the wisdom and tolerance of the common people.

John Dayal is the general secretary of the All India Christian Council and a member of the Indian government's National Integration Council.

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